A need of ethical standards in business

Corporations and organizations have taken over our world. Margins and profit are seemingly all that these corporations and organizations care about. What happened to the morality that these once smaller, yet still profitable organizations? These organizations have an obligation to their employees, their customers, and the community to provide the best services possible. Maybe they are not obligated but one would think that what most employees put into an organization or corporation, it would be reciprocated from that organization. Ultimately organizations and corporations need to be moral because they expect the same from their employees, they are held to a high standard, and are constantly in the public eye and acting unethically or unmorally could hurt the organization and corporation in a financial way.

Utilitarianism is something that is important when bringing out the morality of organizations and corporations because they expect the same morality from their own employees. There are two types of utilitarianism, those being act and rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism judges just one act and rule utilitarianism judges the rule, or also an action, which can encompass multiple actions not just one instance (Tittle, 2000). Utilitarianism, both forms are particular important with this issue, with a business acting ethically and morally. Act utilitarianism can be acceptable in many instances in terms of an organization or corporation acting unethically or unmorally. This is the case because it is just one instance in which the organization does act unethically. In most cases the organization will learn from the mistake made, and realize that they are doing the exact opposite and the opposite of what they expect from their employees. Rule utilitarianism is not as acceptable or forgiving. This is where an organization or corporation continuously breaks their own rules that they keep their employees to, in which the organization shows that they are acting unmorally.

With organizations holding their employees to higher and higher standards, utilitarianism is particular detrimental to the organization. It is just natural for an employee to be upset with their employer not following the same set of standards that they are expected to perform at. It is almost a double standard. It can be detrimental to the organization. This is where an organization can see a higher than wanted turnover rate, and turnover rate is crucial to any business. It costs much more money to train new employees than retain already employed individuals. Employee happiness also means more productivity. If an employee feels that who they work for does not keep the same set of standards they are held to, it is likely that the employee will become disgruntled and productivity will slip because of the unmoral behavior. This is where the term moral absolutism can also come into play. The employee will think that their employer is either doing something moral or unmorally, it will be right or wrong, no more gray area for the employee. The actions of an employer are crucial. Employees see what their organization is doing and it negatively or positively effects their own work ethic and drive.

Many organizations and corporations are held to a high standard. This should be the case because they employee numerous individuals and also remain an important part in many different communities across the United States. Teleological ethics play a big role in this particular instance. Teleological ethics is essentially a theory of morality. In this theory moral obligation comes from what is good, desirable and expected in a sense from any organization or corporation in this instance. Teleological ethics does focus on the consequence of an action (Vilcox & Mohan, 2007). An example of this would be looking into a corporation like Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is one of the biggest companies in the world. With having such a big organization, they do their fair share of environmental harm. With the environment becoming even more important as time goes on, Wal-Mart has a large contribution to the degrading environment across the world. This does result in the consequence of being attacked by many groups and individuals that believe Wal-Mart should do more to stop the environment degradation that is occurring. Wal-Mart in terms must deal with the consequences of being as big of an organization that they are. If they can help the environment and at least attempt to curb their footprint on the environment, individuals and groups will realize and the consequences will not be as bad for Wal-Mart in this instance.

Teleological ethics are also important because organizations and corporations throughout the world are held to high standard. Customers expect good things from the products and services that they are spending their money on. Employees expect their employer to act ethically and compensate them fairly for the work that they produce. The consequences, either positive or negative will affect the organization in some way. This helps in how an organization or corporation will act in terms of being ethical and moral. Being held to a high standard makes them particularly susceptible to scrutiny and attack from media and other important figures and outlets which could either negatively or positively affect the organization.

Acting ethically is important for an individual and a corporation or organization. It is important for a corporation or organization because it could have a negative financial effect if they do not act ethically. Ethical relativism plays a role in this very aspect. Ethical relativism lets society and a culture determine what is morally and ethically right and wrong rather than having a strict set of guidelines as to what is ethical and what is not ethical (Shaw, 2010). This shows how important a society is for the success or failure of any given business. If society deems that an organization is acting unethically, they will see a hit in their finances. On the other hand if society sees the organization as an ethical and positive organization, they will see the financial aspect of their organization thrive.

It truly is a consumer market that we live in today. Opinions matter and the more positive or negative opinions on a particular organization can help an organization thrive or even die based on society and in turn the finances of the organization. Money is everything for an organization or corporation in today’s society. With competitors popping up constantly, organizations have so much to worry about, public opinion being one of the most important issues to worry about. While a negative public opinion does not necessarily mean that the organization will fail, take for instance Wal-Mart, many people have a negative view on Wal-Mart because they believe they act unethically, it truly does not affect Wal-Mart’s bottom line as they are one of the most successful corporations in the world.

Ultimately business can have ethical standards; in fact they need ethical standards to thrive. Organizations need their employees to be successful. This means abiding by the same standards that they expect from their employees. Most organizations and corporations are held to a high standard because of the amount of money and given organization is worth. Given being in the spotlight, acting ethically and morally can give an organization the positive or negative attention that they deserve. Always being in the public eye can also give bad or positive publicity. This can negatively or positively affect the financial standing of any organization. Society ultimately keeps every organization in check to an extent. If a business is going to act unethically and unmorally, it will show in their bottom line. There will be fewer customers and fewer great employees. Ethics are everything for a person and an organization. They can make or break them in the end.