The terms ‘ethics’ and ‘business ethics’ are two different aspects.

ETHICS : At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy.

BUSINESS ETHICS: Business ethics is the study of proper business policies and practices regarding potentially controversial issues such as corporate governance insider trading bribery, discrimination, corporate social responsibility and fiduciary responsibilities. Law often guides business ethics, while other times business ethics provide a basic framework that businesses may follow to gain public acceptance

It is optional for an organisation to be ethical because it only relates with the moral values. Ethics play a vital role in each and every phase of the business like

• Finance
• Human Resource 
• Production 
• Marketing 
• Research 

1. FINANCE :

Finance refers to the management of large amounts of money. It is also known as ‘art of money management.’

Ethical Issues in Finance :  Finance mangers are often confronted with ethical issues like:

• Full disclosure and transparency 
• Professional duty vs company demands 
• Individual judgements vs demand from clients
• Accuracy
• Timeliness

Unethical Issues in Finance : Following are some unethical issues of finance:

• Delays in payments to vendors and dealers.
• Delays in paying wages, interest to financiers, incentives and bonus to employees.
• Opening of current accounts in different banks to avoid adjustments against loans by earlier banker.
• Taking private finance from only those who are ready to do personal favours to finance department head.

2. ETHICS IN PRODUCTION PROCESS :

Ethics are needed in production to ensure that the production function or activities are not damaging to the consumers or the society.

Ethical Issues in Production : Nowadays it is very difficult for an organisation to survive in the competitive market. It can make its place by adopting ethics as it adds to the reputation. Following are the ethical issues in production:.

• It increase the faith and loyalty of customers.
• It increases the sale of that product.
• The increased sales raise the profit margin of the company.
  
  For ex :  supply chain control - It is difficult to know what every individual at every plant is doing on a daily basis. The expectation is everyone is following the rules in exchange for a paycheck, and in most instances, that would be the case. But as business has been globalized, and companies have worldwide plants manufacturing goods 24/7, ethical deviation rears its ugly head. This is not to say that certain countries are less ethical than others, but the message becomes diluted as it makes its way from the sterile corporate headquarters to a plant far away and then down the rabbit hole to contractors and sub-contractors. Suddenly, "do no harm" becomes "do no harm within a certain price range or as long as no one finds out."

Unethical  Issues of Production : One of the most important characteristics of the business is that there is a great degree of interdependence between various business functions. In order to survive in the competitive sphere organisations, some organisations try to reduce their cost involved in production processes. It ultimately leads to harmful consequences. For ex : 1.Technological advancements like genetically modified food, radiations from mobile phones, etc.
2.Defective services and products like alcohol, tobacco, fast motor vehicles, hemical manufacturing, etc.
3.Production also increases pollution, global warming, water toxicity and depletes natural resources.

3. ETHICS IN HUMAN RESOURCE :

Human Resource means the collection of people and their characteristics at work. Human Resource Management is a management function that helps managers to manage the employees of the organisation.

Ethical Issues in Human Resource : The operations of an organisation depend upon the Human Resource like production, marketing, management, etc. An employee has to follow personal and professional ethics to set up good image. Then these ethics are set as the standards to be followed by other employees.

Following are the ethical issues faced by HR:

•  
• Employment issues. 
• Employees discrimination. 
• Performance appraisal policy.
• Privacy.
• Safety and healthcare. 
• Incentive & bonus plans

Unethical  Issues in Hunan Resource : Some employees behave unethically which brings loss to the organisation. These kind of employees are punished and penalised so that other employees couldn’t do that. Some of the unethical issues in HR are:

• Misusing company time.
• Abusive behaviour .
• Employee theft.
• Lying to employees. 
• Violating company interest policies.

4. MARKETING :

Marketing means the action of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.

Ethical Issues in Marketing : Each marketing concept has its own ethical issues which are mentioned below:

• Delivery channels
• Deceptive marketing policies and ethics 
• Pricing ethics 
• Anti-competitive practices 
• Ethics in advertising and promotion. 

Unethical Issues in Marketing : Unethical marketing practices tend the organisation to lose faith and loyalty of customers and the profitability falls down. The worst practices of the marketing are:

• Misleading statements 
• Making false comparisons about rival product
• Applying unnecessary pressure 
• Exploiting emotions 
• Stereotyping