Download Introduction to Business Ethics

Introduction to
Business Ethics
Overview of the Course
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Introductions
Syllabus
Text and other readings
Assignments
Expectations
Questions?
How Ethical Is
American Business?
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1994 Ethics Resource Center survey of 4,035
American workers:
nearly one-third said they feel pressured by
their companies to violate official company
policies in order to achieve business success.
one-third witnessed violations of company
ethics policies, while only half of these
reported the violations.
2003 Update:
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22% had observed violations; and 65%
of these reported them.
only 10% felt pressured to commit
violations themselves.
BUT….
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One-third said success by questionable
methods was admired at work
Companies in transition (mergers, etc.) had
twice the average rate of violations.
Young workers felt much more pressure,
reported less, and were more likely to feel
that ethical behavior wasn’t supported.
42% of those who reported were not satisfied
with the company’s response.
Most Common Violations:
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Lying to supervisors
Falsifying records
Stealing
Sexual harassment
Drug or alcohol abuse at work
Conflicts of interest
Verbal abuse
More Examples…
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Deceit
Fraud
Influence buying
Hiding information
Taking unfair advantage
Misrepresentation
Divulging secrets
Promise-breaking
Abuse of organizational systems
Being an accessory
Ethics in the News
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Enron & Arthur Andersen
Worldcom, MacLeod, Qwest
Tyco, Adelphia, HealthSouth
ImClone & Martha Stewart
Merrill Lynch, Citibank, mutuals
The Abramoff briberies of Congress
Ahold, Parmalat, etc. etc. etc.
Ethics vs. Morals?
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What do you think the difference is?
Actually, there are so many different
definitions as to make the distinction
meaningless.
Let’s use them interchangeably.
Ethical Problems, Temptations,
Dilemmas, Issues
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Not every business ethics situation requires a
full-blown analysis!
Some are problems to be solved.
Some are issues that must be managed.
Some are true dilemmas, where the choices
aren’t clear, or the outcomes aren’t good no
matter what, or the best outcome isn’t
obvious.
But a lot of ethics situations are simply
temptations.
Problems
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are situations where an impediment
stands between an actor or organization
and some stated ethical goal.
Problems just need to be solved.
Temptations
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are opportunities to choose wrong
actions over right ones – and the actor
knows the difference.
Temptations need to be resisted;
organizational structures and processes
can help.
Dilemmas
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are conflicts among rights (or among
wrongs), where the decision maker
must balance competing claims and
justify a choice.
Dilemmas require fact-finding, analysis,
and a more complex decision process.
Issues
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are situations with ethical content, but no
clear-cut decision point.
multiple decision points, multiple actors, no
single one with authority or knowledge to
settle the issue.
may involve disagreements on the problem
and solutions, based in deeply-held values.
Issues have a life cycle – emerging,
developing, mature, declining.
Issues must be managed over time, with the
help of others.
The Point:
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Not all ethics concerns are difficult.
Some, in fact, are easy to resolve.
Others require thought, analysis, and
management.
Still others require creative approaches
to avoid causing bigger problems.
Others still are truly not resolvable and
so the company’s approach must be
managed.
What Is Ethics?
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ANALYSIS: the study of moral principles
and decision making.
DEVELOPMENT: the development of
reasonable standards and processes for moral
decision making.
STANDARDS: a set of rules, or a code,
governing what a person should do when
ethical problems arise.
ACTION: using a process of moral decision
making to make decisions about ethical
problems.
What ISN’T Ethics?
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Preaching, moralizing
Just our opinions
Legal compliance
Obeying the demands of society
Obeying the demands of your role
Ethics education helps us
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to ARTICULATE our values clearly,
to APPLY them to new situations,
to frame BETTER REASONS for the
ethical decisions and actions we take,
and,
to achieve BETTER OUTCOMES for the
stakeholders of business organizations.
In this class, you’ll learn
To about many of the situations in business that
require ethical judgment,
To recognize them as ethical situations,
To use the language of ethics and values to analyze
them,
To decide rationally what is the best course of action,
and then
To act:
EXPOSURE 
RECOGNITION 
LANGUAGE 
ANALYSIS 
DECISION 
ACTION
To Handle Ethics Problems
Well, We Need to Use Reason:
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Stakeholders
Consequences
Rights and duties
Justice – process & distribution
Commonsense rules of morality
Individual and collective balancing
To Reason About Ethics,
We Need to:
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Build good arguments rather than
opinions. (avoid "I feel that . . . .")
Test arguments on parallel cases.
Listen to the views of others (and listen
for silence).
Understand disagreement.
Respect persons and learn from their
positions.
Why Worry About Ethics?
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It’s the right thing to do!
Self-respect and reputation.
Avoid stakeholder problems, lawsuits,
rising insurance costs.
Avoid additional regulation.
Avoid damage from unfair competitive
practices, and . . .
Stay out of jail.