Conducting Business Ethically and

responsibly

Presented by:

Lina Miled
Emna Hassine
Elyes Daly Hassen
Mohamed Firas Ajina
Selim Zouari

Individiual Ethics
Definitions :
- Ethics: Individual standards and moral values regarding what is right
and wrong or good and bad.
- Ethical Behaviour: Behaviour that conforms to individual beliefs and
social norms about what is good and right.
- Unethical Behaviour: Behaviour that individual beliefs and social
norms define as wrong and bad.
-Business Ethics: Ethical or Unethical behaviours by a manager or an
employee of an organization.
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Ethics: Difference of opinions

- Examples of daily life

- Examples of YouTube uses: e-business

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Managerial Ethics
Definition : Managerial Ethics are the standards of behaviour that guide
individual managers to their work.
- Behaviour towards employees.
- Behaviour towards the organization.
- Behaviour towards other economics agents.
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Social Responsability
Corporate social responsability (CSR):
Refers to the way in which a business tries
to balance its commitment to stakeholders.
Contemporary social consciousness:
Social consciousness had in businesses
had evolved in the late 90's.

Areas of social responsability

When defining their sense of social responsability ,
Most firms consider four areas:
Environment
Consumer
Employees
investors

Responsability toward the environment

Air pollution: under new law and protocols many companies ,
must install special devices to limit pollutants.
Water pollution: thanks to new legistlations and increased
awarness on the part of businesses , water quality has improved
in many areas.
Land polution :solutions like recycling has developed as part of
increased consciousness about land pollution.

Responsibility toward customers

-consumer rights: consumerism: is a movement dedicated to protecting the rights
of consumers in their dealings with business.
-unfair pricing: interfering with competition can also mean illegal pricing practices
such as collusion: an illegal agreement among companies in an industry to fix prices
for their products.
-ethics in advertising: consumers deserve to be given information that is truthful
and can be proven.
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Responsibility toward employees

A company that provides its employees with equal opportunities for rewards and
advancement without regard to race, sex or other irrelevant factors is meeting its
social responsibilities.
Businesses also have a responsibility to respect the privacy of their employees.

The company should take care of the Whistleblower behaviour

Whistleblower: an individual who calls attention to an unethical, illegal and/or

socially irresponsible practice on the part of a business or other organization to put

an end to the act.

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ResponsibilityTowardInvestors
Improper Financial Management: Including executives paying themselves
outlandish salaries and bonuses, or spending huge amounts of company money for
their own personal comfort.
Cheque kiting: the illegal practice of writing cheques against money that has not
yet arrived at the bank because it involves using other peoples' money without
paying for it.
Insider trading: the use of confidential information to gain from the purchase or
sale of stock.
Misrepresentation of Finances: Certain behaviors regarding financial
representation are also illegal. In maintaining and reporting its financial status,
every corporation must conform to generally accepted accounting principles.
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Approaches to social responsability

Corporations adopts a variety of approaches toward social

responsabilities, thus may opt for one of 4 stances :

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1/ Obstructionist stance : Is doing the Obstructionist stance : Is doing
the bare minimum to resolve CSR Problems, denying and covering up
their unethical actions.
They are generally firms that give little regards to ethical conducts.

2/ Defensive stance : Consists of achieving everything that is required

legally without any supplementary efforts.
Managers who chose this stance insists that their job is to generate
profit.
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3/ Accommodative stance : Meeting legal and ethical requirement with

the possibility of going further in certain cases such as social programs if
it is worthy for them.
This stance is not proactively seeking avenues for contributing.
4/ Proactive stance : Taking to heart the arguments in favour of CSR,
those who choose it considers themselves as good citizens of society,
furthermore they are proactively seeking opportunities to contribute.
This stance seeks to setiing up a foundation to provide a direct financial
support for programs.
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Managing social responsibility programs

Managers must take steps to encourage social responsibility. Such steps
include:
1. Making social responsibility a factor in strategic planning.
2. Developing a plan detailing the level of management support.
3. Putting one executive in charge of the agenda.
4. Conducting occasional social audits.
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Social responsibility and small businesses

Do small businesses face different issues with regard
to ethics and social responsibility?

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