Chapter 2 Understanding Business Ethics and Social Responsibility

2-1 Explain how individuals develop their personal codes of ethics and why ethics are important in the workplace // Distinguish social responsibility from ethics, identify organizational stakeholders, and characterize social consciousness today // Show how the concept of social responsibility applies both to environmental issues and to a firm's relationships with customers, employees, and investors // Identify four general approaches to social responsibility in small business // Explain the role of government in social responsibility in terms of how governments and businesses influence each other // Discuss how businesses manage social responsibility in terms of both formal and informal dimensions and how organizations can evaluate their social responsibility

Ethics

beliefs about what is right and wrong or good and bad in actions that affect others

Ethical Behavior

behavior conforming to generally accepted social norms concerning beneficial and harmful actions

Unethical Behavior

behavior that does not conform to generally accepted social norms concerning beneficial and harmful actions

Business Ethics

ethical or unethical behavioral by employees in the context of their jobs

Managerial Ethics

standards of behavior that guide individual managers in their work

Social Responsibility

the attempt of a business to balance its commitments to groups and individuals in its environment, including customers, other business, employees, investors, and local communities

Organizational Stakeholders

those groups, individuals, and organizations that are directly affected by the practices of an organization and who therefore have a stake in its performance