As a business ethics keynote speaker, corporate social responsibility consultant, and business ethics author, I am intensely aware of ethical issues in business. 

What are the 5 Most Common Ethical Issues in Business?

By widespread consensus, the most common ethical issues for 2022 were as follows (and I have combined the original eight down to five):

1. Social media and lack of data protection

2. Diversity and inclusion issues; sexual, religious, and harassment issues

3. Environmental and safety

4. Accounting and compliance issues

5. Bias, including nepotism and favoritism

In this post on the 5 Most Common Ethical Issues in Business for 2022, I would like to ethically examine each one of these issues in a bit more depth. As I always point out in my keynote speeches on business ethics and corporate social responsibility, each of the critical issues could take an hour or more in and of itself.

• Social media and data protection: The unethical abuses of social media and data protection are often linked. Despite corporate policies about not posting a personal opinion, privileged information, or opening suspicious links (and the list goes on), employees believe they can outsmart experienced hackers or work in non-secure environments. The abuses of confidential information have increased, especially during remote and, now, more hybrid work situations. This ethical issue can extend from egregious HIPAA violations, exposing client financial information, and posting hateful messaging.

• Diversity and inclusion issues: This set of unethical practices encompasses not only employees within an organization but also board members, vendors, contract labor, and remote sales teams. Sexual harassment and/or bullying are an abomination to any modern workplace. Zero tolerance means just that. It is an attitude that must extend from the CEO to the newest hire.

• Environmental and safety issues: This is much more than dumping something into the ocean but the whole range of sales and marketing misrepresentations of pollution data or misstatements of environmental impact or similar practices. I include safety in this area for this post because no company can tout its sterling environmental protection record if it doesn’t protect the very workers that produce, build, store or transport their products or services. Any employee death or injury is one too many. Safety data during and after the pandemic is quite discouraging. The National Safety Council statistics clearly indicate companies could be doing much more to protect the valuable assets relied upon to drive revenues and make what the organization sells.

• Accounting and compliance issues: As a business ethics keynote speaker, business ethics consultant, and business ethics author, I was surprised but not shocked at the massive amount of fraud that has transpired over the past few years. From healthcare scams to banking, billions of dollars were stolen and/or misappropriated. If there is a lack of oversight and a need, fraudsters will find a way to abuse the system. When not if, they are caught, rationalization is bound to occur. 

• Bias, including nepotism and favoritism: Bias frequently occurs when there is a lack of ethical buy-in and a dynamic of favoritism that has been allowed to permeate the organization. Recently, corporations have been hard-hit by the so-called “Great Resignation.” HR departments are scrambling to determine the “why.” In many cases, they need to look no further than endemic bias and a lack of advancement possibilities created by partiality.

Ethical choices will not get easier.

There has been a seismic shift in the whole area of corporate social responsibility. Skepticism of business ethics has grown into a more direct-action, higher expectation set of performance parameters on CEOs and their organizations. As a business ethics keynote speaker who has spent more than 25 years speaking and consulting with companies, I wholeheartedly support greater investor and employee scrutiny of organizations.

Good ethics have been proven time and time again to lead to higher profitability. The ethical choices will not get easier; either encourage greater ethics or be prepared to lose industry status, money, and reputation.