Management Ethics Essay

Introduction

Ethical management practices have become a highlight of topics in today’s business world. Ethics are the set of moral principles or values that defines right and wrong for a person of group. Ever since companies such as Enron and WorldCom came into the limelight, many businesses throughout the world have started to pay more attention to their management practices. Even recently, the poor state of the United State’s economy has uncovered unethical management practices on behalf of banks, such as AIG, and investment firms, such as Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.
Many issues arise when talking about management ethics. Such issues include: How are ethics successfully implemented in various businesses? What is the most successful method of educating employees about ethics? What kinds of management practices show CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)? What impact does ethical behavior actually have on the company? Also, how is moral awareness created in managers?
Decisive answers to these questions are hard to come by. However, there are many ideas and methods that could turn a company’s unethical management practices around. This is important because more and more laws are created every year. Laws such as the Sarbanes Oxley Act are forcing companies to have higher moral standards and make more ethical management decisions.
One way to create a more ethical business world is to educate college and graduate students on which behaviors are ethical and which are not. Many business students have the mindset that “everyone is doing it, why shouldn’t we?” The truth is that not everyone is doing it.

Review of Literature
Implementing Ethics

Due to the poor behavior of some companies, such as Enron, many companies are looking into their own code of ethics. Schebel says, in Implementing Ethics in Business Organizations, “Ethics is a prerequisite to conduct business” (Schebel, August 2004, p. 203). He talks about how ethics are a set of...