My Comment on “Business Ethics” from Yunmo Liu’s Blog
Yunmo Liu’s Blog: https://connect.ubc.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_55007_1%26url%3D
“Very often it is held that business is not bound by any ethics other than abiding by the law.” —From Wikipedia
As Yunmo Liu mentions in her blog that the world’s largest bottle-water company, Nestle has been tapping water from B.C. without paying a cent. She points out that the primary reason of this immorality is because of the B.C.’s lack of groundwater regulation. She also makes the point on the relationship between business ethics and government regulation. However, her statement, “if government doesn’t do the thing, how can we ask company to do so”, is not a persuasive argument for Nestle. Business ethics and government regulation are independent. In fact, very often firms are bounded by government regulation, which may mostly be laws, rather than business ethics, but this obviously refers the absence of business ethics.
“Business ethics are important for managing a sustainable business mainly because of the serious consequences that can result from decisions made with a lack of regard to ethics.”—B. Anderson
Pinning hopes on the perfection of laws is not practical. Scammers and thieves can always find new loopholes to exploit. To reach the long-term stability, firms should recognize ethical standards, which includes social benefit.
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