Business ethics homework - Essay Example

Another example would be child pornography. A community may have strong moral beliefs against the practice, but allow it to continue because it brings financial gain to the community through its distribution. What are the six characteristic that distinguish moral standards? Explain each. The first considers injury or harm to others. Moral standards on prohibiting rape, murder, slander or assault fall under these standards. The second is that moral standards are not changed or imposed by authoritative sources, such as politicians dictating community moral policy.

The third is that moral standards should be the preferred reasoning rather than self-gain. If self-interest does not abide by moral standards, it is morally incorrect. The fourth is the concept of impartial determinations. This means that it is wrong to steal even if the individual gains from the action and thus it cannot be justified. The fifth is special emotions, meaning there should be some presence of shame or guilt if a moral code has been broken. The last characteristic is logical assessment of the problem, where there must be justifiable criteria used when making moral judgments, such as facts, evidence, or motive.

What are the three basic types of ethical issues? Give an example – your own example – of an ethical issue for each type. The three types of ethical issues are corporate, individual and systemic. Corporate ethics would deal with organization’s hiring practices, whether adhering to non-discrimination in the recruitment and selection process. Hiring an attractive woman over a less-attractive female would raise ethical questions about leadership or corporate policy. An example of individual ethics would be how a person applies moral codes to actual actions, such as a police officer accepting a cash payment in favor of releasing an arrested citizen for criminal behavior.

A systemic ethics example would include a politician cancelling regulation for a business in favor of campaign contributions. What is Velasquez’s conclusion about how moral obligations apply to business organizations? Can companies be held morally responsible for what they do, or are the individuals who make up the company the ones we must hold responsible? Velasquez believes the same moral standards should be upheld with the business as they are to the individual. Both employees and the business need to be held to the same social codes of morality that apply to people outside of the business environment.

Thus, yes, businesses can be held responsible for their morally reasoning and actions. As one example, the business must establish policies that prevent harm to others. Neglecting this imperative holds the company morally responsible. If, however, immoral behavior occurs within the business, leaders can be excused from moral responsibility through the excusing condition where ignorance of the act can be established or when inability to provide alternative moral reasoning are influenced by business environment.

Workers are considered the moral and loyal agents to the business, thus they must rationalize decision-making against an accepted moral code. What is ethical relativism? What are the difficulties with the theory? Explain each.