Current Ethical & Unethical Issues in Marketing

MARKETING

Marketing is more than just the advertising side of sales. The true idea of marketing encompasses “creating, communicating, and delivering value to customer that benefit the organization and its stakeholders”

ETHICS IN MARKETING

Ethics are a collection of principles of right conduct that shape the decisions people or organizations make. Practicing ethics in marketing means deliberately applying standards of fairness, or moral rights and wrongs, to marketing decision making, behavior, and practice in the organization.

UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE MARKETING PRACTICES

Marketing practices are deceptive if customers believe they will get more value from a product or service than they actually receive. Deception, which can take the form of a misrepresentation, omission, or misleading practice, can occur when working with any element of the marketing mix. Because consumers are exposed to great quantities of information about products and firms, they often become skeptical of marketing claims and selling messages and act to protect themselves from being deceived. Thus, when a product or service does not provide expected value, customers will often seek a different source.

ETHICAL ISSUES SURROUNDING THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN MARKETING EFFORTS

As society changes, so do the images of and roles assumed by people, regardless of race, sex, or occupation. Women have been portrayed in a variety of ways over the years. When marketers present those images as overly conventional, formulaic, or oversimplified, people may view them as stereotypical and offensive.

ETHICAL ISSUES IN MARKETING TO MINORITIES

The United States is a society of ever-increasing diversity. Markets are broken into segments in which people share some similar characteristics. Ethical issues arise when marketing tactics are designed specifically to exploit or manipulate a minority market segment. Offensive practices may take the form of negative or stereotypical representations of minorities, associating the consumption of harmful or questionable products with a particular minority segment, and demeaning portrayals of a race or group. Ethical questions may also arise when high-pressure selling is directed at a group, when higher prices are charged for products sold to minorities, or even when stores provide poorer service in neighborhoods with a high population of minority customers. Such practices will likely result in a bad public image and lost sales for the marketer.

CONCLUSION

Because marketing decisions often require specialized knowledge, ethical issues are often more complicated than those faced in personal life—and effective decision making requires consistency. Because each business situation is different, and not all decisions are simple, many organizations have embraced ethical codes of conduct and rules of professional ethics to guide managers and employees. However, sometimes self-regulation proves insufficient to protect the interest of customers, organizations, or society.

Current Ethical & Unethical Issues in Finance

                          

ETHICS IN FINANCE

Ethics in general is concerned with human behavior that is acceptable or "right" and that is not acceptable or "wrong" based on conventional morality. General ethical norms encompass truthfulness, honesty, integrity, respect for others, fairness, and justice. They relate to all aspects of life, including business and finance.

ETHICAL VIOLATIONS

The most frequently occurring ethical violations in finance relate to insider trading, stakeholder interest versus stockholder interest, investment management, and campaign financing. Businesses in general and financial markets in particular are replete with examples of violations of trust and loyalty in both public and private dealings. Fraudulent financial dealings, influence peddling and corruption in governments, brokers not maintaining proper records of customer trading, cheating customers of their trading profits, unauthorized transactions, insider trading, misuse of customer funds for personal gain, mis-pricing customer trades, and corruption and larceny in banking have become common occurrences.

ETHICAL CODES        

Approaches to dealing with ethical problems in finance range from establishing ethical codes for financial professionals to efforts to replace the rational-maximizer (egoistic) paradigm that underlies the modern capitalist system by one in which individuals are assumed to be altruistic, honest, and basically virtuous.

It is not uncommon to find established ethical codes and ethical offices in American corporations and in financial markets. Ethical codes for financial markets are established by the official regulatory agencies and self-regulating organizations to ensure ethically responsible behavior on the part of the operatives in the financial markets.

Current Ethical & Unethical Issues in Human Resource

Human resources professionals are given a great deal of moral, ethical and legal responsibilities. In recruiting, training, reviewing, terminating and working with employees, there are a great deal of ethical ramifications. These positive or negative consequences can have a huge impact on the business at large. In a maze of complicated relationships, business associations, and personnel issues, many in the workplace look to a human resources team for guidance. 

•   Professional Responsibility

Like many other kinds of business people, human resources professionals must contribute to their organization with ethical integrity. Human resources professionals must also comply with the law, make ethical decisions, positively impact their organization and advocate for employees. They are required to commit to a high standard of professional responsibility. They must also, as a function of their profession, be familiar with many types of labor law.

•   Ethical Leadership

Human resources professionals are tasked with being ethical and moral role models. They must be familiar with "right or right" decision-making. They must also know how to be leaders. This is especially important, due to the fact that a poor ethical decision made by an HR person can affect an entire organization. For example, if you were an employee who caught an HR person stealing company office supplies, how would you feel about the company's policies against workplace theft?

•    Fairness and Justice

 Business ethics in particular is constantly changing and evolving. Arguably, most people have a hard time pointing out bad ethics until they see it. HR business people need to be familiar with basic ethics to negotiate decisions made by them or other departments. Social justice is becoming a more and more important topic for corporations and businesses, and human resources professionals need to learn about concepts like affirmative action. HR people should create an atmosphere that appreciates individuals and supports businesses. They should take an active role in eliminating bias and providing equal opportunities.