Business ethics 

Business or 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.

Interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major corporations and within academia. For example, today most major corporations promote their commitment to non-economic values under headings such as ethics codes and social responsibility charters. 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. The term 'business ethics' came into common use in the United States in the early 1970s. By the mid-1980s at least 500 courses in business ethics reached 40,000 students, using some twenty textbooks and at least ten casebooks along supported by professional societies, centers and journals of business ethics.

Business ethics reflects the philosophy of business, one of whose aims is to determine the fundamental purposes of a company. If a company's purpose is to maximize shareholder returns, then sacrificing profits to other concerns is a violation of its fiduciary responsibility. Ethical issues include the rights and duties between a company and its employees, suppliers, customers and neighbors, its fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders. Issues concerning relations between different companies include hostile take-overs and industrial espionage. Related issues include corporate governance; corporate social entrepreneurship; political contributions; legal issues such as the ethical debate over introducing a crime of corporate manslaughter; and the marketing of corporations' ethics policies.

 

Marketing Ethics

It came of age only as late as 1990s. Ethics in marketing deals with the principles, values and/or ideals by which marketers (and marketing institutions) ought to act. Marketing ethics is also contested terrain, beyond the previously described issue of potential conflicts between profitability and other concerns. Ethical marketing issues include marketing redundant or dangerous products/services transparency about environmental risks, transparency about product ingredients such as genetically modified organisms possible health risks, financial risks, security risks, etc., respect for consumer privacy and autonomy, advertising truthfulness and fairness in pricing & distribution.

Marketing ethics involves pricing practices, including illegal actions such as price fixing and legal actions including price discrimination and price skimming. Certain promotional activities have drawn fire, including greenwashing, bait and switch, shilling, viral marketing, spam (electronic), pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing. Advertising has raised objections about attack ads, subliminal messages, sex in advertising and marketing in schools.

 

Production

This area of business ethics usually deals with the duties of a company to ensure that products and production processes do not needlessly cause harm. Since few goods and services can be produced and consumed with zero risk, determining the ethical course can be problematic. In some case consumers demand products that harm them, such as tobacco products. Production may have environmental impacts, including pollution, habitat destruction and urban sprawl. The downstream effects of technologies nuclear power, genetically modified food and mobile phones may not be well understood. While the precautionary principle may prohibit introducing new technology whose consequences are not fully understood, that principle would have prohibited most new technology introduced since the industrial revolution. Product testing protocols have been attacked for violating the rights of both humans and animals.

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business conduct - ведение бизнеса ethics code - кодекс этики social responsibility charter - хартия социальной ответственности fiduciary responsibility - общественная ответственность employee - сотрудник supplier - поставщик customer - клиент, покупатель hostile take-over - враждебное слияние компаний, захват industrial espionage - промышленный шпионаж corporate governance - корпоративное управление corporate social  entrepreneurship - корпоративное социальное предпринимательство political contribution - политический вклад, участие manslaughter - массовое увольнение transparency - прозрачность, открытость product ingredients - ингредиенты (содержание) продукта genetically modified organism - генетически модифицированный организм

price fixing - фиксирование цены price discrimination - дискриминационная цена price skimming - сверхцена greenwashing - искажение информации bait and switch - заманивание и фальшь shilling - привлечение подставных лиц viral marketing - вирусный маркетинг spam - спам pyramid scheme - пирамидная схема multi-level marketing - многоуровневый маркетинг attack ad - агрессивная реклама subliminal message - воздействие на подсознание pollution - загрязнение habitat destruction - разрушение природной среды urban sprawl - урбанизация, расширение городской среды downstream - вторичный, неявный nuclear power - атомная энергия precautionary principle - предупредительный принцип