Business ethics and human rights intersect in important ways. Business ethics involves principles intended to guide business conduct. Business ethics is concerned with the fairness, rightness, wrongness or justice of actions, decisions, policies and practices that take place within a business context or workplace. Ethics involves a set of principles or code of conduct by which activities are judged to be either appropriate or questionable.
Human rights is a major arena in which businesses are expected to engage in ethical behavior. Human rights are basic rights that are regarded as essential for all human beings and in business, and this involves employees, customers and all stakeholders with which the company has a relationship.
For purposes of discussion, let’s focus on human rights issues in the workplace. Companies affect human rights directly through their labor practices, supply chains, community impacts and technology. In some environments, abuses such as forced labor, child labor, discrimination and unsafe working conditions are prevalent.
From a business ethics perspective, the notion of human rights argues for standards that are seen as establishing minimum expectations for company practices. In some states or regions, these standards are established and dictated by law. In some regions, however, human rights violations continue due to weak or poorly enforced laws and some businesses take advantage of regulatory weaknesses.
Firms striving to engage in ethical behavior and practices will regard employee stakeholders with the highest priority. Ideally, businesses’ ethical duties are embedded in organizational systems but this is not always the case. In many instances, it simply requires cognizant executives to intervene because of their own due diligence or moral sense of appropriate behavior.
Ethics in the human rights arena are important not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because businesses’ reputations are at stake as well. Reputational damage can lead to withdrawal of investors, litigation and increasing regulations. Consequently, ethical alignment with human rights protections is not only the right course of action but is also strategically essential for successful businesses.
Several global companies with robust human rights ethics include Patagonia, Unilever, and Microsoft. Patagonia strives to embed worker rights into their sourcing decisions. They also seek to avoid high-risk factories. Unilever exercises strong due diligence across its global supply chains. Microsoft has strong policies on employee privacy, freedom of expression and digital human rights. Despite these good examples, many companies pay little attention to human rights ethics.
Though ethical companies work diligently to protect human rights, they are large corporations and it’s not always possible to identify and correct every weakness or abuse. Companies striving to enforce ethical human rights policies, such as these, will regard legal requirements as a moral minimum and will go beyond compliance and will seek to augment policies and practices that may be weak, inadequate or overlooked. In turn, they will accept responsibility for their actions and take steps to remedy their inadequacies and develop stronger relationships with stakeholder groups seeking to represent all, but especially, vulnerable populations.
Professor emeritus, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, USA. Dr. Carroll received his three academic degrees in management (1965; 1966; 1972) from the College of Business, The Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida USA). He is founding author and now co-author of BUSINESS & SOCIETY: ETHICS, SUSTAINABILITY & STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT (2023), 11th edition, with Jill A Brown; Co-author of CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY: THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE which won the 2014 BEST BOOK AWARD at the Academy of Management--Social Issues in Management Meeting; and Author of BUSINESS ETHICS: BRIEF READINGS ON VITAL TOPICS. Carroll won the first Lifetime Achievement Award in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from the Institute of Management, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Management, International Association for Business & Society, and the Southern Management Association. He has published over 100 articles, and his citations exceed 100,000 according to Google Scholar Citations.