Business ethics address issues related to social ethics and public policies. Businesses have a great influence on our daily lives today. The public policy perspective invites people to look back from normal business practices and ask themselves questions like how businesses should be structured (DesJardins, 2014, p. 15). The public policy question is a directive towards deciding how the businesses institutions make part of the society. The questions help us view ethical questions even in circumstances when certain decisions facing people seem clear. While business ethics involves questions of the type an individual should become, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the virtues and the corresponding vice that are relevant to business ethics.
Virtue ethics refers to traditions inside philosophical ethics that seek a complete and detailed description of individual character traits and virtues which would constitute a complete human life. Businesses have recognized that character development is difficult and unavoidable. The norm is that business employees with certain habits and traits can be shaped at the workplace. There are always some expected troubles when you hire the wrong person (Wittmer & O’Brien, 2014). The main challenge faced by ethical businesses is to reinforce certain virtues while at the same time discouraging vices.
Virtue ethics in business encourage individuals to step back from certain activities and decisions and ask personal and profound questions. These questions include: What type of a person do I expect to be? Who am I? A person’s life involves character development to reflect people’s believes, values, actions, and desires (DesJardins, 2014, p. 42). The character is portrayed in an individual’s habits, personalities, and dispositions. Virtue ethics seek to articulate which habits and traits form part of a joyful life.
Conclusively, specific virtues such as modesty, integrity, trustworthiness, and honesty or corresponding vices such as rudeness, greed, and materialism play an important role in businesses (Wittmer & O’Brien, 2014). Virtue ethics seek to define which habits and traits constitute a joyful human life. Businesses ethics seek to justify right and good behaviors while seeking to motivate individuals to take actions accordingly. These form the main ethical challenges being encountered by businesses.
References
DesJardins, J. R. (2014). An introduction to business ethics (5th edition). DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. Web.
Wittmer, D., & O’Brien, K. (2014). The virtue of “virtue ethics” in business and business education. Journal of Business Ethics Education, 11, 261–278. Web.