Business ethics lesson 2

LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1.
Distinguish the place of business ethics within the larger field of decision making. 2.
Sketch the historical development of business ethics as a coherent discipline.
The Boundaries and History of Business Ethics .

Now with SAGE Publishing, Business Ethics:

The ability to recognize ethical issues is the key to understanding business ethics.
An ethical issue is an particular problem, situation, or opportunity that requires a person or organization to choose from among several actions that may be evaluated as right or wrong, ethical or unethical (Ferrell).

This section describes personal philosophies and legal factors that influence the choices we make when confronting an ethical dilemma

Another factor influencing individual business ethics is justice, or what is fair according to prevailing standards of society

We all expect life to be reasonably fair

Ethics is a set of moral standards for judging whether something is right or wrong

The first step in understanding business ethics is learning to recognize an ethical issue

An ethical issue is a situation where someone must choose between a set of actions that may be ethical or unethical