Ethical Norms for Business

Part I
Ethical Norms for Business Decisions
Past generations paid attention to their experiences, formulated their emerging understanding of how things might be better for themselves and often transmitted that understanding in the form of maxims, proverbs, folk tales, laws and codes of conduct. Ethical norms tend to be refined formulations of such inherited understanding.
Besides being acquired through socialization, methods and ethical norms are also similar in their general function as guides to action. Methods are the procedures that should be followed if the results of inquiry and testing are to be conventionally acceptable; ethical norms formulate guidelines for deciding whether various actions are morally justifiable or unjustifiable.
The Norm of Individual Rights and Duties
“Moral rights and duties flow from one’s human dignity and ultimately from the creator, and are supported by law, such as our constitutional rights of freedom of conscience or freedom of sp...