Business ethics (also corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.[1]
Business ethics has normative and descriptive dimensions. As a
corporate practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily
normative. Academics attempting to understand business behavior employ
descriptive methods. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects
the interaction of profit-maximizing behavior with non-economic concerns.
Interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and
1990s, both within major corporations and within academia. For example, most
major corporations today promote their commitment to non-economic values under
headings such as ethics codes and social responsibility charters. Adam Smith
said, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment
and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or
in some contrivance to raise prices."[2]
Governments use laws and regulations to point business behavior in what they
perceive to be beneficial directions. Ethics implicitly regulates areas and
details of behavior that lie beyond governmental control. The emergence of
large corporations with limited relationships and sensitivity to the
communities in which they operate accelerated the development of formal ethics
regimes