Define ethics in a business context.

In a business context, ethics are the set of guidelines that a business follows regarding different socially controversial issues like corporate governance, bribery, environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility (“Business Ethics”, 2017). Businesses have two sets of broader guidelines to follow of which are legally bound and the other are flexible as the businesses may have a choice to follow them or not. The first set of guidelines are legal principles that are set by the government. Not abiding these guidelines may result in legal penalties. The other set of guidelines are business ethics. Businesses may opt to neglect these ethics which may not result in any legal penalty but may not be a great option for the overall image of the business. It may also negatively impact a business financially. This aspect will be discusses in the coming section of this assignment.

Businesses may opt to follow universal business ethics that are in practice or may decide to make their own ethical standards that can be followed for a sustainable growth to the future.