Business ethics is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics, that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations. These ethics originate from individuals, organizational statements or the legal system. These norms, values, ethical, and unethical practices are the principles that guide a business.
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 157,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It has 54 divisions, which function as interest groups for different subspecialties of psychology or topical areas. The APA has an annual budget of around $125 million.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social impact is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in, with, or supporting professional service volunteering through pro bono programs, community development, administering monetary grants to non-profit organizations for the public benefit, or to conduct ethically oriented business and investment practices. While CSR could have previously been described as an internal organizational policy or a corporate ethic strategy, similar to what is now known today as environmental, social, and governance (ESG), that time has passed as various companies have pledged to go beyond that or have been mandated or incentivized by governments to have a better impact on the surrounding community. In addition, national and international standards, laws, and business models have been developed to facilitate and incentivize this phenomenon. Various organizations have used their authority to push it beyond individual or industry-wide initiatives. In contrast, it has been considered a form of corporate self-regulation for some time, over the last decade or so it has moved considerably from voluntary decisions at the level of individual organizations to mandatory schemes at regional, national, and international levels. Moreover, scholars and firms are using the term "creating shared value", an extension of corporate social responsibility, to explain ways of doing business in a socially responsible way while making profits.
The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fifty people, the first president of the association would be Lester Frank Ward. Today, most of its members work in academia, while around 20 percent of them work in government, business, or non-profit organizations.
Seeds of Peace is a peacebuilding and leadership development non-profit organization headquartered in New York City. It was founded in 1993. As its main program, the organization brings youth and educators from areas of conflict to its summer camp. It also provides local programming to support Seeds of Peace graduates, known as Seeds, once they return home. It is a non-political organization that teaches youth peace-making skills.
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. Founded in 1943 by the Bishops of the United States, the agency provides assistance to 130 million people in more than 110 countries and territories in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace was a pontifical council of the Roman Curia dedicated to "action-oriented studies" for the international promotion of justice, peace, and human rights from the perspective of the Roman Catholic Church. To this end, it cooperated with various religious institutes and advocacy groups, as well as scholarly, ecumenical, and international organizations.
An ethical bank, also known as a social, alternative, civic, or sustainable bank, is a bank concerned with the social and environmental impacts of its investments and loans. The ethical banking movement includes: ethical investment, impact investment, socially responsible investment, corporate social responsibility, and is also related to such movements as the fair trade movement, ethical consumerism, and social enterprise.
The Elders is an international non-governmental organisation of public figures noted as senior statesmen, peace activists and human rights advocates, who were brought together by former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela in 2007. They describe themselves as "independent global leaders working together for peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet". The goal Mandela set for The Elders was to use their "almost 1,000 years of collective experience" to work on solutions for seemingly insurmountable problems such as climate change, HIV/AIDS, and poverty, as well as to "use their political independence to help resolve some of the world's most intractable conflicts".
Daniel Isaac Wikler is an American public health educator, philosopher, and medical ethicist. He is currently the Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Population Ethics and Professor of Ethics and Population Health in the Department of Global Health and Population of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. He is Director and a core faculty member in the Harvard Program in Ethics and Health (PEH). His current research interests are ethical issues in population and international health, including the allocation of health resources, health research involving human subjects, organ transplant ethics, and ethical dilemmas arising in public health practice, and he teaches several courses each year. He is a fellow of the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institution.
Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. As a coalition of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches, CMEP states that it works to influence American policy in ways that will bring justice and peace for all people and countries in the Middle East. In 2010 Churches for Middle East Peace had over 100 partner churches, which are religious orders, congregations, church committees, regional church bodies, and church-related organizations such as peace fellowships that commit to working for Middle East peace, and can agree with CMEP's mission and views.
Business for Peace Foundation (BfP) is a non-profit foundation based in Oslo, Norway. Formed in 2007 by Per Leif Saxegaard, the Foundation defines its mission as being "to recognise, inspire, and accelerate businessworthy leadership." It encourages ethical and responsible business practices that are value-driven with the goal of building trust, stability and peace worldwide. As of 2019, Marius Døcker became the Foundation's Managing Director.
George E. Cheney is an educator, writer, speaker, facilitator, and consultant. Together with his wife and colleague, Sally Planalp, he has a primary residence in Moab, Utah. Cheney is an internationally recognized leader in the area of organizational communication and focuses his work on the improvement of organizational processes with special attention to the triple bottom line and the pursuit of socially and environmentally responsible economic development. Cheney draws from a variety of disciplines and professions in his work, including sociology, economics, political science, philosophy, marketing, management, and applied ethics.
The Ethisphere Institute is a for-profit company that, for a fee, defines and measures corporate ethical standards, recognizes companies that do well in those stated metrics, and promotes best practices in corporate ethics. The company is located in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Peter Mark Pruzan is a Danish organizational theorist, management consultant, and Emeritus Professor of Systems Science at the Department of Management, Politics & Philosophy at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in Denmark. Pruzan is known for work on corporate governance and values-based leadership. He became a naturalized Danish citizen in 1973.
Machiavellianism in the workplace is a concept studied by many organizational psychologists. Conceptualized originally by Richard Christie and Florence Geis, Machiavellianism in psychology refers to a personality trait construct based on a cold, callous and exploitative orientation. It has been adapted and applied to the context of the workplace and organizations by psychology academics. Oliver James wrote on the effects of Machiavellianism and other dark triad personality traits in the workplace, the others being narcissism and psychopathy.
John C. Knapp is a leadership consultant and former American academic administrator who served as the 13th president of Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. Previously, he was the 12th president of Hope College, a private Christian liberal arts college located in Holland, Michigan.
Joanne Bridgett Ciulla is an American philosopher. She is a pioneer in the field of leadership ethics as well as teaching and publishing on business Ethics. She is currently a professor at the Rutgers Business School - Newark and New Brunswick and is the director of the Institute for Ethical Leadership. She has received several awards for her contributions to leadership studies and business ethics.
Jason T. Miklian is an American and Norwegian development studies scholar and author. He is a Senior Researcher of business and development at the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo. Miklian is known for his scholarship and commentary on the role of the private sector in conflict and fragile state settings and on South Asia politics. Miklian, along with Timothy L. Fort, John E. Katsos, and Per Saxegaard were nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for their work promoting business engagement in peace.
Timothy L. Fort is the Eveleigh Professorship in Business Ethics at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Fort is considered a founder in the field of business and peace. Fort has twice won the Academy of Management's Best Book Award in the area of Social Issues in Management (SIM): for Business, Integrity, and Peace in 2010, and for The Diplomat in the Corner Office in 2016. He also was a finalist for the award with Alexandra Christina in 2018 for Sincerity Edge: How ethical leaders build dynamic businesses (2017). Fort received the Distinguished Career Faculty Award of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business in 2022 and was nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
