Business Ethics Chapter 1-6 3rd Edition

Categorical Imperative

An imperative is a command or duty; "categorical" means that it is without exception. This categorical imperative is an overriding principle of ethics. Philosopher Immanuel Kant offered several formulations of the categorical imperative; act as the maxim implicit in your acts could be willed to be a universal law; treat persons as ends and never as means only; treat others as subjects, not objects.

United States Sentencing Commission

An independent agency in the United States judiciary created in 1984 to regulate sentencing policy in the federal court system.

Normative Ethics

As a normative discipline, ethics deals with norms and standards of appropriate and proper (normal) behavior. Norms establish the guidelines or standards for Determining what we should do, how we should act, and what type of person we should be. Contrast with descriptive ethics.

Descriptive ethics

As a practiced by many social scientists, provides a descriptive and empirical account of those standards that actually guide behavior, as opposed to those standards that should guide behavior. Contrast with Normative ethics.

Autonomy

If autonomy, or "self-rule," is a fundamental characteristic of human nature, then the freedom to make our own choices deserves special protection as a basic right. But since all humans possess this fundamental characteristic, equal treatment and equal consideration is also fundamental right.

Inattentional blindness

If we happen to focus or are told specifically to pay attention to a particular element of a decision or event, we are likely to miss all of the surrounding details, no matter how obvious.

Stakeholders

In a general sense, a business Stakeholder will be anyone affected, for better or worse, by decisions made within the firm.

Personal and professional decision-making

Individuals within a business setting are often in situations in which they must make decisions both from their own personal point of view and from the perspective of the specific role they fill within an institution. Ethically responsible decisions require an individual to recognize that these perspectives can conflict and that a life of moral integrity must balance the personal values with the professional role-based values and responsibilities.

Practical Reasoning

Involves reasoning about what one ought to do, contrasted with theoretical reasoning, which is concerned with what one ought to believe. Ethics is a part of practical reasons.

Ethical Decision Making Process

Requires a persuasive and rational justification for a decision. Rational justifications are developed through a logical process of decision making that gives proper attention to such things as facts, alternative perspectives, consequences to all stakeholders, and ethical principles.

Values-based Organization

(VBO) is a living, breathing culture of shared core values among all employees. This is different from the traditional structure, which is a more machine-like business approach that focuses on an authoritarian type of relationship or rigid organizational structure.

Ethical custom

An ethical tradition is a group of things that one group of people think are right and wrong. People believe that these things are right and wrong because other people think that way and they have thought that way for a long time.

Consequentialist Theories

Ethical theories, such as utilitarianism, that determine right and wrong by calculating the consequences of actions.

OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration - an agency of the federal government that publishes and enforces safety and health regulations for US business

Bounded Ethicality

One's tendency to consider one's actions ethics even though they might condemn those same actions in others, or even in themselves if they were to engage in further reflection or awareness.

Due Process

Philosophically, the right of due process is the right to be protected against the arbitrary use of authority.

Enlightened self-interest model of CSR

That it is in an organization's own best interest to put itself first rather than its ethics. That it is in an organization's best interest to consider what a shareholder would want. That it is in an organization's own best interest to act in an ethical way.

Corporate citizenship model of CSR

The belief that companies need to take an active responsibility for their employees' lives and that corporations have social responsibilities even when meeting those responsibilities may cost money

Normative Myopia

The tendency to ignore, or the lack of the ability to recognize, ethical issues in decision making.

Values

Those beliefs that incline us to act or to choose in one way rather than another. We can recognize many different types of values, financial, religious, legal, historical, nutritional, political, scientific, and aesthetic. Ethical values serve the ends of humans' Well-being in impartial rather than personal or selfish ways.

Duties

Those obligations that one is bound to perform, regardless of consequences. Duties might be derived from basic ethical principles, from the law, or from one's institutional or professional role.

Mission Statement

a formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organization, or individual.

Code of Conduct

a set of behavioral guidelines and expectations that govern all members of a business firm. Example: a code of conduct can outline how employees should behave to reflect the organization's wider mission, but it can also define fixed regulations related to internal practices such as dress code or break policy.

Just Cause

a standard for terminating or discipline that requires the employee to have sufficient and fair cause before reaching a decision against an employee

Ethical Relativism

actions must be judged by what individuals subjectively feel is right or wrong for themselves Example: In other words, it would be morally wrong for Susan to have an abortion if Susan believed that abortion is always morally wrong. (It would also be morally wrong, according to relativists, if Susan had an abortion when she believed that it was wrong for only her to have one.)

Employment at Will (EAW)

an employer can terminate an employee at any time for any reason, except an illegal one, or for no reason without incurring legal liability. Likewise, an employee is free to leave a job at any time for any or no reason with no adverse legal consequences.

Federal Sentencing Guidelines

apply to corporations, partnerships, labor unions, pension funds, trusts, non-profit entities, and governmental units. The penalties under the FSGO include fines, probation, public notices of conviction, and restitution. The FSGO also contains provisions that can substantially mitigate penalties.

Culture

as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, art. Example: Customs, laws, dress, architectural style, social standards and traditions are all examples of cultural elements.

Ethics

derives from the Greek word Ethos, which refers to those values, norms, beliefs, and expectations that determines how people within a culture live and act.

Corporate social responsibility

encompasses the responsibilities that businesses have to the societies within which these businesses operate.

Virtue Ethics

good actions as ones that display embody virtuous character traits, like courage, loyalty, or wisdom. A virtue itself is a disposition to act, think and feel in certain ways. Example - Honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity, integrity, fairness, self-control, and prudence are all examples of virtues.

Utilitarianism

idea that the goal of society should be to bring about the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people Example: if you are choosing ice cream for yourself, the utilitarian view is that you should choose the flavor that will give you the most pleasure. If you enjoy chocolate but hate vanilla, you should choose chocolate for the pleasure it will bring and avoid vanilla because it will bring displeasure.

Reverse Discrimination

in other words, discrimination against those individuals who are traditionally considered to be in power or the majority, such as white men.

Stakeholder Theory

is a model of corporate social responsibility that holds that business managers have ethical responsibilities to this more broad range of stakeholders, as opposed to a more narrow view that the primary responsibility of managers is limited to stockholders.

Social Contract Theory

is an agreement, either implicit or explicit, governing the behavior of individuals and organizations within a certain context such as a workplace, a culture, a nation or a social media site. Example: The social contract is the unspoken agreement between individuals to give up certain natural rights in order to enjoy the benefits of society. For instance, humans give up the natural right to yell as loud as they want whenever they want in return for the comforts of a respectful, ordered society.

Consequentialism

is an ethical theory that judges whether or not something is right by what its consequences are. For instance, most people would agree that lying is wrong. But if telling a lie would help save a person's life, consequentialism says it's the right thing to do.

Deontological Ethics

is an ethical theory that says actions are good or bad according to a clear set of rules. Its name comes from the Greek word deon, meaning duty. Actions that align with these rules are ethical, while actions that don't aren't Example: Deontology states that an act that is not good morally can lead to something good, such as shooting the intruder (killing is wrong) to protect your family (protecting them is right).

Veil of Ignorance

making decisions with a blind eye to extraneous factors that could affect the decision Example: the veil of ignorance would lead people to refuse slavery, because even though slavery is very convenient for slave-owners, for slaves, not so much, and since behind the veil of ignorance, one would not know whether they would be a slave or a slave-owner, they would refuse slavery.

Diversity

refers to the presence of differing cultures, languages, ethnicities, races, affinity orientations, genders, religious sects, abilities, social classes, ages and national origins of the individuals in a firm.

Rights

rights function to protect certain central interests from being sacrificed for the greater overall happiness. According to many philosophers, rights entail obligations: your rights create duties for others either to refrain from violating your rights ("negative" duties) or to provide you with what is yours by right ("positive" duties).

Hedonism

self indulgence; pleasure-seeking

Ethics Officers

serves as the organization's internal control point for ethics and improprieties, allegations, complaints, and conflicts of interest and provides corporate leadership and advice on corporate governance issues. Supervisory Responsibilities: This position has no supervisory responsibilities.

Affirmative Action

set of procedures designed to; eliminate unlawful discrimination among applicants, remedy the results of such prior discrimination, and prevent such discrimination in the future. Applicants may be seeking admission to an educational program or looking for professional employment Example: For federal contractors and subcontractors, affirmative action must be taken by covered employers to recruit and advance qualified minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and covered veterans. Affirmative actions include training programs, outreach efforts, and other positive steps.

Multiculturalism

similar to diversity, refers to the principle of tolerance and inclusion that supports the co-existence of multiple cultures, while encouraging each to retain that which is unique or individual about that particular culture

Morality

something used to demote the phenomena studied by the field of ethics. This text uses morality to refer to those aspects of ethics involving personal, individual Decision making. " How should I live my life??" or "What type of person ought I be ?" Is taken to be the basic question of morality. Morality can be distinguished from questions Of social justice, which address issues of how communities and social organizations ought to be structured

Whistleblowing

the act of an employee exposing an employer's wrongdoing to outsiders, such as the media or government regulatory agencies Example: a criminal offense, for example, fraud. someone's health and safety are in danger. the risk or actual damage to the environment. a miscarriage of justice.

Reputation management

the practice of caring for the "image" of a firm

Risk Assessment

the process of measuring risk

Downsize

the reduction of human resources at an organization through terminations, retirements, corporate diversity, or other means.

Egoism

the tendency to see things in relation to oneself; self-centeredness

Discrimination

the unfair or prejudicial treatment of people and groups based on characteristics such as race, gender, age, or sexual orientation

Child Labor

work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

Sweatshops

workplace in which workers are employed at low wages and under unhealthy or oppressive conditions