Ethics in Business

Business ethics is a hot topic. It does not seem that a day goes by without Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, or Tom Brokaw featuring at least one story concerning some aspect of how American business relates with its ethical environment. From the pristine shores of Alaska (the land of leaky tankers) to the shiny office towers of Wall Street (the land of greedy bankers), business is being bulls-eyed as never before.

A major problem confronting business is that outside the government, business is the chief game in town. When a major corporation, its officers, managers, or employees make mistakes, they tend to do it BIG TIME, with lots and lots of press coverage. Ethical lapses by businesses serve forever to tar those companies. Remember Morton Thiokol with its booster rockets, Salomon Brothers with its bond buying, and Ford with its Pinto? Pushing the ethical envelope can have serious consequences, economic and otherwise, for organizations.