Business and Ethics (3.4.4)

Question 1

What does ethics mean?

Answer 1

Rights or wrongs of making a strategic decision. Moral principles and standards the guide the behavior of a person or a business. What may be unethical may not be illegal. e.g. businesses feed consumption habits that are seriously damaging earth.

Question 2

What does Sustainability mean?

Answer 2

Acting to ensure that natural resources are used responsibly, to protect the environment for future generations

Question 3

What is a trade off?

Answer 3

A balance between two different or opposing objectives, such as making a profit or spending cash on ethical activities that will enhance the business reputation

Question 4

Why is there a trade off between ethics and profit? Who will be unhappy?

Answer 4

Acting ethically will increase your costs and so firm will make less profit which causes shareholders to be unhappy

Question 5

What are some Trade Offs?

Answer 5

-Higher Wages
-Health and Safety
-Fairtrade
-Packaging
-Fuel
-Transportation

Question 6

What are some examples of environmental damage?

Answer 6

-Palm oil and deforestation
-Seafood and Over-fishing
-Beef and Over-farming
-Plastic and pollution

Question 7

What are examples of a firm acting unethically?

Answer 7

Amazon-mining of raw materials
Nestle-Large amount of packaging
BP-Oil spills

Question 8

What is a pressure group?

Answer 8

A group of people or organization with the aim of influencing public opinion or the policies of the governments or business or a particular cause

Question 9

What is Corporate Social Responsibility?

Answer 9

Conducting business activity in an ethical way and balancing the interests of shareholder with those of the wider community

Question 10

What are some examples of socially responsible activities?

Answer 10

-Sustainable sourcing of raw materials and components
-Responsible marketing
-Protecting the environment
-Responsible customer service

Question 11

Does being socially responsible as a business cause increased or decreased costs?

Answer 11

increased costs are involved in operating in a socially responsible way and these costs must be passed on to consumers

Question 12

What are the benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility?

Answer 12

-Enhance business image and reputation
-Attractive to many stakeholders
-Can be very profitable as it adds value for many stakeholders
-May improve employee motivation and productivity
-Help recruit strong candidates for jobs advertised
-May help to solve social problems