We Are Always Looking To Strengthen The Business Environment

Submitted By Mystics1
Words: 2810
Pages: 12

MGT 320

We are always looking to strengthen our business environment. With important decisions to take, place every day we have to make sure that they are made with the right ideas in mind. Something as simple as the ethics of the decision makers becomes a very important aspect for these decisions. If the executives and board members are not prepared or have the proper knowledge to do this, it can become very detrimental for the company. Even down to the lowest of level of employee’s decisions on the jobs is necessary. Throughout the history of business, we can garnish knowledge to help us make those decisions. Simple understanding of history gives us the insight. Many people learn best from our own mistakes, but we do not always have to be the ones to make the mistake to learn from them. Historical ethical choices lead us to not follow in the footsteps of those that have made the bad decisions. It does not always have to be the bad choices that we can learn from. It takes the study of all the good and the bad to best complete the picture. Many of us learn our ethical choices from the people that help raise us (Cross & Miller, 2009). It is our parents, our friends, our teachers, our peers, even those that we see on TV either real life or make believe that instill our ideals that shape us towards living and making ethical choices. The study of history gives us even more insight onto ethical behavior. Within the study, we will garnish even more information that the normal amount we come in contact with. Just like learning a foreign language, we must immerse ourselves in the culture to gain an understanding and be able to communicate. When looking back in our history we have many choices others have made that show us the ethics in choices. In our current history, our first big learning experience comes from the Dot.com bust and leads us into the most renowned scandal of Enron (Ryan, Bechholtz, & Kolb, 2010). These very large issues give us the insight of very large and bad ethical decisions. We are able to understand the depth the actions along with very large and real consequences of their actions. The result of bad ethical choices can bring negative weight down upon a company. It is not only the cost of litigation from lawsuits but also the impact on company brand names (Bromiley, 2007). Litigation is seen in a dollar sense, an impact to the company’s profits. If too much money is spent in the courtrooms and in negotiations, the company ends up in the negatives with profits. Unable to pay their employees, bills, and shareholders will lead to a company having to close its doors. If the company closes down the impact is real upon the community. Jobs are lost so people are out of work. Cash flow within the community grows smaller. An easy example of the impact we can look at large production plants in various cities that have shut down. The economy of those areas dropped. People had to move to find new work. The towns and cities became a shadow of their former glory. Impact of brand name also comes at a huge cost to company from lack of sales to the customers. A negative persona on someone’s brand name could easily result in the public refusing to buy the items anymore. Again, we see loss of profits leading to job cuts, less production moving into a slow downward spiral for the company to close its doors. All this just because the public has lost its trust in a company’s product. Think of Ebenezer Scrooge, where no one will give the benefit of the doubt to this type of business owner (Bromiley, 2007). All the bad connotations and results that can happen from just one bad decision, why then must we learn about them try not to make the same errors? The basis comes from human nature. Where business rests on the pursuit of self-interest but at the same time it requires a degree of self-control and constraints on self-interest (Cuillla, 2011). It is argued that as we learn ethics