Business Ethics: Article Review
Business ethics, which can also be termed as corporate ethics, are a form ethics, mostly professional, that are meant to examine moral issues that come up in a business environment. They are relevant to the behavioral conduct of entire organizations or just individuals. There are a lot of things an employee may want in a company’s values, and one of them is respecting the company’s ethical values. Every institution sets out to ensure that all kinds of management, whether senior or middle, respect the values laid down. By doing so, the respect is trickled down through the organization.
News Article Summary
A recent article on News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson is an example of abuse of the moral ethics of a company. The two were arraigned in court on bribery charges. Coulson is accused of asking for a bribe in exchange of information. He authorized payments to be made to public officials and included the contacts of the royal family (Channel 4, 2013). He is not charged alone; he is charged with Clive Goodman, who is a former royal correspondent for News of the World. Brooks, on the other hand, is accused of making payments to the public officials and phone hacking (Cheston, 2012). Even though these are two separate cases, we clearly see an example of violation of moral ethics. This has led to an investigation into the News of the World and other related newspapers. Ethical issues are industry wide. Ethical issues are widespread; hence, they are not confined to one business, but apply to more than one business.
Why is Bribery a Moral Issue?
One moral issue that is experienced here is bribery of powerful officials to get or exchange information and leaks (Cheston, 2012). This is a crime that is legally punishable in most countries today. Brooks is morally wrong because she is infringing someone’s right to privacy by hacking their phone and bribing public officials to have access to private information. In the recent past, we have seen media giants competing against each by trying to see who will air the hottest story or have access to private and privileged information. Furthermore, most of these giants go to the lengths of making huge payments to people in order to get the inside story. Bribery is wrong for the sole reason that it violates the notion of equality. A bribe is meant to make somebody, an organization or a company, to have a preference to one particular person than the others who are trying to fit in the same shoes. The law itself does not allow payment to achieve a deserved or desired result. Bribery not only violates equality, but it also endangers the institutions affected. For example, Coulson and Brooks may have acted out of their own greed and selfish interest, but this kind of scandal affects the whole organization: News of the world.
What Should Be Done About The Situation?
The charges against these two have not been stated yet. However, in my opinion, bribery in exchange of information and phone hacking is an infringement of one’s right to privacy. A heavy penalty is to be slapped on the two. This is because, in countries all over the world, it is illegal to bribe public officials in order to gain access to information that is confidential. More so, it goes against my moral code and escalates corruption. Bribery is one of the reasons some people are given preference over other, and this is seen all over workplaces. This can be exemplified while searching for a job, in hospitals where one does not have to queue in order to be attended to and many other places in our societies. The people who suffer the most are those who do not have the resources to do so, as well and do not have a voice to stand against this evil that is crippling our society.
In summary, moral ethics or business ethics are meant to guide an individual or organization and have been laid down for a purpose. For this reason, they must be followed to the later. Any violation of them should not be treated lightly.