Laws that Help Businesses Maintain Their Reputation

There are several laws that help businesses maintain their reputation. The reputation of a business has a direct impact on their success. This article will discuss several types of laws that help businesses maintain their reputation.

An ethical issue associated with social media use is maintaining the reputation of a company. Many social media tools can easily be used in a means that causes harm to a companies' reputation. If a reputation is harmed through the use of social media it can fall in three categories including criminal, common, and civil laws. If these laws are broken than the reputation of a company is damaged.

Criminal, civil, intellectual property, and common law are sets of rules governing ethics. E-commerce is fairly new, and the laws concerning it are constantly changing and becoming established. If a company wants to maintain its reputation it must abide by these rules and handle outside forces in regard to these laws.

Criminal laws protect society from injuries, and companies must abide by these laws to maintain their reputation. Civil laws pertain to injuries incurred to individuals, and companies must be aware that they are liable for their behavior to even the individual (Turban, King, McKay, Marshall, Lee, & Viehland, 2008, Ch 17).

Intellectual property laws deal with patents and copyrighted material. These laws are important in businesses because a reputation is based on honesty and violating intellectual property laws will damage the reputation of any company. Common laws are fairly new because they are created by judges when ruling in court cases (Turban, King, McKay, Marshall, Lee, & Viehland, 2008, Ch 17). These laws pertain to negligence, nuisances, and defamation.

All of these situations can harm the reputation of a company, and understanding the laws associated with them will help address these ethical issues by setting a uniform guideline for how to handle them. The reputation of a business or organization will lead to success or failure. If a business does not maintain a positive reputation amongst its customers it will mostly likely fail.

Reference:

Turban, E., King, D., McKay, J., Marshall, P., Lee, J., & Viehland, D. (2008). Electronic commerce 2008: A managerial perspective (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.