Ethics is an area of knowledge that deals with the problem of right or wrong. While business ethics is how a business deals with the decision of right or wrong in a business environment. This would include both the business’ way of handling operations outside and within the business.

A way of looking into business ethics would be through the stakeholder’s theory demonstrated by R. Edward Freeman. He said, “for any business to be successful, it has to create value for customers, suppliers, employees, communities, and financiers”. He argues that a company have to create value for all of these parties to be successful. For example, when the business doesn’t have a good relationship with the local communities, they would create conflict and eventually problems will arise and be in the way of them being successful. Thus, any failure to be successful in creating value for all of these parties would be “a business in decline” as Freeman says it.

A great example of bad business ethics would be a recent case of the indictment of bribery and fraud on Charles “Chuck” Rizzo, the former CEO of ‘Rizzo’s environmental services’, trash firm in Detroit. He made fraud legal documents and bribed a few people including chesterfield township supervisor; Michael Lovelock and a former New Haven trustee; Christopher Craigsmiles. The money made from these deals was later used by Rizzo to contribute to building his new mansion. This example shows a bad set of business ethics, creating fraud legal documents and bribery is illegal and thus eventually led to Rizzo’s indictment and the FBI investigation on the company. This would be an example of “a business in decline”.

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