Business law essay questions
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lawslide2.pptBusiness Ethics and Social Responsibility
- Ethics: How people ought to act
- What is the role of business in society?
Managers should make the company as profitable for shareholders as possible
OR
Managers have an obligation to all stakeholders
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- Society as a whole benefits from ethical behavior
- People feel better when they behave ethically
- Unethical behavior can be very costly
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©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- Utilitarian ethics
Utilitarianism – Written by Englishman John Stuart Mill
Correct decision - To maximize overall happiness and minimize overall pain
Examples - Risk management and cost-benefit analyses
Difficult to measure utility and predict benefit and harm accurately
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©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- Deontological ethics
Deontological: Greek word for obligatory
Duty to do the right thing regardless of the result
Kant’s categorical imperative: An act is only ethical if it would be acceptable for everyone to do the same thing
No decision that treats people as commodities can be considered just
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- Rawlsian justice
Veil of ignorance: Set up a societal system without knowing whether we would personally be one of its winners or losers
Type of society to be set up:
Design a society that provided basic freedoms to everyone
Apply the difference principle
Difference principle: Rawls’ suggestion that society should reward behavior that provides the most benefit to the community as a whole
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- Money
Can contribute to happiness
Higher income levels actually reduce the ability to appreciate small pleasures
Way of keeping score
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©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- Rationalization
More creative people tend to be less ethical
Better at rationalizing their bad behavior
- Conformity
- Following orders
Fear of punishment
Belief in authority figures
Ability to rationalize
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- Euphemisms
In making ethical decisions, it is important to use accurate terminology
- Lost in a crowd
In a group:
People are less likely to take responsibility, assuming that someone else will
In a business
Tempting to go with the flow rather than protest the wrongdoing
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- Intentional deception is tolerated
- Consequences can be severe
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©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- Within an organization, every employee has a responsibility to himself or herself to behave ethically
- To society
Must avoid doing harm to people or the planet
- To its employees
Cannot be successful without good workers
Employees should be treated well
Outsourcing - Cutting jobs at home and relocating operations to another country
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- To its customers
Treating customers well increases profits and helps shareholders
- To overseas contract worker
Higher productivity leads to higher wages
In China - Employees want to work even longer hours to earn more money
Taiwan and South Korea welcomed sweatshops
Companies argue that higher wages lead to increased prices
Drive away customers
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- Loyalty – pick your battles
- Exit – one option is to choose to leave in the face of unacceptable, unethical behavior
- Voice – the other option is to speak out and seek to change unethical behavior
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- CSR: The idea that companies have an obligation to contribute positively to the world
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied, or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
