Business Ethics Forum - Book Report/Review Example

Business Ethics Forum In the business world, scholars are divided on whether, really, Business and Ethics can go together. Some scholars argue that since Business is basically a competition to maximize financial gain, Ethics cannot be applied to Business and the very concept of Business Ethics is actually a misdemeanour. This category of scholars views Business and Ethics as being completely not compatible. On the contrary, there second category of scholars contend that Business and Ethics are, actually, compatible. And in support of their claim, they contend that, the main aim or objective of any Business is not, merely, to maximize financial gain, but to ensure that overall human good and happiness of all the parties involved in Business is upheld and promoted. This category of scholars goes on to argue that in Business, there are many parties concerned and who are aiming to benefit from the Business activity, the parties concerned are, the individuals, the employees, managers, executives, industries, and the whole society. And, for this reason, there must be ethical guidelines in Business to avoid exploitation of some of the parties involved in Business, and to ensure that the overall good of all the parties involved are well taken care of. This, therefore, means that Business and Ethics can go together. I support the latter position that, Business and Ethics are compatible. This is because, without clear ethical guidelines in Business, some of the parties involved in the Business activity will be exploited in an effort to maximize profit. But this maximization of profit at the expense of some of the parties involved in a Business activity is unethical since all the parties should benefit from the Business activity. My position in regard to the Relationship between Business and Ethics is perfectly in line with the moral standards that I live by. My guiding moral principle is, to always treat other human beings as ends in themselves, but never as means to an end. This moral principle was first formulated by Emmanuel Kant, a German Philosopher, in his Deontological theory of Ethics. According to this moral maxim, in any dealing with human beings, you should ensure that their personal interests are well taken care of, but not to merely exploit them for personal, egocentric goals. And this means that when applied to Business practice, the interests of all the parties involved, including the whole society, should be well taken care of. Lack of sound ethical guidelines in Business can, actually, lead to many problems including big loses in Business. An investigation and analysis of 2008 shows that disregard of Business Ethics in many major world institutions was the main cause of the financial crisis. Some of the factors that led to the financial crisis include, shadow financial market, which led to credit defaults, and subprime mortgages, which made many consumers to buy more than they need. But a critical look at the bottom line of all these factors shows that, there was greed, arrogance, and total recklessness among the management of many world financial institutions. This self-centred attitude in business can be overcome with sound ethical guidelines in Business that would ensure that the interests of all the parties concerned are well taken care of. From the statements on page that 33 on Business Ethics, I gauge my cynicism quotient to be 1.4. This is because I strongly disagree with 8 of the statements, while I, fairly, agree with the last two statements. Hippocratic Oath refers to the solemn commitments that managers make, prior to assuming their managerial responsibility, promising to maintain a very high degree of professionalism in their duties, and to promising, also, to maintain personal integrity and to respectfully relate with all the other stakeholders of the Business, for the good of the Business organisation. In the Hippocratic Oath for the managers, the managers make the following eight commitments: 1. As the agents of society, the manager’s promises to serve public interest and to enhance the long term value of the society. 2. They, also, promise to put the well-being or the interests of the Business or the society before their personal interests. 3. They promise, also, to faithfully obey all the laws and other regulations governing the business. 4. They promise to be people of integrity, and to relate respectfully with their colleagues in Business 5. They also promise to be accurate in transparent in all their dealings in business, especially, in reporting the outcomes, and other Business processes. 6. They should be respectful and fair to all the other stakeholders of the Business. 7. They should make decisions based on facts, and they should try as much as possible, not to make biased and erroneous decisions, not based on facts. 8. Accept responsibilities for both their achievements and failures. They should be ready to own up even their mistakes and failings. The following are the guidelines for making quick decisions. 1. Pay attention to your gut. In times of quick decision making, paying attention to your gut feelings can be quite handy. The gut feelings will help you to know the direction that your conscience is directing you towards in making the decision. 2. Ask for time. Although you are bound to make a quick decision, it is good to ask for some time, even if a few minutes, to go and reflect, and weigh out the various options and alternatives. 3. Find out about organizational policy. In making the decision, you should bear in mind that, whatever decision you make should be consistent with the organizational policy of the Business organisation where you are working. 4. Ask for advice from the managers, or from your peers. This will help you to get different perspectives of the issue you are reflecting on, and it will help you to make a more enlightened decision. 5. Use New York Times test (disclosure rule). Reflect on what other people would think about your decision, will they agree with you or not? This will help you to evaluate your options more critically. Clarifying values Exercise on page 63 (Chapter 2) What does it mean to be a person of integrity in this particular situation or profession? Being a person of integrity simply means that, your behaviour should be in conformity with the moral standards of your profession or the Business organisation where your work. A person of integrity is a person guided by the right moral standards of the society, or organisation where they work. What ethical community would hold me to the highest ethical standards? The ethical community that would hold me to the highest ethical standards is the community with the highest ethical standards as its ethical guide. The higher the ethical standards of a community, the higher the expectations the community has of its members to uphold high moral values. Do carefully developed community standards exist? Yes, carefully developed community standards, actually, do exist. Although, these standards differ from one community to the other, these standards are, however, carefully well developed. This is why every community has expectations of its members. If these standards aren’t well developed, then, the community would not have a way of judging its members. What would the broader community think if this were disclosed? This question helps us to find out whether the broader community would approve our behaviour, actions, or decisions that we make. If the broader community would approve our choices and options, then, we are in the right track, but if the community would disapprove of it, we should pause and rethink our decisions and choices. What would my’’ harshest moral critic’’ expect me to do? The possible reaction of our ‘’ harshest moral critic’’ can help us to scrutinize our moral choices more. The reactions of our critiques can help us to avoid some mistakes that we could not notice without them. What would my’’ ethical role model expect’’? In our moral choices, we should always aim at making choices that our ‘’ethical role models’’ would approve of. What do I want my professional reputation to be? I would like my professional reputation to be impeccable. This means that in all my professional dealings, I should try as much as possible to avoid any unethical action that would tarnish my reputation. And to achieve this, I should strictly adhere to my profession’s code of Ethics. Reflections on the Pinto fires case (chapter 2 and 3) Denis Gioia, an engineer cum business manager, was the recall coordinator of Ford Company in 1973. The company specialised in the production of vehicles. The company had just manufactured a new brand of vehicles, the Pinto’s. But shortly after selling some vehicles, the recall coordinator, Mr. Gioia, started getting reports from field engineers that the vehicles were getting burned- out, but the field engineers did not give any mechanical explanations of why the vehicles were getting charred. But despite these reports, Mr. Gioia did not get to think seriously that, probably something was wrong with the vehicles, leave alone recalling the vehicles. It was not until when Gioia saw by himself a charred Pinto with dead people inside, that he got to think that, maybe there was something terribly wrong with the vehicles. But still, he did not feel any moral obligation to recall the vehicles. The main reasons why he did not recall the vehicles were, first, there was no rational and technical explanation of the accidents, and secondly, it was expensive to recall the Pintos and improve them. The vehicles were recalled many years later, in 1978, after causing more than 30 deaths of people. The recalling of the vehicles was prompted by public outcry over the use of the faulty vehicles, and a successful lawsuit against the use of the Pintos. If I were one of the people on the recall, I would have diametrically differed with my colleagues, and I would have advocated for the recalling of the Pintos, immediately they started getting involved in unexplainable accidents. The use of scripts should not override personal value system. This is because personal value system is the surest and the best guide in moral matter. While there is nothing wrong with cost-benefit analysis of an ethical dilemma, it is wrong, however, to make human life a part of the calculation. This is because the human life is sacrosanct and its value is beyond comparison with any other value. Hence, human life should never be a part of the calculation. The infusion of moral language among the recall officials in the Ford Company would have, probably, changed the thinking of the recall officials. This is because the use of moral language would lay bare the moral issues at stake in their decisions, and this would reawaken more their moral consciousness. Business isn’t just a lot of CRAP (Chapter 3) A look at the rather intricate ethical dilemmas in Business ethics may easily make one to conclude that business Ethics is just a lot of crap. The problem of resolving business Ethics dilemma, and any other moral dilemma for that matter, is confounded that there are many ethical theories guiding us on how to solve the dilemma, and there is no single, clear-cut way of resolving the dilemmas. Hence, some scholars conclude that, Business Ethics is just a lot of crap. However, a look at the different approaches of resolving moral ethical dilemmas shows that, while the approaches are different, they are, nonetheless, not mutually exclusive. The approaches can be combined to give us a more holistic approach to resolve Business Ethics dilemmas. And when we use, collectively, these different ethical approaches as tools to resolve ethical dilemmas, Business Ethics becomes as simple as doing the right thing. An analysis of Mary’s case using CRAP framework ( Chapter 3) Mary was a director of nursing at a regional blood bank. It is the month of May, and summer is approaching. In summer the demand of blood is high, while the supply is low. Fortunately, a large local corporation volunteers to lead drives to call upon the people to volunteer to donate blood. Mary attended one such drive and on reaching, she heard a scream from one of the rooms where the volunteers were donating blood. On getting into the room, she met one of her colleague nurses crying because the volunteer that she was attending fondled her breasts as she drew blood from him. The male volunteer had a rare blood type but he had to be send away from the premises because of his uncouth behaviour. But later, Mary learnt that the man they had sent away was, actually, the manager of the company that was leading the drives for people to donate blood. The main dilemma in this case is the fact that, although the sexually abusive manager’s behaviour cannot be condoned, sending him away, however, has serious repercussions. First, he has rare blood and sending him away means that the nurses will not get the rare blood that, they are in dire need of. Secondly, as the manager of the company leading the blood donation drives, he is likely to get annoyed by being sent away by the nurses from the premises where blood donation was taking place, and he may decide to order the Company to stop the blood donation drives. These facts present a real dilemma on the part of the nurses. This is the Crap analysis that would be made of this case. And the moral decision arrived in such a case, irrespective of the consequences, is the one that is in line with the nursing’s code of conduct, and in this case, the nurses acted well and in accordance with their code of conducts, by sending him away. Corporate Resources Issue (Chapter 4) You work in a Red Co. where the manager sends you and you friend Pat Brown to a meeting in Los Angeles. In the meeting there are 25 other employees from your company, as well as customers and competitors from other institutions. Throughout the one week meeting, you attend all the sessions and you meet all the other members of your Company except Pat. You have been trying to contact her through her phone, without success. On reporting back to work after the conference, the department secretary in charge of expenses calls you and tells you that, the dinner that you and your colleagues took in L.A. was quite fair. And when he says that you don’t know anything about the dinner, the secretary gives you expenses report with your name prominently in the report. In this the action that I would take is the action that is in line with my moral convictions and moral standards of my profession. I would choose to faithfully tell the secretary the truth of what happened, notwithstanding, the consequences that my action would have on the carrier of my friend Pat, and her relationship with me. I would tell the secretary that throughout the training period in the conference, I never got to meet Pat, and my effort to reach her via phone was all futile. I would categorically tell the secretary that Pat never paid for us any dinner, and I would ask the secretary to carry out an investigation into the scandal. Read More