Business ethics are a matter of fair dealing and moral behavior but the practical implications are not lofty: The purpose of business ethics is to establish trust between people doing business. Over time, the reputation of a business is built on its demonstrated pattern of ethical (or unethical) behavior.

A company’s business ethics should be codified in policies that cover a wide range of practices and pitfalls regarding corporate governance, insider trading, bribery, discrimination, social responsibility, and fiduciary responsibilities.

But business ethics are not universally the same. As a business expands internationally, it may come across standards that are different from its own, for better or for worse.

Business ethics are shaped and guided by the laws of the company’s home country. In some cases, these laws provide a base point such as a minimum wage, environmental standards, and worker safety regulations.

Other laws set broad responsibilities and requirements for honesty and fair dealing. Some companies strive to be the gold standard for business ethics in their industry, while others do the bare minimum that is legally required.

Whether a business is dealing with a partner or a new customer, business ethics indicate that the same standard of behavior should be adopted when doing business with any client anywhere.

A company that decides to expand internationally may find it necessary to revisit its ethics rules to make certain they cover unexpected situations that may occur. Business ethics can differ in other countries and even between industries.

Business practices that would be illegal, or at least frowned upon, at home are often allowed or at least tolerated elsewhere. Many developing nations have lax insider trading laws. In some Latin American countries, bribery and kickbacks are a regular part of doing business.

Some countries have much lower environmental standards and workplace safety standards for doing business than the U.S., while others have higher standards.

• What is the Difference Between Business Ethics and the Law?
• What are the Types of Ethics in Business Ethics?
• What Other Differences are There Between Values Ethics and Laws?
• What is the Relation Between Business Ethics and the Law?
• What is the Difference Between Law and Business?
• What are the 7 Business Ethics?
• What are the 5 Biggest Ethical Issues Facing Businesses?
• What are Ethical Concerns That Businesses Face Today?
• What is the Biggest Ethical Issues Affecting the Business World?
• What are the Purposes of Business Law?
• What are the Four Major Types of Business Law?

What is the Difference Between Business Ethics and the Law?

Ethics are a set of moral values an individual establishes for one’s self and your own personal behavior. Laws are structured rules utilized to govern all of society. Not only do retail companies have an obligation to act ethically but so do the professional individuals working there.

Within the hierarchy of retail companies, managers often interact with individual employees who are subject to “professional” codes of conduct. These codes of conduct may vary depending on the employee and their position within the company.

Read Also: Business Differences in Developing Countries

For example, the American Bar Association has set forth Model Rules of Professional Conduct for licensed attorneys that were put into place in order to influence what behavior is to be expected when working in that particular profession.

Therefore, an attorney working for a retail company might be held to a higher ethical standard than that of a clerk working in a stockroom. Nonetheless, both have to follow the laws as set forth by their state and local governments.

As times progress so do ethical and moral standards within the retail environment. Advancements in the internet have brought about websites where employees can report unethical behavior within a company.  

Ethicspoint is one such internet reporting site where one can go online anonymously and report violations by entering the name of the organization, the violation category which best describes the unethical behavior and after agreeing to the terms and conditions of the website, one can file a report. These types of reporting methods are helpful with issues like health and safety violations, sexual harassment claims, and discrimination which will be addressed further in the next few sections.

Some retailers pride themselves on their ethical practices and procedures and even promote them publicly to improve their corporate image.  For instance, a retailer’s number one concern might be an ethical obligation to the environment so they use and sell only environmentally friendly products within their company and advertise as such to improve their image.

“The economic crisis and its consequences represent an unparalleled opportunity for retailers to develop ethical practices and social policies for the good of society and their companies. Studies indicate a positive link between ethical perceptions and consumer responses, in terms of the trust.”

What are the Types of Ethics in Business Ethics?

There are various types of business ethics. Both the nature of the company’s business and where the company is located can affect which ethics it emphasizes. The following are some of the more common business ethics.

1. Personal responsibility

Each person who works for a business, whether on the executive level or the entry-level, will be expected to show personal responsibility. This could mean completing tasks your manager has assigned to you, or simply fulfilling the duties of your job description. If you make a mistake, you acknowledge your fault and do whatever you need to do to fix it.

2. Corporate responsibility

Businesses have responsibilities to their employees, their clients or customers, and, in some cases, to their board of directors. Some of these may be contractual or legal obligations, others may be promises, for example, to conduct business fairly and to treat people with dignity and respect. Whatever those obligations are, the business has a responsibility to keep them.

3. Loyalty

Both businesses and their employees are expected to show loyalty. Employees should be loyal to their co-workers, managers, and the company. This might involve speaking positively about the business in public and only addressing personnel or corporate issues in private. Customer or client loyalty is important to a company not only to maintain good business relations but also to attract business through a good reputation.

4. Respect

Respect is an important business ethic, both in the way the business treats its clients, customers and employees, and also in the way its employees treat one another. When you show respect to someone, that person feels like a valued member of the team or an important customer. You care about their opinions, you keep your promises to them, and you work quickly to resolve any issues they may have.

5. Trustworthiness

A business cultivates trustworthiness with its clients, customers and employees through honesty, transparency and reliability. Employees should feel they can trust the business to keep to the terms of their employment. Clients and customers should be able to trust the business with their money, data, contractual obligations and confidential information. Being trustworthy encourages people to do business with you and helps you maintain a positive reputation.

6. Fairness

When a business exercises fairness, it applies the same standards for all employees regardless of rank. The same expectations with regard to honesty, integrity and responsibility placed upon the entry-level employee also apply to the CEO. The business will treat its customers with equal respect, offering the same goods and services to all based on the same terms.

7. Community and Environmental Responsibility

Not only will businesses act ethically toward their clients, customers and employees, but also with regard to the community and the environment. Many companies look for ways to give back to their communities through volunteer work or financial investments. They will also adopt measures to reduce waste and promote a safe and healthy environment.

What Other Differences are There Between Values Ethics and Laws?

In simple terms, the law may be understood as the systematic set of universally accepted rules and regulations created by an appropriate authority such as the government, which may be regional, national, international, etc. It is used to govern the action and behavior of the members and can be enforced, by imposing penalties.

Many times the term law is juxtaposed with the term ethics, but there is a difference, as ethics are the principles that guide a person or society, created to decide what is good or bad, right or wrong, in a given situation. It regulates a person’s behavior or conduct and helps an individual in living a good life, by applying moral rules and guidelines.

For a layman, these two terms are the same, but the fact is that there is a difference between law and ethics.

Basis for Comparison	Law	Ethics
Meaning	The law refers to a systematic body of rules that governs the whole society and the actions of its individual members.	Ethics is a branch of moral philosophy that guides people about the basic human conduct.
What is it?	Set of rules and regulations	Set of guidelines
Governed By	Government	Individual, Legal and Professional norms
Expression	Expressed and published in writing.	They are abstract.
Violation	Violation of law is not permissible which may result in punishment like imprisonment or fine or both.	There is no punishment for violation of ethics.
Objective	Law is created with an intent to maintain social order and peace in the society and provide protection to all the citizens.	Ethics are made to help people to decide what is right or wrong and how to act.
Binding	Law has a legal binding.	Ethics do not have a binding nature.

Law

The law is described as the set of rules and regulations, created by the government to govern the whole society. The law is universally accepted, recognized and enforced. It is created with the purpose of maintaining social order, peace, and justice in society and to provide protection to the general public and safeguarding their interest. It is made after considering ethical principles and moral values.

The law is made by the judicial system of the country. Every person in the country is bound to follow the law. It clearly defines what a person must or must not do. So, in the case of a breach of law may result in punishment or penalty or sometimes both.

Ethics

By ethics, we mean that branch of moral philosophy that guides people about what is good or bad. It is a collection of fundamental concepts and principles of an ideal human character. The principles help us in making decisions regarding, what is right or wrong. It informs us about how to act in a particular situation and make a judgment to make better choices for ourselves.

Ethics are the code of conduct agreed and adopted by the people. It sets a standard of how a person should live and interact with other people.

The major differences between law and ethics are mentioned below:

1. The law is defined as the systematic body of rules that governs the whole society and the actions of its individual members. Ethics means the science of a standard human conduct.
2. The law consists of a set of rules and regulations, whereas Ethics comprises of guidelines and principles that inform people about how to live or how to behave in a particular situation.
3. The law is created by the Government, which may be local, regional, national or international. On the other hand, ethics are governed by an individual, legal or professional norms, i.e. workplace ethics, environmental ethics and so on.
4. The law is expressed in the constitution in a written form. As opposed to ethics, it cannot be found in writing form.
5. The breach of law may result in punishment or penalty, or both which is not in the case of breach of ethics.
6. The objective of the law is to maintain social order and peace within the nation and protection to all the citizens. Unlike, ethics that are the code of conduct that helps a person to decide what is right or wrong and how to act.
7. The law creates a legal binding, but ethics has no such binding on the people.

What is the Relation Between Business Ethics and the Law?

Business ethics and the law are two interrelated terms that can exist independently of each other when it comes to business, yet intersect in various vital aspects. The reason for this intersection can be attributed to the fact that most times ethical considerations are also legally enforceable.

This is not always the case though, because some ethical considerations in business are more like an unwritten code based on basic morality that is assumed to be universal.

One of the examples of a situation where business ethics and the law intersect is in the area of contracts in business. Morality or ethics dictates that when two or more parties agree to something they should honor the agreement unless there is some form of extenuating circumstance that make sit unduly difficult, or even impossible, to fulfill the agreement.

Yet, this is not always the case since some parties to an agreement often find a way of extricating themselves from the performance of an agreement. Fortunately, this type of act is not only ethically wrong, but it is also a violation of the law of contract and the injured party may seek redress from a court of competent jurisdiction.

Business ethics and the law also intersect in the area of false representation where someone falsely presents a material fact to another party with the intention of getting the person to part with something valuable.

An example of this is when a car salesman presents a used car to a customer as if the car was brand new, causing the customer to pay the price of a new car for the used one. Clearly, such an action is ethically condemnable as well as legally actionable. This is just one of the varied instances where business ethics and the law have a confluence point.

In some countries, there are strict laws establishing the minimum wage that an employer of labor is legally mandated to pay his or her employees. This does not, however, stop some employers from looking for ways to circumvent this law. In such an instance, an unethical employer might employ some people based on their circumstances and use this as a means for paying them less than they deserve for the service they provide.

An example would be a farmer who hires some illegal immigrants to work on the farm and decides to use their illegal status as a means to pay them much less than the minimum wage. By doing so, the employer would have acted both illegally and unethically in first hiring the workers and then by underpaying them as well.

What is the Difference Between Law and Business?

The difference between commercial law and business law is that the former specifically governs how corporations are administered and managed, while the latter comprises different practice areas associated with the business; such as employment, tax, contract, and transaction law. Commercial law can thus be considered a subset of business law. It covers the formation and administration of business entities including sole proprietorships, limited liability companies (LLCs), partnerships, and corporations.

Commercial law provides a legal structure in which business is conducted and governs a wide range of areas, including but not limited to:

• Securities,
• Contracts,
• Zoning,
• Intellectual property,
• Innovation,
• Litigation,
• Franchising.

Commercial law and business law often overlap in certain areas. For example, both involve various aspects of contracts.

What Is Corporate Law?

Corporate law concerns the formation and operation of the corporate entity. This often includes the creation of the business entity, the establishment of management duties and shareholder rights, corporate operations, and the application of state and federal regulations that are associated with operating a business. Corporate law is also concerned with how profits are divided, shareholder agreements, investor agreements, the types of shares issued, and the taxation and distribution of corporate assets.

A corporate lawyer typically works within a business setting. The corporate attorney may serve as general counsel or outside general counsel to the business and will work with other departments within the corporate entity to help the business make sound decisions and stay in compliance with federal, state, and local laws. Corporate lawyers often focus on business transactions and help the business by writing contracts and avoiding litigation.

What Is Business Law?

Business law is a broader category that is concerned with how different aspects of the law impact the corporate entity. A business lawyer will often address how the corporate entity is or will be affected by business decisions and helps manage the relationships between a business and its customers, vendors, or suppliers.

The business lawyer must have a broad knowledge base that should include employment law, contracts, taxation, and litigation. The business lawyer will provide assistance when it comes to the hiring and firing of employees and maintaining a safe and fairly managed workplace.

A business lawyer will also handle the legal implications of delivery delays, defective products, licensing, and the terms and conditions that govern a business’s relationship with third parties. Business lawyers are often litigations who represent the corporation if it needs to file a lawsuit or has been sued.

What are the 7 Business Ethics?

The importance of business ethics is apparent in business operations. Business ethics guide an organization in these operations and keep them in line with laws and regulations. This guidance helps the business maintain a positive public image and reputation of respectability.

Businesses with great employee welfare attract the best talent. Business ethics lay the foundation for proper employee care. In addition, providing great welfare for employees improves employee productivity and encourages them to stay loyal to a business’s vision in the long term.

Business ethics are also important in building relationships between a business and its customers. A business with a defined and transparent operational system that treats its customers well usually develops a long-standing relationship with customers. This makes it easier for customers to trust the business and its products or services.

Business ethics also help to maintain a business’s reputation among investors, who look for transparency in a company’s dealings. In other words, they like to know exactly what their money is being used for.

There are various types of business ethics adopted by businesses depending on the nature or location of the business. Here are some standard ethics practices adopted by different businesses:

1. Personal responsibility

A level of personal responsibility is expected from business employees. This responsibility may be in completing an assigned task, reporting to work at the expected time, or being honest in the workplace. Employees are also expected to own up to their mistakes and work towards correcting them.

2. Corporate responsibility

Businesses should honor their responsibilities to their employees, partners, and customers. They need to respect the interests of all parties involved with the business. These interests may take the form of written contracts, verbal agreements, or legal obligations.

3. Social responsibility

Businesses have a responsibility to the environment where their operations are sited. Therefore, businesses are to work towards ensuring environmental protection and giving back to the community through empowerment or investments.

One way businesses have been able to achieve this is through a practice called corporate social responsibility (CSR) which has geared corporations towards environmental protection, community development, and improving the working environment by focusing on people. Figure 1 below outlines the four pillars of CSR.

4. Technology ethics

With businesses now moving their operations to the digital space through the adoption of e-commerce practices, technology business ethics are necessary. These ethics include customer data protection, customer privacy, customer personal information protection, fair intellectual properties practices, etc.

5. Trust and transparency

Trust and transparency need to be maintained with stakeholders, including customers, investors, and employees. Businesses must maintain transparency in financial reports to partners and not conceal relevant information from customers.

6. Fairness

Biases and personal beliefs are to be avoided in business decision-making processes. The business must ensure a fair chance for everyone and boost their growth and empowerment.

What are the 5 Biggest Ethical Issues Facing Businesses?

According to the Global Business Ethics Survey of 2018, employees (40%) believe that their company has a weak leaning ethical culture, and that little progress has been made to mitigate wrongdoing. Here are some of the ethical issues in business and real-world cases of how these ethical issues have affected companies.

1. Unethical Accounting

“Cooking the books” and otherwise conducting unethical accounting practices is a serious problem, especially in publicly traded companies. One of the most infamous examples is the 2001 scandal that enveloped American energy company Enron, which for years inaccurately reported its financial statements and its auditor, accounting firm Arthur Andersen, signed off on the statements despite them being incorrect.

When the truth emerged, both companies went out of business, Enron’s shareholders lost $25 billion, and although the former “Big Five” accounting firm had a small portion of its employees working with Enron, the firm’s closure resulted in 85,000 jobs lost.

Although the Federal Government responded to the Enron case and other corporate scandals by creating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, which mandates new financial reporting requirements meant to protect consumers, the “Occupy Wall Street” movement of 2011 and other issues indicate that the public still distrusts corporate financial accountability.

2. Social Media Ethics

The widespread nature of social media has made it a factor in employee conduct online and after hours. Is it ethical for companies to fire or otherwise punish employees for what they post about? Are social media posts counted as “free speech”? The line is complicated, but it is drawn when an employee’s online activities are considered disloyal to the employer, meaning that a Facebook post would go beyond complaining about work and instead do something to reduce business.

For example, a Yelp employee wrote an article on Medium, a popular blogging website, about what she perceived as awful working conditions at the influential online review company. Yelp fired her, and the author said she was let go because her post violated Yelp’s terms of conduct. Yelp’s CEO denied her claim. Was her blog post libelous, or disloyal conduct, and therefore a legitimate cause for termination?

In order to avoid ambiguity, companies should create social media policies to elucidate what constitutes an infringement, especially as more states are passing off-duty conduct laws that prohibit an employer’s ability to punish an employee for online activities.

3. Harassment and Discrimination

Racial discrimination, sexual harassment, wage inequality – are all costly ethical issues that employers and employees encounter on a daily basis across the country. According to a news release from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the EEOCC secured $505 million for victims of discrimination in the private sector and government workplaces in 2019.

The EEOC states that there are several types of discrimination, including age, disability, equal pay, genetic information, harassment, national origin, race, religion, retaliation, pregnancy, sex and sexual harassment.

One type of discrimination, family responsibilities discrimination (FRD), has had an increase in cases of 269% over the last decade, even as other forms of employment discrimination cases have decreased. FRD is found in every industry and at every level within the company, according to a 2016 report by the Center for WorkLife Law at the UC Hastings College of Law.

The report defines FRD as “when an employee suffers an adverse employment action based on unexamined biases about how workers with caregiving responsibilities will or should act, without regard to the workers’ actual performance or preferences.”

FRD includes many types of family responsibilities and caregiving, including pregnancy and eldercare. For example, a father being fired for wanting to stay home to care for his sick child, or a pregnant employee not being allowed to take a break even though it was her doctor’s orders.

These cases are expected to continue to rise due to the growing number of family members who have disabilities, the increase in people 65 and older who need care, the increase of men who are becoming caregivers, and the growing expectation for employees that they can work and provide family care. Employers will need to adjust to these employee perspectives and restructure how work can be accomplished to reduce FRD.

4. Health and Safety

The International Labour Organization (ILO) states that 7,397 people die every day from occupational accidents or work-related diseases. This results in more than 2.7 million deaths per year. According to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, the top 10 most frequently cited violations of 2018 were:

1. Fall Protection, e.g. unprotected sides and edges and leading edges
2. Hazard Communication, e.g. classifying harmful chemicals
3. Scaffolding e.g. required resistance and maximum weight numbers
4. Respiratory Protection, e.g. emergency procedures and respiratory/filter equipment standards
5. Lockout/Tagout, e.g. controlling hazardous energy such as oil and gas
6. Powered Industrial Trucks, e.g. safety requirements for fire trucks
7. Ladders, e.g. standards for how much weight a ladder can sustain
8. Electrical, Wiring Methods, i.e. procedures for how to circuit to reduce electromagnetic interference
9. Machine Guarding, e.g. clarifying that guillotine cutters, shears, power presses and other machines require point of operation guarding
10. Electrical, General Requirements; i.e. not placing conductors or equipment in damp or wet locations

Physical harm isn’t the only safety issue to be aware of, though. In 2019, an ILO report focused on rise of “psychosocial risks” and work-related stress.  These risks, which include factors like job insecurity, high demands, effort-reward imbalance, and low autonomy, have been associated with health-related behavioral risks, including a sedentary lifestyle, heavy alcohol consumption, increased cigarette smoking, and eating disorders.

5. Technology/Privacy

With developments in technological security capability, employers can now monitor their employees’ activity on their computers and other company-provided electronic devices. Electronic surveillance is supposed to ensure efficiency and productivity, but when does it cross the line and become spies?

Companies can legally monitor your company email and internet browser history; in fact, 66% of companies monitor internet connections, according to 2019 data from the American Management Association. 45% of employers track content, keystrokes, and time spent on the keyboard, and 43% store and review computer files as well as monitor email.

Overall, companies aren’t keeping this a secret: 84% told employees that they are reviewing computer activity. Employees should review the privacy policy to see how they are being monitored and consider if it can indicate a record of their job performance.

What are Ethical Concerns That Businesses Face Today?

When an activity in a business environment conflicts with moral human principles and affects individuals involved working within the organization, it becomes an ethical issue. While government-enforced rules can hold employees and employers accountable for lawbreaking conduct, they can’t entirely prevent individuals from acting unethically.

Thus it’s your responsibility as a business owner to address ethical concerns and establish clear guidelines on what behavior is and isn’t permissible in the workplace.

Discrimination 

Discrimination is still a major concern in this modern world, and the workplace is no exception. Workplace discrimination happens when an employee is treated unfairly due to prejudice towards a particular gender, age, ethnicity, religious views, and more.

For example, if a female employee who does the same amount of work as her male coworker is refused equal pay owing to her gender, it can be identified as discrimination. Regardless of whether a person is discriminated against intentionally or not, these toxic behaviors must never be entertained and must be reported to the law when necessary.

What you can do to stop discrimination in the workplace:

• Ensure that all your employees are aware of behavioral rules before joining your organization, and give people the confidence to bring discrimination to light.
• Develop a diverse workforce by hiring individuals who represent various backgrounds. Having a diverse workforce will lower the risk of discrimination and bring in different perspectives and knowledge.
• Maintain a fair and transparent pay scale and always keep a check on if anybody is over or underutilized for what they are paid.

Workplace safety 

According to a 2019 report by Safe Work Australia, 183 Australian workers lost their lives at work due to injuries sustained doing a work-related activity. Although the overall number of fatalities has been decreasing since 2007, every number above zero is one number too many.

Regardless of the size of your business or the industry you’re in, as a business owner, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring the health and safety of employees in your workplace. It’s also wise to remember that an employee’s psychological well-being is just as important as their physical health, and it’s important to pay attention to both.

What you can do to create a safe working environment:

• Regularly inspect your workplace for any potential hazards and assess if your business follows all necessary safety standards.
• Make sure your business meets the mandatory requirement for having an adequate number of trained first aiders. Apart from that, you can also train all your employees on how to handle emergency situations and give them a hands-on demonstration to use basic first aid equipment.
• Talk to your employees about their work-related stress and regularly check in to see how they’re doing.

Social media use 

It’s hard to determine the ethics of dismissing or disciplining workers for their social media behavior outside of work hours. In most situations, an employee can be fired for their online behavior given that there’s a justifiable reason (such as breaching your business policy) rather than an attempt to cover up a business’s unlawful activities. However, when the process of determining the valid reason is mishandled, it can cause serious trouble for your business.

What you can do to address ethical concerns related to your employees’ social media use:

• Set a clear social media policy for your business to help employees understand what online behavior is expected from them, why it’s important, and what consequences they may face for violation.
• Use clear and simple language while drafting your social media policy to ensure that its objective is not misunderstood.

Employee privacy  

With advancements in surveillance technology, you can now track every step your employees make on your business-owned devices. While this move is intended to ensure productivity, it can quickly become unethical when it crosses the line into snooping.

At times, employees might use their work devices to read personal emails and store private files, increasing the risk of exposing sensitive data such as health information, bank account details, personal phone numbers, and browsing history. Therefore it’s necessary to have a clear set of rules for both parties to ensure the data is being handled responsibly.

What you can do to develop good privacy practices in your workplace:

• Have a workplace privacy policy that clearly defines what information your business collects about your employees, the areas you monitor, where their information will be stored and why.
• Create strict guidelines to restrict the use of business-provided gadgets for personal use.
• Specify how you will respond to a lawful or third-party request to share an employee’s personal information.

What is the Biggest Ethical Issues Affecting the Business World?

Ethical conflicts may pose a risk for an organization, as they may imply non-compliance with relevant legislation. In other instances, ethical issues may not have legal consequences but may cause an adverse reaction from third parties.

It may be challenging to effectively manage ethical issues when no guidelines exist. For this reason, as an HR or management professional, you can help develop policies to guide employees to make the right decision when faced with moral issues.

It’s essential to understand what these issues are to manage them when they arise in the organization you work for. Knowing how to detect and deter these issues before they become problematic can help you and your colleagues focus on business success and growth instead of remediation. Here are eight examples of ethical issues that can occur in a business setting:

1. Discrimination and harassment

Two of the most significant ethical issues that HR professionals and managers face are discrimination and harassment. The consequences of discrimination and harassment in the workplace can negatively impact the finances and reputation of the organization. Many countries have anti-discrimination laws to protect employees from unfair treatment. Some anti-discrimination areas include:

• Age: Organisations and internal policies cannot discriminate against employees who are older.
• Disability: To prevent disability discrimination, it’s important to accommodate and provide equal treatment for employees with mental or physical disabilities.
• Equal pay: Equal pay focuses on ensuring that all employees receive equal compensation for similar work, regardless of religion, gender or race.
• Pregnancy: Pregnant employees have a right not to be discriminated against on account of their pregnancy.
• Race: Employees should receive equal treatment, regardless of ethnicity or race.
• Religion: Employees’ religious beliefs should not affect how anyone within the organization treats them.
• Sex and gender: An employee’s sex and gender identity should not influence their treatment while working at an organization.

As an HR professional or senior manager, you can educate employees on these issues and encourage a positive work culture to fight discrimination. All employees require an understanding of the disciplinary consequences of discriminative behavior.

You can make an effort to hire people with different backgrounds, characteristics and nationalities to ensure a diverse workforce. It’s also crucial to consider factors such as age, religion and culture when developing internal policies to be more aware and flexible regarding employees’ needs.

2. Workplace health and safety

All employees have a right to a safe working environment and work conditions. Some of the most common employee safety considerations include:

• Fall protection: This involves measures to protect employees against falls, such as guard rails.
• Hazard communication: Identify any harmful substances employees work with and communicate how to handle these hazardous materials safely.
• Scaffolding: The HR department in construction or maintenance organizations is obliged to guide employees about the maximum weight numbers structures can handle.
• Respiratory protection: If relevant, provide guidelines about emergency procedures and the standards applicable to the use of respiratory equipment.
• Lockout, tag out: This involves specifying the control procedures for dangerous machines and hazardous energy sources, such as gas and oil.
• Industrial trucks: It’s important to ensure that the required safety standards for trucks are in place to protect employees.
• Ladders: Before using ladders, employees must be given an understanding of the weight that the ladder can support.
• Electrical wiring methods: Create procedures for electrical and wiring tasks. For example, these guidelines can specify how employees can create a circuit to reduce electromagnetic interference.
• Machine guarding: It’s important to provide operation guarding instructions for items such as guillotine cutters, power presses, shears and other devices where applicable.
• General electrical regulations: Developing general electrical regulations for employees is critical for safety in work environments that require the frequent use of electrical equipment. For example, employees should never place conductors or equipment in damp or wet locations.

Health and safety guidelines don’t only cover physical harm to employees. It’s also important to consider psychosocial risks, work-related stress and mental health issues. Factors such as high work demands, job insecurity, effort-reward imbalance and low levels of autonomy can contribute to health-related behavioral risks.

3. Whistle-blowing or social media rants

Using social media has become widespread, making employees’ online conduct a critical consideration in their employment status. The consequences of punishing employees for inappropriate social media posts remain an ethical issue, and the implications of a negative social media post may influence the treatment of the employee. When an employee’s social media posts result in a loss of business or give the organization a negative reputation, you may decide to fire them.

This is why it’s helpful to specify inappropriate social media behavior in company policies to ensure employees know what to avoid. As an HR professional or management figure, you cannot penalize employees who become whistle-blowers to regulators or authorities. This is also the case for employees who raise awareness of workplace violations online unless it reduces the amount of business the organization receives.

4. Ethics in accounting practices

Laws require organizations to maintain accurate bookkeeping practices. Unethical accounting practices are a serious issue, especially for publicly traded companies. The legislation specifies financial report requirements aimed at protecting shareholders and consumers. All organizations have to keep accurate financial records and pay taxes to attract investment and business partners regardless of the size of the company.

5. Corporate espionage and nondisclosure

Many organizations are at risk that current and former employees may steal information, such as client data, for use by competitors. Stealing an organization’s intellectual property or illegally distributing private client information constitutes corporate espionage.

This is why it can be helpful to require mandatory nondisclosure agreements. As an HR professional or manager, you may also wish to set strict financial penalties for violations to discourage these types of ethical violations.

6. Technology and privacy practices

Developments in an organization’s technological security capabilities may pose privacy concerns for both employees and clients. You can monitor employees’ activity on their work computers and devices provided by the company. As a manager or HR professional, you can use this method of electronic surveillance to ensure productivity and efficiency if it doesn’t violate the employee’s privacy.

Electronic surveillance includes monitoring Internet connections and tracking keystrokes, content or time spent using the keyboard. When implementing these types of surveillance, you can act ethically by being transparent about it with employees. To ensure that employee surveillance doesn’t become an ethical issue, it’s helpful to encourage all levels of employees to consider the benefits of the surveillance system.

7. Nepotism or favouritism

As a hiring manager or HR professional, you may want to employ an acquaintance or family member because of your connection to them. Even if you adhere to recruitment policies to ensure a fair process, some employees may still consider this as nepotism or favoritism. Favoritism occurs when managers treat some employees better than others for no professional reason. This can reduce productivity and job satisfaction in other employees, which may negatively impact the entire organization.

8. Environmental responsibility

Many organizations are increasing corporate social responsibility activities. You can help create policies that ensure the organization you work for acts in a responsible way towards employees, the community and the environment.

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If you work for a large company in the oil or farming sectors, you have a more significant corporate social responsibility because of the organization’s significant impact on the environment. If you work for a smaller organization, you may wish to reduce the company’s impact on air and water quality.

What are the Purposes of Business Law?

The purposes and functions of business law include maintaining order, protecting rights and liberties, establishing standards, and resolving disputes when it comes to businesses and their interactions with individuals, government agencies, and other businesses.

• Establishing standards identifies what types of behavior are and are not accepted in society. For example, damage to person or property is considered a crime because it is not tolerated by society.
• Maintaining order is necessary for a civilized society.
• Resolving disputes allows for the mitigation of issues that arise between those with different wants, needs, views, and/or values. The court system is the formal legal method for resolving disputes and consists of both state and federal courts. Disputes can also be resolved through alternative dispute resolution, which are official but less formal methods such as mediation and arbitration.
• Protecting liberties and rights ensures each individual is allowed his or her constitutional rights, including freedom of speech and so forth.

In addition to these four core functions, the law serves many other specialized functions.

Functions of Business Law

Businesses large and small must comply with the same legal regulations. Often, this involves the expertise of a specialist who can help entrepreneurs succeed in an area such as law or finance. Some of the largest legal areas necessary in business include the following:

• Legal basics such as ethics, court system structure, substantive law, and procedural law are foundational.
• Contract law includes drafting, rights assignment, work delegation, transactions, agreements, breach of contract, and remedies for a breach. The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) is part of contract law governing sales.
• Intellectual property law (IP), including trademarks and patents, prevents others from profiting from your ideas and creations.
• Corporate law governs the formation of corporations and sale of corporate equities.
• Tax law determines how different types of businesses are taxed.
• Antitrust and competition are also included.
• Employment law governs how employers interact with their employees and the rights and responsibilities of each, minimum wage law, workplace safety, and overtime rules.
• Environmental law strives to mitigate the impact businesses have on the environment by limiting water and air pollution, regulating pesticide and chemical use, and establishing penalties for violating these laws.
• Business organization laws define major business entities, such as partnerships, limited liability companies, sole proprietorships, and corporations.
• Property law governs the personal and real property.
• Negotiable instruments law includes governance of secured transactions and bankruptcy.
• Computer law analyzes and governs the impact of computer technology on other areas of business law.

What are the Four Major Types of Business Law?

Owning a business requires great attention to detail on your part, especially when it comes to legal matters. Business agreements, employee rights and the drafting of contracts are usually required, and these tasks can all be made simpler by hiring a business attorney. There are quite a few branches and specialties within business law, and knowing what they are may help you make the best possible choice when hiring a lawyer.

1. Contract Law 

Creating contracts is usually a vital part of any business, no matter its size. Employer-employee agreements, the sale or trade of goods and partnership agreements may all be necessary as you build your company. An attorney who specializes in contract law can assist you with contract language and ensure that your best interests are being met in any written contract.

For example, if you plan to sell part of your business to invest in the formation of a secondary company, a contract attorney can help you draft a contract with the buyer in language that is agreeable for you both.

2. Antitrust Law 

Running your business in an ethical manner can help you avoid legal issues and ensure healthy competition in the market. Identifying unfair practices can be difficult, even in a small business or one that has many owners. An antitrust attorney can assist you with legal matters and help you to identify ethics issues inside your own business operations that you may not be aware of.

3. Business Tax Law 

Even small businesses are subject to a variety of tax laws that must be followed. Excise taxes, employment and property taxes on your brick-and-mortar business can affect your bottom line, as can their payment deadlines. A business tax attorney can organize and manage your tax issues, including preparing your yearly company returns and advising you about any tax breaks you may be eligible for.

4. Business Litigation Law

While you probably work to ensure your business runs smoothly, you may run into unexpected problems that require litigation. Employee disputes and breached contracts can have a serious impact on your company’s reputation and profits, and time and money spent on court cases can affect your ability to run your business on a daily basis.