Codes of ethics
It's now common practice for businesses to have a code of ethics. These are often based around a standard model that rules out certain practices. For example, employees should:
- avoid conflicts of interest - like investing in, or doing work for, competing firms
- not accept gifts or benefits that may be considered bribes
- not buy or sell information
Businesses tend to have policies on how they treat their workers, including health and safety, working hours etc. There are industry standards, such as Investors in People, that recognise business that value staff, invest in staff training, listen to workers etc. It is also common for businesses to have an environmental policy. The aim would generally be sustainability, including the purchase of raw materials, efficiency at every stage to reduce pollution and waste, and the recyclability of the end product.
Whistleblowing
Policy and practice are two very different things, and despite adopting carefully-worded policies, a business may end up behaving in very unethical ways. For example, a business may take un-necessary and excessive risks, putting lives in jeopardy. Businesses may illegally pollute, or produce products that harm the environment. A business may employ child workers, or run sweatshops that ignore workers' rights. Directors may lie about how a business is actually doing, to avoid driving away more custom. In some cases, this may mean tricking people into investing in products or services that they know will lose money or that they will be unable to deliver.
When a business behaves unethically, it may fall upon an individual within the organisation to inform the authorities - this is known as whistleblowing. If someone finds out that the company they work for is acting unethically, do they have a responsibility to blow the whistle? They will usually lose their jobs, and they may not be compensated for this. They also risk harming the business, and ultimately many of their friends and co-workers may suffer.
Espionage
One way of getting the edge on competitors is to have a well-funded R&D (research and development) department. Spend millions trying to design a better product, and you should find success. Another way is to find out what the competition are doing, and copy them. As such, businesses are very protective of information, paying a large amount of money to keep electronic information secure. Workers may have to sign complex confidentiality agreements. Much research is done in secret.
Some companies pay a large amount of money to spy on their competitors. They may head hunt managers from competitors, paying them inflated salaries in the hope that they would bring information, as well as experience, with them. It is not uncommon for phones to be tapped, emails to be hacked, offices bugged. If staff in a company go across the road for lunch, spies may sit and listen to their conversations in the hope they may overhear important secrets. There is even a practice of 'dumpster diving', which is often completely legal. Once you throw something out, it's in the public domain, so a competitor can pay someone to sift through your rubbish to get clues as to what you are devloping and how it's going.
