Islamic Business Ethics

Chapter 1
In this chapter, we’ll learn…

What is Why is it
business ethics important
What is its
means and
scope
Why is it important to learn Business
Ethics?
 Everyday, individuals face ethical issues at work
 Review by Wall Street Journal: issues such stealing, lying, fraud, deceit, etc
 Survey on 2000 major US corporations the following ethical problems:
 Drug and alcohol abuse
 Employee theft
 Conflict of interests
 Quality control issues
 Discrimination in hiring and promotion
 Misuse of propriety information
 Abuse of company expense account
 Misuse of company assets etc
Being a Professional on Integrity

Ethics: the standards of behavior to which we hold ourselves in our personal

and professional lives.

It establishes the levels of honesty, empathy, trustworthiness and other virtue

Acting with Integrity
Business ethics is…
 The conduct by which companies
and their agents abide by the
law and respect the rights of
their stakeholders, particularly
their customers, clients,
employees and the surrounding
community and environments.
 In the western perspective, by
being ethical, a company can
accomplish its legitimate for-
profit goals.
What is its means and scope?

 Ethics is a normative field of science

 It is different with law
 Law is needed to establish and maintain a functioning society and
it is mandatory
 Ethics built on the baseline of the law and reveals the individual
business leader or a specific organization
 Ethical acts are generally considered voluntary and personal-often
based on our perception of or stand on right and wrong
How should we behave?

Normative Ethical Theories

• Examine the ends or consequences such
as utilitarianism, consequentialism etc
• Examine the means or actions such as
deontology
• Virtue theory: character of decision-
maker