The Modern Business World - Movie Review Example

Business Ethics If one takes a close look at the modern business world, one can not help noticing that the issue of Ethics plays an important role in it. Indeed, in the previous centuries people mostly paid attention towards maximizing the return on investment, while in the contemporary society companies are preoccupied with their impact on environment, the amount of social responsibility and so on. In other words, business ethics has become an irreplaceable part of the modern ways of doing business. The first video which was a scene from the movie that is called Billy Madison provides people with some key points that should be taken into account while considering the issue in question. To begin with, it is largely suggested that the United States companies were among the first to point out the necessity to pay attention towards Ethics as well as engage it into the business activities. In other words, it would not be a mistake to suggest that this awareness originated in the West. There was another term mentioned in the video – the insiders. Indeed, insider trading is one of the negative phenomena that are witnessed in the modern business world and poses a great example of unethical behavior. In addition to that, this is a problem that has been largely addressed by the American businesses. What is more important is that the notion of business ethics is often associated with different scandals that appear around it. Indeed, the majority of publications use as examples the situations when companies violated ethical rule. In other words, the public tends to learn about existence of business ethics primarily through news about scandals and not when a company is carrying out a successful ethical policy. Finally, the message that is sent in the first video can be best explained by the actions of one of the characters. A well dressed man, who is undoubtedly a business man, was unable to provide a comprehensive definition of what business ethics is and preferred to threat the audience with a gun in stead of answering the question. In spite of the fact that this situation is somewhat exaggerated, it shows that some people in the business world find the concept of business ethics extremely inconvenient. The second video is titled Business Ethics in the 21st Century and it focuses on the role this concept plays in the contemporary times. From the very beginning the present argues that some people suggest that business ethics should be regarded as oxymoron which is a combination of world with contradicting meaning. However, if one takes a close look at the definition of it, one will see that such approach is ironical. Business ethics is defined as a set of values that define right and in the context of business (Shaw 7). It is clear that there are no contradicting meanings in this definition. The video also pointed that the modern students of MBA schools pay a lot of attention towards the courses in business ethics, which is, beyond any doubt, a good sign which shows that there is a new generation of businessmen who have developed a different set of values, compared to their previous counterparts. The video raises some questions which are rather important when it comes to gaining a correct understanding of business ethics. It is interesting to see that speakers in the video disapprove of the so-called green washing – a hypocritical practice when companies claim to care about the environment, but pursue financial interest in it. There is no doubt that in this case a conflict between ultimate goal and immediate action is seen. However, one should also point out that the video argues that there are examples of companies who were able to genuinely follow ethical guidelines and turn it into good business. This is expressed by quite an eloquent expression: do good while doing well. Indeed, business ethics should not be regarded as a way to decrease profits: it simply calls for a fair organization of business processes. Finally, there is part of a news program that focuses on the issue of business ethics and engages a consultant, asking the presenter several questions to determine whether she has the sense of what is ethical in the work place. There is a pair of concepts that are mentioned while discussing answers to one of the questions that is particularly important to the idea of business ethics. First of all, it is honesty. The guest argues that honesty allows an employee to build an effective relationship with the employers and behave correctly. Secondly, it is fairness. While the former is objective, the latter is quite subjective as people might have different definitions of what is fair for them which means that there might be a conflict between those. The guest argues that it is not advisable for employees to blow the whistle since this kind of actions might be regarded too harsh as the reputation of a company might be at risk. This shows that lack of compliance with ethical guidelines might result in a serious damage that an organization may experience. In other words, a company should perform ethical business operations and so should its employees. There is one last point which is quite important when it comes to understanding business ethics, namely the relationship between boss and employee. The video argues that the best option in this case is to maintain a professional relationship regardless of how much each of the parties wants to build a romantic relationship since the former is likely to remain stable while the latter is subject to change. Having examined all the evidence, it becomes quite clear that the issue of business ethics is the one what should be taken into account while considering the peculiarities of the modern business world. Nevertheless, one should pay attention to different aspect such as honesty, fairness or integrity in order to develop a correct understanding of it so that it can improve the performance and make it more productive and ethical. Works Cited Shaw, William H. Business Ethics. 7th Ed. ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. Read More