4. Wrong practices

Foreign countries often use dumping as a competitive threat, selling products at prices lower than their normal value. This can lead to problems in domestic markets. It becomes difficult for these markets to compete with the pricing set by foreign markets. In 2009, the International Trade Commission has been researching anti-dumping laws. Dumping is often seen as an ethical issue, as larger companies are taking advantage of other less economically advanced companies.

Very often it is held that business is not bound by any ethics other than abiding by the law. But still companies that violate obvious ethical practices can face consequences.  Problems usually start off small, but build into bigger ones unless standards are truly set and followed.  With the pressure to achieve the numbers, bad decisions can be made.  This can be pressure on the customer service representative to wrongly fill an order, to senior management falsifying the financial health of the company.  

 

Some corporate ethics, however, are much more easily recognizable as being obviously ethically wrong.  To name but a few:

• Money lost to fraud

• Money lost to embezzlement

• Inadequate accuracy of books, records, and expense reports

• Imroper use of organizational assets

• Protecting proprietary information

• Discrimination

• Charging for work that was not necessary

• Withholding needed information

• Abusive or intimidating behavior toward others

• False insurance claims

• Kickbacks and bribery

• Theft of business equipment and supplies

• Moonlighting, which causes poorer work performance

• Knowingly ignoring the health and safety of employees

• Sexual harassment

• Evading someone’s privacy

‘Corporate (business) ethics’ is the application of ethical values, such as integrity, fairness, respect and openness, to business behavior. It relates to all activities of a company, from how it develops, produces and delivers its products and services, to its interactions with its customers, suppliers, employees and wider society. Embedding these values and being seen to do so has become increasingly important to overall business success.

When an organization behaves unethically it always jeopardizes itself. Employees, who don't like to engage in unethical behaviors, can sue the firm for hostile work environments and there is always a risk to be sued by the employees who feel discriminated by the firm.

Unethical practices compromis the long term viability of the firms, especially in countries like US and Europe where people question more about the ethical practices of the organization. If the firms engage in unethical practices they lose the trust of their stakeholders and cannot survive in the long run. There are many firms which eventually went down by conducting unethical practices, for example Enron and WorldCom. The organization that shows poor judgment breaks faith of its employes and people; is answerable to them and has to face the consequences of its actions. We know that workers are company's best asset and if your workers think that the company is engaged in unethical actions they will simply not respect the company anymore, which in a long run will generate losses for the company. So, creating an ethical environment is more important today than it was ever before.

Standards of conduct may need to be above that required by law to avoid reputational damage. Failure to comply with the law will always be unethical and damage your reputation. But conduct may not be contrary to the law yet still be considered to be unethical and cause damage to a company’s reputation. A company’s concerns in relation to its reputation should extend beyond those for which it is personally responsible under a legal liability, for its reputation can be damaged by other high risk areas such as the actions of third parties, including advisers, suppliers, contractors, and business partners in joint ventures.

Failure to be seen to implement acceptable ethical standards of conduct can also impact upon the degree of regulation or legislation that might otherwise be introduced to constrain behavior.

Building relationships with employees, stakeholders and customers. Ethical behavior and corporate social responsibility can bring significant benefits to a business. For example, they may:

• attract customers to the firm's products, thereby boosting sales and profits

• make employees want to stay with the business, reduce labor turnover and therefore increase productivity

• attract more employees wanting to work for the business, reduce recruitment costs and enable the company to get the most talented employees

• attract investors and keep the company's share price high, thereby protecting the business from takeover.

Unethical behavior or a lack of corporate social responsibility, by comparison, may damage a firm's reputation and make it less appealing to stakeholders. Profits could fall as a result.

Stakeholder is a person, group, organization, or system who affects or can be affected by an organization's actions. If the organization as a whole engages in unethical behaviour this affects each and every person related to that organization. If a word goes out in the market that the particular firm is behaving unethically then it will definitely lose the trust of its workers and also its customers. If your customers do not trust the firm then they will not buy from it and this is will generate loses for the firm in a long run.

Business stakeholders have higher expectations of how an organization undertakes its activities. Failing to live up to these expectations can impact upon a company’s reputation, which can take a long time to develop or rebuild but can be damaged in a short space of time. It can influence current and prospective customers and the companies’ business prospects; employee morale; recruitment, particularly senior positions; and in comment in the media relating to companies, the analyst community and in capital markets. Even where a company has done nothing to justify an attack on its reputation, a negative perception will itself be seriously damaging over time.

Building relationships with customers is critical because trust is a huge part of complex or huge purchases. Customers need to find business credible and have benevolence when deciding to spend millions on a contract with it. The factors that influence a successful relationship are customers trust; with customer trust, they are more likely to buy from you than from someone else that they know nothing of. When they see firsthand how company operates and what types of people run the company, they will have a better understanding of the company to make an informed decision. Firms should not always give what the customers want. It depends on the situation and the scenario. The CEO sets the standards of the company and needs to enforce them so that the whole of a company is unified. Also, even if it is within the realms of the company's culture, spending ridiculous amounts of money on taking them on a cruise is not worth a simple drink at a bar. The head of a company would need to set standards and boundaries for its employees.

Reduction of unethical practices by management. There are many ways which management can take to reduce unethical practices. One way would be to set boundaries on what can and can't be done. Adult entertainment related events or nights out for company’s account. These events could offend female clients or even their own salespeople; and not only that, the females will be at a huge disadvantage if the male salespeople went without them which will only force them to go to make the commission.

Another way management can reduce unethical practices is to train their employees. For new or old employees they should have an ethics training class that teaches them about ethical business behaviors for the company. Just because something is not illegal does not mean it's ethical, employees should consider that and think outside the box.

Ethical conduct of employees. As part of more comprehensive compliance and ethics programs, many companies have formulated internal policies pertaining to the ethical conduct of employees. They are generally meant to identify the company's expectations of workers and to offer guidance on handling some of the more common ethical problems that might arise in the course of doing business. It is hoped that having such a policy will lead to greater ethical awareness, consistency in application, and the avoidance of ethical disasters.

An increasing number of companies also require employees to attend seminars regarding business conduct, which often include discussion of the company's policies, specific case studies, and legal requirements. Some companies even require their employees to sign agreements stating that they will abide by the company's rules of conduct.

Many companies are assessing the environmental factors that can lead employees to engage in unethical conduct. A competitive business environment may call for unethical behavior. Lying has become expected in fields such as trading.

Not everyone supports corporate policies that govern ethical conduct. Some claim that ethical problems are better dealt with by depending upon employees to use their own judgment.

Others believe that corporate ethics policies are primarily rooted in utilitarian concerns, and that they are mainly to limit the company's legal liability, or to curry public favour by giving the appearance of being a good corporate citizen. Ideally, the company will avoid a lawsuit because its employees will follow the rules. Should a lawsuit occur, the company can claim that the problem would not have arisen if the employee had only followed the code properly.

Sometimes there is disconnection between the company's code of ethics and the company's actual practices. Thus, whether or not such conduct is explicitly sanctioned by management, at worst, this makes the policy duplicitous, and, at best, it is merely a marketing tool.

Jones Parker corporate ethics journalist wrote, "Most of what we read under the name business ethics is either sentimental common sense, or a set of excuses for being unpleasant." Many manuals are procedural form filling exercises unconcerned about the real ethical dilemmas.

Failure to be seen to implement acceptable ethical standards of conduct can also impact upon the degree of regulation or legislation that might otherwise be introduced to constrain behavior.

Companies are increasingly attempting to maintain or improve their reputations by ‘getting their houses in order’, designing new initiatives such as Codes of Ethics. Many have a long way to go if they are to implement and be seen to implement these successfully and embed a culture of ethical business conduct within the day to day running of their businesses.

What constitutes acceptable ethical business conduct changes over time and conduct that at one time may not have damaged the company’s reputation could subsequently cause considerable damage. Companies need to regularly monitor the overall implementation of their ethical policies and procedures to ensure they match the acceptable standards of the time.