Even though laws are created to ensure the rights and freedoms of citizens, as well as regulate relationships, there are incidents where there is a contradiction to ethical standards. The business sector is especially susceptible to such a phenomenon, due to the specifics of the ultimate goal, namely making money. Organizations engaged in commercial activities often act unethically from a human point of view, but at the same time, they do not cross the line of the law and do not violate it (Halbert & Ingulli, 2020). The fact is that legal norms serve only to preserve security and ensure the rights of people, but do not guide ethical principles. That is why, sometimes the law is not enough for ethical obligations to be fulfilled (Halbert & Ingulli, 2020). Most effectively, these incidents can be considered with the help of vivid examples. There are situations when clothing corporations use any available tools to increase their profits. For example, the creation of unsustainable industries that require massive amounts of resources in such a way that people extracting resources is forced to work harder. On the one hand, the clothing company does not violate the law, pays taxes, does not use slave labor, and does not engage in smuggling (Halbert & Ingulli, 2020). On the other hand, the harm of its activities for ordinary working people who extract cotton or wool is obvious. This is where ethical obligations based on employee respect are violated. However, corporate management is of little concern, since the overall goal is revenue. There can be considered another example where ethical principles prevail over the law. For example, a telephone company violates privacy laws to find especially dangerous criminals. Here the situation is directly opposite to the previous one since the company is guided by an ethical obligation to help society, and protect it from criminal elements. However, for this, it is forced to violate the rights of the criminals themselves, who are citizens and are protected by law.
Reference
Halbert, T. and Ingulli, E. (2020). Law and ethics in the business environment. Cengage Learning.