The purpose of this paper is to analyse the importance of ethics in today’s business. The concept of business ethics, which has been debated since the beginnings of trade, seems to be an oxymoron and the attention this controversial topic drew increased strongly in the last years. The changing relationships between the legislative role of governments and the regulations by businesses emphasize the important role of enterprises in the global economy. In this paper, the change in business ethics and their main impacts will be discussed as well as the influence of codes of ethics as an instrument of business ethics.

Text Sample: Chapter III.1, Hypothesis I: There is a need for business ethics: III.1.1, Evidence in reference to philosophy: There are several ways to proof the need of business ethics in modern economic times. Historically, Aristotle once started the discussion about the morality of economical relations. He claimed that economic transactions harm the moral and soul of a human being. People should live according to the nature. Aristotle was against the business interactions between men because he thought that people who see money as its ends and not just as the means to buy products to fulfil the basic needs cannot have a moral meaning. Immanuel Kant also saw the human happiness not in the existence of money or profit, but in the nature of people’s social relationships. He argued in his categorical imperative that everybody’s moral understanding and behaviour should lead in maxims, which could represent a law. According to the Kantian view, all human beings should act in a morally right manner, respect the other individuals and the nature and would never harm anybody or anything to increase its own welfare. But in today’s reality, there are other situations to observe, also in the world of business. Kant argued that such kind of unreasonable and insensible behaviour could be prevented, if organisations and their activities are created in such a way that the categorical imperative is not harmed. Are these corporate scandals and the damaging of the environment by corporations in the last decades due to unethical behaviour a lack of morality in today’s business? When did some business people start to live against the categorical imperative? Is this amoral behaviour based on the impacts of modern capitalism or does the moral structure of our society break up into itself? If we assume that business is a respectable profession and that the people doing business follow the Kantian view, there would be no need for ethics in business. Though, there is an increase in the attention of business ethics and a creation of new terminology and even new professions surrounding the ethical impact in business practices. This fact illustrates that there is a lack of morality in business and that some people do not behave in the right and legal manner. According to the neo-Aristotelian perspective, ethics can face these dilemmas of amoral behaviour and be used as a guide of life-improving principles, no matter if these were used for the life in human society or in business relations. But as there is no ‘golden rule’ of ethical interpretation and due to the fact that humans are not unfailing, situations of amoral behaviour can occur. As demonstrated in history a small unethical action can sometimes be linked with enormous effects due to corporations influence on a lot of stakeholders and the environment. Because of these misconceptions, human beings tend to develop rules as norms, values and traditions to live together in a harmonious and ethical manner. These systems of guiding principles can also be very effective in corporations.

• code of ethics

• corporate governance

• corporate social responsibility

• examination

• business ethics

Anna Mika, born 1983 in Berlin, studied Business Administration at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht in Berlin-Schöneberg, graduating with her Bachelor of Arts. In 2009 and 2010, she conducted her Master studies in International Business at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Technik in Berlin-Karlshorst. Early during her studies, Anna Mika began to be fascinated by the application of ethical principals in economical processes and by the area of Corporate Social Responsibility. Her great interest and intensive work in the field of ethics and morality in economy led to the present publication.