Case Studies

1. Unethical Practices

·  False Advertising and Misleading Claims: Promoting products or services with false or exaggerated claims to deceive customers, including using fine print to obscure critical details.

·  Unsafe Products: Selling known hazardous or defective products without proper warnings and failing to adequately address safety concerns.

·  Price Fixing and Market Manipulation: Colluding with competitors to fix prices or divide markets.

·  Data Privacy Violations: Collecting and selling customer data without consent or failing to protect sensitive information from breaches.

·  Environmental Violations: Polluting air, water, or land without taking responsibility for cleanup, ignoring environmental regulations to cut costs, or engaging in unsustainable practices that deplete natural resources.

·  Exploitation of Workers: Employing child labor, delaying or denying wages and benefits owed to workers, forcing employees to work in unsafe conditions without proper safety measures, allowing or committing workplace harassment, and unfairly dismissing employees when they advocate for their rights.

·  Corruption and Bribery: Offering or accepting bribes to gain business advantages or preferential treatment from authorities, and engaging in kickback schemes where payments are made for favorable treatment.

·  Fraud and Embezzlement: Falsifying financial data to deceive investors and stakeholders or embezzling company funds for personal use.

2. Practices with Ethical Dilemma in Business (According to the perspectives of the decision-maker in the organization)

·  Conflict of Interest: When personal interests or commitments interfere with making fair and unbiased decisions in professional duties, such as hiring or sourcing from relatives.

·  Lack of Transparency: Withholding information about company policies, decisions, and outcomes from stakeholders such as customers, employees, and shareholders.

·  Dishonesty: Altering or fabricating facts, often to avoid short-term negative impacts on profits or reputation.

·  Racism and Customer Discrimination: Discriminating against customers based on nationality, gender, religion, or other factors.

·  Tax Evasion: Selling products for cash without including value-added tax (VAT) to lower sale prices or using fraudulent methods to avoid paying VAT collected from buyers.

·  Commercial Cover-Up: Allowing expatriates to use the company’s name and registration, often because the business owner is content with the income received from the expatriate.

·  Violation of Employee Rights: Failing to provide a workplace free from health and safety risks, appropriate salaries and benefits, or the freedom for employees to express grievances without fear of retaliation.

·  Unfair Treatment of Employees: Disrespecting personal privacy, failing to provide equal pay for equal work, withholding feedback on performance, denying fair opportunities for development and promotion, and failing to accommodate disabled employees in the workplace.

·  Environmental Harm: Contributing to air, water, soil, and noise pollution, destroying ecosystems, and depleting natural resources.

3. Aspiring Practices of Ethical Practices in Business

·  Ethical Leadership: Encouraging leaders to adopt ethical behaviors that inspire employees, raising awareness of workplace ethics, and involving employees in establishing core values and ethical principles.

·  Customer-Centric Approach: Delivering products and services that meet customer expectations, responding promptly to complaints, and respecting customer privacy and data.

·  Integrity and Transparency: Being honest with customers, suppliers, and partners, and providing accurate, non-misleading information.

·  Fairness, Equality, and Respect: Treating everyone with respect regardless of their background and ensuring fairness in salaries, benefits, and promotions.

·  Employee Well-being: Creating a healthy and safe work environment, offering programs that support employees’ physical and mental health (e.g., fitness initiatives), and encouraging work-life balance (e.g., flexible hours).

·  Ethical Partnerships: Working with suppliers and business partners who share ethical values and avoiding partnerships with unethical companies.

·  Environmental Conservation: Preventing pollution of air, water, and soil, adopting recycling and waste reduction policies, and using resources sustainably.