88 Examples of Ethical Issues

John Spacey, August 31, 2022

Ethical issues are questions of right and wrong that face a society, community, organization, corporation, institution, family or individual. These include areas such as the social, environmental and economic impact of your actions and inactions. The following are common examples of ethical issues.

Addictive Products & Services	Advertising to Children
Ageism	Air Pollution
Animal Welfare	Anti-Competitive Practices
Barrier Free Environments	Biases
Bullying	Civility, Tolerance & Mutual Respect
Conflict Of Interest	Corporate Accountability
Corporate Espionage	Corporate Political Influence
Corruption	Cronyism
Debt Bondage	Disaster Resilience / Readiness
Discrimination	Disinformation
Dual Agency	Due Diligence (care and concern in your work)
Education Costs	Education Quality / Access to Education
Employer / Employee / Candidate Ghosting	Environmental Impact of Business
Environmental Justice	Environmental Mismanagement
Failure to Manage Risk	Fair Wages
Favoritism	Fiduciary Duty
Food Security	Freedom of Assembly & Association
Freedom of Movement	Freedom of Speech
Harassment	Historical Preservation
Honesty & Candor	Human Accountability for Automation / AI
Human Rights	Inappropriate Gifts
Incompetence	Indigenous Rights
Information Security Issues (e.g. data leaks)	Insubordination
Invalid Expenses	Land Degradation
Layoffs / Firing	Legal Rights
Light Pollution	Living Conditions / Access to Housing
Medical Costs	Misinformation
Misinterpreting / Misrepresenting Data	Misleading Advertising / Marketing
Mismanagement	Misspending / Overspending
Misuse of Company Time	Nepotism
Noise Pollution	Objectivity
Political Rights	Poor Working Conditions
Poverty	Power Harassment
Privacy	Product Safety
Product Transparency	Professional Conduct
Profiteering	Public Access (e.g. to a beach surrounded by private property)
Questionable Accounting	Racism
Refugees	Resource Depletion
Respect for Intellectual Property	Secrecy / Transparency
Self Dealing	Service Quality (e.g. a telecom service that is often down with high impact to society)
Sexism	Social Impact of Business
Tax Avoidance	Tax Burden (e.g. regressive taxation)
Unethical Non-Disclosure Agreements	Unhealthy Products
Water Pollution	Workplace Health & Safety

The list above is non-exhaustive as thousands of common ethical issues may exist.

Detailed Example

Ethical issues often involve grey areas where the "right" thing to do is somewhat debatable. For example, a castle that is being completely rebuilt according to its original plans. These plans include barriers such that many people with disabilities will be unable to access the site. The designs also do not meet modern standards for safety in areas such as fire exits and earthquake resilience. Some might argue the designs should be updated to balance historical authenticity with the need to meet modern standards of access and safety. Others might argue that this detracts from the cultural heritage of the site as a castle with modern features isn't authentic.