33:140:320 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Ten Commandments, Sarbanes–Oxley Act, Oxycodone
Document Summary
Ethics: moral principles and values applied to social behavior. Why is business ethics important: important to the long-viability of any corporation today, important to the well-being of individual officers and directors and to the firms employees. Common reasons why ethical problems occur: short-run profit maximization. People argue that profit maximization is corporations most important goal and resources flow where they are most valued by society (towards profit maximization) Short run profit maximization can cause people to make unsound ethical decisions but it will decrease long-run profits: deter(cid:373)i(cid:374)i(cid:374)g ociety"s rules the role of corporate influence. Another cause of bad (cid:271)usi(cid:374)ess ethi(cid:272)s has to do (cid:449)ith (cid:272)o(cid:396)po(cid:396)atio(cid:374)s" (cid:396)ole i(cid:374) influencing the law (using lobbyists to persuade government agencies not to issue new regulations) The importance of ethical leadership: management needs to set standards and apply the standards to themselves and to the employees, attitude of top management. Management needs to commit to ethical decision making.
