write a short essay using at least 5 of the bold terms in the chapter to counter Gordon's Gecko's thesis "greed is good"speech. Consider how a broader perspective could also be beneficial to business (i.e., looking beyond profit maximization/greed). Please also put the terms you use inboldor ALL CAPS

Business ethics are considered to be the blueprint for building a successful organization. If an organization is built on socially responsible values, it will be stronger than an organization that is built on profit alone. More than just a positive reputation, the core ethics of a business dictate how every decision, process, and procedure will take place. This steadfast governance applies even if the business faces hard times or difficult situations. Some will even argue that businesses require full transparency in today's world.

Over the last few decades, numerous cases of bad business practices have made headlines. From McDonalds' funding of President Nixon's campaign in an effort to reduce workers' wages in the 1970s, to the more recent case of Uber employees alleging sexual harassment and the company's CEO having a public meltdown in the back of a driver's car, there's no shortage of ethics-related problems in the business world. Businesses are more than people working together to offer a product or service. Businesses are often viewed as entities that should protect stakeholders from unethical behaviors and activities. A set of governing rules should be in place to set the bar high for ethical compliance in every organization.

Why Is Corporate Ethics So Important in Business?

The idea of business ethics may seem subjective, but it comes down to acceptable levels of behavior for each individual who makes up the organization. This behavior must start at the top with responsible actions demonstrated by leadership. By doing so, leaders create a set of rules that are to be followed by others in the company. These rules can be based on the deep values that the company has concerning the quality of products and services, the commitment to customers, or how the organization gives something back to the community. The more a company lives by its set of ethics, the more likely it is to be successful.

Anna Spooner, who writes for LovetoKnow, shares tips on how to evaluate whether or not an organization is creating ethical practices by determining the impact of each practice. Some examples include:

Executive compensation rates during employee layoffs.Let's say a company is struggling during an economic downturn and must lay off a portion of its workforce. Does the CEO of the company take his or her annual raise or take a pay cut when others are losing their jobs? One could say that to take a raise is unethical because the CEO should also sacrifice some pay for the good of the company.

Fair compensation for employees.Paying employees minimum wage, or just above minimum wage, is not always fair compensation. In most regions, the cost of living has not been adjusted in years, meaning that people are surviving on less money. Ethics can make a difference here.

Ethical business practices, guided by a corporate set of standards, can have many positive outcomes, including recruitment and retention improvement, better relationships with customers, and positive PR. In 2015, Dan Price, CEO of the Seattle payment processing firm Gravity Payments, voluntarily took a huge pay cut and vowed to raise his employees' wages to $70,000. This move was great for the company, which claims that revenues and profits skyrocketed, and they experienced a 91 percent employee retention rate over the last few years.

On the opposite side, unethical business behaviors can have a negative impact on any business. Even if an unethical decision is made by a single member of the executive team, it can have far-reaching repercussions.

Some possible results of unethical business actions may include:

Poor company reputation.In an increasingly transparent world, unethical decisions made by businesspeople become permanent stains on the company. Social networks have become sounding boards for anything deemed unethical or politically incorrect, and everyone from disgruntled employees to dissatisfied customers can rate companies on public company review websites.

Negative employee relations.If employees continually see a discrepancy between what's expected of them and how leadership behaves, this contrast can create serious problems in the management of employees. Some employees may become disengaged, while others will stop working as hard. After all, if the same rules don't apply to everyone, why even bother? The downside to negative employee relations is that the entire company becomes less productive, less responsive to customers, and less profitable.

Recruitment and retention problems.Once a company has developed a negative reputation, it can be difficult to recruit new talent, let alone retain the talent that's already there. Disengaged employees who grow tired of the double standards will leave. This attrition can impact customers who then have to deal with less experienced and less interested employees, who are already overworked and frustrated.

Company credibility lost.Customers are savvy enough to follow what's going on from an ethics standpoint. If they hear of a problem, they begin to question the actions of every person at the company. For example, if a member of the board is accepting expensive gifts from clients in exchange for favorable pricing of materials, this situation could set off major alarms for other customers, and even vendors. The company can expect to lose business if this unethical behavior continues.

As you can see, poor ethics can quickly spiral downward, destroying every aspect of the business and making it very difficult to compete. It's critical for every business to pay attention to ethical standards and continually remind employees at all levels that their behavior has an impact on the entire organization.

History of Corporate Governance

The concept of corporate governance is relatively new compared to the entire history of free trade and business formation. There was likely some "code of honor" followed by businesses in the past, but it wasn't until the 21st century that greater attention was paid to how companies operate and how the operation impacts employees and the communities in which they serve.

According to the Ethics and Compliance Initiative, which is comprised of organizations that are committed to creating best practices in ethics, each decade has been influenced by external factors, such as war or economic turmoil, combined with major ethical focal areas, and the result has been the development of ethics and compliance programs. For example, in the mid-1980s, the United States was thrust into a recessionary period. During this period, government contractors were billing outrageous amounts for equipment and services, further increasing the government's deficit.

At the same time, larger companies began downsizing to cut costs, which eroded the trust that employees once had. People felt the need to look out for themselves. Greed appeared to be everywhere, from political bribes to the earliest financial schemers. As a result, General Dynamics established the first business ethics office in 1985 to crack down on this kind of activity, and other companies created ombudsman positions to help ethics officers identify and prosecute corporate ethics violators.

Ethical Decision-Making Policies

In any organization, sound moral, business, and financial practices must be followed at all times. No one is above the law or has special privileges when it comes to ethics. Decision making needs to happen with corporate governance in mind. According to Michigan State University, the six steps to ethical decision making are:

1. Make sure leaders understand the issue at hand and have gathered all of the facts related to it.
2. Leaders should list all of the facts they know, and list any assumptions they are making about the issue. This step ensures that the leaders keep the facts and assumptions differentiated and in mind.
3. Note all of the concerns related to the issue, including all of the people concerned, the laws related to the issue, and any corporate or professional ethical guidelines that may be involved.
4. Construct a potential solution to the problem.
5. Evaluate the proposed solution, making sure to consider all of the ethical aspects noted in step 3.
6. Once leaders have come to a solution, they recommend it, as well as any actions that need to be taken.

Establishing a Code of Conduct

To educate and guide others in the organization, a set of ethics, or a code of conduct, should be developed and distributed. Kimberlee Leonard, who writes for theHouston Chronicle, states, "A code of ethics is important for businesses to establish to ensure that everyone in the company is clear on the mission, values and guiding principles of the company." While it takes some time to create a code of conduct, the ideals involved should already be present in the company's culture.

The elements that belong in a code of conduct, according to Kimberlee Leonard, are:

Legal considerations.The business is a legal entity, and therefore all employees should be thinking about their behavior and how it could easily turn into a lawsuit. Establishing conduct rules at this level can clear up any gray areas. For example, a company should define what sexual harassment is and what to do if an employee experiences it. New items that detail specific codes of conduct can be added as they come up.

Value-based ethics.These are specific ethics that dig under the surface of a corporate culture. A business should think about how it wants to be viewed by the community. Examples could be a commitment to green office practices, reduction of a company's carbon footprint, giving a certain percentage of a company's profits to the local food pantry to support the community, etc.

Regulatory ethics.These are designed to maintain certain standards of performance based on the industry. One example is a commitment to maintaining data privacy at all times, as it pertains to customer records. This element defines how employees are to handle sensitive data and what will happen if someone doesn't follow the rules.

Professional behaviors.One should never assume that just because someone puts on a business suit and goes to work that he or she will behave professionally. Problems such as bullying, harassment, and abuse can happen in the workplace. Establishing behavioral standards for professionalism should include what is acceptable in the office, while traveling, during meetings, and after hours, when colleagues meet with clients and one another.

A good code of conduct is a working document that can be updated and shared as needed. Many companies include this document as part of their employee manual, while others use a secure intranet for displaying this information. No matter where it is housed, employees need to be educated on the code of conduct and refer to it often, starting on the first day on the job.

What to Do When Something Goes Wrong

It should be noted that along with a code of conduct, there needs to be a clear "whistleblower" policy in which violators are identified and action is taken. This process should be handled with complete confidentiality and sensitivity to the company and all parties involved. Retaliation should never be tolerated when it comes to ethics violations. The company should have a step-by-step plan of action for dealing with ethics problems at all levels, up to and including the executive leadership of the company. A third-party investigative firm can be used to handle such matters to remove the burden and influence that internal resources may have.

What Is Corporate Responsibility?

Corporate responsibility refers to the idea that a business is given the opportunity and privilege to make the world a better place. This process can happen through a variety of methods, including the donation of funds, volunteerism, and implementation of environmentally friendly policies. It is up to each organization to determine the best way to demonstrate social responsibility.

While certainly not mandatory, corporate social responsibility has become a popular way for companies to improve their image and promote causes they believe in at the same time. Corporate social responsibility may involve focusing on the immediate community in which a company does business. However, there are some organizations that take it a step further and focus on more widespread global issues. For example, the shoe company TOMS has created a mission to make sure that every boy and girl in underprivileged countries has proper footwear. Blake Mycoskie, CEO of TOMS, has created a complete business model around social responsibility. Not stopping at shoes, the company now also helps with bringing fresh water to communities, as well as making birth safer for babies in developing nations.

The popularity of corporate social responsibility has only increased as millennials and Generation Z employees enter the workforce. Employees in these generations often care deeply about making a difference in the world in which they work. Whether they are buying products from brands that give back or promoting a similar activity in their own place of employment, the youngest of the workforce are making corporate social responsibility a priority.

Where Did the Concept Originate?

Corporate social responsibility is not a new construct. One could go back hundreds of years and find examples of corporate philanthropy and social support. However, the earliest published book about the topic isCorporate Responsibility of the Businessman, published in 1953. This book introduced the concept of companies giving back as a form of investment in the future. This idea came from a generation that had survived some of the hardest times in our world and wanted to make it a better place for generations to come.

By the turn of the millennium, companies were actively participating in a variety of corporate social responsibility projects, from volunteerism to large corporate-matched charitable donations. Nearly every company has some form of charitable campaign, driven by the values of the culture and the interests of employees. Today, some 63 million Americans volunteer each year, which is worth around $175 billion in worker hours annually (Source: Corporation for National and Community Service). On top of volunteering, U.S. corporations give over $18 billion to charities each year through fundraisers and employee-employer matching programs (Source: Giving USA).

How Does Corporate Responsibility Benefit a Business?

There are many ways that corporate social responsibility can benefit a business and its objectives. Aside from being able to promote the causes that are closely connected to the values of the company, a business can improve its reputation exponentially.

Benefits of corporate social responsibility include many direct and indirect effects. Based on research from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, these can include:

Improved perception by investors.If a company reports corporate social responsibility spending that exceeds the expectations of investors, this dollar amount is a sign that the company itself is in good financial standing. This perception results in positive stock returns and increased confidence by investors.

Enhanced performance for going green.Researchers have found that when companies focus on eco-friendly efforts, the positive impact on operational performance heading into the second year is remarkable. Those that expand their efforts in more complex ways and in collaboration with industry standard-setting associations (such as LEED), or other eco-friendly companies, increase their performance even more.

Contracting for success. In companies that tie their CEO's salary to corporate social responsibility results, also known as contracting, the impact is felt even more. The value of the company increases while the bottom line of the business is maintained.

The benevolent halo effect.When consumers understand the commitment that an organization has to being socially responsible, its image becomes more positive. Customers actually perceive the company and its products in a different way because they expect a better experience.

Consistency of efforts and partnerships.Researchers also found that socially responsible organizations were consistent with staying focused on the issues that mattered most to their employees and customers. A higher level of consistency of efforts prompted better results.

There are some other benefits of being a socially responsible company. These may happen as a result of internal factors, as well as how closely matched the efforts are to the culture. Alison Robins, writer for OfficeVibe, explains that being socially responsible can help attract positive attention from outside of a company. Some examples include:

Talent attraction.Many companies offer employees paid time off to participate in volunteer activities, including travel to other nations. Who wouldn't want to work for a company that cares so much about a personal cause? Corporate social responsibility is often used as a recruitment tool to attract people who care about giving back to their communities and making changes that impact the world.

Consumer influence.A major benefit of engaging in corporate social responsibility efforts is that consumers regularly check in with their favorite brands to see what they are doing, and they are influenced to make purchases so they can be part of this community. With the process of posting messages on social networks, entire movements can take off via the support of loyal consumers.

Promoting Corporate Responsibility with Marketing

After reviewing the benefits of corporate social responsibility and some of the examples provided by popular companies, it is easy to see how important proper marketing can be to this effort. As you can see from the following example of Tom's One for One program, marketing is used as a reminder for consumers that the company is committed to providing one pair of shoes to a child in an undeveloped nation for every pair purchased by a consumer.

Marketing is powerful in terms of the consumer market. It has been estimated by the brand marketing news sourceAdweekthat millennials represent around $2.45 trillion in spending per year. Cone Communications, a public relations and marketing agency, found that 60 percent more millennials will engage with brands that discuss and market to social issues. Younger consumers are attracted to brands that authentically market their products alongside social responsibility campaigns.

However, one should not use corporate social responsibility as a marketing pitch for a company. Consumers will quickly pick up on this tactic, and it can damage the brand. Nicole Fallon, who contributes toBusiness News Daily, reveals, "The motivation behind many companies' CSR efforts actually provides the very reason that they shouldn't take on socially responsible initiatives." Motivations such as competitive positioning and profitability are not authentic when it comes to corporate social responsibility.

It is also important to distinguish between corporate social responsibility and social marketing. Often used interchangeably, there are some key differences. Social marketing attempts to change the attitudes and behaviors of consumers by using a variety of marketing methods. However, corporate social responsibility is a sustainable effort that can be measured. Bernard Okhakume, a brand management consultant, advisedDaily Times, "For a corporate social responsibility project to be successful, several factors come into play: the project needs to be sustainable, its topic and practice abide by ethical standards, sensitive to society's needs, embraced and supported by the company's employees, create the aimed effect on the target audience, and every year, and the project needs to be evaluated to see how beneficial it is."

The Financial Impact of the Triple Bottom Line

When examining the value of corporate responsibility, one must understand the concept of the triple bottom line (TBL), which essentially measures the sustainability of an organization's social responsibility efforts. The term includes three dimensions of a giving businessprofits, people, and the planet. Without one of these factors, there cannot be a balance. According to economist Andrew Savitz, the triple bottom line "captures the essence of sustainability by measuring the impact of an organization's activities on the world ... including both its profitability and shareholder values and its social, human and environmental capital."

The challenge with the TBL model is that while profits can be measured in dollars, and people can be measured in numbers, it can be difficult to measure the impact of social responsibility. Some argue that this task is dependent upon what is being measured. For example, if one is saving the rainforest, a reasonable unit of measurement could be acreage. Progress toward protecting this resource could be recorded as how many fewer acres have been forested and how many native (people) communities have been saved as a result of the intervention.

Another example could be a social cause, such as creating housing for single parents in poverty-stricken neighborhoods in a specific city. The impact can be felt in terms of the additional housing that is created (built or rehabbed from existing homes), and the value that this effort brings to the neighborhood. The number of people helped can be measured. The city's rate of homelessness can be measured as it is reduced. Then, there are other equally important results of social responsibility that can be considered, such as the reduced rate of crime in areas with homeowners, and an increase in employment for those who own the homes. These indirect benefits have an impact on the company because it can eventually hire people from these areas of the city.

Businesses must be continually mindful of the image that they project to the world and be sure to align their corporate social responsibility campaigns with their culture. An authentic cause that is backed by all is far better than one that is dreamt up purely for the sake of marketing.