lecture 4 Moral heterogeneity and tutorial B

Question 1

Universal values

Answer 1

trustworthiness (including notions of honesty integrity, transparency, reliability, and loyalty)

Respect (including notions of respect for human rights)

Responsibility (Including notions of accountability, excellence and self-restraint)

Fairness (including notions of process, impartiality, and equity)

Caring ( Including the notion of avoiding unnecessary harm)

Citizenship (including notions of obeying laws and protecting the environment)

Question 2

Ethical imperialism (thomas donaldson)

Answer 2

Trying to impose ones values or ones interpretation of seemingly universal values (individualist vs collectivist)

In some cultures, loyalty to a community - family, organization or society - is the foundation of all ethical behavior. The japanese for example, define business ethics in terms of loyalty to their companies, their business networks and their nation. Americans pllace a higher value on liberty than loyalty; the US tradition of rights empasizes equality, fairness and individual freedom. It is hard to conclude that truth lies on the one side

Question 3

Cultural relativism

Answer 3

Accept and act in accordance to the local norms

in the late 1980s some european tanneries and pharmaceutical companies were looking for cheap waste dumping sites. They approached virtually every country on africas west coast from morocco to the congo. Nigeria agreed to take highly toxic polychochorinated biphenyls. Unprotected local workers, wearing thongs and shorty, unloaded barrels of PCBs and placed them near a residential area. Neither the residents nor the workers knew that the barrels containted toxic waste

Question 4

To avoid two extremes (donaldson)

Answer 4

managers should develop good ethical judgement to be able to distinguish:

Conflict of relative development: where ethical standards conflict because of the countries different levels of economic development

Conflict of cultural tradition: ethical standard conflict stems from strongly held religious and clutural beliefs; any increase in the countries level of economic development is not likely to change the rules

Question 5

Imperialism vs relativism

Answer 5

conlfics of relative development may be solved by asking: would the practice be acceptable at home in my country were in a similar stage of economic development

In other conflicts, managers should only carry out business if they can answer no to both the following questions:

Is it possible to conduct business successfully in the host country without undertaking the practice

Is the practice a vioolation of a core human value

Question 6

By appealing to core values; donaldson is implicitly endorsing a

Answer 6

deontological approach

Learning to spot intolerable practices and to exerciese good judgement when ethical conflicts arise requires practice

There is also a recognition of the virtue ethical approach: i.e. developing ethical habits

Donaldson emphasizes the importance of moral imagination

Question 7

system thinking and Moral imagination

Answer 7

Management dilemmas arise from within a system with interdependent elements, subsystems, and networks of relationships and patterns of interaction

Against thinking about moral problems as isolated

Moral imagination:

The ability in particular circumstances to discover and evaluate possibilities not merely determined by that circumstance… or merely framed by a set of rules or rule-governed concerns

Moral Imagination: The ability to envision the full range of possibilities in a situation, considering ethical implications and creatively finding solutions that uphold moral values.

Systems Thinking: An approach to problem-solving that views problems as parts of an overall system, recognizing interrelationships and patterns rather than linear cause-and-effect chains.

Question 8

Several steps to moral imagination

Answer 8

Concentration on the network of relationships and patterns of interaction rather than on individual components of particular relationships

A multi perspective analysis

Understanding the various perspectives of he manager, the citizen, the firm, community, stae, law, tratdition, background institutions, history and other networks of relationships

Taking an evaluative perspective, asking. Who are the stakeholders we have not prioritized ? what values are at stake? which take priority, or should take priority

Pro-active leadership both withing the system and initiation structural changes

Question 9

The challenges of global management with repsect to stereotypes and moral heterogeneity

Answer 9

are not easy

Requires commitment and dedication