Part C - Business ethics

Question 1

Business

Answer 1

Person or person offering goods or services to others with the aim of making a profit.

Question 2

Definition

Answer 2

The standards for morally right and wrong conduct in business.
How you treat your staff, what you expect of staff. What if staff member behaves unethically?Ethical behaviour usually viewed as being positive i.e. telling the truth, behaving with integrity etc

To some people, businesses are interested in making money, and that is the bottom line. Making money is not wrong in itself.
It is the manner in which some businesses conduct themselves that brings up the question of ethical behaviour.

Question 3

Types of ethical issues

Answer 3

Employee-Employer Relations (e.g. employee theft)

Employer-Employee Relations (e.g. discrimination)

Company-Customer Relations (e.g. poor quality goods)

Company-Shareholder Relations (e.g. poor reporting practices)

Company-Community/Public Interest (e.g. environmental issues)

Sole practitioner- client relations (e.g. misrepresentation to clients)

Question 4

Common ethical issues

Answer 4

Consent – religious beliefs
Truth telling – should the truth always be told? To clients when selling a product, possible side effects?
Confidentiality- can breach if in public interest or to prevent crime – when should it be breached?
Resources – postcode lottery, costs of treatment, discrimination if too old/heavy/lifestyle, if business then cut corners
Preserving the dignity of patients
Start of life and end of life issues – cloning, test tube babies, selection on sex, saviour siblings, euthanasia – ongoing debate, abortion – is 24 weeks too high?

Question 5

Why should businesses behave ethically

Answer 5

Protection of brand and reputation
The right thing to do
Customer trust and loyalty
Investor confidence
Public acceptance/recognition

Disadvantages – Short term cost

Question 6

Ethical relativism

Answer 6

e position that there are no moral absolutes, no moral right and wrongs. Instead, right and wrong are based on social norms.

One advantage of ethical relativism is that it allows for a wide variety of cultures and practices. It also allows people to adapt ethically as the culture, knowledge, and technology change in society. This is a good and valid form of relativism.

The disadvantage of ethical relativism is that truth, right and wrong, and justice are all relative. Just becausea group of people think that something is right does not make it so

Question 7

Business ethics and public opinion

Answer 7

Public’s interest in business ethics increased during the last four decades : Collapse of the financial market & Govt bailouts
Public’s interest in business ethics spurred by the media : investigative reporting on TV shows

Question 8

Important ideas to consider - Business ethics and public opinion

Answer 8

Have business ethics really deteriorated?

Or is it that the media now report ethical problems more frequently and vigorously?

Are practices that once were socially acceptable no longer socially acceptable?

Or again, is this due to the media reporting more?
use of cheap labour, again, done in the past but now more publicised.

Question 9

What is the Gallup poll

Answer 9

well-known public opinion polling organisation founded by George Gallup in 1935.
It conducts surveys and polls to measure public opinion on various social, economic, political, and cultural issues. Rating honesty and ethical standards in different professions.
The organisation uses scientific sampling methods to collect data and provide insights into the opinions, attitudes, and behaviours of individuals and groups.

Question 10

Any change in healthcare ratings?

Answer 10

In 2013 - doctors 69%, bankers 27%, business executives 22%
In 1977 ratings of high/very high for doctors was 56%, bankers 39%, business executives 20% so in past 35 years not that much change

Question 11

Four Important Ethical Questions

Answer 11

What is – e.g. making staff achieve unrealistic targets;
What ought to be – treating staff better and providing a good customer service;
How do we get…? Employing more staff
Motivation – in long term, better staff relations, better customer service, increased word of mouth about good customer service, covers cost of extra staff

Question 12

3 Models of Management Ethics

Answer 12

Immoral Management
Moral Management
Amoral Management

Question 13

Immoral Management

Answer 13

A style devoid of ethical principles and active opposition to what is ethical
secretly putting control device into machinery so that increased production could take place even though potentially a safety hazard

E.G. Putting devices into machinery to increase output even though it may be unsafe; employing workers from overseas; dumping waste; using unsafe/untested equipment

Question 14

Amoral Management

Answer 14

Intentional - does not consider ethical factors
Unintentional - casual or careless about ethical considerations in business

Neither immoral nor moral but are not sensitive to the fact that their everyday business decisions may have deleterious effects on others. These managers lack ethical perception or awareness. That is, they go through their organisational lives not thinking that their actions have an ethical dimension. Or they may just be careless or inattentive to the implications of their actions on stakeholders. These managers may be well intentioned, but do not see that their business decisions and actions may be hurting those with whom they transact business or interact. Typically their orientation is towards the letter of the law as their ethical guide. We have been describing a sub-category of amorality known as unintentional amoral managers. There is also another group we may call intentional amoral managers. These managers simply think that ethical considerations are for our private lives, not for business. They believe that business activity resides outside the sphere to which moral judgments apply. Though most amoral managers today are unintentional, there may still exist a few who just do not see a role for ethics in business.

The liquor, beer, and cigarette industries provide other examples. They did not anticipate that their products would create serious moral issues: alcoholism, drunk driving deaths, lung cancer, deteriorating health, and offensive secondary smoke.

Question 15

Moral Management

Answer 15

Conforms to high standards of ethical behaviour

Conform to accepted and high levels of professional conduct, they also commonly exemplify leadership on ethical issues. Moral managers want to be profitable, but only within the confines of sound legal and ethical precepts, such as fairness, justice, and due process. Under this approach, the orientation is toward both the letter and the spirit of the law.
E.g yearly eye test, child care vouchers, gym membership, free fruit

Question 16

Moral judgements

Answer 16

Different levels of thinking about moral matters

Question 17

Moral judgements – influenced by:

Answer 17

Moral intuition;
Moral rules;
Moral principles;
Moral theories

Internal/External sources that enable us to develop moral judgement

Question 18

Internal sources

Answer 18

Respect for the authority structure
Loyalty
Conformity
Performance
Results

Question 19

External Sources

Answer 19

Religious values
Philosophical values
Cultural values
Legal values
Professional values

Question 20

Moral principles

Answer 20

A principled approach as developed by Beauchamp & Childress (8th ed) based on the four principles:
Respect for autonomy;
Beneficence;
Non-maleficence;
Justice

Question 21

Moral principles

Answer 21

A principled approach as developed by Beauchamp & Childress (8th ed) based on the four principles:
Respect for autonomy;
Beneficence;
Non-maleficence;
Justice

Question 22

Autonomy

Answer 22

Respect a person’s right to make their own decisions

An adult person of sound mind should, generally speaking, have the choice of making their own decisions about their own life
Acknowledge their right to hold views, to make choices and to take actions based on their personal values and beliefs
Their decisions should be respected, irrespective of whether these decisions are seemingly unwise/ stupid to others
E.g. right to refuse treatment

Question 23

Beneficence

Answer 23

Our actions must aim to ‘benefit’ people – health, welfare, comfort, well-being, improve a person’s potential, improve quality of life

However, if they decide not to go ahead, then regardless of you thinking this is an unwise decision you must respect their personal autonomy

Question 24

Non-maleficence

Answer 24

Do not to inflict harm on people, do not cause pain or suffering

Again, manipulation of the body may cause pain but will also benefit a patient in the long run – their choice, tell the truth about the treatment so they make the autonomous decision

Question 25

Justice

Answer 25

Treating people fairly, not favouring some individuals/groups over others, acting in a non–discriminatory / non-prejudicial way, respect for peoples’ rights, respect for the law

Question 26

Moral theories

Answer 26

Utilitarian approach –consequence based

Deontological approach – duty based

Virtue approach – virtue based

Question 27

Utilitarianism

Answer 27

This theory says that the rightness or wrongness of an action is wholly dependent upon the consequences of its being performed
Advocates of this theory are Bentham and Mill who hold that the right action is the one that is likely to maximise the total of happiness, taking into account everyone who is likely to be affected.
Simply put, this means that it looks at the greatest good for the greatest number/least amount of pain or harm i.e. maximise happiness/minimise suffering
Perhaps a simple example within the health care context would be to give less expensive treatment to many more people than expensive treatment to a few

Question 28

-ves to utilitarianism

Answer 28

The practical difficulty of judging hypothetically the probable effect of each of a range of possible actions, on each person likely to be affected and summing the total for each action

The theoretical assumption that we know what happiness is in different people, and that it makes sense to add one quantity of it to another.

The assumption that nothing of moral significance is lost by reducing all elements of the problem to their effect on happiness

It seems likely to endorse what we normally regard as unjust : the majority of the population is made happy through the exploitation of a minority, the figures might work out in such a way as to make the exploitation morally required.

Question 29

Deontology

Answer 29

Duty based rather than consequence based
When we follow our duty, we are behaving morally. When we fail to follow our duty, we are behaving immorally.
Typically in any deontological system, our duties, rules, and obligations are determined by God. It is therefore more religious based ethics, but can be secular too.
Duties and obligations must be determined objectively and absolutely, not subjectively. There is no room in deontological systems of subjective feelings.
The most significant thing to understand about deontological moral systems is that their moral principles are completely separated from any consequences which following those principles might have. Thus, if you have a moral duty not to lie, then lying is always wrong — even if that results in harm to others. For example, you would be acting immorally if you lied to Nazis about where Jews were hiding. Similarly, deliberately killing a person is wrong independently of the consequences/reasons for so doing.

Question 30

-Ve deontology

Answer 30

It provides no clear way to resolve conflicts between moral duties. A deontological moral system should include both a moral duty not to lie and one to keep others from harm, for example, but how is a person to choose between those two moral duties? A popular response to this is to simply choose the “lesser of two evils,” but that means relying on which of the two has the least evil consequences and, therefore, the moral choice is being made on a Utilitarianism basis rather than a deontological basis.

Some may argue that deontological moral systems are, in fact, Utilitarian moral systems in disguise i.e. that duties and obligations are actually those actions which have been demonstrated over long periods of time to have the best consequences. Eventually, they become enshrined in custom and law and people stop giving them or their consequences much thought, they are simply assumed to be correct.

They are based upon absolutes — absolute principles and absolute conclusions. In real life, however, moral questions more often involve grey areas than absolute black & white choices. We typically have conflicting duties, interests, and issues that make things difficult.

Question 31

Virtue approach