by String

Created on: February 18, 2010

Adherence to an ethical standard of business practice is an all-encompassing lifestyle, a flexible-organic and interdependent relationship accommodating the changing structure of life within a business culture as well as with the planet and its inhabitants. Successful business is by nature and necessity, dynamic and flexible, profitability depending to a degree on cohesive manoeuvring within the ethical morality of the times. What is ethical at one time may be considered unethical in another. Businesses which fall out of ethical approval may well not continue to thrive at the same levels. The tobacco industry, for example, has recently been party to a number of lawsuits and legal actions in the US. How this anti-smoking climate will affect long term company profits still remains to be seen.

Business practices follow various economic models such as short term vs. long term profit strategies, which may include different sets of variables depending on their overall goals. Ethical business culture utilizes a long term model which factors in positive outcomes and actions for people and their environment as part of the profit analysis. Business is conducted using interactive systems of community and personal responsibility not rigidly trading solely for profit (short term or long term) without regard to the working environment and the futures of those within it. This is because in the ethical long term business model, assets such as finite goods and resources, services and good will, which may eventually come to an end or be in short supply, are taken into account. Profit is viewed from a different angle and may not always imply monetary reward, but also ecosystem survival. Furthermore, what is considered profitable varies by where the profit-taker is located in society. Thus a business which employs people in a fair manner, supports the neighbourhood and cares for the environment, may be considered to be wildly profitable to those remaining in the community compared to another which pillages all natural resources leaving no future economic stability.

Businesses using a profit/loss, purely financial mindset sequester available resources increasing demand, thereby driving up prices. In an ethical practice which takes into account CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility, leaders make decisions to alleviate negative impacts or to help society in other ways. Profit may encompass other 'good will' methodologies, such as supporting environmental issues, repairing negative

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