Ethics concern an individual’s moral judgement about right and wrong. Decisions taken within an organisation may be made by individuals or groups, but whoever makes them will be influenced by the culture of the company. The decision to behave ethically is a moral one; employees must decide what they think is the right course of action. This may involve rejecting the route that would lead to the biggest short-term profit.

What is Business Ethics?

Business ethics is the study of proper business policies and practices regarding potentially controversial issues such as corporate governance, insider trading, bribery, discrimination, corporate social responsibility and fiduciary responsibilities. Law often guides business ethics, while other times business ethics provide a basic framework that businesses may follow to gain public acceptance.

Why being Ethical is important?

Ethical behavior and corporate social responsibility can bring significant benefits to a business. For example, they may:

•    Attract customers to the firm’s products, which means boosting sales and profits

•  Make employees want to stay with the business, reduce labour turnover and therefore increase productivity

•    Attract more employees wanting to work for the business, reduce recruitment costs and enable the company to get the most talented employees

• Attract investors and keep the company’s share price high, thereby protecting the business from takeover

What is unethical in business? 

Unethical behavior is an action that falls outside of what is considered morally right or proper for a person, a profession or an industry. Individuals can behave unethically, as can businesses, professionals and politicians.

What are the effects of unethical behavior?

Effects of unethical behavior on business begin to tell with time – as the line between right and wrong begins to blur. People within the organization that conduct themselves with high standards feel helpless and annoyed with the dishonest behavior of their co-workers and or leaders. This frustration is compounded further by the fact that the company does not take action given that there may not be any legal implications or great financial damage. The honest employees then either look for alternative employment or if they are unable to find another suitable opportunity often end up with high stress and health related problems – thereby affecting the overall productivity of the company.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Human resource management is the recruitment,selection,development, utilization, compensation and motivation of human resource of the organisation. HRM is the term used to describe formal systems devised for the management of people within an organisation.

ETHICAL ISSUES IN HR MANAGEMENT

There are five major issues faced by human resources that is i.e.

1. employment issues:HR professionals are likely to face maximum ethical dilemmas in the areas of hiring of employees.
2. Cash and incentive plans:Cash and incentive plans include issues like basic salaries,annual increments or incentives,executive perquisites and long term incentive plans.
3. Employee discrimination:A framework of laws and regulations has been evolved to avoid the practices of treatment of employees on the basis of their caste,sex,religion,disability,age etc.
4. Performance appraisal:Ethics should be the basis of performance evaluation.highly ethical performance appraisal demands that they should be an honest assessment of the performance and step should be taken to improve the effectiveness of the employees.
5.  Privacy:The private life of an employee which is not affecting is professional life should be free from intrusive and unwarranted actions.

UNETHICAL ISSUES IN HR MANAGEMENT

1.Misusing company time

Whether it is covering for someone who shows up late or altering a time sheet, misusing company time tops the list.this category includes knowing that one of your co-workers is conducting personal business on company time.

2.Abusive behavior

Too many workplaces are filled with managers and supervisors who use their position and power to mistreat or disrespect others.

3.Employees theft

One out of every 40 employees in 2012 was caught stealing from their employer.Employee fraud is also on the uptick, whether its check tampering not recording sales in order to skim or expense reimbursement.

FINANCE

The term finance is a broad term that describes two related activities: the study of how money is managed and the actual process of acquiring needed funds.it e-compasses the oversight, creation and the study of money,banking,credit,investments,assets and liabilities that make up financial system.

ETHICAL ISSUES IN FINANCE

1.ACCURACY

A company's financial manager ensures that all financial publications accurately and fairly reflect the financial conditions of the company.some organisations document ethics guidelines specifically for financial managers.

2.TRANSPARENCY

Financial documents reflect a company's performance related to its peers, and its internal strength and weaknesses.Transparency also means explaining financial information clearly, especially for those who aren't familiar with the company's operation.

3.INTEGRITY

Customers, shareholders and employees should be able to trust a financial manager's words. Manager should disclose real or apparent conflicts of interest.Financial managers should strives for unimpeachable integrity.

UNETHICAL ISSUES IN FINANCE

1.Delay in paying wages,interest to financiers ,incentive,bonus to employees. 

2.Holding up bills of vendors on silly reasons and ultimately buying from others to avoid payment to earlier vendors

3.Cheating employees of their dues towards medical expenses,leave travel assistance, children's education fees.

Marketing

Marketing refers to that process under which value able goods and services are created,offered and by doing transaction independently,the need are satisfied. 

ETHICAL ISSUES IN MARKETING  

1.MARKET RESEARCH

Some ethical problems in market research are the invasion of privacy and stereotyping. 

2.ETHICS IN ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION

The advertising of certain products may strongly offend some people while being of interest to others.

3. In case of personal or sensitive questions, researcher should give time to respondents to think about it, and refuse to participate in study.Researcher or trained staff of appropriate sex can be used to reduce embarrassment cause. For example suppose questions are related to female product, then it will be better to select female staff to do the research
4. Proper, Unbiased and accurate information collection Marketing researcher should collect accurate information and report to the research organization &  client without any bias

UNETHICAL ISSUES IN MARKETING

1.MISLEADING ADVERTISEMENT

Misleading ads are more than just unethical—they’re illegal. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates “truth in advertising,” mandating that businesses make accurate statements in their advertising campaigns and, when possible, back their claims with scientific evidence. However, it’s common for advertisers to exaggerate certain features and downplay others in order to make their products look as attractive as possible, so the line becomes somewhat blurry. 

2. Black-hat link building.

Media exposure is almost always a good thing for businesses, and earning inbound links to your company website is the single best way to boost your organic search rankings.

3. Contacting people without consent.

Have you ever thought about buying a list of email addresses so you can bulk up your company’s subscriber list? You’re not the first one. Many businesses have used this tactic to contact people who they otherwise wouldn’t have known