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Business Ethics Reflection Exercise 1
Business Ethics Reflection Exercise
1. Major ethical issues from the Enron Ethics Article.
The collapse of the Enron is one of the most significant events in the history of America
business. With a period of fewer than three months, the company went down from being one of
the most respectable enterprise in the country to bankruptcy (Halinen & Jokela, P., 2016, p.333).
The falling of the enterprise is a stark reminder of the implications of unethical corporate
behaviours.
One of the major unethical practice in the company was the decision by the company to seal its
financial losses from outsiders (Sims & Brinkmann 2003, p.246). The company went ahead to
illustrate that it had achieved a phenomenal bottom-line by hiding its liabilities while overstating
its revenues. Apart from manipulating the financial statements, the company never mentioned the
risks to the stakeholders, a factor which makes the issue to be a major concern. To make matters
worse, the company disclosed huge earning forecast through various media channels,
encouraging the investor to purchase the company’s stocks (Sims & Brinkmann 2003, p.246).
Another ethical issue that the company faced was the culture of deception that was cultivated by
the corporation’s leadership (Sims & Brinkmann 2003, p.249). The leaders ignored the various
ethical standards and only focused on monetary achievements. After the leadership started
cheating on their works, the only way the employees would beat around the situation was to
cheat more. Gradually, no one in the company was afraid of cheating in their roles and works
because all their co-workers were cheating. Also, employees were afraid to ask a question since
the leadership considered asking questions as humiliating the employees’ performance were
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Business Ethics Reflection Exercise 2
measured on their ability to deceive. This culture affected employees’ morale, a factor which
makes this issue a significant one (Vecina 2016, p.3).
2. How might we develop virtuous traits?
The virtue ethics theory takes its inspiration from Aristotle who pointed out that a virtuous
person is one who shows the ideal character traits. These virtues character traits include but not
limited to honesty, loyalty, kindness, courageous, and trustworthy. One of the most significant
distinguishing features of the virtue ethics is that the character traits are stable and reliable
disposition. This means that, if a person possesses the character of kindness as an example, he is
expected to act kindly in all sorts of scenarios and over a long period.
According to Aristotle, the virtuous traits are delivered from natural interdependencies, but they
also need to be natured (Youtube.com 2017). Once established, the traits become stable. Aristotle
notes that moral development mostly occurs at the early stages of life and heavily relies on the
availability of good role models. To develop the virtuous traits, a person must begin with
developing the right habits and frequently practicing them (Jayawickreme 2014, p.238).
Development of moral character takes a very long time and may even take a whole life time. But
once developed, one acts in a consistent, predictable, and appropriate way in different scenarios.
Unlike both the consequential and non-consequential theories, the virtue ethics do not aim at
identifying the universal principles that might be applied in an ethical situation (Cato 2014,
p.256). Also, while the consequential and nonconsequential theories are based on the outcomes
and the duties respectfully, the virtue ethics concerns itself with the personal fulfilment in a
moral situation.
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Business Ethics Reflection Exercise 3
3. Sincerity in Kellogg’s CSR statement
Most corporates come up with a Corporate social responsibility (CSR) statement as an initiative
to ensure that the corporation conducts itself in and its operation in a manner that is ethical;
taking factors such as environmental, social, and economic impacts into consideration
(Kelloggcompany.com, 2017). The Kellogg’s CSR statement not sincere at all. The findings by
the food condition illustrate that the company is more focused on impressing its shareholders and
particularly the public through the CSR initiative as it has failed to put them into practice.
The test carried out by the food commission on the safety of the company’s products indicates
that Kellogg’s LCM bars are not recommendable since they contain a harmful level of saturated
fat (BBC News 2001). This is a clear indication that the company doesn’t act with integrity,
adhering to the highest ethical standards as it claims to be doing in its CSR statement. The
contradiction between the company’s CSR statement and what its implementing is an indication
of the hypocritical behaviours in the firm. The hypocrisy is a sign that the company is only
focused on increasing its sales by creating a good reputation through the CSR stamen at the
expense of its consumer’s health.
Producing less nutritious and unhealthy products is an enough indication that the company is not
socially responsible. The company’s actions go against the Kantian impressive theory which
states that companies should not use human beings as a means to end (Hale 2016, p.211). The
company uses humans as a means to an end by implementing initiatives that will see it make a
lot of sales and profit at the expense of human health.
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Business Ethics Reflection Exercise 4
4. Perceptions on fair trade
Fair trade is a social movement that aims at helping producers particularly those in developing
countries achieve better trading conditions. From the Oxfam fair trade clip, it’s clear that the fair-
trade movement advocates for higher prices to the farmers and other exporters, as well as better
social and environmental standards (Griffiths 2011). Apart from helping farmers, there are other
perspectives that should be considered in the fair trade. One of the most significant perspectives
is the failure of the additional prices offered by the consumers to reach the end users. There is a
significant perception that the additional prices end up in the pockets of the traders at the expense
of the farmers.
Another issue that raises a different perception is the cost that involved in joining the fair-trade
movement with the certification going at £1,570 (Bacon 2014, p.133). This is an affordable cost
to most of the farmers in the developing cost and it, therefore, acts as a discrimination strategy in
preventing more farmers from joining the movement.
Nowadays corporations have a primary responsibility to the global community. Companies have
increased their concern on global issues such as health, education, environment, and the
community development (Fernandez 2014, p.244). Most of the companies have increased their
global responsibility in the aim of benefiting from the advantages associated with the global
concerns. Some of the benefits that companies acquire from their global responsibility include
improved financial performance and workforce diversity. On the other hand, some companies
have implemented global community responsibility programs with the aim of benefiting the
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Business Ethics Reflection Exercise 5
community and the general public, these categories of businesses engage in activities such as
charitable contributions and corporate involvement in community program.
References
Bacon, C.M., Sundstrom, W.A., 2014. Explaining the ‘hungry farmer paradox’: Smallholders and
fair-trade cooperatives navigate seasonality and change in Nicaragua's corn and coffee
markets. Global Environmental Change, 25, pp.133-149.
BBC News, 23 October 2001, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1613141.stm
Cato, S., 2014. Common preference, non-consequential features, and collective decision making. Review
of Economic Design, 18(4), pp.265-287.
Fernandez-Feijoo, B., Romero, S. and Ruiz, S., 2014. Commitment to corporate social responsibility
measured through global reporting initiative reporting: Factors affecting the behavior of
companies. Journal of Cleaner Production, 81, pp.244-254.
Griffiths, P 2011, ‘Ethical Objections To Fair Trade’ viewed 25 August 2016 <
http://www.griffithsspeaker.com/Fairtrade/Ethical%20Objections%20to%20Fairtrade
%20web.pdf>
Hale, B., 2016. Rights, Rules, and Respect for Nature. The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics,
p.211.
Halinen, A. and Jokela, P., 2016. Exploring Ethics in Business Networks: Propositions for Future
Research. In Extending the Business Network Approach (pp. 333-356). Palgrave
Macmillan UK.
Jayawickreme, E., Meindl, P., Helzer, E.G., Furr, R.M. and Fleeson, W., 2014. Virtuous states
and virtuous traits: How the empirical evidence regarding the existence of broad traits
saves virtue ethics from the situationist critique. School Field, 12(3), pp.283-308.
Kelloggcompanycom, 2017. Kelloggcompanycom. (2017). Kelloggcompanycom. Retrieved 22
August, 2017, from http://www.kelloggcompany.com/en_US/corporate-
responsibility.html
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Business Ethics Reflection Exercise 6
Vecina, M.L., Chacón, F. and Pérez-Viejo, J.M., 2016. Moral absolutism, self-deception, and
moral self-concept in men who commit intimate partner violence: a comparative study
with an opposite sample. Violence against women, 22(1), pp.3-16.
