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Importance of Business Ethics

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JAMAICA GLEANER
THE IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS ETHICS published: Sunday | April 11, 2004
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FITZ-RITSON and LOPEZ
Ayanna Kirton, Staff Reporter
IN RECENT years the term 'business ethics' has taken on new relevance in the wake of accounting scandals that have discredited some of the world's largest and well-respected companies.
The list includes WorldCom (now MCI), Tyco International, Parmalat, and Enron whose financial executives have faced charges and possible jail time for financial misdeeds. Now, the Business Roundtable (BRT) aims to restore public confidence in Corporate America with a US$3 million initiative to educate future CEOs on business ethics.
According to an article published by Business Week, on January 14, 2004, the BRT, an association of 150 chief executive officers of leading United States companies, announced it was creating a new business-ethics centre.
The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics will be housed at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. The BRT hopes to deflect criticism of CEO excesses by developing a business school ethics curriculum as well as train executives and conduct research.
Ethics education and training are important elements in the creation of ethically sensitive business cultures. In a presentation on Jamaican Business Ethics, Dr. Michael Witter, senior lecturer and head of the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies (UWI), said to understand business ethics, a clearer understanding of the meaning of the phrase was critical.
REFLECTIVE CONSIDERATION
According to Dr. Witter, ethics, often confused with morality, is the reflective consideration of our moral beliefs and practices. Morality comes first as the beliefs and practices about good and evil by means of which we guide our behaviour. However, for his presentation he used the

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