Study Essay

active of a company is to maximize profits for shareholders, then forgoing profits in a bid to achieve other objectives will be a violation of the company’s’ fiduciary responsibility. In most nations, corporate entities are regarded as individuals, as such corporate entities are legally entitled to the rights and liabilities enjoyed by a citizen. Business ethics examines the ethical principal and moral issues that arise in the business environment. Business ethics also applies to every single aspect of business conduct. It therefore deals with the conduct of the entire organization as well as individuals in the organization.

Economist Milton Friedman writing on corporate executives said that.

"responsibility... generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to their basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom". ( Friedman , 1984)

He also said that, "the only entities who can have responsibilities are individuals ... A business cannot have responsibilities. So the question is, do corporate executives, provided they stay within the law, have responsibilities in their business activities other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible? And my answer to that is, no, they do not." ( Friedman , 1984)

A 2011 survey across different countries found out there was support for this view ranging from 30%-80% amongst the informed public. Duska in his 2007 publication, views Friedman’s argument as consequentialist instead of pragmatic meaning that if corporate responsibility is unrestrained in the long run it is going to benefit more people. (Duska, 2007) In similar fashion, business author Peter drucker said that

“there is neither a separate ethics of business nor is one needed.” He therefore implied that the standards of personal ethics cover every business situation.( Drucker,

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