BUSINESS ETHICS

The moral codes underlying the conduct of private companies toward their employees, customers, trade partners and the environment.

"Business in Canada has not been subject, up to 1996, to a powerful national institutional framework such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Consequently, business ethics in Canada have developed primarily in response to broader socio-political and socio-economic factors than in the US, and will probably continue to do so."
(Brooks L.J., "Business Ethics in Canada: Distinctiveness and Directions", Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 16, No. 6, April 1997, pp. 591-604, visited 2009-04-05)

"Since the establishment of its codes of conduct in 1992, […] Levi Strauss has acquired the means to implement them within a global perspective, with the objective of these guidelines being rather to improve the existing situation vis-à-vis its business partners than to apply sanctions against them. At a first stage, the country selection criteria make it possible to prevent the development of trade relations in countries considered as posing a high risk of non-respect of human rights in practice. At a second stage, before selecting a subcontractor or, more generally, a business partner, the enterprise carries out an ethical assessment of the potential of the enterprises concerned. […] When a business partner has been selected, periodical audits are carried out concerning respect by the enterprise of its social obligations. […] Levi Strauss, which has played a pioneering role in the business ethics sphere, has over the years retained its credibility amongst consumers and its employees as a socially responsible enterprise."
(Sajhau, J.-P., Business Ethics in the Textile, Clothing and Footwear (TCF) Industries, International Labour Organisation (ILO), 2000, visited 2009-04-15)

Today, the term refers primarily to the conduct of multinational companies in developing countries toward their employees, their partners' employees, and their use of environmental resources.

"The importance of international business has led to discussions of international business ethics and to a reconsideration of moral and cultural relativism, which take on special significance when considering doing business in societies with corrupt governments […]. The primary focus of international business ethics has been on the actions of multinational corporations from developed countries operating in less developed countries. Issues include bribery, the use of child labour, the degradation of the environment, the exploitation of workers, and the increasing gap between rich and poor countries. Global issues involve the justice or fairness of policies of global institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the World Bank, the depletion of the ozone layer, and the appropriate role of corporations and nations in halting or reversing the process, and the depletion of non-renewable natural resources. The growth of the Internet as a medium of commerce that easily crosses national boundaries has also generated new concerns about the ethical dimensions of privacy violations by businesses, control of commercial pornography, and protection of intellectual property available in digitalized form.

Business ethics […] have become something of a movement, in which corporations have adopted codes of conduct or statements of values and beliefs, have introduced the position of corporate-ethics officer, instituted in-house training programmes in ethics, established ethics hotlines, and appointed ethical ombudsmen. The corporate movement is mixed: sometimes salutary, providing positive promotion and reinforcement of ethical norms; sometimes self-serving, emphasizing ethics for employees towards the corporation, but exempting the corporation itself (and its top officers) from ethical assessment; and sometimes negative, serving simply as ‘window-dressing' to mask amoral corporate activity."
(Oxford Reference, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, 2009, visited 2009-04-05)