Virtue ethics is a general classification for ideas that emphasize the significance of personality and virtue rather than fulfilling one’s duty or acting to get successful outcomes. Most virtue ethics ideas are based on Aristotle’s definition of an ethical person as someone with perfect personality characteristics. This philosophical approach could be employed in various spheres of human activity. As such, one of the applications of virtue ethics exists in business: companies develop their codes of ethics to create comfortable working conditions, a favorable psychological climate in the industry. With the help of the principle of ethics, it is possible to unite all members of the team, to form a corporate culture. A code of ethics might help solve a variety of socio-economic problems, one of which is sex workers’ activity. According to the article In defense of NOW Magazine’s sex workers’ ads by Scott (2017), the marketing of sex professions is perceived sharply negatively. The central solution for this issue is the code of conduct for sex workers that includes restrictions on employees’ ability to influence other people’s decision to participate in the industry.
This solution supposes several important notions and implementation tactics. Namely, clear guidelines should be developed for all industry employees associated with escort, prostitution and other related professions (Scott, 2017). This will create a reputation for this profession as just one of the opportunities for earning money, while not forcing or creating an artificial image around its components. Moreover, this code of ethics provides some aspects of safety and freedom of choice (Babri et al., 2021). In this regard, the attitude of society towards the profession should change, as employees will no longer promote this profession as untruthfully attractive, but only show its internal components. Hence, via ethical marketing filtering, representatives of the sex industry will be able to work in the market without restrictions, since this will only be a personal choice of each person. By adding a limit on unethical marketing to the profession, its participants will be able to enter the market as a standard line of business.
The proposed solution has key influences on the related firms’ governance and advertising. As such, in order to conduct business in the sex industry adequately and correctly, it is very important that marketing staff always act ethically and respectfully treat customers, regardless of their national, racial, cultural or religious affiliation. The position of the direction in matters of compliance with the socio-ethical and moral principles of marketing depends mainly on the position of the leaders (Furlotti & Mazza, 2020). It is the leaders who, in their practical activities, face many moral and ethical problems when making decisions without transgressing the norms of integrity.
The other effect of the presence of an ethical component of truthful marketing in the sex industry is that it can be negatively perceived by business stakeholders involved in the process of promotion, development, and profit from the activity. This is due to the fact that its external attractiveness is important for promoting a business. If a business is not attractive to customers and potential employees, it is difficult for it to stay in a competitive market. However, at the same time, a positive opinion from the community can open up new business opportunities without restrictive and regulatory measures due to strict internal marketing compliance. More social media will be willing to cooperate with businesses that do not cause negative public opinion.
Any commercial orientation is influenced by external demand from the customers; hence, there are factors outside the firms that might influence the issue and its solution. First, it is important that the profession creates an adequate image in publicity, including discussions, media, and internal communications. Otherwise, this will lead to a decrease in demand from customers and partners and will not allow further development, including marketing, which may be limited due to a negative impression. Moreover, the legislation and norms of behavior of a particular country where the activity of the profession takes place have an external influence.
Negative impressions and norms of behavior regarding the sex industry could be examined to assess their influence. Prostitution is often considered a contentious sexual practice that involves the sale of sexual services. Many individuals, particularly those with traditional religious beliefs, feel prostitution is unethical because it includes money paid for intercourse, and they see it as a reflection of society’s moral deterioration. However, in Toronto, where the solution to the ethical issue is implemented, behavior norms suggest that there is nothing criminal and condemned in sex work. Yet, in other cities and countries, the situation is more polarized and affects the industry.
As for legality, it affects the industry drastically, providing either restriction of the business or regulation of its operations. Prostitution is illegal in most countries of the world, although some ban only brothels and not sex work entirely (World Population Review, n.d.). In Canada, the government of the case discussed earlier, prostitution is permitted in Canada, however, it is strictly regulated. It is prohibited to converse with the goal of purchasing sex and acquiring sex services. It is permissible for sex workers to promote their own activities, but it is not allowed for them to advertise the services of others (World Population Review, n.d.). Thus, ethical marketing could be implemented only in countries with a legal status of sex work.
It is important that the marketing function of advertising provides potential buyers or customers with correct information without distorting the essence. It is unethical to put undue pressure on the buyer by the seller or agent to force him to purchase the product. The result of these actions is that the client does not buy the proposed product and ceases to trust this company. Such a client may inform the management of the company that it is being pressured by its representatives. A special ethical aspect of marketing is the honesty and integrity of the seller or other person representing the product (Belk, 2020). If the representative of the profession is dishonest and unscrupulous when dealing with customers, relationship problems may arise. The dishonesty of members of the profession can result in legal action and negative public opinion.
Additionally, the absence of a full-fledged corporate ethics can affect the regulation of the state. In modern management technologies, work with people is becoming increasingly important, which includes many aspects including increasing the professionalism of employees and their production efficiency, loyalty management, reducing conflict and stress levels in the team. The key system tools in the field of human factor management are corporate culture and the ethical code of the organization. The creation and implementation of a corporate code of business ethics solves many organizational and strategic tasks (Jannat et al., 2022). Internally, the formation of corporate culture is influenced by the mission and goals of the organization, development strategy, the nature and content of work, qualifications, education, the general level of culture of employees, and many other factors.
Relationships between the business segment and society affect the entire nature of business communication, largely determining its psychological climate. This concerns, first of all, the orders that are given in the management process, the criteria for service discipline, the participation of subordinates in decision-making, and methods of encouraging more active actions. The dissimilarity of people to each other creates favorable conditions for a person to acquire new skills and abilities, and improve existing ones. However, on the other hand, the more differences in the characters, upbringing, education and cultural level of interacting partners, the more opportunities for contradictions and conflicts between them are present.
Corporate ethics may include a phrase about the impossibility of spreading false information about aspects of work. First of all, it is important for a business segment to start by conducting a diagnosis of the situation, identifying potential areas of conflict of interest, contradictions within the organization and in its external relations with customers and partners. Further, the company’s management should create an image of the ideal employee by describing the desired behavior in conflict and difficult ethical situations (Purwanto et al., 2019). For each organization and business segment the ideal employee factors are individual. Depending on the identified features, the structure of the code should be formed including the content, chapters, and a text of the code.
Utilitarianism could also be viewed as a helpful approach to the discussed issue. Utilitarianism is a set of connected ethical views, not a singular point of view. What these philosophies have in common is that they all aim to improve the existence of all sentient creatures in order to make the most significant possible impact on the planet. According to utilitarianism, we should offer equal moral respect to the well-being of all persons, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and race. Regarding classical utilitarianism, society should conduct itself in such a way that the world has the largest total of pleasant experiences over bad experiences.
The claim that people should act in a manner that would multiply their positive emotions and minimize negative experiences can be adopted as part of the code of ethics in the sex industry. The values of the recommended approach are reflected in this statement. Namely, sex work is not banned, which means that people can enjoy these services if needed, increasing their well-being. At the same time, marketing of the prostitution is restricted and truthful, which means that no one would acquire this profession against their will and without naïve expectations. Thus, harmful experiences would be reduced to a minimum as well.
The addition of these utilitarian maxima will help to address the issue of unsafe working conditions and negative perceptions of prostitution. Namely, this ethical claim would prevent both leaders of the industry as well as the customers from exploiting the workers since its core would be a pleasure with no adverse consequences. Moreover, the comprehension that ethical marketing saves lives of sex workers as well as contributes to the common well-being could change the public view of the profession.
References
Babri, M., Davidson, B., & Helin, S. (2021). An updated inquiry into the study of corporate codes of ethics: 2005–2016. Journal of Business Ethics, 168(1), 71-108.
Belk, R. (2020). Resurrecting marketing. AMS Review, 10(3), 168-171.
Furlotti, K., & Mazza, T. (2020). Code of ethics and workers’ communication policies: The role of corporate governance. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(6), 3060-3072.
Jannat, T., Alam, S. S., Ho, Y. H., Omar, N. A., & Lin, C. Y. (2022). Can corporate ethics programs reduce unethical behavior? Threat appraisal or coping appraisal. Journal of Business Ethics, 176(1), 37-53.
Purwanto, R. M., Mukharrom, T., Zhilyakov, D. I., Pamuji, E., & Shankar, K. (2019). Study the importance of business ethics and ethical marketing in digital era. Journal of Critical Reviews, 6(5), 150-154. Web.
Scott, V. (2017). In defense of NOW Magazine’s sex workers’ ads. Web.
World Population Review. (n.d.). Countries where prostitution is legal 2022.