BUS 4500 Exam 1: Palmer

Race to the bottom:

-Freer trade and economic integration creates incentives to weaken or do away with environmental, labor, health, and safety regulations. -such regulations constitute "barriers to trade" and, given competition for economic growth, countries will have strong incentives to be the first to offer multinational corporations less regulations and restrictions -This will result in a "race to the bottom" of regulation

Ethical dilemma

Any situation in which guiding moral principles cannot determine which course of action is right or wrong

Value

Beliefs that incline us to act or choose in one way rather than another. They are our fundamental beliefs. What are your core values?

What type of business is "State Bags"?

Benefit corporation (Not B Corp)

Are Benefit Corporations or B Corps dependent on state regulations?

Benefit corporations

Business ethics is concerned more with ___ than with ___

Business ethics is concerned more with reasoning than answers.

Materiality assessment is a tool used in which of the following organizational processes?

Corporate social responsibility

People who think in pictures (versus thinking in words) are more likely to make ____ decisions

Emotional decisions

What is the most important (#1) SDG (Sustainable Development Goal)?

End Poverty

Ethics and ethos

Ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos, meaning customary or conventional. For many people, ethics involves following the beliefs, attitudes, and values that are customary in their culture. To be ethical, in the sense of ethos, is to conform to what is typically done, to obey the conventions and rules of one's society and religion. In this sense, ethos would be identical to ethics.

Which of the following is the best definition of values?

Firmly held beliefs held by an individual

SASB: Sustainable Accounting Standards Board

Give guidelines to companies for what the most important issues are. Standards give some conformity, however they are not required to be used

Market stakeholders:

Internal (employed by the firm): employees, managers External: stockholders, customers, creditors, suppliers, retailers Nonmarket stakeholders (all external): Governments, communities, NGOs, competitors

Ethics

Moral values in action. Ethics is about our actions and decisions. Verbs; what we actually do.

Morals vs. ethics

You feel bullying is wrong. That defines your morals. You intercept a bully who is beating up a friend. You are ethical.

Morals

a subset of values which we attribute to a system of beliefs. These values get their authority from something outside the individual (a religious system, political system). Taught. How should I live my life? Ex. Stealing is bad, it's not good to lie, respect others.

The new corporate ethos industry standard: concept of the triple bottom line

social (people), environmental (planet), economic (profit) -considering a variety of stakeholders -long-term perspective -thinking beyond economic performance Thinking beyond "maximizing shareholder wealth"

What is sustainability?

Sustainable development is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising(/jeopardizing/inhibiting) the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The Deontological ethical perspective is also known as:

The categorical imperative

Ethical dilemmas

The choice is not between what we believe to be right and wrong, but between competing rights. Is it ethical to steal a loaf of bread to feed a starving child?

Why Stakeholder Theory?

The instrumental argument: it is effective. Companies that behave responsibly toward multiple stakeholder groups perform better financially, over the long run, than those that do not. Translates to Utilitarian perspective The normative argument: It is the right thing to do. Corporations have great power and control vast resources; these privileges carry with them a duty to all those affected by the company's actions. Translates to Deontological perspective

Materiality assessment

The process of determining the alignment between views of the company and its stakeholders on these issues

Virtue Ethics

Virtue Ethics: Focus on the Actor -Focus off of a decision that has to be made and putting it on a person/ their traits/characteristics -An ethics of virtue shifts the focus from questions about what a person should do, to a focus on what type of person one is. -Deemphasize rules, consequences and particular acts and places the focus on the kind of person who is acting -"what kind of person does that?" = virtue ethics. Not about a rule, duty, act, etc. but about the person doing the act -Ex. Pizza shop doesn't deliver, but did for customer w cancer

How do you solve ethical dilemmas?

One approach focuses on the practical consequences of what we do; the other concentrates on the actions themselves.

Principle-Based Ethics

Principle-Based Ethics: A Deontological (Duty-Based) Approach -Categorical imperative (Immanuel Kant) -Choose to act if and only if she or he would be willing to have every person on earth, in that same situation, act exactly that way -Ex: truth-telling could, but lying could not, be made a universal law. If everyone were free to lie, rational communication would not be possible -Act in a way that respects and treats all other individuals as ends and never only as means to an end -Consideration of the individual, not the whole