What Are Corporate Ethics?
Corporate ethics is a loose term referring to a large set of guidelines about how a corporation should or should not act. The ethics are by no means universally agreed upon and exist to ensure corporations do not take advantage of individuals.
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Ethics
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Because no two corporations will ever agree precisely on a set of ethical guidelines, there is no concrete system in place. The basic idea is to prevent corporations from taking advantage of those without the power held by the corporations.
Effects
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Unfortunately, due to the abstract nature of the term, the only time that anyone can really agree what is right or wrong is when the effects of a transgression can be observed, and different parties can agree that it went against corporate ethics.
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Enforcement
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The stringy nature of the term makes enforcing it rather difficult, but governmental agencies like the Federal Communications Commission are responsible for holding clearly transgressive companies responsible.
Unethical Actions
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Some examples of corporate actions that would be contrary to the ethical system would be bribery, discrimination, insider trading, price discrimination, or running a poor or dangerous work environment.
Philosophy
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The simplest way to describe corporate ethics would be to emphasize that no one needs to be negatively affected by corporate actions. A clean, open business policy can be enacted, with fair compensation provided to all employees, without hurting others outside the business.
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