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Business and Ethical Reasoning

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Business and Ethical Reasoning
In today’s society most people that work in a corporation often come across and have to deal with on the job ethical issues. “Ethics is a conception of right and wrong conduct. Ethical business behavior is demanded by business stakeholders, enhances business performance, complies with legal requirements, prevents or minimizes harm, and promotes personal morality” (Lawrence and Weber 2011). Ethic issues occur in all areas of business and at all levels of business management. I believe that ethical problems occur for certain reasons one being the selfishness of others. To help prevent unethical issues management must be able to recognize and help solve ethical dilemmas in the workplace. “Managers are key to whether a company and its employees will act ethically or unethically (Lawrence and Weber 2011). In some cases, managers and employees exhibit poor ethical behavior because the company doesn’t offer a clear model of ethics. Some businesses have no formal ethical policy documents and offer no guidance at all. Others have policies that are unclear, vague, inconsistent or not consistently enforced.
Why do ethical problems occur in business? If so many business claim to be so ethical then why is it that several ethical issues are happening? Finding the cause of these issues is a step closer to being able to help reduce the way it impacts the business and the people involved. Conflict of interest is an ethical problem that often happens in the workplace. “Conflict of interest occurs when an individual’s self-interest conflicts with acting in the best interest of another, when the individual has an obligation to do so” (Lawrence and Weber 2011). Failure to tell or reveal a conflict of interest stands for deceit and may put the company and or the person in a big predicament. Situations such as conflict of interest should be avoided at all times if possible. Competitive pressures on profits are forcing companies that are barely making it to act in an unethical behavior
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