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Historical Perspective on Ethics
In pre-capitalist America, the salient business ethics were based on the nature of economic activities and business organizations. Private businesses have ethics of product safety such as the commitment to manufacture and sell products that are safe for consumption. Public business organizations have ethics of service to customers and to the government interests. However, historical business ethics mostly influence the factors of business on both private and public business organizations. One of the primary salient business ethics concern contractual ethics and relations with customers and other business organizations (Collins, 2012). For instance, honoring of business contracts is a historical, ethical factor for both public and private business organizations that has led to several cases and business interactions.
Adam smith justifies the ethics of capitalism by arguing that the ideology is the main solution of unethical business practices in pre-capitalist America (Collins, 2012). Through this, business organizations are forced to maintain business ethics and moral standards as a way of reaching up to the competition and maintain consumers. This makes the basis for business ethics under capitalism to be based on the consumers and not the companies. According to Adam Smith, this makes capitalism an ethical ideology that does not focus only on the distribution of resources.
In his article, George (n.d) describes business ethics as a differently viewed concept that depends on the perspective of different parties. George supports the justification of Adam Smith on the ethics of capitalism by indicating that capitalism advocates for the incorporation of social morals in the process of economic individualism and commerce (George, n.d). This article presents a clear description of economic application of business ethics in an historical perspective. This is achieved by discussing various economists that tackled the topic in different perspectives.
Reference
Collins, D. (2012). Business Ethics. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons
George, R. T. (N.d).A History of Business Ethics. Retrieved From,
<http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/conference/presentations/business-ethics-history.html> May 11, 2014