CREATIVITY

ETHICS

• Ethics is the discipline or study of moral philosophy.

•  In the context of business management, ethics can be defined as the moral codes of conduct that drive business behaviour. 

• Ethical business behaviour is what is deemed by society to be morally acceptable, i.e. what is “right”. By contrast, unethical business behaviour is what society regards as being immoral, unjust and unfair, i.e. what is “wrong”.

• The concept of ethics is multifaceted as what is considered right or wrong is dependent on the views and cultural norms of different people, societies, and countries. For example, the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, passed in 1791, protects the individual right to keep and bear arms (armaments or guns). This is deemed as important to the American people, although in most other parts of the world there are alternative views on the rights to owning armed weapons.

• Every business decision has moral implications to some extent as this will impact different stakeholder groups in different ways. The consequences of business decisions can be significant for internal and external stakeholders and society as a whole.

Ethics can affect all aspects of business management and decision-making. For example:

• Should employers allow workers to have tattoos? Should there be a law about exposing tattoos in the workplace?

• For quality assurance purposes, should parents be allowed into schools to observe their child(ren) being taught?

• Should schools ban high sugar and high-energy drinks, such as Coca-Cola, Red Bull and Lucozade?

• Is it ethical for professional sportspeople to earn $200,000+ per week in countries where the average salary is around $30,000 per year?

Examples of unethical business practices

1. The exploitation of employees, suppliers, and/or customers, such as paying extremely low wages for long hours of work in order to reduce the firm’s costs of production and increase its profits. The same applies to deliberately paying employees late or delaying payments made to suppliers.

2. The exploitation and neglect of the natural and local environment, such as by increasing profits in the short-term by using more polluting production methods or less sustainable production techniques.

3. Financial dishonesty towards investors (deliberately misreporting value in the final accounts), employees (discrimination based on gender or race and so forth), or the government (under-declaring the amount of tax that should be paid).

4. Pester power - the use of direct marketing techniques aimed at children (advertising products directly to young children, so that they pester their parents into buying those products).

5. Chief executives and senior directors receiving substantial pay raises, bonuses, and perks (such as first class flights) while other workers in the organization are made redundant or forced to accept salary cuts.

6. Investing in a company that manufactures weapons or tests chemicals on animals.

SUSTAINABILITY

• According to the United Nations (UN), sustainability is about "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (UN, 1987).

• Sustainability can be enhanced by conserving resources or finding more efficient ways to produce or discover new resources. Business decisions should consider the triple bottom line (3BL) of people, planet, and profit and their resulting impacts in order to achieve their sustainability goals. Read more about the 3BL model in the section below.

• Sustainability as a key concept in business education is about encouraging young people to be change agents (or change makers) to create a better world for all generations to come. It is about embracing the challenges and taking the responsibility for protecting the planet and its people, and certainly not only the profits of large corporations. 

• In a business management context, sustainability is about operating in ways that enable individuals and societies to meet their needs and desires now  without compromising or jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and wants.

CHANGE

• Change refers to the modification or transformation in the way business is conducted as a response to internal factors or external influences. 

• Change arises when factors that influence the operations of an organization do not stay the same. It can often be disruptive and unsettling, so the process must be managed carefully.

• Examples of change include: new product development, innovation, market development, product redesign, outsourcing, the product life cycle, organizational restructuring, relocation, external growth and crisis management. Yet without change, there is always the danger of complacency and there can be no progress without change.

• Business success emerges from the willingness and ability to research and respond to signals in both the internal and external business environment in order to meet the ever-changing needs, wants and preferences of customers. Those that do not embrace and adapt to change simply fail to survive.