4-6 pages double-spaced Business Ethic Paper!!!
Maoxiaoying
york.pptxBusiness Ethics
Sustainability
York’s Goal
York is trying to develop a new model of business ethics that can provide a way to think about the responsibilities businesses have to the environment in a way that makes sense and is useful to business people.
York’s Goal
In order to do this, York thinks we have to find a way to talk to business leaders about environmental concerns that does not present them as opposed to profits.
Most business leaders are concerned with the bottom line.
The number one reason given for not worrying about environmental concerns is that it hurts profits—customers won’t buy green products, going green is not profitable, not favored by shareholders and puts them at competitive disadvantage.
Because of this, arguments that appeal to the intrinsic value of the environment fail.
York’s Goal
York’s solution: Instead of trying to convince managers to care about the environment even though it hurts profits, York tries to present environmental concerns in business terms. He does this by:
1. Arguing that sustainable business practices can give companies a competitive advantage.
2. Developing a pragmatic framework for making business decisions that businesses can use, and that other groups (environmentalist, ethicists, regulators) can use to speak with business people about their environmental concerns.
Sustainability
A sustainable decision is one which will “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (99)
Competitive Advantage
Sustainable business practices bring competitive advantage.
Competitive Advantage
Sustainable business practices bring competitive advantage.
Sustainable practices can bring competitive advantage by increasing cost savings or revenue.
Sustainable practices can be motivated in many different ways:
Competitive Advantage
Sustainable business practices bring competitive advantage.
Sustainable practices can bring competitive advantage by increasing cost savings or revenue.
Sustainable practices can be motivated in many different ways:
Ex. valuing innovation, desire for cost savings, consumer demand, environmentalism on the part of a charismatic leader who builds it into company mission
York’s point is that businesses don’t have to solely be concerned with the environment in order to engage in sustainable practices.
Also trying to show that sustainability can be pursued by all businesses in spite of differences in their products, cultures, values, external challenges, and means.
Pragmatic Framework
York’s pragmatic framework tries to provide an ethical foundation for convincing companies to care about the environment.
The pragmatic framework doesn’t try to come up with set of principles that apply in every situation and at all times, but to develop a way of making decisions, which makes it more relevant to businesses.
“Pragmatism does not give us an immovable set of principles to fall back on when making decisions; it requires us to engage in careful and sincere deliberation when making decisions. It will not tell us what to think, but how to think.” (103)
Pragmatic Framework
Business decision-making involves making strategic choices.
Strategic choices are “those made to help the firm achieve its defined purpose, according to the values it wants to perpetuate” (102).
Strategic choices combine financial arguments with imaginative thinking about how to develop and maintain competitive advantage.
The key to getting companies to care about environmental concerns is to show them how it affects their strategic choices.
Pragmatic Framework
Pragmatic strategic planning is a way of engaging in collaborative deliberation.
This approach urges managers to take many perspectives into account and challenge their own values.
Begin with your current values, but continuously question whether these values help the business move toward its goals in light of new information.
Taking the perspectives of others into account helps with this. This encourages managers to draw more stakeholders into the decision-making process.
Pragmatic Framework
“From a pragmatic perspective, the best outcome to a decision is the one which helps us move forward and accomplish our goals while becoming what we intend to be.” (105)
Whether an action will actually help us achieve these things is the only criterion of its goodness/success.
Pragmatic Framework
Advantages of using the pragmatic framework to make business decisions:
1. It encourages experimentation.
It encourages managers to challenge their perspective, collaborate with others, and try new ideas.
Experimentation is the only way to gain competitive advantage.
2. Means and ends are considered with a long-term focus.
want to both achieve the goal and become what we want to be
3. It is clear and easily translates into action.
