Explore Business Ethics

What is Business Ethics?

Ethics is the code by which people govern their behavior. In everyday life, ethics determine honesty, integrity, discipline, and an individual's overall view of how to conduct their life. Why do ethics matter in business? Ethical business is not only a cornerstone of personal integrity but an important aspect of running a successful business. An absence of ethical behavior in business inevitably results in an array of unfortunate consequences, such as a ruined reputation or even jail time. It is easier to make good and ethical decisions in business if training has been provided. Further, it is easier to make ethical decisions in the heat of the moment when these issues have already been thought through.

The definition of business ethics is the morality and principles that businesses, and individuals operating within businesses, use to guide their transactions. There are three main levels of ethical behavior. Personal ethics, professional ethics, and organizational ethics all have an impact on the practices of any individual business. This sub-specialty of ethics is so important because it protects people conducting business and their consumers. For example, if a business person decides to break the law by manufacturing a good known to be unsafe, this creates various ethical problems. The law has been broken, the business person has broken their principles, and consumers have been hurt by using the product. Fortunately, most business ethics issues are more nuanced than the example above. The business ethics courses found at Study.com will give students forethought into many of the issues they might face in future endeavors and equip them to make more ethical decisions. While much of the knowledge is practical, these courses also provide helpful background to the field of ethics in its broader philosophical sense.