5: Ethics, Corporate Responsibility, and Sustainability
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer these questions:
- What are ethics and business ethics?
- What are the types of values that motivate ethics at the individual level?
- What are major ethical principles that can guide individuals and organizations?
- Why is ethical leadership important in organizations?
- What are differences between values-based ethics and compliance in organizations?
- What purpose can CSR (corporate social responsibility) offer to organizations and society?
- What ethical issues do organizations and individuals encounter in the global environment?
- What future near-term forecasts will affect ethical and corporate conduct of organizations?
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- 5.2: Ethics and Business Ethics Defined
- Ethics essentially involves how we act, live, lead our lives, and treat others. Our choices and decision-making processes and our moral principles and values that govern our behaviors regarding what is right and wrong are also part of ethics. Business ethics is applied ethics that focuses on real-world situations and the context and environment in which transactions occur—How should we apply our values to the way we conduct business?