Danger signs of unethical behavior: How to determine if your firm is at ethical risk

This paper is designed to do three things. First, it discusses some of the key trends in business ethics in the academic and corporate communities. Initiatives like the Arthur Andersen Business Ethics Program are noted. Secondly, the paper examines certain basic misconceptions about the field and concludes that the adage that good ethics is good business is still true. Finally, the paper highlights fourteen business attitudes or practices that may put a firm at ethical risk. For example, the paper discusses the risk of using ethics as simply a public relations initiative.Man's life is not a state of unalloyed happiness. The earth is no paradise. Although this is not the fault of social institutions, people are wont to hold them responsible for it. The foundation of any and every civilization, including our own, is private ownership of the means of production. Whoever wishes to criticize modern civilization, therefore, begins with private property. It is blamed for everything that does not please the critic, especially those evils that have their origin in the fact that private property has been hampered and restrained in various respects so that its full social potentialities cannot be realized.¹ Ludwig von Mises Robert Allan Cooke is Director of the Institute for Business Ethics at DePaul University. He has served as a member of the executive board of the Corporate Responsibility Group of Chicago, the educational subcommittee of Chicago United, and as an academic advisor for the Heartland Institute. He serves as project liason on the advisory council of the Arthur Andersen Business Ethics Program. He is also a management consultant in corporate training who frequently lectures to business and civic groups. His most recent publication is: The Ethical Side of Takeovers and Mergers, with Earl Young, Essentials of Business Ethics (New American Library, 1990).