Honesty in Business

"When 4,500 high school students were asked by Don McCabe of Rutgers if they'd ever cheated on tests or exams, roughly three quarters admitted they had. When McCabe asked them if they'd ever cheated on homework, 97 percent said yes" (Ivry 1). Inculcating honesty should be a first priority in schooling. Dishonesty is becoming more and more common in all aspects of everyday life. If this many students were caught cheating on something as simple as homework, how many of them will continue to cheat once they are out in the workforce? A press release put out by Earlham College has an appropriate title for this subject, "Society Must Demand Honesty in Business, Say Entrepreneurs" (Society Must...1). In the world today trustworthy relationships between businesses are rapidly decreasing and they should be increasing.

Ethical decisions are made everyday in the business world. In an interview with a small family business owner, Jeff Hammer of Hammer's L.L.C, was asked what the most difficult ethical decision he had to make in regard to his business. His reply was about shortages and overages of merchandise. Hammer said that most businesses always report shortages, but "overages are where your personal ethics and credibility are at stake" (Hammer 1). Hammer says when dealing with other businesses and making relationships honesty is the only way to go. So the question is, does he report the overages? "If you expect people to be honest with you, you have to be honest in return that is how you build relationships" (Hammer 1). Eric Berg says, "You face ethical decisions everyday in business. Mostly they are small and ordinary things, and you make the right choice because that is the way you operate your business" (Society Must...2)

Honesty should always come first when making decisions. In an article by the Journal of Business Strategy, a famous quote by Thomas Jefferson is interjected, "Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom" (Honesty 2). In order to have a successful business, honesty must be the first rule. If business owners can not trust each other, how do they expect their customers to trust them as well? Claudia H. Deutsch says, "More than ever, Americans do not trust businesses or the people who run it" (1). Eventually the people businesses