In the first year of my Master in Business, I had the opportunity to study about Business Ethics. And I realized now that competitive modern businesses nowadays are more aware of how to run properly a company without compromising workforce welfare and operations compared to the organisations during the Industrial Age. One of the key factor that I have particularly observed is to be aware on morals, values and welfare.
Ethical business practices meant we now have to consider morals in which it was define as the personal philosophies that define what is right and wrong. In week one of our unit, we have looked into what is business ethics is and which is defined, according to Ghillyer (2014), as the application of ethical standards to business behaviour. Thanks to the introduction and implementation of stringent government regulations and business ethics, organisations are now more concerned about engaging into ethical practices.
It is because once a company has been found out to be practicing unethically, they can be penalised with hefty fines from the government causing them to be out of business in the worst case. Here in our business ethics class, we’ve been shown to various ethical and unethical business practices. From fraud account scandal of Wells Fargo in the US to the appalling malpractices of Australian major banks that cause to launched an investigation by the banking royal commission which tells us that unethical practices in business (such as abuse of power or lying to the consumers) can happened anytime and anywhere. It made me realised now the importance of knowing what are the dos and don’ts in an ethical companies.
Ethical in such a way that the decisions and actions within the organisation is acceptable to the community’s moral standards. As per Ghillyer stated in his textbook, “You do not acquire your personal moral standards in the same way that you learn the alphabet”. Learning from this quote, business ethics had broaden my senses about being a responsible person wherein moral standards are quite abstract based on the culture and beliefs of a person. Companies being exampled in our lectures are very eye opening and a learning experience. This subject motivated me to learn more in such a way that hopefully in the future it will give me an insight on how to run an organisation ethically and efficiently.
