What is meant when we talk about "Ethics"? Ethics can be defined as a society's accepted standards of moral behavior, which, simply put, means a code of behaviors that are accepted by a society. Ethics, applied to the business world, is a form of what is called "applied ethics." General principles of basic moral behavior are integrated into to the day-to-day work of business. An ethical work and business environment is predictable, stable, and easy to navigate. On the other hand, non-ethical behavior creates a hostile business environment. Take Enron, for example, which shocked the U.S. public back in 2000's. This big name company is an energy trading company that had created off-the-books partnerships to illegally hide its debts and losses. This was unethical behavior as a business, and the result has been hostilities of all kinds. .
Corporate ethics is important because it is the main distinguishing mark between good business sense and what is known as, "buccaneer capitalism." An example of good, ethical business behavior is not mainly recognized within a company's profitability but is evidenced instead by customer loyalty. Keep your customers happy, and they will keep coming back. A company that goes out of its way to treat employees with fairness and respect, is more likely to have a productive and happy work force than is a company that tends to treat their employees like robots or machines. .
To touch back upon the Enron Scandal, take, for instance, the unethical practices made by the Chairman and CEO, the former CEO, and the Chief Accounting Officer. These big-wigs were actually convicted of committing accounting fraud. The company's pension regulations prohibited regular employees from selling their stock, but the executives sold millions of dollars' worth of shares just before the fraud publicly was made known. Now what does one make of Arthur Andersen's part in this, who was convicted of tampering with witnesses when the country's largest accounting firm at the time told its employees to shred two tons of Enron documents? They were caught red-handed, but he still shamefully tried to lie about the truth till the end.