AN ASSESSMENT OF BUSINESS ETHICS PRACTICES: THE CASE OF ZEMILLI PAINT FACTORY

Abstract

The study was conducted at Zemili Paint factory with the general purpose of examining the business ethics practices of the factory. The significance of the study is that based on the finding; the factory can find itself “where it is” in terms of exercising a good business ethics and take corrective action if necessary. In this study, three business ethical issues were explained and explored; .Employee health and safety program of the company was explored. Contributions of the company to local community development program were pointed out. Finally, the attitude of the company towards environmental protection and the mechanism they are using to reduce the pollution of the environment were highlighted. Data were collected through questionnaire and interview. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and software package for social science (SPSS version 20). Based on the finding the absence of formal business ethics practices may make the factory unaware to extract the possible opportunities from business ethics. The Factory is not undertaking a risk assessment to identify and control hazards which could arise. The factory does not have public relation department, as a result there is no document concerning the society development programs they participate. So in light of the above problems, the following recommendations were forwarded. The factory had better make use of indictors of formal business ethics like Written ethical standards Training program on business ethics and Ethical committee or ethical officer and the factory should undertake a risk assessment to identify and control hazards which could arise at the work place and finally should form public relation department, through which it can influence public attitudes towards the factory