Notorious Business Moves

Ethics is one of the fundamental aspects of a business in today's globalized, commercial world. Business ethics help entrepreneurs with commercial decisions while seeking to balance profitability and and stakeholders' well-being. Nowadays, with much focus on the social and environmental impacts of businesses, traditional firms must become more ethical in their management, ensuring their competitiveness, customer loyalty, and market presence.

In this article, I will be analyzing examples of unethical business activities and the results of their decisions.

Tax Evasion

Walter Anderson was an American entrepreneur who founded several telecommunications and commercial space travel businesses. He was leading the space technology market when he was accused of not reporting income from his investments in non-US companies. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison. Walter's fraud led to WorldCom's stock collapsing, which then had a ripple effect on the economy: a few thousand workers lost their jobs and economic uncertainty at the start of the 2000s became widespread. There are now stronger regulations and inspections done to reign in corporate practices.

Environmental Violations

Duke Energy operates as a utility company, relying on fossil fuels for electricity generation. Approximately 13.5% of their total electrical output is sourced from burning coal. On top of huge coal dependency, they have also faced problems with coal ash disposal as improperly managed coal can lead to water contamination endangering ecosystems. It is also detrimental to the health of the local communities that use the water source.

Employee exploitation, discrimination, and harassment

Recently in 2019, a transgender man filed a lawsuit against Amazon for discrimination during his pregnancy. He claims to have been unfairly demoted as his managers purposefully criticized his work effort. His new job was an item picker which required lifting heavy equipment while carrying a baby. Additionally, he also had to endure being bullied by the other male workers. Discrimination against race, sexuality, and sex has been a continuous problem within Amazon but there have not been any proper improvements.

Discrimination in the workplace means less work-satisfaction for the victim and lowers one's self-esteem and self-actualization as they do not feel a sense of belonging to the business. In extreme cases, this leads to suicide.

Socially and economically, Businesses must act ethically to maintain a balance between human prosperity and the success. These examples given above, ranging from tax evasion causing economic disruption to cases of inequity and harassment undermining employee well-being and dignity, again emphasize the significance of maintaining ethical standards.