Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

Ethical violations can occur anywhere, including in the business world. To get huge profit, many companies often try to justify any. In fact, the actual practice of cheating is not only detrimental to society, but is detrimental to the company itself. 

That was conveyed by Business Ethics and Accounting Professionals Expert of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and the Vice Dean for Academic and Student Affairs of Faculty of Economics and Business UGM (FEB UGM), Prof. Mahfud Sholihin, Ph.D. He said, businesses that were built unethically certainly would not be sustainable. "Unethical business will harm society. Business ethics has a positive impact on businesses and companies, the community also benefits from it, "he explained when contacted by Kagama.co.id.

Although many have understood the consequences of violating business ethics, it seems that awareness of the importance of business ethics needs to be encouraged. Because, in the practice, still often found violations of business ethics by irresponsible business people in Indonesia. These irresponsible business practices still tend to ignore ethics, a sense of fairness and commonly characterized by dishonorable practices or moral hazard.

For example, when viewed from an environmental perspective, ethical business, according to Mahfud, is a business that will not damage the environment. This happens because if the company damages the environment in the long run, then the company will certainly be affected by the problem. Even worse the impact that occurs in the future, the damaged environment can be a source of disaster. Mahfud added that there are other ethical violations that are often encountered, for example ethical violations against employees, especially related to salary, severance pay, working hours, and so on. "Ethical business, surely employees will be committed to the company, they can even work more than the expectations of the company and be more innovative, so it benefits the company," said Mahfud.

Vice versa, an ethical business is a business that also reduces the probability of employees being fired or laid off. Especially in the current digital era, referring to the thinking of an expert, Mahfud explained that latent business ethics issues, identification includes bribery, theft, coercion, intimidation, fraud, and discrimination.

"For example fraud in the digital age, forms such as profit manipulation and information manipulation. Likewise, theft of personal data via digital platforms. Five latent dangers that still occur in the digital age, "he said.

Quoting from one of the experts, Mahfud said that ethical issues are mostly found in the digital age, including privacy, nanotechnology, shifting people's work with technology, and so on. "Unfortunately, the unethical business environment in the digital age has an increasingly massive impact," Mahfud said.

He revealed that there are differences in violations of business ethics. In the past, the impact of violating business ethics only spread in the environment around the company. However, in this digital era the impact can be wider, even to the global level. "At this time the digital era is inevitable, but efforts must be made to reduce violations of business ethics, so it won’t be harmful for people," he explained.

Mahfud said that this is the time for Ethics Education to play a role in combating violations of business ethics in the digital era like now. As an example at the college level, he said that it was important to present a course focused on discussing business ethics. Better yet, he suggested that college insert business ethics understandings in each subject, especially those directly related to the business world and the economy. According to him, this is important because building a process for ethical behavior must begin with building awareness. Because, many people are not aware that they violate business ethics. He gave an example of behavior related to the unconscious.

"Unconsciously it has even become a habit, for example using office items for personal affair," he explained.

"That's because they don't realize there is such thing as an ethical issue, so they provide judgment that everything they do is safe because it was done unconsciously," he added.

Mahfud argued that after building awareness, it is important then to understand about various ethical violations, to bring up the intention not to violate ethics. However, of course these intentions need support from the environment. For this reason, he suggested that the business and government environment should have good regulations to regulate this. "Then what is just as important is enforcement. Whoever is wrong must be punished, in order to have a deterrent effect, "he said when asked what regulations should be applied. According to Mahfud, new ethics can be effectively enforced if they are supported by legal instruments, so there is a need for legislation that is concerned with discussing business ethics issues.

Source: Kagama.co.id