The Importance of Ethics in the Business World

353 Words2 Pages
Ethics in the business world is not as important in today’s culture as profit margin. We have become a society that values “best bargain” for dollars and that usually reflects in lowest price. I would argue given inflation far outracing income gains, most consumers are looking for ways to make their dollars go farther. Consumers have become more cost conscious with purchases and that now defines “value” for them. Online shopping via the internet has made it very easy to shop for best price among available products. Name recognition is a factor among some consumers but not as much as it used to be, hence the flood of the market with inferior products made in other countries. In the contracting business where competition for bid spec contracts is fierce it is rare for companies to be awarded contracts who are not low bidder. In my experience companies would cut many corners and even provide inferior materials to win contracts. Ethics and doing the right thing could be costly for businesses and could even cause them to fail. The bottom line is profit. Companies that don’t make a profit soon fail, so most who are willing to “do what it takes” regardless of what is ethical or socially responsible have a better opportunity for success. Large well established companies have a better opportunity to instill ethics and social responsibility into their culture than do smaller companies because they are better able to absorb the necessary expense while smaller companies main focus usually is survival. Another issue is upper management in larger corporations are mostly focused on their own career path. Most managerial staff I am familiar with are focused most towards career advancement for themselves and when push comes to shove ethics will take a backseat. One famous comment from Nascar is “If you ain’t cheatin you ain’t tryin!” Companies, especially smaller

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