Ethics A business that expects to turn a profit and have sustainability in the market must operate ethically. A company that trades publically has the responsibility of handling the profits of the company for the clients, stakeholders, and employees. The company also has the responsibility of earning money for the clients, stakeholders, and employees. Ethics is the social aspect of business, when a business does not act ethically responsible there are ramifications socially for the company also.
A company forms its foundation from the idea of a person and transforms it into a business, and when that idea blossoms the business grows. A business eventually reaches the stage of needing to solicit stakeholders and the company needs to put a strategic plan in place. The company must develop a model the business will operate under. An integral part of running a successful business is implementing a plan that incorporates the company’s vision, code of conduct, and mission as well as a code of ethics. The code of ethics and conduct is the expectation the company has for its employees and the consequences for violating them (McNamara, n.d.).
The code of ethics a company implements is a guideline of the expectations for employees and the values the company holds is extremely important. When an employee questions what is right or wrong within the company, the code of ethics and values are a useful guide to answer the employees’ questions. The code of ethics and values also can be used as a tool for orientation of new employees to advise of the consequences of violating those codes. It is easy to see, how in today’s failing economy how a company can fall into unethical behavior. When a company chooses to act unethically this not only affects the company, its employees, and its stakeholders, but the ripple effects trickledown to the general business world and in general