Michael Mitchell Bus 206 Professor Cross April 6, 2024 The Report Does Mountain Top View have an ethical or legal obligation to report the breach that occurred to their customers and recommend a course of action? Clare, first we must differentiate between matters of ethics and matters of law in business situations. The meaning and use of business law and business ethics are often mistaken to be interchangeable. They are indeed similar, but there is a difference. Ethics is the study and practice of decisions about what is good and right, guiding us when we are wondering what we should be doing in a particular situation (Kubasek et al., 2020). Business ethics is the application of ethics to the special problems and opportunities experienced by businesspeople (Kubasek et al., 2020). Ethics are shaped by peoples' values, principles, and purpose rather than unthinking habits, social conventions, or self-interest. However, the law tries to create a basic, enforceable standard of behavior necessary for a community to succeed and in which all people are treated equally (Centre, 2016). Simply, it's important to know that business ethics are the standards of behavior that businesses should be striving to uphold. Business law are the laws that businesses are mandated to follow. To strengthen Mountain Top View's image, continue to build the brand, reinforce positive morale within employees, and increase productivity it's crucial to be socially responsible. Corporate social responsibility is the responsibility of firms doing business within a community to meet the expectations that the community imposes on them (Kubasek et al., 2020).
Business ethics go hand in hand when being socially responsible. Examples of ethical responsibilities would include full disclosures, transparency for investors, desirable benefits/pay for employees, and fair treatment to all customers. The bottom line is that being socially and ethically responsible is the ticket to reaching long-term financial success and optimizing profitability. Mountain Top View is facing both legal and ethical challenges. The Information Tech lead named Steve was the employee who discovered the breach of customer information on the company site. Since only individuals who placed online orders during the first quarter of the year were the ones who were affected, Steve made the decision not to report the issue. Instead, he corrected the cause of the breach and kept quiet because he didn't feel it was necessary to say anything. Making such a decision demonstrates that he prioritized the business before ethics. The ethical and socially responsible action would have been to report the breach immediately, so the customers who were affected were aware of the situation. Being aware would have given them the opportunity to monitor and take further actions to protect their personal data if they deemed necessary. It doesn't make a difference regarding the number of people affected. Any data breach should have been reported immediately. This is a major violation of corporate social responsibility. The violation could potentially cause serious negative consequences for many customers. Customers have an expectation that their personal data is protected especially