Corporate Governance and Ethics free essay sample

Angelique C. Rufino Book Title: Current Issues in Business Ethics: Edited by: Peter W. F. Davies Reference no: HF 5398 C 87 1997 CHAPTER 3 CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS By: Philip Stiles â€Å"The increased interest in corporate governance has mirrored the rise in concern in business ethics generally with the voluminous literature on high profile scandals and failures in firms providing a common base for much descriptive and prescriptive work in both areas. Both subjects, too, share a key focus on agency problems, which has driven much theoretical and empirical work. Many commentators on corporate governance assume that boards, if properly harnessed, can bring important performance gains. Many ethical theorists share a parallel assumption about the bottom-line benefits of utilizing ethical management principles. † The quote discusses that nowadays business ethics are given much importance than it was treated before. The corporate governance is also rising at the business ethics are much practices now. The quote even said that if corporate governance will be more visible and will continuously be practiced together with the business ethics that certain company who does those things can experience performance gain in their business. The entire chapter talks about the corporate governance and the business ethics. They say that the best kind of government is self-governance. It can also be applied to the corporate governance. Corporations have their own juridical personality meaning that they are separate individuals that can also be self-governing establishments. For a certain corporation to be self-governed it should have its own set of business ethics and they have to put it into actions and they have to make their own set of code of ethics. Just like self-governance, it will be much helpful since corporate governance means the corporation is an entity that is responsible in their actions. If every corporation will be self-governing, then we would not need other entity to govern the corporations that are already responsible of all the things that they are doing. The businesses that they made. The code of ethics that will be made by the corporation should be followed by every employee or every individual in the company. The code of ethics that they will be setting should also be in line with their business ethics. The business ethics is important for the success of an entity. If they can comply with he code of ethics that they set, it means that individuals in that company are already self-governed. Individuals who are already self-governed can be a role model to those who are still not aware of the things that they are doing in their company and to their own individual private lives. Effective corporate governance ultimately rests on the quality and integrity of organizations and their employees. CHAPTER 8 CODES OF ETHICS Some Uses And Abuses By: Iain Munro â€Å"It is no doubt true that a company’s reputation is of fundamental importance in an age of increasing consumer awareness. Also, there is a great deal of evidence to show that people are becoming increasingly sensitive to the moral issues of everyday business. One of the clearest symptoms of this concern has been the recent proliferation of company codes of ethics, particularly in the UK and the US. † The quote discusses the fast growing number of awareness that the corporations and the consumers are currently developing. Through the years, employees and consumers continuously became educated and aware about the importance of code of ethics and as stated in the quote, one of the clearest symptoms of this is the recent proliferation of company code of ethics in the United States and United Kingdom. The chapter is all about the good side and the bad side of having code of ethics when it is being used properly or in the other hand if it is being abused. There are several benefits of having your own set of code of ethics. First is the benefit to the organization through public relations. If your company code of ethics will also be appealing if the things you are trying to practice is about uplifting the moral sensibilities of consu mers as part of their overall marketing strategy. The second is the benefit to the stakeholders through the social responsibilities. If the code of ethics will also be designed for the stakeholders, it will also be beneficial since it is like you are also considering the stakeholders with concern not just by protecting them. But there are certain instances that the use of the code of ethics are being abused. If the code of ethics are abused it will yield to bad effects. CHAPTER 9 WHISTLEBLOWIN AND ITS ALTERNATIVES By: Angela Peek â€Å"Would these good intentions be put into practice in a real life scenario? Sadly, the experiences of those employees who do put words into action and become ‘whistle-blowers’ give little encouragement to the ethical individual. † The quote is having some arguments about the legality or is it ethical to whistle blow. They would like to know of they can have alternatives without whistleblowing. The chapter is about the whistle blowing and its alternatives. They say that whistleblowing might be unethical in some ways but there are certain circumstances that whistleblowing should be done. There are times that it is really needed. One example that is very recent here in the Philippines is regarding the ZTE deal. They are treating the star witness Mr. Jun Lozada as the whistleblower since before he knows the things that are happening in the ZTE deal. When he decided to talk in public, he appeared in the senate then he was accused of being the whistleblower. In other peoples perspective he is a hero but for those who are involved in the expose that he is currently delivering with e senate, he is the whistleblower. Whistleblowing can cause you several consequences.