Professional Ethics

• Ethics means a code of conduct that directs an individual in dealing with others. Business Ethics is a form of the skill that examines ethical moralities and honesty or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. It deals with matters regarding morals, principles, duties and corporate governance applicable to a company and its employees, customers, shareholders, media, suppliers, government and dealers. This is what the famous Henry Kravis had to say about professional ethics: “If you don't have integrity, you have nothing. You can't buy accountability. You can have all the money in the world, but if you are not a moral and ethical person, you really have nothing.”
• Ethics are also related to the core of management practices such as human resource management, accounting information, production, sales and marketing, intellectual property knowledge and skill, international business and economic systems. In the corporate world, the organization’s culture sets standards for shaping the difference between good or bad, right or wrong and fair or unfair. This quote by Albert Einstein says it all: “Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.” The point being that it is possible to make profits without having to negotiate on ethics. And over and above the factor of correctness associated with ethics, an ethical business and its proprietors only serve themselves, their clients and the whole enterprise much better in the final reckoning.
• Management gurus often preach on the advantage an ethical company has over their competitors. “A business is successful to the extent that it provides a product or service that contributes to happiness in all of its forms” – these famous words by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi are a fitting description of this reality.
• Lately, ethical issues in business have become more complicated because of the international and diversified nature of many big corporations and because of the difficulty of economic, social, global, political, legal, and administrative regulations and peculiarities. Thus companies have to decide whether to stick to constant ethical principles or to bend according to domestic standards and culture. It can be aptly summed up in the words of John D. Rockefeller: “I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity an obligation; every possession a duty.”
• In every company, the managers should remember that leading by example is the first and very important step in nurturing a culture of ethical conduct. Hence, the best way to encourage ethical behavior is by setting a good personal example. Teaching an employee ethics is not always effective. One can explain and define ethics to an adult, but understanding ethics does not necessarily result in ethical behavior. John Mackey once quoted that “Business social responsibility should not be coerced; it is a voluntary decision that the entrepreneurial leadership of every company must make on its own.” 

Thus, ethics are important not only in business but in all the other parts of life because it is an important base on which a civilized and cultured society is built. A business or society without ethics and scruples is only headed towards self-destruction.