...‘Sales ethics is an oxymoron’ Ethics is a very important and influential factor in interpersonal relationships which involve persuasion and leadership. When one has to rely and relies on the integrity and objectivity of the other person, ethics become all the more important. The correctness and incorrectness of intentions and behaviours in dealing with others, when they are encompassed with morality, are called Ethics (Boldrin and Levine 2008). According to Katalin (2005), ethical conduct involves a person observing established and accepted principles of morality of his /her own profession. Ethics provides the rationale for deciding what is right or wrong in given circumstances. Ethical standards in a society form the basis on which the ethical standards of a profession are built. Sales profession of organisations is no exception to this rule. But growing competition among business organizations and industrial houses prompt them to resort to marketing and selling strategies, which many times appear unethical. It appears that organizations resort to any practice that props up their sales (Dobson, 1997). Even established organizations are falling prey to such temptations. Misleading advertisement about non-existing features in product, wrong assurances on quality and alluring and tempting promises on characteristics like durability have become commonly accepted norms of marketing strategies. Not surprisingly the consumers...
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...Is Sales Ethics an Oxymoron? Introduction It has been said that sales ethics is an oxymoron. In this paper, this topic will be discussed. First, what is an oxymoron? It can be explained as the bringing together of two apparently contradictory concepts such as 'a great defeat' or 'humiliating honor'. From this topic, it is saying that sales ethics is an oxymoron which indicates that there is no ethic in sales. It is suggesting that sales are in some degree unethical. For example, it may believe that ales or business is integrally harmful. Or we can say it is at best amoral and it is beyond the normal moral considerations. In order to better discuss the statement of the question, it is necessary for us to define the meaning 'sales ethics'. Sales or business ethics is the application of ethical values to business behaviour or sales function. When the first trade happened the argument of sales ethics (business ethics) has had drown a great attention (i.e. the Code of Hammurabi, created nearly 4,000 years ago, records that Mesopotamian rulers attempted to create honest prices. In the fourth century BCE, Aristotle discussed the vices and virtues of tradesmen and merchants. The Old Testament and the Jewish Talmud discuss the proper way to conduct business and even includes topics such as fraud, theft, misleading advertisements, environmental issues and just prices. ) Throughout the history of commerce to today, the issues of business ethics is a continuous source of debate as it...
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...American Business Ethics a Modern Day Oxymoron The dictionary defines an oxymoron as a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms. Examples of this are dark light or living dead. This term is related with business because although most companies have a small book outlining ethics and guidelines that should be followed on a daily basis, many of them do not fully comply. The oxymoron “American Business Ethics” contradicts American Business with Ethics. The ethics of many American companies are not law but should be treated as such however these regulations are rarely followed and sometimes not followed at all. The risks that companies have been taking to increase profits and put more money into the CEO’s pockets use illegal actions. In recent times, companies such as Enron, Wal-Mart and BP have been guilty of multiple charges against ethical principles which have led to bankruptcies, housing market crashes and environmental disasters. The most famous case related to Enron and their aggressive accounting practices of reporting losses as profits to keep the stock price high. This act ultimately led to the bankruptcy of the company. Enron was founded in Omaha, Nebraska by Kenneth Lay in 1985. It was an American energy, commodities and services company based in Houston, Texas. Enron was once viewed as one of the best companies in America during its initial years of operation. Fortune magazine named Enron “America’s Most Innovative Company” for six consecutive years...
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...Sales and ethics – an oxymoron? By Tony Cross, UPSA Chairperson Tony suggests sales and ethics are compatible. Even if we sometimes don’t think so. Driving sales & revenue targets and remaining ethical in the process is difficult. But essential for sustainability. UPSA has a strong view on ethics and has released the UPSA Buyer's Bill of Rights designed to give buyers a level of confidence in the approach, attitude, consistency and ethics of the selling organisations. Anyone who has picked up the business or financial section of their daily newspaper over the past year has read story after story about unethical behaviour by South African companies. The media’s ongoing coverage of executive deception, corruption, greed and non-disclosure has made headline news and has required government to mediate between regulatory bodies and corporate legal teams. It is no different internationally, with massive companies like Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Anderson displaying unacceptable capitalistic behaviour to such a large extent these companies have disappeared from the corporate landscape. Business in general, and industry sectors such as financial services, health, government and technology are no longer trusted fully and the sad truth is that business itself is to blame. Corporate executives – and specifically Sales Executives, in the quest to meet the annually increasing shareholder demands, have often slipped into a culture of selfinterest. Ethical behaviour is seen as a compliance...
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...Ethics game simulation A principle exists as a feature or quality believed to be ethically outstanding and therefore is appreciated as a base of ethics and good start for a decent living being. Personal qualities are features cherished as promoting personal and communal comfort. G-BioSport is a business that supplies sports nourishment and supplements to its consumers. The company adheres to the modern Foodstuffs and Drug Administration (FDA) principles with their commodities. Nevertheless, new lab tests disclose traces of contagion in the total of the GBS-Fibranafren tests carries out. The liability is present in the Quality Control (QC) executive to recognize the problem and put the solution into practice. These recreations lay out the QC executive with numerous states of affairs and resolutions to two primary problems. Each recreation presents confronts in cooperation with the ethical and honest aspects involved. The first recreation displays the QC executive with lab results exemplify 100% pollution of the products investigated. A number of these tests are acquired from the commodities themselves in the market and under the ownership of the consumers. With such information, the matter shifts from whether or not to caution and what knowledge to offer to customers concerning the control of the contaminated commodities. What decision-making steps did you take to ethically address these issues? Considering the fact that business ethics exists as an outline of functional...
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...TOYOTA 1.0 Introduction Ethics as according to (Riley 2012), are moral guidelines in which governs a person to behave appropriately. Thus, it could be assumed that one whom behaves ethically is also doing what is morally right. From this, it could be understood that business ethics as according to (Riley 2012) is regarded as good business practice. (Collins 1994) on the other hand claims that business ethics is an oxymoron, a contradiction of two concept. What (Collins 1994) mean is that there are not or cannot be ethics in business, or that business in some sense is unethical. In some sense, it is not surprising that some thinks this way as there are countless scandals involving undesirable business activities happening nowadays. Examples of notable scandals as according to (Garrison et al. 2008) includes Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, and Tyco International. As according to (Crane and Matten,2007), unethical business practices such as exploitation of workers, pollution of the environment, bribery, and deception of consumers has been going about business today. Thus as according to (Watson 1994), majority of businesses do require the maintenance of basic ethical standards such as trustworthiness, teamwork, and truthfulness. Without it businesses would not be able to proceed smoothly as consumers no longer trust vendors while employees refused to comply with employers. In short, as according to (Crane and Matten 2007), business ethics is the study of right or wrong in...
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...Glengarry Glenn Ross Glengarry Glenn Ross is a film that received a great deal of praise from movie critics when it was released by New Line Cinema in 1992. Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the movie three and a half stars out of four, and was quoted as saying that Glengarry Glenn Ross was the “Death of a Salesman” of modern times (Ebert). While this comparison might not be made by all viewers of this movie, Glengarry Glenn Ross is a great viewpoint into the sales offices of today, and gives an insight into the pressures that salespeople face today. The movie is loaded with supervisory styles and situations, as well as showing how unforgiving the sales world really can be. Glengarry Glen Ross was written by playwright David Mamet in 1984. The play was so well received that it received a Pulitzer Prize for Drama that same year (Emanuel Levy). Mamet adapted his play into a screenplay for the 1992 movie release. Mamet is also credited with writing the screenplays for such notable movies as “Hoffa”, “The Untouchables”, “About Last Night”, and most recently “Hannibal.”(IMDB) Mamet, however, did not direct “Glengarry Glenn Ross” even though he had previous directing experience on a movie named “House of Games” (Levy). “Glengarry Glen Ross” was instead directed by James Foley, a director responsible for directing such films as “Who’s That Girl” and “The Chamber”(IMDB). There have been several movies made over the past few fifteen years such as “Ocean’s Eleven”...
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...Week 1: Business Ethics and International Responsibility - Lecture | | Print This Page | Introduction to Ethics and International Law Introduction | Business Ethics | Social Responsibility | Ethical Dilemma Resolution Models | Video – Business Ethics: An Oxymoron? | Practice Quiz | | Introduction | | The E in Enron definitely did not stand for ethics, but Enron and its contemporaries like Arthur Andersen, Tyco, and WorldCom altered the lives of thousands of people and shaped new laws regulating business. All topics covered in this course, from product liability to civil rights, from intellectual property rights to antitrust and consumer protection, will all make the same point. My goal is not to instruct a basic business law course but rather to create a dialogue involving questions and issues that each of our respective businesses must navigate successfully if they are ultimately to maximize stakeholder value. We will do this during Week 1 by covering our two most important TCOs: A and I. These will be foundational for the term. As TCO A is our ethics TCO and TCO I is our international TCO, note that both of these TCOs will be important under and inside each of our topical TCOs (e.g., contracts, environmental law, employment law, etc.) | | Business Ethics | | As we move through the course, each learned TCO should remain in the back of your mind. We will build on them while learning the law. As you will find, most of the TCO A ethical strategies...
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...S I G N M E N T O N Business Ethics Submitted to Dr. A. H. M Habibur Rahman Course Teacher Managing Organization Department of Finance Dhaka University Bangladesh. Submitted by Md.Mostafijur Rahman ID- 22055 Semester: Fall 2012 MBA(Evening) Program Department of Finance Dhaka University Bangladesh. Submission Date: 2 October 2012 Introduction Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. It comes from the Greek word “ethos”, which means "character". It is the study of morality. It is the value that is worth pursuing in life. Ethics is relative. It depends on several factors: world views, descriptive values and moral values. Business ethics is the behavior that a business adheres to in its daily dealings with the world. The ethics of a particular business can be diverse. They apply not only to how the business interacts with the world at large, but also to their one-on-one dealings with a single customer. Many businesses have gained a bad reputation just by being in business. To some people, businesses are interested in making money, and that is the bottom line. It could be called capitalism in its purest form. Making money is not wrong in itself. It is the manner in which some businesses conduct themselves that brings up the question of ethical behavior. Definition Business ethics can be defined as written and unwritten...
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...Week 1: Business Ethics and International Responsibility - Lecture Introduction to Ethics and International Law Introduction | Business Ethics | Social Responsibility | Ethical Dilemma Resolution Models | Video – Business Ethics: An Oxymoron? | Practice Quiz | | Introduction | | The E in Enron definitely did not stand for ethics, but Enron and its contemporaries like Arthur Andersen, Tyco, and WorldCom altered the lives of thousands of people and shaped new laws regulating business. All topics covered in this course, from product liability to civil rights, from intellectual property rights to antitrust and consumer protection, will all make the same point. My goal is not to instruct a basic business law course but rather to create a dialogue involving questions and issues that each of our respective businesses must navigate successfully if they are ultimately to maximize stakeholder value. We will do this during Week 1 by covering our two most important TCOs: A and I. These will be foundational for the term. As TCO A is our ethics TCO and TCO I is our international TCO, note that both of these TCOs will be important under and inside each of our topical TCOs (e.g., contracts, environmental law, employment law, etc.) | | Business Ethics | | As we move through the course, each learned TCO should remain in the back of your mind. We will build on them while learning the law. As you will find, most of the TCO A ethical strategies include as a first question...
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...European Entrepreneurship Case Study Resource Centre Sponsored by the European Commission for Industry & Enterprise under CIP (Competitiveness and Innovation framework Programme 2007 – 2013) Project Code: ENT/CIP/09/E/N02S001 2011 Noir / Illuminati II (Denmark) Benoit Leleux IMD International This case has been prepared as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either the effective or ineffective handing of a business / administrative situation. You are free: to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work to make derivative works Under the following conditions: Attribution. You must give the original author credit. Non-Commercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the author(s). NOIR/ILLUMINATI II Introduction Peter looked out of his window. His window! He liked the sound of that. It had taken him 15 years of discipline and hard work to reach this point. Of course, he had enjoyed more prominent and remarkable views and offices in the past, but for the first time it was his name on the lease contract, his office and his company. And 2007 was going to be the year of Noir/Illuminati II. So far, after nine months, it looked...
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...Introduction to Business Ethics Objectives: * Gain an understanding of why business ethics is important. * Learn how business ethics fits into the broader discipline of philosophy. * Realize that the culture in which we live influences our thinking. Business ethics, some would say, is an oxymoron. After all, the media presents, on nearly a daily basis, the shenanigans of corporate representatives as they ply their trade. Price fixing, anti-competitive behavior, fraud, deceptive advertising, and insider trading are but a few of the many questionable tactics found in the quivers of corporate moguls and their charges. Corporations and their activities have been fair game for attack, both factual and fictional. The level of corruption is epidemic in the estimation of many observers. This rather bleak picture is probably the one most familiar to what has become a very cynical populace. We have come to think of ourselves as current or potential victims of evil corporations. Is business evil incarnate? Of course it isn't. Is business completely innocent of the charges against it? Again, the answer is no. The truth lies somewhere in between. It is, after all, the modern enterprise, with all of its strengths and weaknesses, that has brought to larger numbers of people around the world, a level of material comfort and cultural opportunities than has ever before existed. Businesses must be doing something right. In fact, while business has less than a stellar reputation...
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...ad ‘Advertising can be defined as any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services through mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio by an identified sponsor’. (Philip Kotler, et al., Principles of Marketing, 2002). So basically advertising is a mass communications device through which companies promote or market their product to the consumer, and this enables them to make informed consumption decisions. Advertising plays an important part in our everyday lives as it enables us to choose between different ranges of products. These products are promoted through different types of advertisements and cater to all types of markets. Dedicated advertising companies exist with enormous budgets running into millions of pounds which make advertisements for their clients. Advertising also plays an important role for the capitalist economies. ‘Advertising enables producers to expand their markets and therefore take advantage of economies of scale to reduce unit production costs’. (Chris Hackley, 2005, Advertising and Promotion). Through the use of advertising producers are able to sell large stocks of goods that they produce and create demand for new products and offers. Advertising benefits consumers since they enjoy lower prices and a better product quality, since the competition that advertising creates acts in the interests of the consumers. • Advertising has played a major role in consumer marketing, and has enabled companies...
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...Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts School of Art & Design BA Design Management, International BACHELOR THESIS SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING Sustainable packaging A comprehensive approach towards sustainable packaging with a focus on primary packaging of food and drinks Lucerne, May 2010 CLAUDIO BECKER | BA DESIGN MANAGEMENT, INTERNATIONAL Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts School of Art & Design BA Design Management, International BACHELOR THESIS SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING DESIGN MANAGEMENT ENABLES COMPANIES TO DEVELOP NEW BUSINESS DIMENSIONS THAT DRIVE A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING Lucerne, May 2010 Tutor EMETM Daniel Aeschbacher, Tutor and Faculty Member, Design Management, International Claudio Becker Baselstrasse 47, CH - 6003 Luzern Cell-phone: 0041 78 659 59 36 E-mail: info@claudio-becker.ch CLAUDIO BECKER | BA DESIGN MANAGEMENT, INTERNATIONAL TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Reference to design management 3. State of the Art 3.1 The context 3.2 Introduction to packaging 3.2.1 The fundamentals of packaging 3.2.2 The packaging design process 3.3 Sustainable packaging 3.3.1 What is sustainability? 3.3.2 What is sustainable packaging? 3.3.3 Materials 3.3.4 Barriers & drivers 3.4 Practise examples 3.4.1 Company overview 3.4.2 Comparison 4. Analysis / Synthesis 4.1 Insights 4.2 Sustainable packaging criteria 4.3 Recommendations 4.4 Conclusion Bibliography Books Reports...
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...Chapter 5 Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in the Information Age Teaching Objectives Students should be able to answer the following questions: 1. What ethical, social, and political issues are raised by information systems? 2. Are there specific principles for conduct that can be used to guide decisions about ethical dilemmas? 3. Why does contemporary information technology pose challenges to the protection for individual privacy and intellectual property? 4. How have information systems affected everyday life? 5. How can organizations develop corporate policies for ethical conduct? Key Terms The following alphabetical list identifies the key terms discussed in this chapter. The page number for each key term is provided. |Accountability, 154 |Intellectual property, 164 | |Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), 176 |Liability, 154 | |Computer abuse, 173 |Non-obvious relationship awareness (NORA), 153 | |Computer crime, 173 |Opt-in, 161 | |Computer vision syndrome (CVS), 177 |Opt-out, 161 | |Cookie, 160 ...
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