While business ethics is not mandatory and does not necessarily have to
be followed business law is. Yet there is somewhat of a correlation between law
and ethics. For some cases, what is
considered as unethical is also illegal, and in other cases what is unethical
is still legal. Business Law can be defined as a body of law that governs business and commercial transactions. While business ethics can be defined as a form of applied ethics or professional ethics in a workplace. Though law personifies ethical principles, they still intertwine. Making a set of guidelines for detecting, resolving and preventing ethical breaches within a company often helps the company from getting into legal conflicts. For example when a company buys a copyrighted software program and install it on one computer it is unethical to go and install this software on multiple computers. Doing this the company is saved from federal copyright laws. A company which has good business ethics will not run into a lot of legal issues.
Sources
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/oct2007/ca20071011_458606.htm
