Business Ethics and Corporate Governance, Second Edition

WHY DOES BUSINESS HAVE SUCH A NEGATIVE IMAGE?

The fact that by and large business has a negative image cannot be overstressed. Books, journals, movies and TV shows invariably depict business in bad light. Even though businessmen may not want to be unethical, factors such as competitive pressures, individual greed, and differing cultural contexts generate ethical issues for organizational managers. ‘Further, in almost every organization some people will have the inclination to behave unethically (the ethical egoist) necessitating systems to ensure that such behaviour is either stopped or detected and remedied.’¹⁸