Ally Benedict

April 1, 2014
Honors English (4A)
Vuono
Business Ethics Research project


Thesis: The topic of business ethics is one that is widely diverse and covers many areas including, which
gender is said to have a better ethical presence, and how to keep an ethical workplace while maintaining
the requirements of the business.

I. Gender is told to play a significant role in business especially in the place of ethical behavior, but
which gender is considered more ethically correct than the other?

A. In 2000, thirty American legislators faced ethical and legal trouble twenty six of which
were male, and yet only four legislators were women (Newsday, Anne Michaud). What
does that say about the role of gender in the political/business environment?

1. The way people measure ethical differences is by asking and or surveying people on
what they consider morally acceptable (Newsday, Anne Michaud).

2. One scenario given was is it acceptable to legally make equipment used for torture,
and out of all the men and women surveyed fifty-seven percent of the men said yes,
and yet only twenty-eight percent of the women surveyed said yes (Newsday, Anne
Michaud).

3. In the case of the equipment used for torture forty-three percent of the men said
making the weapon is unacceptable (Newsday, Anne Michaud).

B. The second scenario tested was, if given the opportunity to purchase from overseas
growers at a lower cost, and make a higher profit, would you, if you knew it would result
in greater environmental harm (Newsday, Anne Michaud)?
1. The results of this survey came back with higher numbers and with all the men
surveyed ninety-three percent said it would be perfectly acceptable to switch
providers (Newsday, Anne Michaud).

2. In the same survey the results for women were that sixty-six percent of the
women surveyed said that it was acceptable to switch providers to the ones
overseas (Newsday, Anne Michaud).

3. After both of these scenario surveys took place data shows that there is a rather
big gap between ethical decisions in genders, and they also show that women
are more likely to show compassion in ethics verses me, but there is always an
exception (Newsday, Anne Michaud).

II. The question is frequently asked of how do you create and sustain an ethical workplace, some
people believe it cant be created and that it must be that way from the start, but thats not
always the case.



A. "Organizations do not behave ethically by chance; they are created and supported to
operate as such. In today's marketplace, businesses will increasingly be rewarded for
demonstrating a strong and dedicated commitment to corporate integrity. In this
environment, the risk manager plays an important role in assisting the board and senior
management in meeting their moral responsibility to create an organizational culture that
evinces the highest standards of ethical conduct." (Risk Management)

1. A risk manager is a necessity to prevent and or limit financial, physical, and
reputational damage to a corporation because of unethical behavior (Zablow,
Robin J.).

2. In 2004 the Sentencing Commission amended and organized the Organizational
Sentencing Guidelines and from that point on board directors and senior
management officials were encouraged to establish an ethical culture (Zablow,
Robin J.).

B. There are many ways to starting and sustaining an ethical workplace, it is a voluntary act
but is one that requires a team effort of everyone involved.

1. One of the first steps to creating an ethical workplace is to establish an ethics
program and or revising one if one already exists, this allows for whoever is in
charge to conduct ethical assessment with detailed questioning (Zablow, Robin J.).

2. In the assessment a critical in-depth review of how the business is conducted and
how the culture is infused within the business (Zablow, Robin J.).

3. While implementing the program thing to consider are employee ethics training,
ethical decision-making models, access to in-house ethical information, education
and communication (Zablow, Robin J.).