The most basic business ethics concepts are three: honesty, integrity and fairness.
Honesty – Honest should be the hallmark of a company’s dealings with its employees, customers, and other publics.
It should communicate with its employees internal developments that will affect them, such as layoffs, reorganization moves, and austerity programs.
Honesty to customers and the public is manifested through truthful and ethical advertising, proper labeling and naming of what goes into a product, and charging a reasonable cost for the quality of the product or service it sells. It is also keeping its word to everyone it deals with and in everything it does.
Honesty applies to every part of running a business while making a profit.
Integrity – Integrity in doing business covers a wide range of applications, including corporate social and environmental responsibility.
Integrity is related to honesty. A person with integrity keeps agreements and promises. Whether an employer promises a raise to an employee or a vendor agrees to supply top-quality merchandise, the basic business ethics concept of integrity means keeping one’s word and following through. Dependability and keeping the trust are basic integrity ethics concepts that are used in all aspects of business, from serving customers to hiring and firing employees.
Integrity is saying “no” to graft and corruption. It is avoiding giving expensive gifts, secret commissions, kickbacks and payoffs to politicians, bureaucrats and other officials in the government or among suppliers in exchange for a contract, to facilitate a process, or otherwise give the business some undue advantage.
Integrity may also be manifested by companies by increasinglzy empowering their people.
An integrity perspective may mean a shifting away from forcing employees to act in certain ways to more freedom to take initiatives, from authoritarianism to shred responsibility and power. Such a perspective will recommend frequent use of delegation when running a company.
Fairness – Fairness is paying employees just wages for their work and dedication, giving clients and customers value for their money, and not overcharging them or sneakily downsizing the product that is sold to them. It is paying their suppliers on time and giving them support when they need it.
Fairness is encouraging a healthy competitive atmosphere in the market. It is not engaging in cutthroat competition and in attempts to malign and spoil the image of competitors by foul means.
The ethical business concept of fair play includes the fact that profit must be made, but not through deceptive acts.
Fairness in business dealings means being objective and interested in creating win-win situation for both parties, whether that is employer-employee, or company-client, or company-supplier, or business versus its competitors.
In business relationships, fairness means never taking unfair advantage of others through manipulation, concealment, abuse of privileged information, misrepresentation of material facts or any other unfair dealing practice.
Excerpted from “Ethics in Entrepreneurship: Being Good is Good Business,” Windows to Entrepreneurship: a teaching guide, SERDEF, 2013
Photo: from www.southeasternbusiness.com
