With changing societal standards, companies in our modern world can and must strive for ethical behaviours in an attempt to keep any form of competitive edge. However, with the bottom line continuing to hold the greatest importance for corporations and their shareholders, the legitimacy or extent of these ethics remain up for debate.
The very definition of business ethics has been debated by academics for decades. Brunk (2012) outlines the traditional philosophical theories of what it means to be ethical, broken into two theories. Deontology is a theory whereby moral judgement is rules-based, stemming essentially only from social norms and the law. Similarly, Friedman’s definition of CSR stems from this theoretical line of thinking. According …show more content…
Azmi (2006) explores business ethics being used as competitive advantage. He argues that globalisation has lead to ethical behaviours becoming “a prerequisite for conducting any type of business, particularly in the global marketplace” and refers to business ethics as being “one of the invaluable intangible assets for competing”. Azmi (2006) calls out tangible assets as being easy to imitate and therefore not as valuable to competitiveness as intangible assets that are harder to copy. He hypothesises that the greatest and most sustainable competitive edge in a global market is to implement a “value-creating strategy” and implement ethical behaviours on all aspects of business. It is undeniable that changing societal standards on a global scale have called for more ethical decision-making in corporations, and it is believed that implementing such ethics will create a sustainable competitive …show more content…
However, as Bret-Rouzaut and Favennec’s (2011) work suggests, not all industries can be ethical, or even have the discretion to. The gas and oil mining industries have been consistently called into question regarding their ethics. First is the creation and promotion of use of fossil fuels, a finite resource, whose use is contributing to global warming (Bret-Rouzaut and Favennec, 2011). While frameworks are in place to encourage mining in the most ethical way possible, and through the continued global encouragement towards alternate and sustainable energy sources, the oil and mining industry doesn’t have complete discretion over humanistic ethics and the protection of human rights. Oil mining has, for a long time, been a game of political chess, especially in regards to US oil reserves, and thus the larger ethical and human rights issues revolving around oil mining is largely out of the hands of the companies (Bret-Rouzaut and Favennec, 2011). Despite this, in the modern and competitive world, the mining industry is just one example of continuing unethical behaviours, and the incapability of change, in one of Australia’s most profitable
The very definition of business ethics has been debated by academics for decades. Brunk (2012) outlines the traditional philosophical theories of what it means to be ethical, broken into two theories. Deontology is a theory whereby moral judgement is rules-based, stemming essentially only from social norms and the law. Similarly, Friedman’s definition of CSR stems from this theoretical line of thinking. According …show more content…
Azmi (2006) explores business ethics being used as competitive advantage. He argues that globalisation has lead to ethical behaviours becoming “a prerequisite for conducting any type of business, particularly in the global marketplace” and refers to business ethics as being “one of the invaluable intangible assets for competing”. Azmi (2006) calls out tangible assets as being easy to imitate and therefore not as valuable to competitiveness as intangible assets that are harder to copy. He hypothesises that the greatest and most sustainable competitive edge in a global market is to implement a “value-creating strategy” and implement ethical behaviours on all aspects of business. It is undeniable that changing societal standards on a global scale have called for more ethical decision-making in corporations, and it is believed that implementing such ethics will create a sustainable competitive …show more content…
However, as Bret-Rouzaut and Favennec’s (2011) work suggests, not all industries can be ethical, or even have the discretion to. The gas and oil mining industries have been consistently called into question regarding their ethics. First is the creation and promotion of use of fossil fuels, a finite resource, whose use is contributing to global warming (Bret-Rouzaut and Favennec, 2011). While frameworks are in place to encourage mining in the most ethical way possible, and through the continued global encouragement towards alternate and sustainable energy sources, the oil and mining industry doesn’t have complete discretion over humanistic ethics and the protection of human rights. Oil mining has, for a long time, been a game of political chess, especially in regards to US oil reserves, and thus the larger ethical and human rights issues revolving around oil mining is largely out of the hands of the companies (Bret-Rouzaut and Favennec, 2011). Despite this, in the modern and competitive world, the mining industry is just one example of continuing unethical behaviours, and the incapability of change, in one of Australia’s most profitable