Contents

• Introduction to Business Ethics 3
• The Case Study on collapse of WorldCom 4
• Ethics at WorldCom 6
• 1. Equity 6
• 2. Respect for People 7
• 3. Personal and Professional Responsibility 7
• 4. Justice 7
• Ethics and Leaders in WorldCom 10
• Ethical Perspectives 10
• The Utilitarian Perspective: 11
• The Rights Perspective 11
• The Fairness (or Justice Perspective) 11
• The Common Good Perspective 12
• The Virtue Perspective 12
• WorldCom’s Whistle-Blower 12
• Ethics and Bottom Line 13
• Review and Conclusion 15
• References 16

Description

Brief Description – Business ethics is like a form of professional or applied ethics that are used for examining the ethical morals and principals or problems related to the ethics that may arise in an organization. It can be easily applied to all the aspects, not only of business organizations, but also individuals and business conducts. Applied ethics is that part of the ethics, which deals with the questions related to the ethics in various fields and is useful in business ethics.
Business ethics can be of both, descriptive or normative, disciplines. The normative field is used for career specialization and corporate practices. The descriptive approach is applied to the academic fields. The quality and range of the business ethics of organization reflects the degree of perception of the business so that it can be at odds against all the social values that are not economical. The interest in the business ethics developed in 1980s and 1990s, in both the fields, i.e. academic and corporate. Many corporations today have restructured their core values considering the business ethics. (Meldon, 1950)
It is very important to discuss and structure business ethics as there are many business enterprises seen today that are facing a downfall due to their unethical practices. As Adam Smith opined ‘People who belong to the same trade rarely come together, even for diversion and merriment, but conversation might end if there is a conspiracy against the public or some other approach to raise money. No business can operate in vacuum. Every firm, big or small, needs a social circle and natural environment to operate. To exist and survive in this environment, it is must for every organization to be acceptable by the virtue of some kind of bound duties and ethics. There are two reasons due to which the firms are bound to the ethics and these reasons are: first, whatsoever the business may be, it affects the stakeholders and second, there are two paths to every action, i.e. ethical and non–ethical, and the existence of the firm depends on the path chosen. One reason or condition that bought business ethics to forefront is the fall of small business firms and rise of multinational business enterprises that has the capability to make affect in the daily lives of masses.