Essay about Ethics: Ethics and Bovee

Submitted By BrandyC1
Words: 543
Pages: 3

The way businesses is conducted has greatly evolved throughout the years. “The traditional perspective is, the business of business is making money.” (Bovee, Thil, Mescon. 2009, page 72) At what cost were profits being sought out? Due to various scandals in companies such as, Enron, WorldCom, and Citigroup, businesses have adapted a code of ethics. Code of ethics can be described as, “the values and principles that should be used to guide decisions.” (Bovee, Thil, Mescon. 2009, page 68) As the service industry rapidly grows, so does the demand for knowledge workers. How do ethics apply to these workers, and what information would be considered ethical or unethical to share if said employee left one company to work for its competitor? The foundation of a business’s ethics are, a strong foundation of ethical awareness, and very clear standards of behavior. Ethics is defined as, “the principles and standards of moral behavior that are accepted by society as right versus wrong.” (Bovee, Thil, Mescon. 2009, page 63) Moreover, “businesses are expected to compete fairly, honestly, communicating truthfully and not cause harm to others.” (Bovee, Thil, Mescon. 2009, page 65) Although companies may adopt all these rules and regulations for ethics, as Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board put it “rules are not substitute for character” (Bovee, Thil, Mescon. 2009, page 69) Knowledge workers have an ethical responsibility to only disclose un-harmful information to a previous employer’s competitor. Such as, the knowledge they developed and gained through personal experience. Additionally, they may be able to share any ideas they may have on improving day to day business, as long as, it was not an exclusive idea or process of past employers. As described were examples of ethical behavior, what would be considered unethical? Unethical behavior or an ethical lapse, which is when, “an individual makes a decision that is clearly wrong.” (Bovee, Thil, Mescon. 2009, page 72) Such behavior includes, “divulging trade secrets to a competitor.” (Bovee, Thil, Mescon. 2009, page 72) Also, sharing patent information, or anything