About ethics 3 - Assignment Example

tson has added a condition element to the metaphor of “Business is a game”, proclaiming it to be the “greatest game in the world if you know how to play it.” It means that those who are not expert in their business are bad players of the business game. For the founder of Multinational Corporation like IBM, running successfully the company could be a game or the greatest game, as Watson is assumingly the expertise of his business line, but for Hamington this conceptual metaphor contains ethical shortcomings.

The basic problem is related to the outcomes of assuming business as a game depend on our understanding of the world view. As business functions are performed on ethical notions, rules of games can not be applied on them. A business activity can not be morally free unlike games that follow their self-designed code of behavior. A business needs to be conducted as per legal principles. If business is taken to be a game in the limited scope, it makes random use of false statements and half-truths to conceal the wrong procedures.

A business needs to be legal and at the same time profitable too. Hamington has cited Carr time and again to relate to business ethics, which are devoid of individual morality. Carr finds similarity between business and game by stressing on playing the game of business like a game player (Hamington 476). Hamington finds flaws with the metaphorical notion of “business as a game”. According to Hamington, doing business like a game “compartmentalizes” morality. It is just like changing the rules of the game according to the situation; if it favors the player to mold business ethics, rules become elastic enough to be restructured and if it does not find favor with the business interests, rules are adhered to (Hamington 477).

Quoting Wasserstorm, Hamington explains compartmentalization through “role differentiated behavior” of professionals, which reduces the importance of ethical considerations in business. Professionals