Abstract

This chapter discusses the importance of ethics in business and outlines a number of ways in which corporations can maintain high standards of ethics. More specifically, it explains how genuinely caring for the interests of all stakeholders, from customers and employees to suppliers, creditor banks, the state, the community at large, and the environment, can improve the moral reputation of a business enterprise, which in turn boosts its credibility with those stakeholders. The chapter relates business ethics to such important issues as customer care, advertising, employee welfare (including the security of employment), environmental protection (for example, abating air pollution or reducing the rate of depletion of natural resources), finance, and conflict of interest.