Week 1

Question 1

The textbook discusses a lot on the topic of crossings, which three crossings are meant?

Answer 1

1. Between ethics and business
2. business and philosophy
3. business ethics and continental philosophy

Question 2

In which philosophy is Business ethics grounded and which perspective (of philosophy) is added within the book?

Answer 2

Grounded in analytical philosophy but continental philosophy is added

Question 3

How do analytical philosophers view themselves?

Answer 3

As:
* Scientifically oriented
* language oriented
* Disciplined
* Politically neutral
* Methodological
* Optimistic
* Real philosophers

Question 4

How do analytical philosophers view continental philosphers?

Answer 4

As:
* Atristic
* Non-sensical
* Politically left
* Chaotic
* Poetic
* Pessimistic

Question 5

How do continental philosophers view themselves?

Answer 5

As:
* Profound
* Politically engaged
* Critical about science
* Philsophical
* Realistic

Question 6

How do continental philosophers view analytical philosophers?

Answer 6

• Shallow
• Naïve
• Neutral, petty
• Docile followers (science, liberalism)
• Too language oriented
• Unserious

Question 7

What is ethics?

Answer 7

the discipline of questioning whether we still agree with what is commonly accepted as right and wrong in society. It is a reflective and critical study about good and bad. It:
* is aporetic (aporia = no opening), which means that it does not provide answers.
* criticizes morality; The whole of the current norms and values, i.e. ideas about what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in society.

Question 8

What is the is-ought fallacy?

Answer 8

The belief that is something has always been a certain way, it is ought to stay that way.
Ex. We say there has always been injustice in society but this does not mean it is ought to be that way

Question 9

What are values?

Answer 9

enduring beliefs about what makes a preferable existence

Question 10

What are norms?

Answer 10

Beliefs about what we find valuable, that tell us how we should act and day-to-day

Question 11

What are principles?

Answer 11

Moral laws that we adhere to because they have a rational appeal

Question 13

What is relativism in ethics?

Answer 13

The application of different moral standards to different ethical problems

Question 14

Why is relativism rejected by most ethicists?

Answer 14

• It assumes there are no fundamental goods which should be protected within society
• it can’t offer compelling arguments against abuses
• Difficult to solve disputes because they don’t believe some ethical arguments are better than others

Question 15

What is ethical subjectivism?

Answer 15

The belief that one does not have to justify their actions to others

Question 16

What is ethical absolutism?

Answer 16

The belief that there is only one conception of right and wrong that should hold at all times

Continental philosophers: pessimistic on this view bc of totaliarian implications

Question 17

What is ethical imperialism?

Answer 17

situation where a code of ethical behavior or attitude is imposed on another community or society.

Think: standard imperialism

Question 18

Business ethics

Answer 18

Asks the central question on how ethics can make business more profitable
* Studies good and bad within organizations
* Strives to improve the status quo within business and organizations

Question 19

What is the criticism on business ethics?

Answer 19

• Focused on improving the status quo but doesn’t question it
  –> therefore, not serious ethics bc non-reflective and non-questioning, does not really critisize morality
• business ethics does provide an answer to questions
  –> therefore non-aporetic

=

Question 20

What does stakeholder analysis consist of

Answer 20

1. Define stakeholders
2. Determine powerfulness of stakeholders
3. You keep more powerful stakeholders more into account
4. Determine what to do for each stakeholder in order of their power rank

Question 21

Based on which three characteristics do you determine the salience or relevance of stakeholderss?

Answer 21

• Power: How much power does the stakeholder hold over the firm. To what extent does the firm depend on it?
• Urgency: To what extent does the stakeholder require immediate attention
• Legitimacy: Is the role this stakeholder carries widely perceived as appropriate and valid?
  Stakeholders vary from weak to strong or low to high salience

1 characteristic= low salience
2 characteristics= moderate salience
3 characteristics= high salience

Question 22

What does the stakeholder theory entail?

Answer 22

A view of capitalism that stresses the interconnected relationships between a business and its customers, suppliers, employees, investors, communities and others who have a stake in the organization. The theory argues that a firm should create value for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.

Question 23

How does the Freeman define the stakeholder?

Answer 23

“A stakeholder is any group or individual who can affect, or is affected by, the achievement of a corporation’s purpose. Stakeholders include employees, customers, suppliers, stockholders, banks, environmentalists, governments and other groups who can help or hurt the corporation.”

Question 24

What are Friedman’s arguments in the stakeholder debate?

Answer 24

• The only responsibility an organization has is that it should increase its profits. Therefore, the only stakeholders are shareholders (1).
• Undermines democracy as it messes with the distribution of wealth creation (corporations) and wealth distribution (governments) (2)
• It is the task of politicians, not of entrepreneurs, to decide about the distribution of wealth
• Stakeholder theory is more socialistic (as opposed to democratic bc it doesn’t involve everyone in decision-making)
• Friedman’s theory: shareholder capitalism is more in line w/ democratic principles and freedom than stakeholder theory (3)

1. As long as they play within the rules of the game (law) and act morally decent
2. Governments can be elected and voted away if the public is not satisfied with their wealth distribution, this cannot be done
3. because it supports individual ownership and control, which is a key part of democracy.

Question 25

What are Freeman’s arguments in the stakeholder debate?

Answer 25

Reasonable pluralism:* We need a plural perception of the relationship between business and society
* seperation fallacy: the economy cannot be seperated from all other parts of society (is intellectually fallacious), all these structures are part of a system (1)
* He wants to prescribe pluralism Stakeholder theory makes the business world complex bc of conflicts of interest but Freeman is optimistic: assumes capitalistic agents are willing to accept reasonable pluralism (2)
* Stakeholders’ interests should therefore inform strategic management

1. Freeman is a system theorist: ystems theory is an interdisciplinary study of systems open in new as they relate to one another within a larger, more complex system. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. - Friedman argues the oppossite: the structures should be seperated
2. Friedman argues opposite: don’t perscribe, let firms alone

Question 26

Why does the Friedman vs. Freeman debate matter?

Answer 26

• Discusses what we as a society can expect of businesses
• Pragmatic for manager bc they know what is expected
• Is politically relevant: which actors should solve societal problems (governments or businesses?)
• has a moral perspective (reasonable pluralism)

Question 27

What is meant by the big or great reset?

Answer 27

‘Building back better’ emerged in response to the global challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic: he debate about a transition to stakeholder capitalism Friedman would have seen this as the end of democracy because it gives corporations too much power. Critics argue that it is just about saving capitalism from capitalists (1).

1. save capitalism from its own excesses and flaws, rather than fundamentally addressing underlying systemic issues. They suggest that while the rhetoric may emphasize positive change, in practice, the reset may prioritize maintaining the status quo and preserving the interests of powerful economic actors.

Question 28

What is reasonable pluralism?

Answer 28

Freeman advocates a “reasonable pluralism”, which is supposed *“to bend together the central concepts of business with those of ethics”. *

Question 29

What is philantro capitalism?

Answer 29

A way of doing philanthropy, which mirrors the way that business is done in the for-profit world. Solving the world’s biggest and most pressing issues. Rather than simply writing a check, the ultra-wealthy are taking on a very personal and involved approach by starting their own philanthropic ventures and applying market-based solutions to the causes they take up.

See summary for example

Question 30

What are the 2 issues with the big or great reset?

Answer 30

• Just a way of saving capitalism from capitalist: maintaining capitalism and the status quo while saving it from its ruin by capitalistic greed
• Will entrepreneurs do better than managers and politicians?

Question 31

What are the four ways in which stakeholder capitalism is understood according to Freeman?

Answer 31

1. As a PR-tactic: things such as greenwashing and virtue signaling
2. As CSR/ CSP: actually wanting and trying to deal w/ social issues
3. As top-down elites or government policy shaping business
4. As the business model (Freeman’s view): involves a fundamental shift in how businesses operate, integrating the interests of various stakeholders into their core strategies and decision-making processes.

Question 32

What are hyperagents?

Answer 32

Individuals, with enormous amounts of wealth who can do what it would otherwise take a social movement to do, they have power to influence the world.

Question 33

By what actors and which idea is philantro capitalism driven?

Answer 33

• Actors: hyperagents
• Idea: Richesse oblige

Richesse oblige= with great power comes great responsibility

Question 34

What are critiques on philantro capitalism?

Answer 34

• un- or anti-democratic: hyperagents cannot be voted away if the public does not agree with actions
• Richesse does not only oblige, it **expects to be obliged too **
• Sets the scientific agenda cause researchers go where the money is
• David Rieff: “for the first time in
  modern history, private business—the most politically influential, undertaxed, and underregulated sector among those groups that dispose of real power and wealth in the world, as well as the least democratically accountable—should be entrusted with the welfare and fate of the powerless and the hungry.”

Question 35

Freeman proposes a mental model (stakeholder map) of the stakeholder analysis w/ the firm in the middle, what is the critique on this firm-centric depiction and what solutions are there?

Answer 35

This depiction may lead to difficulties in the firm for seeing from other perspectives
1. The firm as middle stakeholder is interhcnageable w/ other stakeholders
2. Put a picture of the chosen stakeholder in the middle
3. Take a systems approach portraying interrelatedness

Question 36

What are overall criticisms on the stakeholder model?

Answer 36

• Theoretical flaws
• Too much emphasis on powerful stakeholders
• Decentring models are fake/ irrelevant
• Thinking is not acting
• Refusal to really think about ethical implications to others
• Stakeholder analysis is overly rational and bureaucratic, responsibility is not
• Moral responsibility is related to the ‘human face’ (Levinas), not to systems theory or complexity theory

Question 37

What does Levinas’ view entail?

Answer 37

Known for his phenomenological approach to ethics and his emphasis on the ethical significance of interpersonal relationships. His work explores themes such as responsibility, alterity, and the face-to-face encounter with the Other.
Our understanding is a selfish totalization of the world around us. He makes a clear dinstiguish between ‘same’ that which is me and ‘other’; that which is not me.
For Levinas responsibility is felt in an encounter with the Other. Morality comes from relationships between human subjects and moral subjects. However, he offers few practical directions for how to operationalize this responsibility.

Question 38

What does Bauman’s view entail?

Answer 38

known for his contributions to social theory and his analysis of modernity and the condition of postmodernity. Bauman’s work often focuses on issues such as globalization, consumerism, liquid modernity, and the nature of social bonds and morality in contemporary society.
He has the same ideas as Levinas about the Other and the responsibility that comes forth from encounters with the Other. Dividing responsibility among many in institutional and organizational projects remove the face-to-face encounter with the Other.

Question 39

What are the continental critiques on the stakeholder model?

Answer 39

Levinas:
1. Stakeholder theory concerns itself w/ the firm rather than the individual
2. Each class of stakeholders is viewed as one ‘same’ rather than a collection of individuals
Bauman:
1. Bureaucracy removes the face-to-face encounter w/ the ‘other’ and therefore bureaucracies can’t respond to stakeholders’ needs
2. We is not actualy the plural of form ‘I’ and so the idea of collective responsibity is fallacious

These views remind us that real encounters with the ‘other’ explain the infinite responsibilities we have toward one another and that we cannot escape this accountability.