Hints and tips on ethical issues in business

If you read through any newspaper archives, you will find that, in the past, many deaths and debilitating accidents happened in the workplace. Furthermore, they were due to neglect on the part of the employer. For instance, in factories, hands or fingers were often lost due to them becoming ripped off by machinery. People were dragged into machines and mangled. The list of violent casualties is endless. Today, we have laws to keep people safe and, yet, accidents that didn’t need to happen still occur.

Health and Safety is an intriguing subject to research when writing an essay on ethical issues in business. The reason for this is that you can investigate how unethical business people operate today and compare and contrast them with businesses from the Victorian era. This is a particularly interesting area of research because for instance, you might question the ethics of a mill owner that you are researching. The question being where do business ethics stand when the law does not require mill owners to operate in a safe manner? In other words, can business people be considered corrupt if they do not perform humane safety procedures simply because the law does not require it? This type of research and writing is particularly useful if you study Law or History alongside Business Studies.

This subject is rich in a whole range of fascinating topics. For instance:

• Wage Inequality. This topic is wonderful if you are also studying History because there is such a lot of evidence to back up your argument. You can also write about it if you are studying Law too. Even though we tend to think that the law protects equal pay rights, it can be seen in the news regularly that wage inequality is a big problem.
• Sexual Harassment. A good way to deal with this is to investigate what constitutes sexual harassment? It is only by clearly defining these boundaries that a place of work can practice ethical issues. The problem lies though in the definition. For instance, if a middle aged male boss thinks that it is simply nature that makes him stare down a young female’s top when there is no one around, how can an ethical procedure be followed? By collecting evidence of case studies and statistics, you could write about the way in which sexual harassment is not being eradicated by the law but perhaps suggest some improvements that could be put into place.
• Racial Discrimination. Anyone that has ever read or watched documentaries about the Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1960s knows that this can be violent and ugly. On the other hand, racial discrimination can also be subtle and underhand. The problem is that if folks aren’t being employed because they are of a certain race or religion, the consequences still ruin lives. Therefore, this is a good subject to write about if you study Politics alongside Business Studies. The reason for this is that you can compare and contrast the amount of damage done to lives when folks were discriminated against in the Civil Rights Movement (not being employed because of their colour) and when they are discriminated against today because of their ethnicity.
• Family Responsibilities Discrimination. This is a good subject to choose if you are studying Social Work as well as Business Studies. It is also an interesting subject if you are studying Politics or Law because you may want to investigate whether it should be a question for legislation as opposed to business ethics. If this inspires you, you should start looking at reports and case studies of people not being allowed to take time off work to look after a seriously sick child, partner or parent. It is not unknown for employees to be prevented from doing this or if they have done it, they have lost their job because of it.