The Business Ethics Challenges

For many people who witness the tendencies in the neoliberal economy-driven and globalized society, business and ethics are two incompatible phenomena. However, business ethics plays a significant role in the distribution of forces and the maintenance of fair competition while preserving basic moral principles. Indeed, due to the controversy of ethical purposes and profit-making goals of the business, this type of ethics might be considered more challenging to maintain and measure than others.

Ethics in business might be measured using the analysis of a company’s code of conduct, employees’ behavior, and the quality of the company’s interaction with key stakeholders. However, to make this measurement approachable, the code of conduct should be developed on the basis of ethically appropriate principles and theories, which are difficult to define in the highly competitive and money-driven business environment. Firstly, one of the biggest ethical challenges in business is that the performances of enterprises are oriented on results where the principle of ‘the end justifies the means’ is key. In such a manner, immoral actions might be encouraged to achieve company goals. Secondly, profit prioritization is another challenge to business ethics since it implies a preference for monetary rewards over moral principles. Thirdly, competition hinders the maintenance of ethics due to the pressure on the business entities to compromise ethical standards to win.

Overall, business ethics is a complex issue that requires continuous control and encouragement. Given the scope of challenges presented above, the business environment is particularly impacted by the influence of sphere-bound factors that deteriorate the priority of moral standards. Therefore, strict measurement approaches are relevant when discussing ethics in the context of business in order to preserve a high-profile code of conduct while pursuing business goals.