business

Question 1

what is corporate social responsibility?

Answer 1

This is the concept that corporations should be accountable for their actions and the impacts they have

Question 2

what responsibilities do businesses have?

Answer 2

They have responsibilities to their shareholders.

Question 3

what are shareholders?

Answer 3

They are people who invest in the business and trust the managers of the business to use their money wisely and make profit for them.

Question 4

businesses also have responsibilities to who?

Answer 4

For their employees, for example providing them with safe working conditions and recruiting in a fair way.

Question 5

Milton Friedman argued that?

Answer 5

That only responsibility businesses have is to make profit for their stakeholders.

Question 6

others argue that businesses also have a duty and responsibilities towards who?

Answer 6

The community in which it operates, for example by trying to limit its negative effects on the environment. Anyone who is affected by the operation of a business is a stakeholder.

Question 7

What do businesses risk?

Answer 7

They risk damage to their reputations if they do things which have an negative effect on their stakeholders, such as being too noisy or creating litter.

Question 8

Many businesses find what?

Answer 8

Many businesses find that the interests of their stakeholders and shareholders conflict. This causes problems.

Question 9

Businesses try to enhance what?

Answer 9

They often try to enhance their ethical reputation by contributing to the community in a public way, such as giving surplus food to food banks or sponsoring local charity.

Question 10

For Kantians an action is only good if what?

Answer 10

If it comes from good will and nothing else.

Question 11

The utilitarian would need to weigh up what?

Answer 11

weigh up the potential pain and pleasure that corporate social responsibility might generate.

Question 12

what is whistle blowing?

Answer 12

when an employee of a business decides to make public their belief that the business is acting unethically.

Question 13

when do people tend to whistle blow?

Answer 13

When they think that the normal complaints procedure within the business will not remedy the situation or they will be punished for bringing up the problem.

Question 14

Whistle-blowers may also do what?

Answer 14

might go to some other authority such as the police, or might go to the press. They might express their concerns anonymously.

Question 15

why are sometime whistle blowers considered to be acting unethically?

Answer 15

When they bring the business into disrepute and could have handled the problem more discreetly, or when they present only one side of the story.

Question 16

what does good ethics is good business mean?

Answer 16

is a slogan that claims doing the right thing will make a business more attractive and increase its profits because customers will like and trust it.

Question 17

what can good ethics is good business also be interpreted to mean?

Answer 17

when businesses seem to be acting ethically, they are only doing it to increase their profits.

Question 18

How can good ethics be difficult for businesses?

Answer 18

sometimes an action that is beneficial for one group of people can have completely the opposite effect on others- keeping milk prices low in shop is beneficial for customer but harmful for farmers.

Question 19

how does good ethical practices make it difficult for a business to succeed alongside its competitors?

Answer 19

if it plays its factory workers a living wage, it might have to charge more for its products, but if the prices are too high then customers might shop with competitors instead.

Question 20

It is often difficult to think what?

Answer 20

To know how good ethics will affect people in the long term.

Question 21

some people think what?

Answer 21

That a compromise decision is the only practical one, where ethical expertise is brought in for the big, important decisions only.