Ethical and Moral Issues in Business

503 Words3 Pages
In this essay the key differences between ethics and moral issues are explored. In addition to an explanation of ethics and morals, a brief explanation of the similarities and differences between personal ethics, and business ethics has been unveiled. According to Trevino & Nelson (2007) ethics are the principles, norms, and standards of conduct governing an individual or group, whereas morals are pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong (Dictionary.com, LLC, 2012). The example of a defense lawyer best illustrates the differences between ethical and moral issues. Although the lawyer’s moral code finds the act committed by his client immoral and reprehensible, society demands that the lawyer’s client be defended as enthusiastically as possible, even if the lawyer knows his client is guilty and that a freed defendant can potentially lead to further crime. The ethics America’s legal system demands that the lawyer override his moral code to uphold the justice system such that the accused is given a fair trial. In a business application, when considering the differences between moral and ethics, the manager or hiring agent can find associating or interacting with people of different political views, or religious views wrong; however, the hiring agent must override his moral inclination due to “equal opportunity employment.” The ethical obligation to the corporation is to hire the new applicant according to the person’s qualifications, rather than the person’s individual views. Business ethics or corporate ethics can be quoted as the set of behaviors and disciplines that an organization follows in its activities, whereas personal ethics is defined as what the individual believes to be right or wrong. The beliefs of right and wrong can vastly differ from person to person. Some of the reasons
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