Business Ethics In America

In order to fully understand ethics and how they relate to business, one must first define its key components. Ethics can be broken down into three categories: social, organizational, and individual. Corporations are bound by social ethics which challenge them to hold accountable for their own actions its company officers, management, and stakeholders, who aspire to gain financially from traditional and unconventional economic activities. Organizational ethics involve a shared sense of pride and responsibility for employees, managers and corporations. They are part of an overall business philosophy that is shared throughout the company. Individual ethics involve our conceptions of right and wrong which stem from many different sources.

Business Ethics

You all know I'm pretty much posting about my skin care products to get men/women more familiar with them and how they can change your skin. However, today I'd like to talk about ethics or professional respect. I had an unfortunate encounter with another consultant that I found really disturbing which made me wonder how often this kind of thing happens. In my situation, I was communicating with a potential recruit, answering her questions, sending her information and product samples, etc. Before I knew it, another consultant (from the same company) reached out to this person offering all sorts of free stuff if she'd sign up with her! What I found annoying was that I had already put time, effort and expense (catalogs, opportunity brochure, samples, postage, etc.

Be Ethical, it Pays

How many times have you heard someone bad mouth a business person? How many times have you heard someone bad mouth another professional in their industry? The truth of the matter is, even though the subject of ethics may seem easy to understand, its actually not. Where do you cross the line between hard working aggressiveness and being unethical? Well, just look at the long-term consequences of what you are doing today in your profession. If what you are doing today constitutes "burning bridges, " then you know its time to re-evaluate how you conduct yourself. The person who feels they are getting the short end of the stick from you today, may show up in your office 3 years from now looking to do business, and they'll probably walk out once they see that you are the one handling their account.

The Transparency Catch-22 - How Too Much Transparency on Industry Can Hurt Us

We often hear a lot about the need for Transparency in business; to protect consumers, shareholders and to insure that the companies are following the rules and regulations. Unfortunately, what we do not hear much about is the flip-side to that coin; transparency is a double edged sword. Let me explain. You see, too much transparency is a Real Problem because each business has methods that give them advantages, if there is too much transparency then the competition gets this important information without earning them. This is bad because it allows those who try new things and learn the hard way to be instantly copied while the same school-of-hard-knocks were not endured.

Advertising Ethical Dilemmas

Ethics in advertising is a serious subject. First and foremost, advertisers must sell the product or service that they represent. On the other hand, however, advertising agents and companies must also be truthful and ethical in their portrayals and not deceive their consumers. These two demands create a tension that is heightened for controversial products or audience demographics, such as tobacco, alcohol, condoms, pharmaceutics, and children. Tobacco, a legal but lethal product, creates an especially tricky dilemma for advertisers. Likewise, alcohol forms controversial campaigns for many agencies. Some companies handle the dilemma by refusing to do ad work for either group or by offering free services to health or cause-related groups like Mothers against Drunk Driving.

Brown People Competing For Green Dollars

A new study from the University of Georgia concludes that Hispanic spending power will surpass African American buying power in 2007; marking the first year that Hispanics control more disposable personal income than any other U.S. minority group. This conclusion leads me to question the motive behind the research and the social consequences if Hispanics and Blacks buy into the competitive research. Will corporate America pit the two groups against each other when disbursing advertising dollars to their respective ad agencies? The business case for diversity in corporate advertising has been a solid one for decades. Corporations have slowly realized the importance of advertising to ethnic markets and the results of such efforts to their bottom line.

Importance of Ethics in Business

Ethics is important not only in business but in all aspects of life because it is the vital part and the foundation on which the society is build. A business/society that lacks ethical principles is bound to fail sooner or later. According to International Ethical Business Registry, "there has been a dramatic increase in the ethical expectation of businesses and professionals over the past 10 years. Increasingly, customers, clients and employees are deliberately seeking out those who define the basic ground, rules of their operations on a day today... ." Ethics refers to a code of conduct that guides an individual in dealing with others. Business Ethics is a form of the art of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in business environment.

Is Your Nose Growing

How often can one "misspeak" and still maintain credibility? When the puppet Pinocchio told a lie his nose grew. His proboscis gave clear evidence of the lie. With people we cannot always tell whether a statement is true or not. Hillary Clinton was recently awarded four Pinocchio's by the Washington Post for exaggerating her landing at the Tuzla, Bosnia airport in March 1996. Videos of Mrs. Clinton and her daughter being greeted by officials on the tarmac at the airport soon appeared on YouTube. The video record clearly shows there was no sniper fire as told by Mrs. Clinton, more than once. Clinton after a week said she may have misspoken and if she did it was a minor blip.

Long Haul Trucking - A View From the Cab

Trucking is not just a job; it is a lifestyle. For most, the transition to the trucking lifestyle is a difficult one. This is the reason why the vast majority of CDL school graduates are no longer in the trucking business after six months... or shorter. They are not prepared for the challenges or for the days and weeks spent away from home and family. Some universal truths about the trucking industry are not always pretty. One of the first, and most obvious, is that any company engaged in the trucking business is not going to offer the normal amenities that are taken for granted in most other jobs. For instance, sick leave is non-existent in most trucking jobs.

Document Shredding - 103 Types of Document You May Want to Shred

Identity theft is rampant, and these days it is a good idea to make use of a document shredding machine or mobile document shredding service to get rid of paperwork that contains non-public information. But what kind of paper work falls under this category? Here is a list of 103 types of documents that you may want to shred. Account numbers Account records Accounting Files/Records Addresses Advertising misprints All Employee Information All Financial Information Anything storing electronic data Audits Audits/Surveys Bank Account Information Bank Statements banking or financial records, Bids and Proposals Billing Information Brokerage account information Business Plans Canceled Checks Cancelled Checks CD's Class Rosters Client Files Client Lists Competitive information Computer Generated Reports Computer printouts Computer Reports Confidential correspondence Consumer Information Contracts Correspondence Credit Card Information Credit Card Numbers Credit card receipts Credit Cards Customer estimates & quotes Customer Lists Debit Card numbers disks Doctor/Nurse Notes Drivers License Numbers Education Employee Information Employment Information Executive Correspondence Fax Machine Ribbons Financial Data Financial records Financial Statements ID Cards Insurance Information Insurance Policy data Internal Memos Inventory lists Invoices Junk Mail Legal Documents Magnetic media Management Reports Maps and blueprints Market Research Marketing Strategies Medical Charts/History Medical Records Meeting notes Memos & correspondence Microfilm and fiche Names New product drawings New Product Information New product proposals Obsolete Brochures/Stationery/Files Obsolete Documents Organization Charts Outdated business records Passport Numbers Pay roll records Payroll Information Payroll Records Personnel Files Personnel Information Photographs Prescription Information Presentations Price Lists Price Quotes Printed e-mails Product Design Product Information product prototypes Profit & Loss Statements Proposals and Quotes R&D Files/Data Receipts Research Data Sales Receipts Sales statistics Sensitive Correspondence Social Security Numbers Tapes Tax Records Telephone Numbers X-rays That's a lot of documents!