Skip to main content Skip to Search Box
Definition: business ethics from The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide

Moral principles defining how businesses and business professionals should act towards each other, employees, and the public. Some professions such as law and medicine have clearly defined codes of professional ethics. In other areas appropriate behaviour has been established over time by practice.

Business ethics encompass the role of a company in society. Difficult and contentious areas of business ethics would include the effect a petrochemical company's actions have on the environment or the obligation of a pharmaceutical company to make its drugs available to developing countries. As lobbyists and pressure groups become more powerful, companies are being forced to pay greater attention to corporate responsibility and business ethics.

Business Ethics

From Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society
Although defining business ethics has been somewhat problematic, several definitions have been proposed. For example, Richard De George defines the field broadly as the interaction of ethics and business, and although its aim is theoretical, the product has practical application. Manuel Velasquez defines the business ethics field as a specialized study of moral right and wrong. Unfortunately, a great deal of confusion appears to remain within both the academic and the business communities, as other related business and society frameworks, such as corporate social responsibility, stakeholder management, sustainability, and corporate citizenship, are often used interchangeably with or attempt to incorporate business ethics. Relative to other business and society frameworks, however, business ethics appears to place the greatest emphasis on the ethical responsibilities of business and its individual agents, as opposed to other firm responsibilities (e.g., economic, legal, environmental, …
2,275 results

Full text Article Business Ethics

From SAGE Key Concepts series: Key Concepts in Critical Management Studies
Definition: ‘Business ethics’ may be understood as the conceptualisation, critique, and promotion, of ethics as it relates to business and organisational behaviour. The academic field of business ethics is typically presented as arising out of an ongoing, and recurring, crisis of confidence in the…
| 1,524 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article business ethics

From Encyclopedia of Ethics
“Ethics” most often refers to a domain of inquiry, a discipline, in which matters of right and wrong, good and EVIL , virtue and vice, are systematically examined. “Morality,? by contrast, is most often used to refer not to a discipline but to patterns of thought and ACTION that are actually…
| 3,008 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Business Ethics

From The A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility
→ Ethical decision-making , Values According to one of the leading textbooks, business ethics can be defined as the study of business situations, activities and decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed (see Crane and Matten, Business Ethics , Oxford University Press). ‘Right’ and…
| 2,336 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Business Ethics

From QFinance: The Ultimate Resource
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Business ethics focuses on identifying the moral standards of right and wrong as they apply to behavior within and across business institutions and other related organizations. Corporations sometimes behave unethically, having a harmful effect on people or the environment. …
| 2,609 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Business Ethics

From BUSINESS: The Ultimate Resource
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Business ethics focuses on identifying the moral principles by which we can evaluate business organizations. Corporations often behave unethically, having a harmful effect on people or the environment. Unethical behavior is typically not caused by a single “bad apple,” but is…
| 2,251 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article business ethics

From Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
the field of applied ethics whose core subjects are the moral legitimacy and normative functions of business, justice within business organizations, and the obligations of managers and business professionals to diverse stakeholders. It is a multidisciplinary research field, encompassing…
| 1,167 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article BUSINESS ETHICS

From The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics
Business ethics is big business, and that justifies its inclusion here, at least on the sort of thinking often attributed to Adam SMITH . On one definition, if we might borrow some jargon from economics, micro -business ethics looks at the correct (the ‘just’) management and organisation of…
| 368 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article business ethics

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Moral principles defining how businesses and business professionals should act towards each other, employees, and the public. Some professions such as law and medicine have clearly defined codes of professional ethics. In other areas appropriate behaviour has been established over time by practice. …
| 112 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Business Ethics in Islamic Finance

From QFinance: The Ultimate Resource
The overarching principles of Islam set the operating framework for every aspect of how business is conducted in the Muslim world. While the shifting boundaries of acceptable behavior in conventional Western business are set by laws, regulations, and corporate governance guidelines, Islamic business…
| 883 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Business Ethics

From QFinance: The Ultimate Resource
What would happen if employees of a London casino were found colluding to rig games for the benefit of the house, and particularly themselves? The police would arrive in force, the company would lose its operating licence and senior management would be excluded from the industry … banks should…
| 1,779 words
Key concepts:
Mind Map

Stack overflow
More Library Resources