Download Moral reasoning

MODULE 1
INTRODUCTION
• Our acts or responses to a situation practically reflect
our feelings, thinking and judgment based on our
moral principles and values.
• The ultimate aim of ethical behaviour and practice is to
feel satisfied (and not necessarily justified) about one’s
conduct and behaviour or action and its outcome.
• Acting in keeping with one’s ethics involves making an
effort to know the possible consequences of one’s
action and, then, to be sure that the action is to his or
her satisfaction.
ETHICS
• Ethics is a system of moral principles and attitude
that guides our actions to be morally correct, fair
and just.
• Ethics is about enforceable morality, justice and
fairness of conduct, actions and governance by
individuals,
institutions,
companies,
organizations, societies and governments.
• However, ethics are not the law unto itself nor
are they instruments parallel to the laws of the
land.
MORALITY
• Morality and morality of actions are the
yardsticks of ethics.
• ‘Morality’ is the subject matter that ethics
investigates through a process of moral
reasoning.
• Moral standards include those norms that we
believe are morally right or wrong as well as the
value we place on subject matters that are
morally good or bad.
CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL
STANDARDS
• Morality and morality of actions are the
yardsticks of ethics.
• ‘Morality’ is the subject matter that ethics
investigates through a process of moral
reasoning.
• Moral standards include those norms that we
believe are morally right or wrong as well as the
value we place on subject matters that are
morally good or bad.
MORAL REASONING FOR ETHICS
• Moral reasoning tries to logically place or project facts and figures that
help one to judge human behaviour, institutional activities, policies,
programmes, etc. as to whether they are in accordance to, or in violation
of, acceptable moral standards.
• Distinct features of Moral or ethical reasoning:
– identifying what constitutes ‘moral standards’;
– examining facts and figures concerning the policy, behaviour and actions
under the specific situation; and
– arriving at a moral judgment on the basis of rightness or wrongness of policy,
behaviour or actions.
Cont…
• To decide if an action or policy is ethical, one has to exercise moral
reasoning by examining the factual information with regard to morality of
the action or policy by analyzing:
a)
b)
c)
d)
the utility of the decision, rights and duties of the individuals concerned with
the decision;
if justice is being meted out by the decision;
the amount of care being shown to those who are related and valued in the
subject matter; and
the consistency of the decision with the past and present.
MORAL RESPONSIBILITY
• ‘Moral responsibility’ means owning responsibility for
doing something knowingly and deliberately that had
caused harm or injury to others.
• Establishing moral responsibility has the connotation of law
or rules, in addition to its ethical implications.
• If any one under the circumstances acted out of (a)
ignorance or (b) inability, he or she may be excused of
moral responsibility.
• However, one cannot deliberately stay ignorant and claim
innocence for a wrongdoing – be it as a person or company.
A tentative flow sheet for Ethical
Judgement
BUSINESS ETHICS
• "Business Ethics" can be
defined as the critical,
structured examination of how
people & institutions should
behave in the world of
commerce. In particular, it
involves examining appropriate
constraints on the pursuit of
self-interest, or (for firms)
profits, when the actions of
individuals or firms affects
others.
CONT…
• Business Ethics can be defined as written and
unwritten codes of principles and values that
govern decisions and actions within a
company.
• In the business world, the organization's
culture sets standards for determining the
difference between good and bad decision
making and behavior.
BUSINESS ETHICS
• A branch of philosophical ethics
• Reflect: In what ways do the practices and
decisions made within business promote or
undermine human well-being?
• How ought we to live?
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WHY STUDY BUSINESS ETHICS?
• Is it a discipline of sentimentality and personal
opinion?
• Who’s to say what is right and what is wrong?
• Is there a place for ethics in business?
• FAMOUS CLICHÉ – “The business of business
is business”
The flow of ethical governance process
in a company
WHAT ARE VALUES?
• Those beliefs or standards that incline us to
act or to choose in one way rather than
another.
• A company’s core values are those beliefs and
principles that provide the ultimate guide in
the company’s decision-making.
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“If you stand for nothing.
You fall for anything.”
“It’s not doing things
right,
but doing the right
things. “
• You have been given a cheque for Rs.
100000 to do whatever you like with it.
What would you do with it?
• Share with the class what you would do with it.
Conclusion:
• What you spend the money on has
everything to do with what you value
•
What things did you do during the
past week.
• What you choose to do with your time also
has everything to do with what you values.
COMPANIES CITED TO STUDY VALUES
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IBM
Johnson & Johnson
Hewlett Packard
Procter and Gamble
Wal-Mart
Merck
Motorola
Sony
General Electric
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CORPORATE CULTURE
• Another way of saying a corporation has a set
of identifiable values.
• But there is no “right” set of core values.
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WAYS OF THINKING
• The field of ethics is usually broken down into
three different ways of thinking about ethics:
descriptive, normative and analytic.
DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS
• The category of descriptive ethics is the
easiest to understand - it simply involves
describing how people behave and/or what
sorts of moral standards they claim to follow.
Descriptive ethics (non-normative)
• analysis of role of ethics in the social
world
• analysis of human "worldviews,"
narratives, customs, rites, and so on; the
cultural carriers of moral notions and
claims
» heavily dependent on the social science
CONT…
In short, descriptive ethics asks these two questions:
• 1. What do people claim as their moral norms?
2. How do people actually behave when it comes to moral
problems?
Here are some examples of statements from Descriptive
Ethics:
1. Most Indian think that racism is wrong.
2. Among certain cultures, there is no stigma attached to
homosexuality.
Stanley Milgram's study found a great discrepancy between
what people claimed and what they actually did.
NORMATIVE ETHICS
• The category of normative ethics is also
relatively easy to understand - it involves
creating or evaluating moral standards. Thus,
it is an attempt to figure out what people
should do or whether their current moral
behavior is reasonable.
CONT…
• In short, normative ethics addresses questions like the
following:
• What should be our moral obligations?
What is Right and what is Wrong?
What should be our moral values?
What is Good and what is Evil?
Here are some examples of statements from Normative
Ethics:
• 1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
(Golden Rule)
2. That which God wills is the Good.
METAEHICS
• Metaethics involves reasoning about the
presuppositions behind the moral systems
developed under the category of normative
ethics.
• Whenever a moral system is created, it is based
upon certain premises about reality, human
nature, values, etc. Metaethics is all about
questioning the validity of those premises and
arguing that perhaps we don't really know what
we are talking about after all.
CONT…
Analytic ethics asks quite a lot of questions,
including:
• How are moral judgments even possible? Why be
moral at all?
• Do moral values exist objectively or only
subjectively?
• Are moral values relative to something, like
culture or individuals?
• Can morality exist independently of religion?
Do people have a free will which would make
moral judgments possible?
“Metathics” (non-normative)
• analysis of concepts such as "ought"
"right" and "wrong", "good" and "bad",
duty, responsibility, etc.
• analysis about how people come to,
reason about, and justify their normative
ethics.
» heavily dependent on Analytic Philosophy
CASE OF COLLAPSED MINE
WHAT IS NOT BUSINESS ETHICS?
• Ethics is different from religion
• Ethics is not synonyms with law
• Ethical standards are different from cultural
traits
• Ethics is different from feelings
• Ethics is not a science in the strictest sense of
the term
• Ethics is not just a collection of values
CODE OF CONDUCT AMD ETHICS FOR
MANAGERS
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Integrity
Impartiality
Responsiveness to the public interest
Accountability
Honesty
Transparency
DECISION MAKING SITUATIONS
FACTORS INFLUENCING BUSINESS
DECISION MAKING
• Economic Point of view
• Legal Point of view
• Moral Point of view
How these point of view may be integrated to
form an approach to business decision
making that can aid people facing difficult
ethical situations.
JOHNSON & JOHNSON’S
• An example of an integrated approach is provided by J
& J ‘s response to the Tylenol crisis. Under the
leadership of CEO James Burke, the company quickly
cleared all bottles of Extra Strength Tylenol capsules off
store shelves in the Chicago area.
A decision was made to be completely candid with the
medical community, the media, and the public.
Accordingly, the company issued warnings to
physicians and hospitals around the world, briefed the
press fully, and provided a toll free number for
answering consumer inquiries.
ETHICAL THEORIES
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Teleological (Utilitarian or consequentialist)
Deontological theory (Duty Based)
Relativism : Subjective and Cultural
Divine Command theory
Character based theory
Social contract theory
TELEOLOGICAL
• Actions are justified on teleological theories
by virtue of the end they achieve, rather than
some feature of the actions themselves.
• According to utilitarianism, our obligation in
any situation is to perform the action that will
result in the greatest possible balance of good
over evil.
CONT…
• CREATORS OF CLASSICAL UTILITARIANISM:
Jeremy Banthem, John Stuart Mill
• JEREMY BANTHEM’S VERSION
- Principle of utility
- Hedonistic calculus
- Objections
CONT…
• MILL’S VERSION
- Greatest happiness principle
- Treatment of Pleasure
- Objections
FORMS OF UTILITARIANISM
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Consequentialism
Hedonism
Maximalism
Univarsalism
ACT AND RULE UTILITARIANISM
• An action is right if and only if it produces the
greatest balance of pleasure over pain for
everyone.
• An action is right if and only if it conforms to a
set of rules the general acceptance of which
would produce the greatest balance of
pleasure over pain for everyone.
DEONTOLOGICAL THEORY
• Deontologists maintain that actions are
morally right or wrong independent of their
consequences.
• Creator: German Philosopher Immanuel Kant
• Action is right if it has a certain form i.e.
nature of reason
RELATIVISM
• Subjective
• Cultural
Relativism
• No universal norms of right and wrong
• One person can say ”X is right,” another can
say ”X is wrong,” and both can be right
Subjective relativism
• Each person decides right and wrong for herself
• ”What’s right for you may not be right for me”
• Pros:
– Well-meaning and intelligent people disagree on moral issues
– Ethical debates are disagreeable and pointless
• Cons:
– Blurs distinction between what you think is right
and what you want to do
– Makes no moral distinction between the actions of different people
– not the same as tolerance
– Decisions may not be based on reason
• Not a workable ethical theory
Cont...
• • Pros:
• – Different contexts demand different
guidelines
• – It is arrogant for one society to judge
another
• – Morality is reflected in actual behavior
Cont…
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• Cons:
– Because two societies do have different moral views
doesnt mean they ought to
– Doesn’t explain how moral guidelines are determined
– Doesn’t explain how guidelines evolve
– Provides no way out for cultures in conflict
– Because many practices are acceptable does not mean
any cultural practice is (many/any fallacy)
– Societies do, in fact, share certain core values
– Only indirectly based on reason
• Not a workable ethical theory
Divine Command Theory
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• Good actions: those aligned with Gods will
• Bad actions: those contrary to Gods will
• Holy books reveal Gods will.
• Use holy books as moral decision-making
guides.
• Pros:
– We owe obedience to our Creator.
– God is all-good and all-knowing.
– God is the ultimate authority.
Cont…
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Cons:
– Different holy books disagree
– Society is multicultural, secular
– Some moral problems not addressed in
scripture
• – Based on obedience, not reason
Duty-Based
• Kant-only good without qualification is a good will, or
the desire to do the right thing.
• Kant-morality is grounded in duty or obligation that people
have to each other
• Rejects happiness or desirable consequences
• Rational capacity distinguishes human and reveals our
duty to others
• Every person has the same moral worth
• Every person is an end in himself and not a means to an end
• Criticism-no conflict resolution
Rule Deontology
• – deon is Greek for duty
• – A principle determines the basis for moral
obligations
• – Categorical Imperatives
• 1. Act on a rule that can be universally binding on
• all people
• 2. Act on the rule that ensures that all people will
• be treated as ends in themselves (easier to apply)
• – Based on universality and impartiality
Cont…
Pros
• Rational
• Universal moral guidelines
• All persons are moral equals
• Workable ethical theory
Cons
• Sometimes no rule adequately characterizes an
• action.
• There is no way to resolve a conflict between
• rules.
• Kantianism allows no exceptions to moral laws.
Consequence-Based (Utilitarianism)
• – Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
• – Goal: produce desirable outcomes
• – Consequences are a standard for evaluation
• – Morality has nothing to do with intent
• An action is good if it benefits someone
• An action is bad if it harms someone
– Utility: tendency of an object to produce happiness
• or prevent unhappiness for an individual or a community
• Happiness = advantage = benefit = good = pleasure
• Unhappiness = disadvantage = cost = evil =
• pain
• – Principle of Utility: An action is right (or wrong) to the extent that it
increases (or decreases) the total happiness of the affected parties.
Two flavors: Act Utilitarianism and
Rule Utilitarianism
• – Act utilitarianism applies Principle of Utility
to individual actions
• – Rule utilitarianism applies Principle of Utility
to moral rules
Character-Based
• • ”Virtue ethics” of Plato and Aristotle
• • Focus on criteria of character development
• acquisition of good character traits from habit
• • No formal rules
• • NOT what should I do? BUT what kind of a person
• should I be?
Criticisms
• – no conflict resolution
• – no examination of consequences
APPLY THEORIES DISCUSSED
• An airplane manufacturer has spent a great deal of money
in developing a new airplane. The company badly needs
cash because it is financially overextended. If it does not
get some large orders soon, it will have to close down part
of its operation. Doing that will put several thousand
workers out of jobs. The result will be disastrous not only
for the workers, but also for the town in which they live.
The president of the company has been trying to interest
the government of a foreign country in a large purchase. He
learns that one of the key governmental ministers in charge
of making the final decision is heavily in debt because of
gambling. He quietly contacts that minister and offers him
Rs. 10 lakhs in cash if he awards the contract for five planes
to his firm.
CONT…
The money is paid and the contract is awarded.
The president argues that his action is
justifiable because the business, the workers
jobs and the town were all saved, the minister
was able to pay his debts and the foreign
country received the planes it needed. The
good produced, he agues, is greater than any
harm done by the payment to the minister. Is
he correct?
ADDITION AS PER T1
The Theory of Justice
• The theory of justice revolves around the
fundamental principles to guarantee a just
and morally acceptable decision.
• It implies that the actions are guided by
fairness, equity and impartiality.
CONT…
• Distributive Justice
• Retributive Justice
• Compensatory Justice
Cont…
• Distributive justice says that equals should be treated
equally and unequal should be treated unequally, and
there should be consistency in the treatment.
• Distributive justice is commonly called for in business in areas like employee gradation and promotion,
wage policy, eligibility for different types of perks,
dealers’ commission, dividend distribution, etc. – with
a view to ensuring equality, uniformity and consistency
in operations.
Cont…
• Retributive justice demands that a ‘just
action’ should be taken either as penalty or
reward in a manner that deserves the cause
for which the penalty or reward is being
meted out.
• It generally deals, in practice, with the
conditions under which it is just to punish a
person for a wrongdoing.
Cont…
• Compensatory justice is that which deals with
the justice of restoration for being wrongfully
harmed by somebody else.
• It demands that a person who has done wrong
should restore or equally compensate for
what has been lost or harmed.
Others types of justice
• Justice of equality states that every person working in a
group should be given equal shares of the group’s benefits
and burdens. It applies to society, business and families.
• Justice based on contribution states that benefits and
burdens should be distributed in proportion to what each
individual contributes to the cause or action.
• Justice based on needs and abilities states that the burden
of work should be distributed as per people’s ability, and
benefits should be distributed as per people’s needs.
The Ethics of Care
• The ethics of care refers to necessity of showing
extra care and consideration to protect someone
else from the adverse effect of one’s choice that
can make someone vulnerable in a particular
situation.
• Ethics of care necessitates examining contextual
details of the situation in order to safeguard and
promote specific interests of those involved
because
they
are
interdependent
for
accomplishing their specific interests – as long as
the interests are moral and legal.
CONT…
• Each of us lives and exists in an environment of care and
concern in the society, and we should preserve and nurture
these environments and relationships;
• Each of us should exercise care for those with whom we are
socially and otherwise related by attending to their needs,
wellbeing and desires as seen from their own personal
perspective, and by responding positively to the same so as
to preserve the values of those relationships;
• Ethics of care is more than just following the moral
principles discussed earlier; it involves attending and
positively responding to the wellbeing and welfare of
those persons with whom we share close and valuable
relationships.
Ethics of Virtues
• Ethics of virtue complement and add to utilitarianism,
rights, justice and care by looking not at the actions
people are required to perform, but at the character
they are required to have.
• A moral virtue is an acquired quality that is praised and
valued as a part of a person’s character. It is indicative
of good moral character.
• Some important ethics-related-virtues that make for a
good individual or a successful manager are courage,
prudence, wisdom, justice, fairness, temperance and
intelligence.
STEPS IN MORAL JUDGEMENT
CASE EXCERCISE
• You are the senior Software consultant in your
firm’s ‘think tank’ which consists of ten people
with various specialities. Because of you and your
group, the company was an industrial leader for
the years. The company wanted to diversify by
opening one more company in the gulf. Your boss
has already decided the individuals in the think
tank. However, your boss is asking you to select a
person from your group of thinkers to head the
new think tank at Gulf.
CONT…
• The person best qualified is your immediate assistant
Gopal. Gopal is highly educated, experienced and he
has trained three teams earlier in the company’s most
successful software projects. If he is sent to Gulf a big
vaccum would be there and it is difficult to replace
him. At the same time, boss is interested to put his
niece Sharmila, who is a sharp graduate of the Local
university but she was not in the think tank and was
also trying to push you around. If you recommend
Gopal, which vaccum and still have problems from
Sharmila or recommend Sharmila to Gulf making the
boss happy and getting rid of her.
CASE EXCERCISE
• You are manufacturer of software products in India
by name Shrishti Softech. Your company has got an
Indian agent in Phoenix at USA who could find a
software market in the Mexican market where cash
under the table Mordita (a little bit) is past of doing
business. This payoff practice is ingrained in the
Mexican culture that a business cannot open
Mexican operation without going along. You have
already observed many companies that did not pay
and failed to enter the Mexican market.
Cont…
• You have also observed that those paid tended to enter the
market and do fairly well in it. Yu have many options
a. With your agent you can operate, you also have the
satisfaction of not involving yourself in Mordita, whereas
your agent can manage.
b. If you can manage yourself without your agent, you save
commission.
c. Also you can continue to raise your stature with IT
companies in Mexico and encourage them to lobby the
government to open the market
d. You can pay the bribe yourself or through your agent or
not pay anything and wind up the Mexican market.
CASE
• Assume that you are the personnel director for a
manufacturing firm that is undergoing a major
change in direction. The change involves the
hiring of young, energetic workers and you have
some difficult decisions to make. The firm is
building two new technologically advanced plants
and it will close four of its old plants out of five.
Rattan is a fifty six year old production worker
who has been with your firm for ten years. In
your opinion, he is not fit being retained, but he
is not old enough to be sent out with any
retirement benefits.
Cont…
• You must decide whether to place Rattan in
the only remaining old plant the company has
left or fire him.
CASE
• You are general superintendent of High sky
construction company. You learnt a few weeks ago that
an attempt was under way to unionize the company’s
construction crews. A disgruntled carpenter, Hari, was
spearheading the organizing attempt. You recently saw
Hari even talking to a known professional organizer.
You believe unionization will bring with it demands for
higher wages and for costly work rules. And high sky is
already on the verge of bankruptcy. The company
president, a hardnosed businessman, has just told you
to stop the unionizing attempt, even if you have to
‘invent a reason’ to fire Hari.
Cont…
• The problem is that you think you understand
why Hari has turned against the company and
you sympathise with him. A few months ago,
you had a superintendent’s job and you knew
he was better qualified. Your friend did not
turn up, and you had intended to offer the job
to Hari. But if you do so now, it will seem like a
bribe to get his cooperation. Besides, he might
tell you to take the job and shove it.
CASE
• You run a construction company and your
company is bidding on a Rs. 2 cr public
housing project. A local electrical sub
contractor submitted a bid that you know is
20% too low; It could put the sub contractor
out of business. In fact the bid was Rs. 50000
below those of the other four contractors. But
accepting it will improve your chance of
winning the contract for a big housing project.
Cont…
• You are asking yourself the same question
over and over again: is it fair to allow
someone to drive himself into possible
bankruptcy when he does not know it but you
do? You can accept either the low bid and
almost assure that your company will get the
Rs. 2 cr contract or you can throw out the bid
and submit a realistic overall bid on the
contract.