The Moral Obligation of the Business - Essay Example

Business Ethics Case Study Practical ethical viewpoint development Different case studies require the use of different ethical viewpoints in assessing them. This is because of the different views and characteristics of each case study and the ability to make the right decision basing on the characteristics inherent in the case. This part aims at analyzing four ethical viewpoints to provide an understanding of the ethical viewpoint that will be most appropriate for the case study. Utilitarianism: considers a right action as one that will deliver happiness to both the [person making the choice and the other people affected by the case (Boylan, 2014). A wrong action results in unhappiness in any or all affected by the case including the decision maker. Utilitarianism will give the argument that an unethical action will result in the pain or unhappiness to the decision maker or other parties involved in the action while a right action is aimed at ensuring all are happy and no one is pained by the decision. The strengths of utilitarianism include being simple and straightforward in decision-making through analyzing if any decision will result in unhappiness and pain and concluding that the action is unethical. Utilitarianism has ethical principles that are easily applicable in the society. Deontology: the decision on the ethicality of an action is based on the moral rules that guide certain actions in the society. Deontology considers a right action as one that follows the moral rules, and subjectivity is not allowed by the decision maker (Boylan, 2014). A wrong is one that goes against moral values and each person in the society consider the action morally wrong. Deontologists would give the argument that right motivations behind a certain action is moral and the decision maker should not consider the consequences of their action but the moral rules guiding the behavior on certain actions to determine their rightness or wrongness. Deontology’s strengths include considerations on friends, family, moral standing in the society, relatives, and all affected by the case. The other strength is that deontology allow better performance o one’s duties and accordance to moral obligation in the society. Ethical Intuitionism: this theory based on the use of intuition and intuitive awareness to realize moral beliefs that a person has to use these moral beliefs as a guide on wrongness and rightness of a course of action. Ethical intuitionists would argue that a choice must be based on the moral beliefs of a person on the rightness of the action. The strengths of ethical intuitionism include instant and clear answer provision and owing to dependence on human nature and their beliefs, it is simple. Virtue Ethics: emphasis is on the decision maker and the right action depends on the virtue of the decision maker while a wrong action is an action that is not virtuous according to the decision maker. Argument according to virtue ethics depends on the ability of the individual to live and show virtues in the actions and decisions they make. Virtue ethics’ strengths include development of a virtuous society, assessment of individual’s character, and definition on the ways of being human. Ethical Viewpoint Deontology is the ethical viewpoint chosen in the analysis of the action presented in the case owing to the need for the decision maker to follow moral guidelines, consideration of right motivations and the effects of the decision on other people including the couples to which the advertisement is aimed (Boylan, 2014). Ethical conflict in the case The business manager is being exploited by the supervisor to take an advertisement that lies to the audience for the sole benefit of the In Vitro Fertilization Clinic and the supervisor. The supervisor will benefit from increased visits showing good work while the clinic benefits from increased revenue and profitability. The business manager stands to lose because of the tainted image in case it is realized that he/she was responsible for the advertisement and has nothing to gain since the salary remains the same despite increased profitability of the clinic. There is lying in the case owing to the false claims on the success rate of the agency on infertile couples getting pregnancies, and that insurance carriers pick up the costs of the counseling. The truth is that the success rates of helping infertile couples become pregnant is lower, and the insurance carriers in the state do not take the case to cover the costs of the counseling. The manager and the couples, who will base their decisions on the advertisement, if the advertisement is actually aired, are the injured parties in the case. The business manager is injured because of the immoral basis of the act owing to the lies in it and having to make a decision that may result to dismissal from the job, demotions from his position, or affect his reputation in future. There is a deliberate falsification of the information by the supervisor through overstating the success rates of the clinic in helping couples get pregnant and that the costs of the counseling in the clinic will be carried by the insurers, which happens not to be the case. There is a creation of unequal competition between the manager and the supervisor since the decision to air or not air the advertisement will pose consequences to the manager. The unequal competition results from the business manager having to answer to a supervisor and that the supervisor makes decisions on demoting or losing of the job by the manager. These consequences will arise in case the business manager decides not to air the advertisement showing the extent of unequal competition in the case. There are no efforts taken to assist and affirm the human dignity of all the parties involved in the case. There is no encouragement to fulfill legal and human rights in the case. Legal rights require that any information in all advertisements must not be aimed at deceiving the audience. Legal rights also require that truthful information should be presented in advertisements. The advertisement has false information showing the lack of encouragement to fulfill legal rights. Human rights require that a human be treated with honesty and clarity in the issues to do with their health but the advertisement is dishonesty and aims at misleading the audience. There is no encouragement to take personal responsibility of the results in the case. This is especially true for the supervisor who delegates the duty of presenting the advertisement for airing to the business manager so that in case of a problem, the business manager will take full responsibility. The business manager is not given the option of not presenting the advertisement for airing thereby not encouraging the business manager to be part of the decision-making process and take responsibility in of the results. The professional issues at stake include integrity of the supervisor and the worker in airing an advertisement that contains false information to the audience. Professionalism requires that business people provide information that can mislead the public. The integrity of the business manager has not been considered by the supervisor in making the decision to air a false advertisement. The practical ethical viewpoint taken for this case is deontology that focuses on adhering to moral principles on right and wrong. The principles guiding decision making under deontology include choosing the right action that follows clearly defined moral rules, and an action that goes against these rules are wrong. Consequences of the actions are not used as a basis for making a right or wrong decision in the case. I will adopt the perspective of the business manager in the case. Is the business manager obligated to follow moral guidelines in the case? What are the consequences that can befall the business in case he/she decides to air the case in the radio? Application of detection questions The business manager is obligated by moral guidelines to make the right moral decision in the case. There is an obligation on the business manager morally to ensure that the advertisement does not lie to the audience. This is because the audience, especially the couples will make reliance on the advertisement in making decisions to join counseling by the company. The other moral obligation of the business manager is to act with integrity and respect to the clients who are accessing the counseling and other services offered at the clinic. There are different consequences that can befall the business managing and will work to prohibit the decision on airing the advertisement. The consequences include loss of job for exposing the false information in the advertisement and being demoted from the position of a business manager. The other consequences are inability to live with the decision to have aired false information and deceiving clients. These consequences affect the ability of the business manager to make the decision to stop the airing of the advert but guidance of the moral principles allows the business manager to make a decision to refuse airing the advertisement and face the consequences. Since, deontology is used in the case; the consequences have no impact in the case. Ethical and professional issues in the case intertwine in the case owing to similarity and differences in their dictates affecting the business manager. The professional and ethical issues will work together in the case owing to the requirement of integrity and the need for moral issues for the worker resulting in the decision by the business manager to avoid the airing of the advert. The other way the professional and ethical issues will work together in the case is through ensuring the information provided is not in a position to mislead the public allowing the business manager to make the right decision in the case. Ethical and professional issues may be opposed in the case where the guidelines by the profession requires the decision-making authority to be the supervisor and the business manager just to take the action without making a decision on ethicality of the issue. These will lead to the negative impact of the ethical considerations of the business manager that require him/her to act morally at all times. Assessment of Embedded levels The professional practice issues are deep because of the importance of honesty and integrity by both the manager and the supervisor in carrying out business practices. Honesty and integrity is important in business because it results in the trust and commitment of the consumers on the business. Honesty and integrity form the main platform for a business to grow and develop beyond national and regional boundaries. The other reason for the professional practice issues to be deep included the impact on the clinic, supervisor, and business manager when the false advertisement is realized by the regulatory authority. The image, credibility, and reputation of the clinic, supervisor, and manager will be dented so much depicting deep professional issues in the case. Professional issues are mostly affected by the issues in the case owing to the effect on the main professionalism requirements of honesty, integrity, and undertaking business in an ethical manner. The ethical issues are deep because of the moral issues involved in the case requiring the business manager to mislead a large amount of people affecting their finances, health, and ability to provide life through being misled by the advertisement. The deepness of the ethical issues is also reflected in the effect on the professionalism and ethics of the business manager and supervisors. Ethical issues are also deep because of the impact of the business on the development potential of the business in terms of the need to have moral standards by the people and the business ethics; these are affected in the case and depict deep moral issues. Ethics in the case require that the impact on the people by a business be positive and lead to a better society but since the case is misleading and dishonest to the audience, this cannot be the case affecting the ability of the business to be true to the people and result in positive impact in the society. The costs of the issue are deep because of the potential impacts on the business manager, the audience, the clinic, and the supervisor depending on the results of the case. The costs are deep because of the extent to which the couples are willing to go to ensure they conceive, the fact that financial costs may befall the business manager depending on the decision, and the dented credibility of the supervisor and the company may result in lost sales and revenue. Applying Ethical Issues There are different alternatives through which the business manager can solve the case. The alternatives present to the business manager are airing the advertisement and keeping quiet, airing the advertisement and tipping off a watchdog agency, and refusing to air the advertisement. These three alternatives are discussed depending on the effects it touches on the business manager, supervisor, the business, and the society. The first alternative is airing the advertisement and keeping quiet will affect the business manager knowing the information in the advertisement is false and misleading and understanding it is against moral obligation. The repercussions that come from the refusal on airing the advertisement include loss of job, demotion, and complications of the relationship with the supervisor. The second alternative is tipping the watchdog agency after airing the advertisement will also have the same repercussions as not airing the advertisement. The reason is that the knowledge of the falsification is only available to the supervisor and the manager. The supervisor will know the source of the tipping resulting in the consequences. The third alternative is a refusal of the business manager to air the advertisement. The premises guiding the position for not airing the advertisement include the moral obligation of the business manager to ensure they act in a way that respects their moral and avoid the misleading audience (Boylan, 2014). The other pivotal premise against airing the advertisement is the need to avoid affecting the professionalism of the business manager and the supervisor. The consequences of the decision are not included for consideration in decision-making according to deontology; therefore these consequences do not form as the premise in reaching the decision but the moral obligation matter. Another premise is that the deontology theory requires a person to consider the effect the decision will have on other people, in this case the audience resulting in the need to refuse airing the advertisement. The premise for airing the advert is to follow the needs of the supervisor and to ensure the future of the business manager is not affected. The best decision for the worker is to refuse Dr. Reed’s demands to allow following moral rules guiding decision making and considering the needs of the audience aimed at by the advertisement. Reference Boylan, M. (2014). Business ethics. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Read More