Write a short summary of the article “Business Ethics: The changing face of Working life” and the Significance of ethical codes discussed by the author.Â
Discuss the ethics and the ethical values addressed by the author.Â
Discuss the approaches mentioned by the author to make ethical decisions.
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Chapter 12
Business Ethics:
The Changing Face of Working Life
Neslihan Yilmaz
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3302-8598
Istanbul Medipol University, Turkey
ABSTRACT
Ethics is about the behaviors that people enact on a social scale and that have consequences affecting
others and the thinking processes that shape them. Business life is a part of social life and it has to
develop principles compatible with value judgments in society. Increasing professional corruption is a
situation where there is a complexity of values within the society and utilitarianism overcomes everything
over time, and an ethical process is required. This can only be achieved through effective leadership.
INTRODUCTION
The concept of business ethics has recently become a concept that all organizations are closely interested in. The effect of globalization forces organizations to operate within the framework of ethical
principles. Creating ethical codes of organizations in this respect is among the most common methods.
The most important factor that pushes organizations towards such a method is that businesses operating
in compliance with business ethics principles believe that they will be successful in the long term. Ethical breakdowns of businesses that do not comply with business ethics reveal the necessity of business
ethics. The result of this has revealed an ethical collapse that has been exposed to business scandals in
America and Europe. Interesting and known of all accounting scandals from the past; ancient and middle
ages, 17th-18th. centuries can be listed as 19th century (Jones, 2011: 115), 20th century and 21st century
scandals (Yard?mc?o?lu& Ada, pp.44-52).
The business community has clearly understood the necessity and importance of business ethics
through ethical collapses. In addition, the ethical collapse in the businesses has been examined in terms
of its causes and consequences.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-4117-3.ch012
Copyright © 2021, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
?
Business Ethics
The delay of legal arrangements in parallel with technological and social developments in business
life, the lack of knowledge of laws, rules and methods, material and moral dissatisfaction cause professional corruption and weaken professional ties.
We have separated generations while studying work ethics. We examined the effects of generational
differences on business life and the relationships between business ethics. When we examined the effects, we evaluated them both as employers and employees. Without an ethical climate, we cannot talk
about success.
er of Unit
Managers other
than HR
4,0222
,79562
,11860
Total
3,9702
,91460
,08760
HR Manager
4,6912
,52245
,08960
HR Specialist
4,6000
,44334
,08094
Officer of Unit
Managers other
than HR
4,7667
,42104
,06276
Total
4,6972
,46157
04421
F
Sig.
0,9360
0,3950
0,1810
0,8350
1,1820
0,3110
In the analysis of whether monthly income and values ethics tendencies differ, it is seen that ? value
is greater than 0.05. Accordingly, there is no difference between the wage groupings received in terms
of values ethics.
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Business Ethics
Table 6. Age Distribution and Values Ethics ANOVA Test Results
Average
Community
Ethics
Religious Ethics
Autonomy
Ethics
Standard
Deviation
Standard Error
Between 20-29
years old
4,5846
,41393
,06628
Between 30-39
years old
4,5902
,36318
,05672
Between 40-49
years old
4,5417
,36106
,07370
Between 50-59
years old
4,6400
,35777
,16000
Total
4,5798
,37707
,03612
Between 20-29
years old
3,7949
1,05268
,16856
Between 30-39
years old
4,1341
,84428
,13185
Between 40-49
years old
3,9792
,77641
,15848
Between 50-59
years old
3,9500
,94207
,42131
Total
3,9702
,91460
,08760
Between 20-29
years old
4,6667
,36873
,05904
Between 30-39
years old
4,6707
,56579
,08836
Between 40-49
years old
4,7708
,41649
08501
Between 50-59
years old
4,8000
,44721
,20000
Total
4,6972
,46157
04421
F
Sig.
0,13
0,94
0,92
0,44
0,38
0,77
In the ANOVA test carried out, it was observed that there was no statistically significant difference
in the values ethics trends between the age groups. However, it is observed that community ethics values
are predominantly preferred in the 50-59 age group, religious ethics tendency in the 30-39 age group and
autonomy ethics in the 50- 59 age group. Accordingly, people at older ages may be making their ethical
assessments based on autonomy and by giving importance to cooperation and harmony with others with
the sense of autonomy provided by their experiences.
When we look at whether ethical perceptions differ by gender or not, it is seen that ethical perceptions do not present a statistically significant difference between gender distributions. However, unlike
the values ethics approach given in Table 3, it can be seen that women take a more intense approach in
all ethical trend areas compared to men (Aksoy & Koçanc?, 2019, pp.359).
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Business Ethics
Table 7. Gender Differentiation and Ethical Trends Scale T-Test
Gender of the Interviewer
Deontological
Ethics
Teleological Ethics
Virtue Ethics
Frequency
Average
Standard
Deviation
Standard
Deviation
Error
t
P
Woman
55
3,1727
,38222
,05154
-1,721
,088
Male
54
3,3130
,46502
,06328
-1,718
,089
Woman
55
2,9636
,49223
,06637
-,114
,910
Male
54
2,9745
,51014
,06942
-,113
,910
Woman
55
3,0932
,36421
,04911
-,981
,329
Male
54
3,1736
,48468
,06596
-,978
,330
BUSINESS ETHICS AND ETHICAL PROBLEMS
Development of Business Ethics and Distinguishing Features
Business ethics remains an important issue that concerns all businesses at all levels. Corporate governance
scandals that have examples such as “Enron” and “WorldCom” have led to a rapid increase in ethical
laws and regulations, especially in the United States and other world countries. Although the complex
relationship between ethics and strategic management goes back to ancient times, todayÂ’s conditions
make this relationship even more imperative. For example, in the USA, although the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act came into force in 2002, ethical scandals about businesses continue and social stakeholdersÂ’ expectations for businesses to be more ethical are increasing. On the other hand, because ethics is a difficult
issue to understand and put into practice, it has been a matter that business executives prefer to violate.
From the technological point of view, with the arrival of the Information Age, which has gained
momentum with the innovations in the field of internet and telecommunications, the businesses and the
way businesses are carried out in economies, industries, and companies are changing. Online technologies facilitate corporate change. While speed, scope, economies of scale and efficiency change through
information technologies, there are different results for consumers and employees.
From a political perspective, the collapse of communist regimes and the rise of global terrorism are
changing the structure of trade and business partners. National and organizational strategic associations
blur political boundaries. Electronic democracy changes the political thoughts and behaviors of individuals and groups. On the other hand, the transparency of international issues has exposed introvert systems
and ideologies to open. Liberalization of key industries (public services, airlines, telecommunications,
insurance) has changed the structure of competition, accelerated mergers and acquisitions, triggered
monopolization and oligopolization. Security issues have been threatened since 11 September and civil
rights have further come to the fore.
From a demographic perspective, the workforce in businesses continues to be affected by various
environments. Employers and employees faced the effectiveness and reliability of factors such as mobbing, sexual harassment, discrimination, and career changes.
Business ethics studies have developed in five different phases. This is a development that includes
before the 1960s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and after the 21st century.
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Business Ethics
•
Before the 1960s
Looking towards the middle of the 20th century, business ethics consisted only of complying with the
law (no deception and fraud) and making money for stakeholders for public companies (Bowie & Schneider, pp. 10). In this period, ethical issues that are business-related were mostly discussed theologically.
•
After 1970
In the 1970s, the subject of ethics started to be handled under the title of “social responsibility” of
enterprises. Business ethics started to devel
