Why be ethical? Why bother? And who cares?

In this chapter the author starts out with the question why be ethical? Why bother? And who cares? Well, John's story gives us good reasons why we need to be ethical and why we need to care. John was exposed to asbestos at his job. Later on he died from it. This would have not happened to John if the manufacturer of asbestos wouldn't continue producing asbestos after they knew of the possible health risks of asbestos. Besides, the people that work for the manufacturer of asbestos were also exposed to it. So what ever happened to all these people? No doubt they died from it too. Did the manufacturer of asbestos care? They probably said they did. But their actions show they didn't. That is, the manufacturer didn't have ethics in mind. If the company would have had a sincere concern for people, John would have still been alive today. Thus, if we care about ethics, we will also care about others. It is also very important that organizations show that they care. According to Linda Trevino, "organizations must care about ethics because workers depend on them." (pg.23) she goes on and says "we must care enough to protect people like John" (pg.23). So it is important to be ethical because it can protect us and others from unwise decisions.

The authors of this book also stated the reasons why we need to be ethical and why we should care. For instance, "organizations may be interested in being ethical in order to avoid criminal liability or a bad reputation or because they believe is the right thing to do."(pg.23) A lot of times unethical business decisions can cause employers and companies to lose their reputation. So after they lose their reputation it will take them a long time to get their reputation back. As a result they'll lose business because people won't trust them. Therefore, a company will have to try hard to improve its image. The public can really have an affect on the company's image. According to Linda Trevino, "companies that began with poor reputations,