Business Ethics in an Organisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business Ethics in an Organisation - Essay Example The organisation that was chosen for the purposes of this assignment is the global for-profit education giant known as Career Education Corporation. According to their website, "Since it was founded in 1994, CEC has progressed rapidly toward the goal of becoming the world's leading provider of quality educational services. CEC is the world's largest on-campus provider of private, for-profit postsecondary education and has a rapidly-growing presence in online education" (Career Education Corporation, 2008, pg. 1). Career Education Corporation has more than 95,000 students worldwide and is made up of a number of different, well-recognized, and widespread brand names of colleges, schools, and universities. Their main specialty is offering career-oriented degrees to their students in a short period of actual classroom time. "The 80-plus campuses that serve these students are located throughout the U. S., Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates and offer doctoral, master's, bachelor's, and associate degrees and diploma and certificate programs. Approximately one third of students attend the web-based virtual campuses of American InterContinental University Online and Colorado Technical University Online" (Career Education Corporation, 2008, pg. 1) As mentioned above, Career Education Corporation operates under a number of brand names that span the entire globe, including the online environment. "Those brands include, among others, the Le Cordon Bleu schools of North America; the Harrington School of Design; the Brooks Institute; the Katharine Gibbs schools; American InterContinental University; Colorado Technical University and Sanford Brown" (Career Education Corporation, 2008, pg. 1). The company proudly displays its mission on its main website, claiming that, "The mission of CEC, through its schools, its educators, and its employees is education-their primary goal, to enable students to graduate successfully and pursue rewarding careers." Their mission statement itself declares, "We are a dynamic educational services company committed to quality, career-focused learning led by passionate professionals who inspire individual worth and lifelong achievement" (Career Education Corporation, 2008, pg. 1). Ethics In order to understand how an organization adheres to business ethics in values, it is first important to understand what those are. In this section, perspectives on business ethics and values, ethical issues in business, ethical theories and how to use them, personal values in the workplace, individual responses to ethical situations, corporate responsibility, corporate governance, corporate citizenship, sustainability and the responsible corporation, ethical conformance: codes standards, culture, leadership, and citizen power, global and local values and international business, and ethics in practice will be covered in detail (Fisher and Lovell, 2006, Ambrose and Schminke, 1999 and Boyle, 1990). According to Wikipedia, "Business ethics is a form of the art of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. In the increasingly conscience-focused marketplaces of the 21st century, the demand for more ethical business processes and actions (known as ethicism) is increasing. Simultaneously, pressure is applied on industry to improve business ethics through new public initiatives and laws (e.g.