ABSTRACT
Most managers would accept the statement that every business has to observe certain obligations which modify the way it operates. There would be widespread disagreement over the extent and nature of these obligations and the way in which they should be allowed to influence or interfere with business decisions and actions. In general terms it might be said that every business has obligations towards its shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, and to the community. Yet the way in which it observes these obligations will vary from staying just on the right side of those which are enforced by law to having so violent a conviction about a particular principle that application of it becomes almost a crusade. There is as much variation in the business philosophies of corporations as there is in the standards of ethics of individual people.
