It refers to a set of core principles and practices one adopts in all facets of life that is just, right and lawful. “Business” is a professional practice and engagement, small or big, individual or systemic, that creates an environment for the delivery of certain products, processes, objectives, and environment for a better, happy and healthy society; and it gets paid for the services, supplies and the quality it delivers to empower and enhance the life systems of the individual or the community.
However, in a competitive market, entrepreneurial interests manifest into market monarchy and interests to unlimited access, reach, and intrusion into consumer requirements. In such an attempt for dominance, basic ethical practices are either marginalized, ignored, suspended, or sacrificed.
One cannot blame the business world exclusively for lapses in ethical behaviours, oftentimes their survival in the market remains questionable and challenged if the governing systems of the State are non-facilitative, corrupt, or unethical. In order to achieve the objectives, the ‘business community” willfully or unwillingly yield to the existent pressures, thereby leading to a chain of unethical practices from the time of acquisition of resources to the end of the consumption cycle.
There are moral theories that describe how we ought to engage with the world and those we encounter in it. In setting out these principles, the Ethics and Standards Committee hopes to inspire members of the association and of the professions to aspire to standards of excellence in practice and research and to conduct respectful relationships with clients and professionals alike. Members shall observe these principles as affirmative obligations and duties for practice, under all conditions.
From time to time we are faced with complex situations that require an ethical response. In such cases, the principles should be carefully considered relative to the nature of the problems and their context. Occasionally principles may be in conflict therefore a defensible and carefully considered decision needs to be reached by sound ethical reasoning. The principles are beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, justice; truth-telling, and promise-keeping.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 1 -?Members in the best interests of and avoid harm to people receiving their services or participating in research, involve people fully in the planning and decision-making that is part of the therapeutic process and respect their beliefs and values. This general principle refers to autonomy, beneficence and non-maleficence, truth-telling, and fidelity.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 2 -?Members should promote their professions by providing accurate information to the public regarding the scope of the professions, new developments, the services we provide, and where to access them. This general principle refers to beneficence, non-maleficence, and truth-telling.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 3 -?Members shall ensure that services are made available and accessible to persons with communication disorders and that these services are appropriate to the particular individual and community needs. This principle refers to beneficence, social and distributive justice, and fidelity.
- PRINCIPLE NO.4 -?Members shall uphold the dignity of the professions, maintain harmonious relationships with colleagues, students, and other professionals, and practice in close adherence to the Ethical Rules of the Health Professions Council of South Africa. This principle refers to beneficence, non-maleficence, and fidelity.
- PRINCIPLE NO. 5 -?Members shall act responsibly regarding their ongoing professional development and maintain competence in their fields of practice whilst simultaneously safeguarding their personal welfare. This principle refers to beneficence and truth-telling.
Morality is about a set of guidelines that we apply to the complex circumstances of life to help us decide whether an act, a value, a character trait is right or wrong. Knowledge of the moral norms of society enables us to reflect on our circumstances, clarify our thoughts, and choose to live in ways that promote good relations and harmony. Socrates said that the unexamined life is no life for a human being. Morality is about making choices, ?right? choices. Ethics is the systematic analysis of and reflection on morality. For our purposes we are concerned with normative ethics, that branch of ethics that is concerned with concrete, practical questions related to the morality of our character traits and actions. This is directly relevant to us in the practice of our professions when we need to know what makes something right or wrong. Principles may be viewed here as ?perspectives? (they are also the premises of a logical argument). We may apply principles as we attempt to decide whether to act in one way or another. In doing so we obtain different perspectives, understand what the consequences of a particular course of action might be.
FUNDAMENTAL ETHICAL ISSUES:
The most fundamental or essential ethical issues that businesses must face are integrity and trust. A basic understanding of integrity includes the idea of conducting your business affairs with honesty and a commitment to treating every customer fairly. When customers think a company is exhibiting an unwavering commitment to ethical business practices, a high level of trust can develop between the business and the people it seeks to serve. A relationship of trust between you and your customers may be a key factor in your company's success.
- Diversity and the Respectful Workplace -?Your current and potential employees are a diverse pool of people who deserve to have their differences respected when they choose to work at your business. An ethical response to diversity begins with recruiting a diverse workforce, enforces equal opportunity in all training programs, and is fulfilled when every employee is able to enjoy a respectful workplace environment that values their contributions. Maximizing the value of each employees' contribution is a key element in your business's success.
- Decision-Making Issues -?A useful method for exploring ethical dilemmas and identifying ethical courses of action includes collecting the facts, evaluating any alternative actions, making a decision, testing the decision for fairness, and reflecting on the outcome. Ethical decision-making processes should center on protecting employee and customer rights, making sure all business operations are fair and just, protecting the common good, and making sure the individual values and beliefs of workers are protected.
- Compliance and Governance Issues -?Businesses are expected to fully comply with environmental laws, federal and state safety regulations, fiscal and monetary reporting statutes, and all applicable civil rights laws. For example, the Aluminum Company of America's (ALCOA) approach to compliance ensures no one at the company may ask any employee to break the law or go against company values, policies, and procedures. The company's commitment to compliance is shored up by its approach to corporate governance: the company expects all ALCOA directors, officers, and executives to conduct business in accordance with its business conduct policies.
Some common issues faced in the business world are:
1.?????Facing unfair and unscrupulous licensing practices.
2.?????Non-adherence to the legal specifications in establishments.
3.?????Subverting the specifications of Standard operating procedures.
4.?????Non-delivery of the commitments made in and during the start of the enterprise.
On a similar note, unfair ethical practices are adopted in:
1.?????Acquisition and use of standard specified resources.
2.?????Compromises on production standards.
3.?????Dubious quality delivery practices causing trust deficit.
4.?????The mismatch between consumer assurances and consumer deliveries.
5.?????Declining quality and standards of the products after branding.
6.?????Unethical market practices causing financial burden on consumers.
DIMENSIONS NEEDED TO BE ADDRESS BY BUSINESS ORGANISATIONS:-
- ??Trust -?The Producer, Market and the Consumer form a trust which operates on mutual consent and engagement. It applies to all types of businesses, services, and enterprises. Any practice, the decision of a delivery that forfeits this trust will sooner or later ring the alarm bells in the organization leading to its value depreciation in a short or a reasonable period of time. When business systems think that they can carry on so long it is unnoticed, they only catalyze their downfall, maybe at a later date. I believe, the words of Warren Buffet are worth remembering “it takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin that. If you think about that, you will do things differently.” Trust facilitates long term engagement of the company with its consumers. Trust rewards the company with stable and sustainable markets. Trust is a value which no business can afford to forfeit.
- Respect and value for Human Resources -?Products, services, and deliveries are made through human resources and to the human clientele. Hence, whatever be the business model, appreciation of the human resource engagement both at the organizational level and at the consumer level needs to be taken note of. That reflects ‘the heart’ of the business. Any decision, practice, or attempt that would undermine the value profile of the human resources is a disservice to society. Operating procedures, therefore, need to be compassionate, sensitive, and fair to accommodate, the physical, mental and emotional needs of the human participants at all operational levels. Any attempt to fake practices to create false impressions, belief systems that would enrage the human populace will crumble the business profile in a phased manner.
- Market Practices -?Any business needs clean market practices, fair, objective, committed, and sensitive. While all market operators in the system need to be beneficiaries of the business model and its engagement, it is evident that unethical reach-out practices to clients, system supporters, and other affiliates in business delivery ladder causing false impression, images, and commitments have become the order of the day, in a sheer attempt to scale the growth profile. It is important to understand that the growth profile of the business with such unethical approaches creates social pressure for the expansion of negative business practices in the entire universe of operating markets. While it may be advantageous to a company looking for expansion of numbers in terms of its units of products and resultant profits, it becomes a threat to a healthy social set up and promotes a decline in the value profile of the society. Business systems, in a globally competitive environment, are facing a number of challenges and probably, the business community needs a strong vision and value-based thought leadership to deal with emerging markets to uphold their own ethical practices.
