Ethics Research Paper

Ethics Research Paper

Introduction

Entrepreneurial ethics has come under greater scrutiny not only in the United States, but across the globe. The world is flooded with business failures and consumer/community problems arising out of greed, fraud, and dishonesty (Lykken, 1985). This has led many consumers to demand that the businesses they deal with abide by ethical standards. However, what the consumer and entrepreneur believe to be ethical conduct may be quite different. At the same time, the Entrepreneur is concerned with covering increased costs and wants to avoid pricing their product out of the market.

Sometimes, there is a delicate line between ethical business practices and fiscally sound business decisions (Alexander, 2003). According to one study, the greatest perceived ethical failing of an Entrepreneur is that they are guilty of misleading or lying to the investor, consumer, employees, banker, suppliers, and other stakeholders (Alexander, 2003). This paper discusses the specific examples of entrepreneurial deception and formulates a business code of ethics that would provide guidance to avoid the likelihood of these ethical dilemmas.

Discussion

Deceptive Advertising on Television

Deceptive advertising refers to advertisers or advertising production units or personnel who deceive the consumer because their advertising content is inconsistent with the facts of advertising. The advertisement is regarded as deceptive if the content of the ad is objectively false, or it is subjective to deceive or mislead the audience. The first category refers to deceptive advertising directly on the product quality, composition, functions providing fraudulent information to deceive consumers. For example, recently the public has complained of Nestle Milk Foam, whose advertising is deceptive, leading to serious violations of consumer rights.

Nestle Milk Foam, claims to be a nutritious breakfast, guaranteed to be a whole grain food (Wilkinson, 2003). However, it is actually a common sweet. It is, in fact, ordinary candy, containing 25% sugar, so the sugar content is more than even those recognized as "fat foods" like butter, biscuits, sugar, even more. Such explicit deceptive advertising should not only be given a clear definition but also provide more stringent penalties in the law so that consumers can more effectively use legal weapons to safeguard their rights. The consumers of Nestle Milk Foam suffered from this deceptive advertising while the manufacturers and company benefits from it. This deception occurred due to the negligence of quality assurance and marketing team who failed to comply with the standards. They propagated the false claims without any assurance.

Deceptive Behavior Relating To Employees

Employees are the essential component of an organization. They should not be deceived as it might injure the integrity and credibility of the company. The company might be involved in immoral and unethical activities such as deceptive behavior towards employees and keeping them unaware of the business doings (Alexander, 2003). On the other hand, effective internal control system is the prevention and detection of deceptive employee behavior. Companies can observe the deceptive behavior relating to employees and control it. Thus, various measures can be taken by organizations to stop deceptive practices and actions which ...