Business Ethics Flashcards
What is the sin of Usury?
- Found in many religious scriptures, the act of lending money at unreasonably high interest rates
- Through all ages we have found it necessary to legislate against dishonest and deceitful business practice
What was the ethical issues of the 19th century industrial revolution?
- Employment of millions in unhygienic environments , dangerous long hours, no holidays, pollution and low wages
What were reforms made during the industrial revolution and what wasn’t?
- Earl of Shaftesbury wanted to improve general working conditions especially for children
- 1970 Equal pay act for men and women
- Until 1971 no protection against unfair dismissal, e.g women dismissed for marriage/pregnancy and one group of shops employed ‘no coloured people’
Why did the Great Dock Strike of 1889 occur? (Quote)
- Paid poorly and not guaranteed work as formen would select dockers and the rest would be left
- “the poor fellows are miserably clad… in a most miserable state” - General Manager of Millwall Docks
What did the workers do at the Great Dock Strike of 1889?
- Created an effective Trade Union
- Wore fish heads around their neck to show poverty
- Parliament were involved and morality in employment discussed
- Frederick Temple and Cardinal Henry Manning pushed for a settlement
What did Pope Leo XI’s encyclical ‘The Workers Charter’ emphasise? (Rerum Novarum)
- Condemned unbridled capitalism and materialist communism
- Set out theory of a just wage, set up wage boards and a reminder of social responsibility in business
- Followed to this day in the tradition of Natural Law
Who led the Christian Socialist Movement of 1840?
Led by Frederick Denison Maurice, John Malcolm Ludlow and Charles Kingsley
What was the aim of the Christian Social Movement of 1840? Include details about William Temple
- Find more just arrangements for business not only for the worker
- William Temple placed close attention to Natural Law tradition for social reform despite being Anglican
- In his Christianity and Social Order he coined the term ‘Welfare State’
What does a contract entail and why it has ethical issue attached?
- e.g Building a warehouse with suppliers, builders, architects with entails a series of contracts
- Contract has both duties and responsibilities, e.g o expect builder to complete the work and they expect to be paid
- There is therefore a DUTY on either side which is showing ethical connotations in contracts
Why does business not operate in a vacuum when considering contracts?
- The lives of many are affected
- We speak of rights, duties and responsibility when talking of business implying an ethical side being involved
What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
What is a Stakeholder in a business?
- Businesses have wider responsibility to governments, tax authorities and population etc
- A stakeholder is anyone with interest in a business and is affected by their activities, e.g suppliers, customers, wider community etc
Who have a Catholic Blueprint for better business and corporate social responsibility?
The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols
What are the 7 points of the Catholic Blueprint for better business?
- Human Dignity
- The Common Good
- Solidarity
- Subsidiary
- Fraternity
- Reciprocity
- Sustainability
Expand on Human Dignity
- We are all made in the image of God
- “can never merely be used as an instrument… just for their usefulness”
- Kants 2nd Form of Cat. Imperative
- William Temple emphasised things are done for the sake of people
Expand on The Common Good
- Set of social conditions which allow people more easily to develop individually and communally
- Moving beyond the goal of profit and working for the actual good of people
Expand on Solidarity
- This was a major concern of Pope St John Paul II as an expression go Donnes idea that ‘no man is an island’
- “Striving for the common good”
- We are all dependant on each other and therefore must act in solidarity with all those involved in business
Expand on Subsidiary
- Published by Pope Pius XI
- Decisions must be made at the lowest level compatible with efficiency, e.g the local village should decide where a new bench goes, not the central body in London
- “may not do the particular thing well… nevertheless desirable that it should be done by them” - JS Mill
Expand on Fraternity?
- Fellowship towards those of different cultures, central to trust and honesty
- William Temple developed ‘fellowship’ as social glue
- Aristotles civic friendship is deeper than our like or dislike for someone
Expand on Reciprocity
- Lowest level of reciprocity is justice by giving what is due through truth and honesty
- Extends to fraternity / gratuity and goes beyond duty
- Reciprocity is charity that goes beyond basic justice and is a call to go further to show generosity
Expand on Sustainability
Duty to future generations, care for resources and the environment
What is Aristotles belief about corporate social responsibility?
- Believed a good of individual is splendid but that of a community was even greater
- Community was a ‘polis’ bounded by civic friendship, mutual dependency and service
What does Robert C Solomon argue for business? (Quote)
- Argues a business is better with ethics at its centre with Aristotelian tradition
- “Values of our society - for better or worse - are essentially business values”
- Free enterprise in business does not mean a free for all world and we must consider well-being of others
What’s the broad view of a Utilitarian towards business and the market?
- Classical Utilitarianism, e.g Bentham and Mill, are committed to free market with minimal interference
- Minimal interference means only contractual regulation of the market
- As long as the free market is left to achieve the greatest good its calm
What are some definitions of ‘greatest good’ that a utilitarian might consider?
- Maximum profit for shareholders
- General Welfare
- Mill argued for freedom from non-interference
- Good of all stakeholders
Classical Utilitarianism rejects natural rights, why is this an issue?
- This would mean the greater good would be cheap high quality goods with a disregard for the smaller number of children working in a sweatshop
- Human rights activists and Kantians would argue against this
What’s the broad view of a Kantian towards business and the market?
- Introduces idea of duty for duties sake (shopkeeper example) and being ethical in business for its own sake
- Duty goes beyond the law and is a habit, responsibility and should be developed
- NOTE 2nd Categorical Imperative
How does William Temple develop the Kantian view?
- Developed 2nd Cat Imp. teleologically in ‘Christianity and Social Order’
- This puts the good of the person over the non-human
- Purpose of production is consumption and therefore manipulating the market and pricing is immoral
- We must consider the outcomes and not using buyers as mere means of profit
