Should Compliance-Based Ethics Be Treated Justly?

With regards to fairness, I think of someone being impartial in their judgment. On the other hand, the term just causes me to think of a decision that has been made in a way that is moral and or equitable. However, I do not believe that “just” will always equate to being fair as what may be fair to one person may not be seen as fair to another person. Because of the difference in what various people may view to be fair, I believe that stakeholders should be treated justly. To create a foundation for those just decisions, I believe some sort of rules or SOP should be in place so that when decisions that are made in accordance with SOP are questioned, that SOP can be referenced. Again, I do not believe that just equates to fair as there may be rules within that SOP that some may view to be unfair, but so long as those rules are applied consistently, then …show more content…
Despite how some may interpret Friedman’s view to strictly mean making a profit no matter the cost to stakeholders, Friedman actually meant that those profits should be pursued by staying within bounds (Coleman, 2013). With a compliance-based ethics program, I feel that definite illegal offences can be avoided. In addition, I also feel that the minimum level of ethics defined by law can be built upon to create an ethical culture that surpasses the expectations of those laws. As an example, in the 1980’s, the CEO of Beech-Nut found that the apple juice sold by the company was not as pure as it was being advertised to be and decided not to act on the information out of concern for the threat of reporting a loss to stakeholders (Paine, 1994). Unfortunately for that CEO, the FDA punished him and the company for not staying legal with its operations and intentionally misleading consumers (Paine,