Chapter 5 Flashcards
Traditional View of Capitalist System
- businesspersons are less ethical than others
- alleges that profits are the only motivating force for business
- business activity requires and rewards deception
- business evades the law
- businesspersons and managers manipulate others
- business activity leads to materialism
Business Ethics
the rules, standards, codes, or principles that provide guidelines for morally right behaviour and truthfulness in specific situations.
3 Levels of Assessing Ethical Implications
- Awareness
- Assessment based upon influences
- Assessment based upon ethical principles
Level 1
assumes an awareness of moral or ethical implications of business decisions or actions.
Level 2
the one most commonly used by managers, and most individuals
Level 3
represents a more systematic analysis or assessment of ethical implications.
Value Judgments
Subjective evaluations of what is considered important; based on how managers intuitively feel about the goodness or rightness of various goals.
Influences of Individuals
Managers often make ethical decisions based on the morals they acquire while growing up.
The family or home environment is a major influence, making the personal convictions of individuals managers a source of ethical standards
Corporate or Organizational Influences
The culture of a corporation or organization influences how a manager behaves.
The behaviour of superiors and colleagues sets the tone or standard by which ethical decisions are made.
Better Business Bureau (BBB)’s mission to be the leader in advancing marketplace trust is accomplished by:
- Creating a community of trustworthy businesses
- Setting standards for marketplace trust
- Encouraging and supporting best practices
- Celebrating marketplace role models
- Denouncing substandard marketplace behaviour
Economic Efficiency Influences
Some managers assess the moral implications of a decision by its economic consequences, and a moral justification is based on the workings of a market system.
Government and the Legal System Influences
In order to maintain fair competition, fair treatment of stakeholders, and a set of laws governing business transactions, there has to be a central authority that has the power to enforce basic rules of conduct
Societal Influences
Members of society form social relationships with those of similar interests, customs, beliefs, or values. These relationships can be based on the views of a particular community - for example, a town’s reaction to a plant closure
Ethical Relativism
The belief that ethical answers depend on the situation and no universal standards or rules exist to guide or evaluate morality.
Value Judgments, Moral Standards, Ethical Principles
Self-Interest Ethic (Ethical Egoism)
Individuals or corporations set their own standards for judging the ethical implications of their actions; that is, only the individual’s values and standards are the basis for actions.
Personal Virtues Ethic
An individual’s or corporation’s behaviour is based upon being a good person or corporate citizen with attitudes and character traits such as courage, honesty, wisdom, temperance, courage, fidelity, integrity, and generosity. People should act in ways to convey a sense of honour, pride and self-worth.
Ethic of Caring
Gives attention to specific individuals or stakeholders harmed or disadvantaged and their particular circumstances.
Utilitarian Ethic
Focuses on the distribution of benefits and harms to all stakeholders with the view to maximizing benefits.
Universal Rules Ethic
ensures that managers or corporations have the same moral obligations in morally similar situations. An example is the right to privacy, which most respect.
Individual Rights Ethic
Relies on a list of agreed upon rights for everyone that will be upheld by everyone and that becomes the basis for deciding what is right, just, or fair. Examples are guarantees against arbitrary actions of government, the reinforcement of freedom of speech and religion, security against seizure of property, access to due process, and protection of privacy.
Ethic of Justice
Considers that moral decisions are based on the primary of a single value: justice which will result in an outcome that is fair.
Forms of justice/fairness
Procedural - impartial application of rules or procedures
Compensatory - stakeholders are compensated appropriately for wrongs or injustices that they have suffered, which can involve providing monetary payments.
Retributive - this form is concerned with punishing an individual or corporation in a way that fits the offence but will be just and fair.
Distributive - there is concern for how all stakeholders are treated.
Ethical Dilemmas
a situation or problem where a person has to make a difficult choice between 2 alternatives, neither of which resolves an issue or problem in an ethically acceptable fashion.
Moral Reasoning
Systematic approach to thinking or reasoning through the implications of a moral problem or issues.
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
- Pre-conventional level (stage 1 & 2)
- Conventional level (3 & 4)
- Post-conventional (5 & 6)
