Answer briefly the following questions to the post below a compliment, an observation on the substance of the post you are commenting on, and a question.

COLLAPSE

After reading and watching the materials for Module 1, I gained some insight and understanding to business ethics. Prior to reading and watching the materials, I had a basic understanding of ethics that I utilize in my daily life. I held myself to a certain standard and made sure I made decisions taking into consideration the effect it has on everyone and not just myself. A question I seem to ask myself is "if I do this, how will it effect that". Some things that come to mind when I think of ethics are honesty, trust, compassion and a level of standard. After reading and watching, business ethics are all of the things I listed previously but are used in business through customers, employees, bosses, other companies and the list could go on and on. Business ethics also affect how people view not just us as a single person but as a company as a whole. People or customers or consumers, all have a set of individualy standards and ethics, if a company blatantly does not hold the same values, consumers are less likely to utilize a company.

Everyday there is a company in the news facing ethical scrutiny and most recently Bank of American "has been ordered to pay more than $100 million to customers for double charging insufficient fun fees, withholding reward bonuses and opening accounts without customers' knowledge or permission" (Sacks, 2023). Earlier this year, home insurance companies were caught unethically slashing claims payouts and adjustors stated "managers have been changing their work by lowering totals, rewriting descriptions of damage and deleting accompanying photos without their approval" (Sacks, 2023). I think that the insurance companies made these decisions to change payouts was to cover their own company, to save them money and ultimately prevent them from losing their own jobs at the cost of their customers livelihood. When a major hurricane hits and thousands of claims are filed in hours, I think these businesses are put into panic mode. How will they cover all of these claims? What happens if they cannot cover claims?

One mechanism that might compel corporations to act ethically and keep the best interests of society in mind is pressure from the public. The public is what keep corporations in business and when the public has certain standards and ethics they feel strongly about, they will side with a corporation who holds those same values and ethics. A corporation would be compelled to follow suit with their consumers to keep their business because in the end they know, if they change their ethical views or go against their consumers views, the consumers will view the corporation differently. Another mechanism that might compel/persuade corporations to make ethical decisions is the regulations set by the government. If regulations are set tightly and come with a high price if not followed, companies might not be able to afford the consequences of unethical practice, forcing them to at least adhere to the minimum guidelines. If the government isn't stepping in and setting guidelines, these companies have no repercussions for unethical actions.