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0 INTRODUCTION
DEFINITION OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOUR
Ethics can be defined as going beyond what is legal and doing what is right, even when no
one is looking. So when we talk about unethical behavior in business, we're talking about
actions that don't conform to the acceptable standards of business operations, failing to do
what is right in every situation.
In some cases, it may be an
individual within a business
who is unethical in the course
of his or her job and at other
times,

we're

talking

about

corporate culture, where the

whole business is corrupt from
the top down, with disastrous
results

for

society.

It's

important to realize that what is

unethical may not always be
illegal (though sometimes it is
both).
There are many instances where businesses may act within the law, but their actions hurt
society and are generally considered to be unethical. Unethical behavior also can be known
an action that falls outside of what is considered morally right or proper for a person, a
profession or an industry. Individuals can behave unethically, as can businesses, professionals
and politicians.
.

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Unethical Behavior Among Businesses

Using bait and switch or false advertising tactics to lure customers in or convince
them to buy a product.
Sexual harassment and bullying others employees
Releasing toxins into the air in levels above what is permitted by the Environmental
Protection Agency.
Coercing an injured worker not to report a work injury to workers' compensation by
threatening him with the loss of a job or benefits.
Dumping pollutants into the water supply rather than cleaning up the pollution
properly.
Refusing to give an employee a final paycheck for hours worked after the employee
leaves the company.
Not paying an employee for all of the hours worked.
Incorrectly classifying an employee as an independent contractor and not as an
employee in order to reduce payroll taxes and avoid purchasing unemployment and
workers' compensation insurance.
Engaging in price fixing to force smaller competitors out of business.
Rolling back the odometer on a vehicle that is for sale.
Refusing to honor a warranty claim on a defective product.

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Example of one unethical behaviour :

Dumping Toxins
Anything that has been thrown away that can still potentially harm its surroundings and those
who dwell in them is considered hazardous waste. This can be anything from chemical waste
and materials left over from manufacturing to household garbage such as cleaning solutions,
batteries, and non-biodegradable plastics.
Identifying hazardous waste has been simplified by a near-universal standard that categorizes
based on how these materials can damage their environment. These qualities include how
reactive the substance is to other chemicals in such a way that it could explode or turn into
poison gas, its flammability, its toxicity, and how prone it is to corroding other materials.
Causes that lead to pollution
1. Sewage:
Pollution can enter the ocean directly. Sewage or polluting
substances flow through sewage, rivers, or drainages directly into
the ocean. This is often how minerals and substances from mining
camps find their way into the ocean. The release of other chemical
nutrients into the oceans ecosystem leads to reductions in oxygen
levels, the decay of plant life, a severe decline in the quality of the
sea water itself. As a result, all levels of oceanic life, plants and
animals, are highly affected.
2. Toxic Chemicals From Industries:

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Industrial and agricultural waste are another most common form

of wastes that are directly discharged into the oceans, resulting in
ocean pollution. The dumping of toxic liquids in the ocean
directly affects the marine life as they are considered hazardous
and secondly, they raise the temperature of the ocean, known as
thermal pollution, as the temperature of these liquids is quite high.
Animals and plants that cannot survive at higher temperatures
eventually perish.

3.

Land Runoff:

Land runoff is another source of pollution in the ocean. This occurs

when water infiltrates the soil to its maximum extent and the excess
water from rain, flooding or melting flows over the land and into the
ocean. Often times, this water picks up man-made, harmful contaminants
that pollute the ocean, including fertilizers, petroleum, pesticides and
other forms of soil contaminants. Fertilizers and waste from land
animals and humans can be a huge detriment to the ocean by creating
dead zones.
4.

Large Scale Oil Spills:

Ship pollution is a huge source of ocean pollution,

the most devastating effect of which is oil spills.
Crude oil lasts for years in the sea and is extremely
toxic to marine life, often suffocating marine animals
to death once it entraps them. Crude oil is also
extremely difficult to clean up, unfortunately
meaning that when it is split; it is usually there to
stay.
In addition, many ships lose thousands of crates each year due to storms, emergencies, and
accidents. This causes noise pollution (excessive, unexpected noise that interrupts the balance
of life, most often caused by modes of transportation), excessive algae, and ballast water.
Often times, other species can also invade an ecosystem and do harm to it by interrupting the
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life cycles of other organisms, causing a clash of nature that has already been damaged by the
overflow of pollution.
5.

Ocean Mining:

Ocean mining in the deep sea is yet another source of ocean

pollution. Ocean mining sites drilling for silver, gold, copper, cobalt
and zinc create sulfide deposits up to three and a half thousand
meters down in to the ocean. While we have yet the gathering of
scientific evidence to fully explain the harsh environmental impacts
of deep sea mining, we do have a general idea that deep sea mining causes damage to the
lowest levels of the ocean and increase the toxicity of the region. This permanent damage
dealt also causes leaking, corrosion and oil spills that only drastically further hinder the
ecosystem of the region.
6.

Littering:

Pollution from the atmosphere is, believe it or not, a huge source of

ocean pollution. This occurs when objects that are far
inland are blown by the wind over long distances and
end up in the ocean. These objects can be anything
from natural things like dust and sand, to man-made
objects such as debris and trash. Most debris,
especially plastic debris, cannot decompose and remains suspended in the oceans current for
years. Animals can become snagged on the plastic or mistake it for food, slowly killing them
over a long period of time. Animals who are most often the victims of plastic debris include
turtles, dolphins, fish, sharks, crabs, sea birds, and crocodiles.
In addition, the temperature of the ocean is highly affected by carbon dioxide and climate
changes, which impacts primarily the ecosystems and fish communities that live in the ocean.
Even though the ocean can absorb carbon dioxide that originates from the atmosphere, the
carbon dioxide levels are steadily increasing and the oceans absorbing mechanisms, due to
the rising of the oceans temperatures, are unable to keep up with the pace.

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Deontological
Ethics

Consequentalism
Ethics

4 Ethics
Behaviour
Relatism
Ethics

Virtue
Ethics

Dumping toxics related to 4 ethics behaviour :

1. Consequentalism (result)
Dumping toxin into river or any natural environment can give bad result to the environment.
Dumping toxin can be defined as criminal because this action can give bad affects to the
environment especially many kinds of animal wether on land or aquatic. This kind of result is
really inversely with the law.
2. Deontological (action)
Dumping toxins into river or any natural environment is an action that takes by the
unresponsilble owner of the company or low skilled employees. This two kind of people are
not aware of the pollution that they make and do not even care about the action that they do.
This kind of action is breach the law, because action must be guided by principles established
which apply irrespective of concequence of the action and that an action can only be morally
right if that action was performed as a duty and not in expectation of a reward.
3. Virtue Ethics (characteristic)

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Virtue ethics it concentrate on the idea of the human character and asks how you can be a
better person. On this type of ethics, it does not focus on actions or rules, but the concerned
about the personality of the person especially their moral character. This type of perso is very
unmoral person because they did not have enough good characteristic that can implemented
to themselves. This type of bad characteristic can be influence to others lower workers or
others employees in terms of following what the leader do.
4. Relativsm (society)
Relativsm is talk about what will society said based on this type of unethical behaviour. As
the article shown above, society will have the most impact due to the dumping toxins into the
water resources. Water are sources that are useful or potentially useful for the people who live
in the area to continue their everyday life like cooking, washing and many more.

Critical thinking
Effect on our environment :
The footprint hazardous waste
has left on our environment has
already poisoned our oceans,
lakes, and rivers. Each year,
thousands of fish, whales, and
other aquatic animals wash up
on

our

shores

filled

with

enough trash and toxins to kill a

human being several times over. Frogs and other amphibious and creatures are
showing more and more signs of mutation, and this is a heralding sign of the negative
impact human waste has on the environment.
Land-dwelling wildlife and insect populations have also been greatly affected by the
amount of waste generated by developed nations. Everything from plastic six-pack
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soda packaging to improperly disposed bodily fluids filled with harmful diseases have
sickened, altered, and harmed scores of animals every year. Populations of insects
such as bees, which are crucial to preserving the fertility of plant life, are dying off
faster than they can repopulate due to human pollution.
Hazardous wastes are poisonous byproducts of manufacturing, farming, city septic systems,
construction, automotive garages, laboratories, hospitals, and other industries. The waste may
be liquid, solid, or sludge and contain chemicals, heavy metals, radiation, dangerous
pathogens, or other toxins. Even households generate hazardous waste from items such as
batteries, used computer equipment, and leftover paints or pesticides.
This kind of unethical behaviour happen when some company did not aware of the natural
environment with focusing on making and maximizing the profit. They did not realise how
important the natural environment to us, there are several reasons why dumping toxins or
waste happen.
Firstly, some of the company are selfish that are one of the most logical reasons in this cased.
They addicted on making money without realise our earth is heavy with pollution. They also
did not care about the future health and take the easiest way by dumping the dangerous
chemicals into the water resources.
Secondly is, dumping happen when some part or employees are lazy to do their work. Some
company said to be follow the rules by eliminate the chemicals with the right way, but when
it comes to the lower workers they start to ignore what their employer said because of lazy to
do the works. So the easiest way is by dumping the toxic without permissions from the
employer.
Third is, to reduce the cost to eliminate the waste. This means a process that eliminate the
dangerous chemical can be really high cost and costing a lot of equipments to do that. So the
unresponsible company want to prevent from paying the high cost by throwing or dumping
the toxins into our natural environment.

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Conclucion
Ethics are important not only in business but in all aspects of life because it is an essential
part of the foundation on which of a civilized society is build. A business or society that lacks
ethical principle is bound to fail sooner or later. The important of ethics to business can be
divided into four part which is public expects business to reveal high level of ethical
performance and social responsibility, encouraging business firms and their employees to
behave ethically is to prevent harm to the society, promoting ethical behaviour is to protect
business from abuse by unethical employees and unethical competitors, and lastly is higly
ethical performance also protects the individuals who work in business. Dumping waste or
toxins was once considered as a necessity. In todays times, however it has become a
hindrance. Since we use and misuse the oceanic and water resources, it becomes our
responsibility to take care to preserve it in every way we can.

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