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Ethics-The term ethics is emerged from Latin word ‘Ethicus’ or Greek word ‘Ethicos’. Both these
words have in turn originated from the word ‘Ethos’ which means character. The word ethics can
be defined in many ways-
1) As per Oxford dictionary it is ‘a system of moral principles, rules and conduct’.
2) It is a science of morals.
3) It describes what is right, what is fair, and what is proper.
4) The study of what is good and right to the people. The basic question ethics asks are how a man
should act, especially when the action have direct and indirect effect on others.
The issue of ethics becomes a complex issue as the terms good, bad, right or wrong are relative
terms and are issues of moral judgment. The problem has one more side that who is making the
judgment. From different sides the problems are seen in different light. The distinctions are made in
‘us’ and ‘others’ and in ‘benefits’ and ‘obligations’.
Business Ethics-
What is right, proper and just these questions are going to be more imp. in future as our society is
going to be more crowded, economy more competitive, and technology more complex.
During the initial period of industrial revolution, it was considered that business and ethics do not
go together. It was believed that if it is business then it is not ethical. In early 1950’s it was believed
in India that a company that is making profit is unethical; profit making is dirty. Today profit is
considered to be must for any organization. The concept of business ethics started revolving around
1960.The social awareness movement gave birth to business ethics. The business houses had the
financial assistance to help in solving social problems and commercial organizations started having
their own set of ethical standards. Since then the business ethic shave developed an increase in
awareness and popularity.
The term business ethics is given different meaning by different people. Business ethics simply
means applying ethics in business. It can be defines as ‘the application of ethical principals and
methods of business analysis. Carter McNamara defines business ethics as,’ coming to know what
is right and what is wrong in the work place and doing what is right- with regards to effects of
products/ services and in relationship with stakeholders.’
According to Wheeler, ‘Business ethics is an art or science of maintaining harmonious relationship
with the society, its various groups and institutions as well a s reorganizing the moral responsibility
for the rightness or wrongness of a business conduct.’
In short, the industry and commerce has to balance economic interests of the organization and
social responsibility.