What Is Ethics

Group Members

• Syed Salman Abbas • Ghani Younas • Tauheed Akram • Farrukh Imtiaz • Muhammad Umar

Business Ethics Overview

What is Business Ethics ? • The behavior that a business faces to in its daily dealings with the world • The principle Standards that define acceptable conduct in business.

Two Major characteristics • Tells people what they must to do ? • Set of principles or rules

Ethic’s Purpose • The discipline of dealing with what is good and bad, and with moral duty and obligation • Guides an individual in dealing with others • Lacks ethical principles is bound to fail sooner or later

4 Concepts of Ethics

Relativism • There is no universal standard by which morality can be judged. • What is correct for one society may be wrong for another. • Ethics and morality are relative

Relativism Problems Relativism is the idea that some elements or aspects of experience or culture are relative to, i.e., dependent on, other elements or aspects. Common statements that might be considered relativistic include: "That's true for you but not for me." "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." "You can't judge other cultures by the standards of your own."

Egoism o Egotism: o

An excessive or exaggerated sense of self-importance.

o Ethical Egoism o The principle that holds that individuals have to do what is in their self-interest.

o Physiological Egoism, o The principle that holds that individuals are always motivated by self-interest.

o Rational Egoism, o The belief that it is normal to act in one's self-interest.

Egoism Problems

• Externalities associated with private actions to dump toxic wastes as long as don’t get caught

Utilitarianism Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined slowly by its contribution to overall utility: that is, its contribution to happiness or o pleasure as summed among all people. It is thus a form of consequential, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome.

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Utilitarianism is often described by the phrase "the greatest good for the greatest number of people", and is also known as "the greatest happiness principle".

Deontologism • Deontological ethics or deontology from Greek , "obligation, duty“ is an approach to ethics that determines goodness or rightness from examining acts, rather than the consequences of the act as in consequentialism, or the intentions of the person doing the act as in virtue ethics.

Categorical Imperative

Guidance in Dealing with People • People should never be treated as a means to an end, but as ends in themselves.

• To treat people as ends requires respect for persons.

General Ethical Behavior • Builds security, friendliness, cooperation and trust in a society. • These are public goods created by generally ethical behavior.

Ethical Test

Benefit Cost Test

Categorical Imperative

Light of Day Test

Do Undo other Tests • Golden Rule – If you would like others to do the same to you passes the test.

Ventilation Test • Seek out others views. Discuss the 5 tests with them. If others feel it is OK passes the test

Conflict of Interest

Two Interests • Private Interest Conflicts with Corporate o Business Interest Conflicts with Public.

Whistle blowing

Types

Cause of Disturbance In An Organization

Punishments • Fired • Blacklisted / Murder Possible • Transfer to Undesirable Location • Lifestyles, and mental stability questioned

For Example • A whistleblower is a person who raises a concern about wrongdoing occurring in an organization or body of people, usually this person would be from that same organization. This misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations, and corruption. Whistleblowers may make their allegations internally

Bribery • Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or other person in discharge of a public or

• same as bribery - recipient of payment initiates transaction

Extortion

Bluffing & Deception •

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Deception, beguilement, deceit, bluff, and subterfuge are acts to propagate a beliefs that are not true, or not the whole truth (as in certain types of half-truths and omission).

To bluff is to pretend to have a capability or intention which one does not actually possess

Examples

Social Responsibility •

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Management’s consideration of profit, consumer satisfaction, and societal well-being of equal value in evaluating the firm’s performance

Contributions to the overall economy, job opportunities, and charitable contributions and service.

Organizations measure through social audits

Areas Of Responsibility

To Jeneral Public • Public Health Issues. What to do about inherently dangerous products such as alcohol, tobacco, vaccines, and steroids • Protecting the Environment. Using resources efficiently, minimizing pollution. • Recycling. Reprocessing used materials for reuse • Developing the Quality of the Workforce. Enhancing quality of the overall workforce through education and diversity initiatives • Corporate Philanthropy. Cash contributions, donations of equipment and products, and supporting the volunteer efforts of company employees.

To Customers • The Right to Be Safe. Safe operation of products, avoiding product liability. • The Right to Be Informed. Avoiding false or misleading advertising and providing effective customer service • The Right to Choose. Ability of consumers to choose the products and services they want • The Right to Be Heard. Ability of consumers to express legitimate complaints to the appropriate parties

To Employees

• Workplace Safety. Monitored by Occupational Safety and Health Administration. • Quality-of-Life Issues. Balancing work and family through flexible work schedules, subsidized child care, and regulation such as the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 • Ensuring Equal Opportunity on the Job. Providing equal opportunities to all employees without discrimination; many aspects regulated by law • Age Discrimination. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1968 protects workers age 40 or older • Gender Discrimination. Equal pay for equal work without regard to gender.

To Investors • Obligation to make profits for shareholders • Expectation of ethical and moral behavior. • Investors protected by regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and state regulations.

Conclusion • Ethics are important not only in business but in all aspects of life because it is an essential part of the foundation on which of a civilized society is build. A business or society that lacks ethical principles is bound to fail sooner or later.

Case Study

Whistleblowing & the Environment:

• Chantale Leroux works as a clerk for Avco Environmental Services, a small toxic-waste disposal company

Continue • The company has a contract to dispose of medical waste from a local hospital. During the course of her work, Chantale comes across documents that suggest that Avco has actually been disposing of some of this medical waste in a local municipal landfill. Chantale is shocked. She knows this practice is illegal. And even though only a small portion of the medical waste that Avco handles is being disposed of this way, any amount at all seems a worrisome threat to public health.

Continue

• Chantale gathers together the appropriate documents and takes them to her immediate superior, Dave Lamb. Dave says, "Look, I don't think that sort of thing is your concern, or mine. We're in charge of record-keeping, not making decisions about where this stuff gets dumped. I suggest you drop it.

Continue • The next day, Chantale decides to go one step further, and talk to Angela van Wilgenburg, the company's Operations Manager. Angela is clearly irritated. Angela says, "This isn't your concern. Look, these are the sorts of cost-cutting moves that let a little company like ours compete with our giant competitors. Besides, everyone knows that the regulations in this area are overly cautious. There's no real danger to anyone from the tiny amount of medical waste that 'slips' into the municipal dump. I consider this matter closed."

Continue • Chantale considers her situation. The message from her superiors was loud and clear. She strongly suspects that making further noises about this issue could jeopardize her job. Further, she generally has faith in the company's management. They've always seemed like honest, trustworthy people. But she was troubled by this apparent disregard for public safety. On the other hand, she asks herself whether maybe Angela was right in arguing that the danger was minimal. Chantale looks up the phone number of an old friend who worked for the local newspaper.