Regulations and Applications of Ethics in Business Practice

This research first examines the current status of translation ethics in scholarship as well as in industry. It seeks to determine that a commercial translation, specifically advertising translation and related areas, is within the ethical bounds. All commercial translations have a specific shared attribute, which is to maximise the effect of the message for the target market. Unlike other types of translation, the effect of commercial translation can be comparatively and evidently seen by the client, in promoting either a brand or a product, or a service. Thus, the concept of professional ethics seems to be hard to pinpoint in the circumstances. This paper tries to tackle the issue by a close textual analysis of the strategies employed in the transformation that takes place in the target text representation. It also attempts to delineate if commercial translation goes beyond ethical boundaries or if it is legitimate to adopt tactics as long as the translations remain within the overarching legal framework of commerce. It is concluded that translation in this capacity takes the form of rebranding in the target language society. Priority of translation and transformation in the target text is given to the maximisation of brand and commercial gains.

Whistleblowers are people who witness serious wrongdoings and report these violations at or outside their workplace which will disclose unethical or illegal behavior to higher management (internal whistleblowing) or the public and media (external whistleblowing). What is the result of this act? This paper analyzes and reviews what happens to whistleblowers if they blow the whistle both internally and externally. Would they fire or reward by the employer or society for their behaviors? Would they encourage or protect? For this purpose, cases about whistleblowing and the actors of these cases (whistleblowers) from all over the world will be analyzed from the behavioral perspectives. This study is useful for board of directors, managers, and society to attract their attention about whistleblowers’ rights and issues about their position after they do these behaviors.

In marketing ethics, a special importance is given to the ethical aspects of the entire system of marketing communication, and especially of the communication technique with the largest impact on the advertising. Advertisements are one of the ways of marketing which is criticized most from an ethical point of  view because of its high visibility and pervasiveness. For this reason, advertising ethics for researchers has been and remains a very fruitful research topic. Thus, in order to keep the researchers as well as practitioners abreast of developments in the field, a literature review about the studies related to ethical issues in marketing communication with a strong focus on advertising ethics is conducted. For this purpose, studies that have been published in leading academic journals between 2000 and 2015 are examined and summary of the characteristics for 34 studies are presented.

Mahatma Gandhi talks about seven unethical behaviours in the business world: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, religion without sacrifice and politics without principle (Tankwa in Mahatma Ghandhi’s list of 7 social sins and its application today, 2017). The strength of national economy depends on its corporations being effective and eager (The Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance, pp. 10, 1992). The business world is affected directly by social, cultural, technological and legal developments. Not only developments within its home country, but also developments outside the borders affect the business world.

Today, business ethics and ethical behavior refer more to general principles in various professions. The field of business ethics deals with questions about whether particular business practices are acceptable. Since managers are expected to make ethical decisions every day, companies have begun to apply a set of managerial ethics or guidelines as a reference during tough decision-making scenarios. Managerial ethics, in this sense, refers to the moral guidance that a supervisor provides his/her employees. Another discipline that needs an accurate understanding of ethics is accounting profession. Accounting is a business field that both accuracy and interpretation have become critical. Ethics in accounting is one of the most important, yet most misunderstood, concerns in the world of business today. This is due to the fact that accountants are the key personnel who access the financial information of individuals and entities. Such power also causes the potential of abusing information or manipulation. The aim of this study is to explain the emerging roles of business ethics among organizations within the framework of managerial and accounting ethics. The study also highlights the importance of managerial and accounting ethics in relation to social responsibility of corporations.

A successful business is dependent on the trust of all types of stakeholders within an organization—employees, managers, executives, customers, and suppliers. Today, ongoing changes in consumer expectations, human relations in task environment, and technological advancements continue to affect the dynamics of service industry. Ethical conduct, in this sense, has become a major component of doing business. A company’s ethics helps to shape the behaviour of its employees, since leaders at the top of organizations are the key role models for establishing and improving the ethical climate. Employees’ work-related attitudes and behaviours are sensitive to the climate they are engaged. Whether it is for organizational, legal, or personal reasons, ethics cannot be ignored, and this is particularly true for the insurance industry. Recent scandals have demonstrated that unethical behaviour can be costly to the company. The study aims to examine the relation between organizational commitment, unethical culture, and the unethical behaviour of employees and managers working in the insurance industry. A survey was conducted to test these hypotheses. The sample of the survey represents white-collar workers (N = 250) who work in various branches in insurance companies in Istanbul. The findings reveal that there is a positive relation between unethical culture and managerial unethical behaviour and employee unethical behaviour. However, organizational commitment has no effect on employee unethical behaviour, while it affects employees’ unethical behaviour.

The reporting of the real condition of accounting information systems of businesses to users in the right time depends on many elements. The most important of these is the profession members creating the accounting information to provide only what it should have been without considering the advantages of any party or group. The trustworthiness of the information created in the activities realized with this objective is in direct proportion with the independency of the profession members and their compilation to the ethical rules. Relevant professional organizations are performing important studies on this subject in the world and in Turkey. The objective of this study is to display the importance of the compliance to ethics rules in accounting, and in this way, the highest advantage expected from the accounting profession will be received from the audit profession. The concepts of ethics and ethics in accounting are explained primarily. Then, the effect of ethics in accounting to the audit profession is analyzed considering the studies in the world and in Turkey.

Teacher professional ethics is the moral code, moral concept and code of conduct that education workers must observe in their education careers. Teachers working on adult on-job training should have more professional ethics than other teachers, such as, the universal ethics, the pragmatic sense of responsibility, the flexible adaptability, posture the affinity of equality and close to the practical action. In view of the professional ethics of Chinese adult in-service training teachers in recent years, there are professional ethics, utilitarianism tendencies, job burnout and other issues. This article promotes that we should combine education and self-study to strengthen professional ethics training; pubic opinion guides and assessments at the same time, improve professional ethics institutional construction; follow the adult training rules for on-job training, give full play to the professional guidance fuction of professional ethics, etc. Strengthen the construction of adult job training teacher professional ethics.

Conflict of interest is regarded as one of the core significant issues in legal practice. Although some Chinese laws, such as the “Lawyers Law of the People’s Republic of China” and “Strengthen the Improvement of Lawyers’ Professional Ethics and Sense of Discipline” (“lawyers’ discipline”), have stipulated rules relating to conflict of interest in lawyers’ practice, the contents of which seem abstract and simplistic without further details on how to implement them. Even though some modern cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou have implemented some relevant regulations with details on lawyers’ conflicts of interest, these regulations are at the relatively lower level of the legal hierarchy and this issue still lacks standardized rules due to the wide variety of regulations in different regions. This leads to some difficulties which lawyers have to face in practice and it is not beneficial for lawyers to manage the conflict of interest in cases which are brought by clients in different regions. This paper tries to give a brief introduction to the laws on lawyer’s conflict of interest in China. Also, it analyzes the current situation and the potential problems regarding this issue and further provides some reasonable suggestions and measures for improvement.

Internet enables a business to reach a customer base numbering in the multi-millions, and, conversely, allows customers to access information, products and services throughout the world (Maury and Kleiner in J Bus Ethics 36:21–31, 2002). With the internet and the development of marketing by e-commerce, privacy issues became more complicated as a result of the new technology. Consequently, much attention has been devoted to information privacy as one of the issues critical to the success of e-commerce (Son and Kim in MIS Q 32(3):503–529, 2008). Without the ability to credibly signal their trustworthiness in handling consumer information, website operators will be less able to persuade consumers to share sensitive information, hindering welfare creation for both consumers and retailers and impeding the development of online commerce (Tang et al. in J Manage Inf Syst 24(4):153–173, 2008). Usually, organizations achieve the obligation of informing data subjects by means of privacy policies (Karat et al. in Int J Human-Comput Stud 63(2005):153–174, 2005). The aim of this study is to prepare and present a literature review about privacy and security issues in B2C e-commerce for eliminating the ethical concerns of individuals.

Ethics plays a substantial role in modern theory and practice of young financial markets. Financial ethics, as a subset of general ethics, focuses on applying the ethical principles in setting and preserving norms of financial morality, honesty, and fairness in financial markets. With the definition in mind, it is crucial to inspect the cause and factors that lead to ethical deviations. The decay of ethical values stems from wrong evaluation of money, criminalization of market act behavior, ignorance, as well as misconceptions. Negative consequences that arise from ethical violations lead to a wide range of serious banking and financial crises. The existing legal regulations and instruments of investor protection have proved insufficient in the control process, creating a need to establish clear operating ethical principles. This thesis focuses on ethics and morality in modern society, as well as the mechanisms for ethical value preservation. In the set context, the research analyses the interrelations of ethics of society and of the individual as an obstacle in the process of financial investment. The thesis presents proposals for improving ethical values in the finance sector in a form of possible provisions of the ethical codex of stockbrokers, possible ethical solutions in the field of financial instruments (trade), and gives example of desirable ethical principles in financial trade with interest groups. The proposed solutions should serve as guide conduct to reduce the level of immorality, robbery, fraud, and bribery in the field of finance trading.

Chinese overseas investment has undergone a significant increase in the last few years. These investments are not only conducted by the state-owned companies, but also by the private enterprises. Furthermore, the range of overseas investment has become broader than before, covering agriculture, energy, natural resources, transportation, manufacturing, cultural, educational, and other sectors. However, there are some concerns around whether the concept of “business ethics” has been widely implemented by the Chinese business circle. Furthermore, what are the key institutional designs to address this issue? Is there any law or regulation to regulate and enforce this concept? This paper, by studying the relevant regimes, aims to examine the above questions. The first part of this paper will review the development of Chinese overseas investment. Secondly, this paper looks at the legal and institutional framework for the regulation and supervision of overseas investment. Moreover, by a close examination of the current law, regulations and industrial guidelines relating to ethical requirements, conclusions will be drawn.

The present book chapter firstly tackles general characteristics and key concepts of business ethics, defined as the theory of right conduct in the business environment. Business ethics is also scrutinized within the dynamics of the tax game between contributors and tax authorities, where only tax compliance may be qualified as genuine ethical behavior. As it unravels, the book chapter focuses on the ethical precepts guiding institutions and businesses that activate within the public and private economic sectors in Romania. Namely, it discusses the ethics codes of professional accountants, fiscal civil servants and banking sector employees, all categories being expected to act following common precepts like confidentiality, integrity, transparency, nondiscrimination and professionalism. Besides theoretical considerations on the Romanian business ethics guidelines, the chapter includes a brief literature review of the studies performed by academic researchers and international organizations on Romanian consumers, employees, students, Western managers and economic entities activating in Romania. Among these, the study conducted by Transparency International Romania (TI-RO) in 2011 on 631 companies is the most noticeable. According to their results, businesses in Romania still have to make considerable efforts in the process of institutionalizing ethics.

In Islam the dilemma whether an act is ethical or otherwise may be resolved by referring to the principles that are enunciated in the sources of the Shari’ah (Islamic law). Islamic business ethics, therefore, is based on these sources and provides an essential foundation in the making of ethical business decisions. Islamic ethics is known as akhlaq and together with its core principles which include ikhlas, zuhud, tawakkal, amanah, siddiq and ‘adl guide an individual to always do good and eschew evil since the aim of business is not merely to accumulate wealth but to bring about a just socio-economic order and to ultimately please God. Further, akhlaq and its core principles guide how business disputes are to be resolved and at the same time restore harmony between the disputing parties. In addition, the chapter demonstrates the application of these core principles within the context of an Islamic organisation.

The securities market in India is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India constituted under the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992. The Board has to protect interests of investors and promote and regulate the securities market. Recently, the Parliament of India has passed the Securities Laws (Amendment) Act, 2014, in order to give more powers to the Board for calling for information for any person including banks or any other authority, calling for information from any outside authority and search and seizure. It can regulate any Ponzi or money collecting scheme, access call data records of people involved in such illicit schemes and arrest defaulters. The Act has also allowed for setting up special courts to fast track the investigation and prosecution in matters relating to securities market. The case of Sahara Group companies and NSEL is the most important case, which has made headlines worldwide. The present chapter will give an overview of securities market in India to the readers. It will give an insight into trends in the primary and secondary market, different issues in securities market in India and their regulation including recent scams and investigations undertaken by SEBI.

The United Nations Global Compact initiative is a universally accepted set of principle that presented for businesses. The aim behind the principles is encouraging businesses to align their operations and strategies with committed values. Not only business but also governments, labor, civil society organizations could be part of this initiative. The principles are not code of conduct; it could be accepted as a frame to persuade companies to perform in the direction of globally shared values. This paper analyzes if there is any common ground or differences between the companies’ code of conduct and the UN global compact principles. For the purpose, companies that participate in the global compact initiative from Turkey will be analyzed. This study may be useful for managers to realize the relation between Global Compact principles and code of conduct to create a company that really internalize these principles.

Psychiatry is the branch of medicine focusing on the mental disorders. Psychiatry deals with the etiology, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation or prevention of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who graduate from medical school and take residency training in psychiatry. Ethical problems can arise in many areas of psychiatry, for example, involuntary treatment of psychiatric patients, confidentiality, informing patients about their diagnosis, or psychiatric studies. Besides these, ethical issues take place in forensic psychiatric cases and treatment interventions with pharmacotherapies or psychotherapies (Arboleda-Florez 2006).