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 once it was possible to describe CSR as an internal organizational policy or a corporate ethic strategy similar to what is now known today as Environmental, Social, 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.
Social responsibility is an ethical concept in which a person works and cooperates with other people and organizations for the benefit of the community.
Sulak Sivaraksa is a Thai social activist, professor, writer and the founder and director of the Thai NGO "Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation", named after two authorities on Thai culture, Sathirakoses and Nagapradeepa. He initiated a number of social, humanitarian, ecological and spiritual movements and organizations in Thailand, such as the College SEM.
Evolutionary ethics is a field of inquiry that explores how evolutionary theory might bear on our understanding of ethics or morality. The range of issues investigated by evolutionary ethics is quite broad. Supporters of evolutionary ethics have argued that it has important implications in the fields of descriptive ethics, normative ethics, and metaethics.
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.
Engineering ethics is the field of system of moral principles that apply to the practice of engineering. The field examines and sets the obligations by engineers to society, to their clients, and to the profession. As a scholarly discipline, it is closely related to subjects such as the philosophy of science, the philosophy of engineering, and the ethics of technology.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to ethics.
Michael Murphy Andregg is an American biologist, educator, researcher, and author known for his study of the causes of war, global problems related to war, sustainable development, intelligence ethics and his peace activism. He founded and directed for 30 years a non-profit organization called Ground Zero Minnesota dedicated to "top-quality, non-partisan education for informed democracy and human survival." Andregg has published numerous articles, study guides, documentaries and papers on biology, genetics, technology and contemporary social problems related to armed conflict. He has produced over 50 educational videos on wide-ranging subjects and his national award-winning book, On the Causes of War, was released in November 1997.
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.
Denis Collins was an American business ethicist and tenured professor of business at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin.
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.
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.
Amy C. Edmondson is an American scholar of leadership, teaming, and organizational learning. She is currently Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School. Edmondson is the author of seven books and more than 75 articles and case studies. She is best known for her pioneering work on psychological safety, which has helped spawn a large body of academic research in management, healthcare and education over the past 15 years. Her books include "Right Kind of Wrong, the Science of Failing Well", “The Fearless Organization,Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth” (2018)) and “Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate and Compete in the Knowledge Economy” (2012).
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.
