“There are no business ethics, either you are ethical or you are not”

The above quote was first said by John C. Maxwell, who does not believe in the concept of ethics just for business and rather believes that “If you desire to be ethical, you live it by one standard across the board.” It is true that there are some opinions that favour the opinion that big firms can use social responsibility in order to maximize profit, such as the Stakeholder Theory. However, it is generally believed by many that in order to be successful in business you must sacrifice your ethics. To paraphrase Karl Kraus, you either study business or ethics but not both of them, or even to state the opinion of a fellow Sauder student, “I am not sure if I choose the right career, I don’t believe in exploiting people”.

The Global Compact  (GC)is a proof that this is changing, for whatever reasons may be. In the article it is read that ” GC attracted cynicism from the start” which is understandable since it was stablished as a response to “anti-globalization” protests in Seattle back in 1999. Since then the organization has grown into 6000 members, most of them after the crisis. As the article says, it is posible and very likely that the increase in signers for the GC is due to the fact that stakeholders need a more secure public opinion. Whatever the case may be, this is just an example of the fact that moral and ethics is becoming an increasingly important matter in business nowadays. Firms who follow an ethical behaviour are well regarded and liked by their costumers and the public while others, such as Nike, which are known for their labor exploitations in third-world countries are generally disliked and it has led to a decrease in their sells.

Conclusion line: For whatever reasons this may be, business have increasing pressure to act ethically nowadays as it is generally expected from them by the public.

Article: http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2010/06/corporate_ethics