Ethical Practices Essay

1. What are business ethics? Business ethics are rules of conduct, principals, and patterns of behavior in business dealings that involve doing the right thing. An ethical business is a business which embraces universal morals and strives for equality of every job and workplace. Although laws and policies are different in every country, some have lower ethical standards than others which for example can promote child labor, unsafe workplace, and many other approaches which can harm a quality of a workers life. The unethical businesses save money in cutting corners through ethic standards. But unfortunately many companies rely on factories based off unethical work to keep them in business. In some cultures unethical work is recognized to be normal such as child labor in an underdeveloped countries while here it is against the law and seen as inhumane because of how our culture is conditioned here. 2. Give two examples in which Primark is operating in an ethical way. Provide two additional examples of ethical practices or behaviours in a business not associated with retailing or clothing. Primark operating in ethical ways: – Primark bases its code of conduct on the International Labor Organization (ILO). The code of conduct provides an ethical standard code which enforces safe, labor free, and security in work. – Primark provides audits to it suppliers to follow up and ensure the supplier is maintaining ethical practices. Additional examples: – To have no tolerance for discrimination in the workplace. Every race, culture, and gender is treated equally in every work environment. For example in an auto business a women is respected on the same level as men are. 3. Why is it so important for businesses to operate in an ethical way? Explain your answer by referring to the fashion industry. It is so important for businesses to operate in an ethical way because it represents how a company is run in all aspects. 4. In what ways could ethical business practices incur costs to the business? Evaluate the extent to which the benefits to a business of operating in an ethical are likely to outweigh the costs. Ethical practices will cost a business. When a company is ethical it builds confidence in the brand and its reputation, which shareholders are pleased to see. Also, it reduces the risk in bad reputation from bad publicity. In addition, many companies chose to save money and cut the corner with ethical standards. Although the benefit outweighs the cost because overall if a consumer understands and can view the company’s transparency they will be more confident in purchasing products or services from the certain business. Therefore, this will increase a based clientele due to their information of how your business runs and that their purchase adds to promoting standard work ethics. For example if you told a customer that a pair of pants cost a few dollars more than the other ones, but explained that the cheaper pair is made by an 11 year old child working in factory for 14 hours a day getting paid pennies to produce the garment or a woman who made them and she is receiving proper incentives and benefits for working for the company to support her family. I believe every costumer would chose to pay those extra couple of dollars. This is why consumers should push for company transparency, to allow you to see what you really pay for! Therefore, for established company ethical standards will cost more to maintain but in the outcome more customers will be attracted and you will build a loyal client base due to many people who are against ethical issues.