Business Ethics Ch. 1

unsatisfactory implications of ethical relativism

First, it undermines any moral criticism of the practices of other societies as long as their actions conform to their own standards . Ex. we cannot say that slavery in a slave society was immoral and unjust as long as that society held it to be morally permissible. Second, is the fact that for the relativist there is no such thing as ethical progress. Although moralities may change, they can not get better or worse. Ex. We cannot say that moral standards today are more enlightened than were moral standards in the Middle Ages. Third, from the relativist's point of view, it makes no sense for people to criticize principles or practices accepted by their own society. The moral code itself cannot be criticized because whatever a society takes to be right really is right for it. The minority can never be right in moral matters; to be right it must become the majority. In viewing other cultures we should keep an open mind and not simply dismiss alien social practices on the basis of our own cultural prejudices

diffusion of responsibility

Group actions frequently involve the participation of many people . As a result, responsibility for what an organization does can become fragmented or diffused throughout the group, with no single individual seeing himself or herself as responsible for what happens. It is difficult to say exactly who should be held accountable. The more people who are observing an event, the less likely is any one of them to feel obliged to do something.

the limits of our conscience

How reliable of a guide is it? First, to be told to follow our conscience is no help at all. Second, it may not always be good for us to follow our conscience.It all depends on what it says. A person's conscience might disturb the person about something that is perfectly all right. The voice of conscience should be critically examined. A pang of conscience is like a warning.

valid argument

If you accept the premises as true then you must accept the conclusion as true because if you don't that would be a contradiction.

conformity

It is no secret that organizations exert pressure on their members to conform to norms and goals. Individuals can be induced to behave as those around them do. Ex. experiment- individuals changed their correct answers to fit in with the major what other people chose. They did that so they didn't seem different.

morality and personal values

Morality in a narrower sense- the moral code of an individual or society.

morality and self-interest

Morality serves to restrain our purely self interested desires. The moral standards of a society provide the basic guidelines for cooperative social existence and allow conflicts to be resolved by an appeal to shared principles of justification. But notice, If you do the right thing only because you think you will profit from it, you are not really motivated by moral concerns. Having a moral principle involves having a desire to follow the principle for its own sake- simply because it is the right thing to do. Paradox of hedonism ( or selfishness)- People who are exclusively concerned with their own interests tend to have less happy and less satisfying lives than those whose desires extend beyond themselves.

Religion and morality

Religion provides its believers with a worldview, part of which involves certain moral instructions, values and commitments. Ex. The jewish and catholic traditions offer a view of humans as unique products of a divine intervention that has endowed them with consciousness and an ability to love. Religion, then, involves not only a formal system of worship but also prescriptions for social relationships.

professional codes of ethics

The rules that are supposed to govern the conduct of members of a given profession. Somewhere between etiquette and law Adhering to these rules is a required part of membership in that profession. Sometimes these codes are unwritten and are part of the common understanding of members of a particular profession. Ex: professors should not date their students Professional codes of ethics are neither a complete nor a completely reliable guide to one's moral obligations

relativism and the game of business

What Carr is defending here is a kind of ethical relativism: Business has its own moral standards and business actions should be evaluated only by those standards. The basic question is business is a separate world to which ordinary moral standards don't apply. Any specialized activity or practice will have its own distinctive rules and procedures, but the morality of those rules and procedures can still be evaluated. In sum by divorcing business from morality, Carr misrepresents both. He incorrectly treats the standards and rules of everyday business activity as if they had nothing to do with the standards and rules of ordinary morality, and he treats morality as something that we give lip service to on sundays but that otherwise has no influence on our lives.

an action that is legal

can be morally wrong. Ex: Brokers are not legally required to act in their customers best interests, even when they are advising them on their retirement money. Yet it would be wrong to push their clients into investments that are bad for them in order to reap a commission.

business

will be used here simply to mean any organization whose objective is to provide goods or services for profit.

Assessment process of accepting the premises:

1. Evaluating the factual claims 2. Challenging the moral standard 3. Defending the moral standard 4. Revising and modifying the argument

Moral judgement requirements

1. Logical- our goal is to be able to support our moral judgements with reasons and evidence, rather than basing them solely on emotion, sentiment , or social or personal preference. 2. We must gather as much relevant information as possible before making them. 3. Reliable moral judgements must be based on sound moral principles- principles that are unambiguous and can withstand close scrutiny and rational criticism.

Aristotle

Aristotle thought that things had functions. Ex. The function of a piano is to make certain sounds, and a piano that performs this function well is a good or excellent piano.Likewise we have an idea of what it is for a person to be an excellent athlete. But Aristotle thought, just as there is an ideal of excellence for any particular craft or occupation, similarly there must be an excellence that we can achieve simply as human beings. He believed that only when we develop our truly human capacities sufficiently to achieve this human excellence will we have lives blessed with happiness. He also emphasized the importance of character and of being a person whose life displays the various virtues that human beings are capable of achieving. A virtue- a trait or settled disposition. Ex. a generous person. We become a generous person by acting in generous ways whereas we come to be selfish or stingy by acting in stingy or selfish ways.

morality in a narrower sense

Concerns the principles that do or should regulate people's conduct and relations with others.

relationship between law and morality

Law codifies a society's customs, ideals, norms and moral values. Changes in law tend to reflect changes in what society takes to be right and wrong, but sometimes changes in the law can alter people's ideas about the rightness or wrongness of conduct. Even if a society's laws are sensible and morally sound, it is a mistake to see them as sufficient to establish the moral standards that should guide us.

Morality needn't rest on religion

Many people believe without religion people would have no incentive to be moral or in the sense that only religion can provide moral guidance. First, we act morally out of habit just because that is the kind of person we are. We are motivated to do what is morally right out of concerns for others or just because it is right. Second, the moral instructions of the world's great religions are general and imprecise: They do not relieve us of the necessity of engaging in moral reasoning ourselves. Ex. the bible says "thou shall not kill" yet Christians disagree when it comes to war. Third, some theologians have advocated the divine command theory- that if something is wrong ( like killing an innocent person for fun), then the only reason it is wrong is that God commands us not to do it- many theologians and certainly most philosophers would reject this view. Most religions hold that human reason is capable of understanding what is right and wrong, so it is human reason to which you will have to appeal in order to support your ethical principles and judgements.

organizational norms

One of the major characteristics of an organization-indeed, of any group-is the shared acceptance of organizational norms and rules by its members. Accept can take different forms; it can be conscious or unconscious An organization can survive only if it holds its members together Group cohesiveness- requires that individual members "commit themselves- that is relinquish some of their personal freedom in order to further organizational goals. Most managers experience role conflicts between what is expected of them as efficient, profit-minded members of an organization, and what is expected of them as ethical persons. To be a team player and to conform to organizational norms can sometimes lead to otherwise honorable individuals to engage in unethical conduct.

conscience

Our conscience evolved as we internalized the moral instructions of the parents or other authority figures who raised us as children. Ex. parental commands- When children do something forbidden, they experience the same feeling as when scolded by their parents- the first stirrings of guilt. Much of our adult moral code differs from the moral perspective of our childhood, however those pangs of guilt we occasionally feel still stem from that early internalization of parental demands.

Ethical Relativism

The theory that what is right is determined by what a culture or society says is right. What is right in one place may be wrong in another, because the only criterion for distinguishing right from wrong is the moral system of the society in which the act occurs. Ex. Abortion is condemned immoral in Catholic Ireland but is practiced as a morally neutral form of birth control in Japan. In short, disagreement in ethical matters does not imply that all opinions are equally correct

accepting moral principles

When a person accepts a moral principle, when that principle is part of his or her moral code, then naturally the person believes the principle is important and well justified. Richard Brandt: " when a principle is part of a person's moral code, that person is strongly motivated to act as the principle requires and to avoid acting in ways that conflict with the principle. Other philosophers have in different ways reinforced Brandt's point. To accept a moral principle is not like accepting a scientific hypothesis , rather it involves a desire to follow that principle for its own sake, the likelihood of feeling guilty about not doing so.

moral standards

are different because they concern behavior that is of serious consequence to human welfare, that can profoundly injure or benefit people. Conventional moral norms against lying, stealing and killing deal with actions that can hurt people. Moral standards take priority over other standards, including self-interest Their soundness depends on the adequacy of the reasons that support or justify them Some authoritative body is the ultimate validating source of the standards and thus can change the standards if it wishes. Ex. legislators make laws Moral standards are not made by such bodies Their validity depends on the quality of the argument or the reasoning that supports them

statutes

are laws enacted by legislative bodies. Make up a large part of the law.

moral arguments

arguments whose conclusions are moral judgements

an action can be illegal

but morally right. Ex: helping a jewish family to hide from the Nazis was against German law in 1939, but it would have been a morally admirable thing to do. Nonconformity to law is not always immoral. Sometimes violating the law is morally permissible.

self-interest

doing things for your own benefit and not someone else's. Sometimes it pays off to do what you know to be wrong.

groupthink

happens when pressure for unanimity within a highly cohesive group overwhelms its members' desire or ability to appraise the situation realistically and consider alternative courses of action. Individuals tend to self censor thoughts that go against the group's ideas.

unsound argument

have at least one false premise , as in argument 3, or invalid reasoning as in the second argument.

Ethics

is a broad field of inquiry that addresses a fundamental query that all of us, at least from time to time, inevitably think about - namely, How should I live my life? This leads to other questions like: What sort of person should I strive to be? What values are important? What standards or principles should I live by? Study of right and wrong, fairness, and unfairness etc. Deals with individual character and with the moral rules that govern and limit our conduct

argument

is a group of statements, one of which ( called the conclusion) is claimed to follow from the others ( called the premises).

Business ethics

is the study of what constitutes right and wrong, or good and bad, human conduct in a business context. Ex. What, if anything, should a moral employee do when his or her superiors refuse to look into apparent wrongdoing in a branch office?

administrative regulations

limited in their time and knowledge, legislatures often set up boards or agencies whose functions include issuing detailed regulations covering certain kinds of conduct

morality in the broad sense

meaning not just the principles of conduct that we embrace but also the values, ideals and aspirations that shape our lives. The type of life each of us seeks to live reflects our individual values. Ex. devoting ourselves to community service.

invalid argument

one whose premises do not entail its conclusion. In an invalid argument. I can accept the premises as true and reject the conclusion without any contradiction

constitutional law

refers to court rulings on the requirements of the Constitution and the constitutionality of legislation People sometimes confuse legality and morality, but they are different things. On one hand, breaking the law is not always or necessarily immoral. On the other hand, the legality of an action does not guarantee that it is morally right.

common law

refers to the body of judge-made law that first developed in the English-speaking world centuries ago when there were few statutes. The massive body of precedents and legal principles that accumulated over the years is collectively referred to as "common law."

etiquette

refers to the norms of correct conduct in polite society or, more generally, to any special code of social behavior or courtesy. The rules of etiquette are prescriptions for socially acceptable behavior and if you violate them, you're likely to be considered ill-mannered but not necessarily immoral. Although rules of etiquette are generally nonmoral in character, violations of those rules can have moral implications. Ex. if the male boss who refers to female subordinates as "honey" or "doll" shows bad manners It is important to exercise care, in business, situations and elsewhere, when dealing with unfamiliar customs or people from a different culture.

ethical relativism

right and wrong are only a function of what a particular society takes to be right and wrong.

4 types of law

statutes regulations common law constitutional law

sound arguments

such as the first argument have true premises and valid reasoning.

business people

those who participate in planning, organizing, or directing the work of business. An organization- a group of people working together to achieve a common purpose. The purpose may be to offer a product or a service primarily for profit, as in business.

bystander apathy

we seem naturally to let the behavior of those around us dictate our response. In a large group or organization, diffusion of responsibility for its actions can lead individuals to feel anonymous and not accountable for what happens. People in business have a hard time deciding what the right thing to do is