Registration number:
Course: Critical Writing and Analysis C07CP
Tutor: Ms Ruth Humphreys
Essay title: Discuss the issue Ethical Business and how it relates to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). With reference to sources, provide examples of companies or organisations which demonstrate ethical behaviour and evaluate their motivation.
Student Signature:
Date: 27th March 2013
Discuss the issue Ethical Business and how it relates to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). With reference to sources, provide examples of companies or organisations which demonstrate ethical behaviour and evaluate their motivation.
The ideas of Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility are oftentimes discussed in a similar manner even though they both have distinctly different definitions. As the name suggests, the term ethical business or business ethics is associated with a mixture of both ‘ethics’ and ‘business’. According to Oxford English Dictionary (2010) a business is the buying and selling of products or services with an aim of profit making. Ethics, on the other hand is more complex in that it involves human judgment, between what is right and wrong, in regards to activities and their consequences towards the society (Velasquez, et al., 2010). Chryssides and Kaler (1993) have drawn attention to the fact that in the same way that political ethics is related to honouring the right and wrong in governmental concerns, or medical ethics being identified with the morality in medical practice, business ethics can simply be defined as the issue of morality within the business industry whereby “morality is taken to mean moral judgments, standards and rules of conduct” (Ferrell and Fraedrich, 1997, p.5). Therefore, ethical business can now be defined as the ethics or principles that act as one’s behavioral rules and regulations