Ethics, Business and Business Ethics: A Reflection

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from
failure. Colin Powell

We are all attached to the concept of success, whether we admit to do so or not. The
threat of failure or the foreseeable rejection, on the other hand, makes us curl up like a ball as if
ready to roll down the highway of isolation in any minute. But when we talk of success in
business, the ups and downs become the fuel of every small victory. Likewise, each individual
must not concern themselves as to how many times they have failed, rather should focus on
harnessing their optimal strengths and abilities to enable them to become less susceptible to
emotional downfalls.

The battle really is not all about the bottom-line profits, rather, the positive impact that a
company has on its employees, organization, and on the greater society. These businesses
contribute to the development of the quality of peoples lives. From the food industry, real
estate, construction, power, financing and the like, change has been constant and the definition
of a good life may, at times, change as well. No one can tell another of what a good life is since it
is a matter of preference and perspective. A good life for one may be manifested in material
things acquired that are considered status symbols or simply a luxury that not everyone could
have. On the other side, a good life may be pictured in a family whose needs can be provided for
without much struggle. Nevertheless, a business that generates inspiration, enkindles hope, and
promotes societal well-being, surely brings the good life that each one dreams about.

A business comes to actuality through an organization of passionate individuals who

envision a better life. The commercial aspect directs us to the profit-orientation side of
businesses yet we are all reminded that a business is meant to serve the humankind. In short, it
is a means used for us to fulfill our lifes purpose. It is a tool for us to recreate our lives and to
build our milestones. The moment a persons moral integrity is compromised due to a business
activity is the time when the core essence of a business becomes an imaginary ideal. Thus, the
concept of ethics comes into the picture.

Ethics is a system of moral principles which governs our behaviors and is concerned with
what is good for individuals and society. It is basically the backbone of our actions. From the way
we interact with those that are close to our hearts and to the manner with which we treat a
stranger. Such system is continuously constructed by the society itself. For most of the time, the
norms that we share and the taboos that we never mention come from our innate hardwired
ability to distinguish what is right or wrong. Some simply do not go with the flow due to a
number of factors such as family background, religion, beliefs, and even erroneous conscience.
Nevertheless, everyone has their own way of thinking and as long as nobody gets disrespected or
shamed in any form, we all get to live a blissful life.

In Business education, ethics is considered a fundamental course that must be taken up

by all business students before taking up any major business courses required in a college
program. Ideally that is according to the author of the book. His reason for doing so is that the
focus point of most business subjects is on profit maximization which may cloud up the role of
ethics in business. For the most part, ethics keeps things glued together in an organization most
especially in a corporate setting. Business decisions need to be made in an ethical manner in
order not to prejudice the interests of the minority stakeholders of a company. In an employee
level of decision-making, ethics must be placed at the heart of the daily operational activities for
a successful task execution that can benefit both the employee and the company. When ethics is
made present even during morning huddles or in weekly meetings, the working environment will
eventually become a place of choice for channeling the best from each of the employees. Work
goals become easier to achieve and everyone gets to have fun and fulfill personal goals.

Another crucial factor for an ethical and sound decision is critical thinking. According to
Paul and Elder (2006), it is an art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it.
Furthermore, it is that mode of thinking about any subject, content, or problem in which the
thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures
inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them. We view this concept with
the basic consideration that we all need our thinking ability to work best for us. Thus, a critical
thinking development framework was developed by Paul and Elder in order to give a better way
to assess our thought processes. But before delving into the framework, a well-cultivated critical
thinker was described by Paul and Elder as someone who raises vital questions and problems,
formulating them clearly and precisely; gathers and assesses relevant information using abstract
ideas to interpret it effectively; comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them
against relevant criteria and standards; thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of
thought, recognizing and assessing as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical
consequences; and communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex
problems. The framework consists of the elements of thought, intellectual standards, and
intellectual traits. Such elements of thought, commonly termed as elements of reasoning, are
evaluated using the intellectual standards to determine the quality of reasoning; thus, resulting
to the development of the intellectual traits. The constant application of such traits results to a
well-cultivated critical thinker who, in one way or another, is any individual that can facilitate or
contribute to the soundness of the screening and decision-making stages in organizations.

The society has structured standards for almost anything which concerns the day-to-day
life of its members. We have established Ethical Standards for Professionals, Educational
Standards, and the like. Thus, there are also moral standards which we have to abide. These are
principles of right and wrong to be followed. Unlike the laws passed by a Congress, moral
standards are universal and immutable. They know no bounds. They encompass every race,
religion, social status, educational attainment, and all other delineating factors which put us
under categories. Also because of the labels which we ourselves claimed, gaps became wider
and the tendency to discriminate as to who we should respect more and as to who we should not
care about already became the norm. It can be deduced that it is much better to correct bended
behaviors from the roots. Usually, it begins with the family or with the people we spend the
most time with. To connect, it was said that we are the average of the quality of persons we get
to hang out with and it turns out to be true.
 Business organizations thrive in a competitive and ethical environment. It has been
proven a lot of times how ethics influence the continuity of a company. Take for example Enron,
and Lehman Brothers. Both companies collapsed due to fraud. Behaviors which led to the
unethical act were said to have started small, yet the accumulated lies had grown into a massive
fraudulent business activity. Such corporate scandals created turmoil in the business realm when
investors began to pull out their interests in the market. To mitigate the damage and to reduce
the impact, lawmakers and various regulatory bodies established the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in order
to bring back investor and public confidence. Up until today, various business organizations have
learned to not only build up their profits but also to preserve the integrity of their name.
Through their initiative to learn from the past, success now becomes sweeter and the ultimate
benefit for integrating ethics in business goes to the greater society.

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