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Ethics
Personal and professional
perspectives
Defining ethics 1.
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There are many definitions, mostly ‘loose’
ones as they deal with morality which is an
inherantly subjective issue.
Essentially ethics represents:
“A set of moral principles or values.”
Trevinho 1999
Hemmingway put it another way:
“What is moral is what you feel good after ethics is different: it is what you do hoping
others will feel good after.”
Defining ethics 2.
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Trevinho believes a better definition is:
“The principles,norms and standards of
conduct governing an individual or group.”….
citing Skooglund she continues:
“Ethics is the ground rules of how we are
going to relate to other people - the
expectations and understandings that define
how we are going to deal with others. And by
‘others’ we mean customers, suppliers,
governments, communities, but most of all,
one another.”
Why care about ethics at all? 1.
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Because, if we don’t, not only may we
become ‘out of step’ with our
‘stakeholders’ we may overstep the
legal ‘mark’.
Not only is our corporate ‘persona’ at
risk - so is our personal integrity.
Why care about ethics at all? 2.
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Bowen H McCoy writing for Real Estate
Issues (vol 9 iss 3). Chicago 1994 noted
poignantly:
“Bad practices grow incrementally. Each small twist of the
wheel goes unnoticed. People are rewarded for behaviour
which reinforces bad practices instead of good practices.
We are told from natural science that a frog will sit in a pan
of tepid water as the heat is slowly turned up until it dies.
While, if the frog is thrown into over-heated water, it will
jump out. Entitlement replaces responsibility. We each have
our own vision of organizations gone awry; and as we
wonder how senior management could have condoned such
bad practices, perhaps the only answer is the incremental
gradualism of evil where there is a lack of moral awareness
or imagination”
Why care about ethics at all? 3.
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McCoy, again suggests, that if we don’t care no-one
else will, and that abrogation of our responsibility is not
an option:
“We are each individual moral agents with great
potential to do good as well as evil. The problem is
that we rarely live up to our potential and that we too
readily give up our moral authority to others,including
the organizations where we make our living.”
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King, Martin Luther Jr.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that
matter.”
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Edmund Burke
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to
do nothing."
Ethics and the Law 1.
.
Ethics, Law and Regulation 2
Law (EU PHTD)
Purview of
Ethics
(Societal/business
perceptions of
what is ‘right’)
Corporate self-gov.
(Corporate Governance /
ethical pols)
Govt. regulation
(A.S.A)
Industry selfregulation
(ABTA)
Ethics and the law 2.
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All law should be ethical (but it may not
be dependent upon time and
perspective)
Not all ethical matters are enshrined in
law. (Because of time and the nature &
process of legislation)
If ethics goes beyond the law, why
should we expect ethical compliance of
individuals and corporations?
But Whose Law? Whose Ethics?
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Legal systems and the norms and
expectations of societies vary the world
over by:
– geography,
– state of development,
– political & religious context
So…are ethics absolute or relative?…And
how does your answer affect Tourism?
Journals: Business Ethics: A European Review,
Ethics and Tourism
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Given tourism has some particular
characteristics:
– global…moving people from many national settings
and cultures into a different set of contexts
– largely intangible & sold by description
– relatively fixed capacities causes competition
– winners take the spoils and losers bear the costs in
the dominant mode of development.
…is it that surprising that tourism offers
the potential to be an ethical
minefield?
Mapping the ‘Minefield’
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Oviously Ethical
– price competition
– market entry (eg
Expedia)
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Blatantly Unethical
– Telling an agent not
to divulge a material
fact which might stop
a booking
proceeding
The obvious is easy …. Try these ---->
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 1.
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Circumstance
A price-fixing cartel for
cross channel ferries
operated openly
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Classification
Unethical & Illegal :
operating in restraint of
trade is not acceptable
to public policy,
regardless of whether it
is done behind closed
doors or in the open.
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 2.
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Circumstance
Holiday brochure
picture taken on the
sunniest, most idyllic
day of the year, with a
tobacco filter and wide
angle lens, from the
best view possible
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Classification
Ethical & Legal.
‘caveat emptor’ applies.
Nothing has been
actually misrepresented
to an unacceptable
degree
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 3.
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Circumstance
Holiday brochure picture
taken on the sunniest,
most idyllic day of the
year, with a tobacco
filter and wide angle
lens, from the best view
possible. Construction
work airbrushed out of
the picture.
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Classification
Depends! If the
airbrushing was
because the work would
have been complete by
the time the holidays
are beginning, probably
OK. If willful
misrepresentation,
NOT.
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 4.
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Circumstance
Airline deliberately
overbooks/sells seats by
25% more than
capacity. Result: all
flights leave passengers
standing.
Q…Did any of you
normally overbook
flights to even the
smallest of degrees?
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Classification
Unethical despite the
need to fill capacity and
keep fares low. The
overselling is
unreasonable as there
is knowledge that on
every flight people will
be ‘bumped’.
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 5.
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Circumstance
Airline deliberately
overbooks/sells seats
by just 5% more than
capacity.
Result: some flights
leave passengers
standing but they are
admittedly well
compensated.
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Classification
Still Unethical! Contracts
must be entered into in good
faith. Selling one more seat
than the plane has is
technically in breach of
contract because a passenger
may not be able to secure the
seat he has paid for!
Compensation does not
change matters: the 101%
capacity customer thought he
was being offered an available
seat. The company would be
unhappy if he didn’t have the
money to pay for it!!!!
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 6.
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Circumstance
Poaching competitor
clients once they
become visible - eg
offering them upgrades
as they get out of a
competitor limo.
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Classification
Unethical. The client
has already entered into
a contract to fill a seat
and pay. The ‘poacher’
is inciting the
competitor’s client to
breach his contract.
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 7.
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Circumstance
A large player seeking
to guarantee his source
of supply, ‘suggesting’
to suppliers, that it
would not be a good
idea to supply to a
competitor. (‘You know
where your bread is
buttered’)
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Classification
Unethical, despite the
fact that this arises from
scale of business /
importance of client and
fear of loss rather than
actual pressure.
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 8.
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Circumstance
A developer using his
power to influence a
government in a poor,
developing nation to cut
a deal, which, though
legal (according to local
law and regulations) &
entered into freely, the
developer knows will not
be in the long term
interests of the area.
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Classification
Debatable! (why??)
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 9.
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Circumstance
Tourists going on
holiday expressly to be
able to do in the
destination things which
are not acceptable at
home… “because we
deserve the right to
‘unwind’, ‘express
ourselves and ‘exercise
our freedom’.”
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Classification
Debatable! (why??)
– May/may not be legal in
the destination
– may / may not be socially
acceptable (ethical in the
local [relative] view) in
the destination
– Unethical if one takes an
absolutist view
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 10.
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Circumstance
18-30 type operators
deliberately promoting
holidays abroad based on
‘the outrageous’.
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Classification
– Undoubtedly unethical
because they have
experience of the
destination and know
full well the negative
impacts and
unacceptability /
cultural conflict.
– ASA found campaigns
of certain operators in
breach of their
regulations.
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 11.
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Circumstance
The development of ‘allinclusive’ resorts by inward
investors / western
development corporations in
less developed nations.
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Classification
– Unethical if one takes
an absolutist view as
developers know full
well that these
developments offer
precious little value to
the local community
and economy.
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 12.
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Circumstance
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Classification
In the light of the above - think back to your
dealings as a consumer or provider of tourism
services…on reflection, are there things you or your
employer might have been doing that are not quite
whiter than white?
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 13
Some others for you to think about:
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Price competition by a large operator running at
minimum profit so that smaller competitors with lower
economies of scale cannot match prices without financial
loss. The maintenance of this over a period of time to
force competitors out of business and take their market
share with a view then to allowing prices to rise.
Ethical
&
Legal
Unethical
AntiPublic Pol
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Price competition in airline operation by a large carrier
dropping the price below real cost to drive out compn.
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A travel agent not volunteering the fact that a terrorist
event has happened recently near the hotel being
booked. Clients didn’t ask.
Unethical
but legal
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A travel agent not volunteering the fact that an outbreak
of Hepatitis occurred in the resort being booked. Clients
didn’t ask.
Unethical
and
against
PHol TD
Mapping the ‘Minefield’ 14.
Some others for you to think about:
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A western developer affording lower construction health and safety
protection for workers in developing nations than in Western Europe and
North America, yet in full compliance with local conditions and laws
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A western corporation giving a 'bribe' to an official in a developing nation
where such practise is the norm.
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A nation desperate for development using the forced labour of its own
citizens in the construction of the tourism infrastructure
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A tour operator contracting with government tourism agencies in the
country concerned in the Q above
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Developing nations expropriating land from peasant farmers to give to
tourism developers to support the development of the tourism industry
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Advertising of 'Free Child Holidays' which are limited in number and time to
a small fraction of the likely take up market.
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Relating holiday package price cuts to insurance contracts
Business, Life and Ethics 1.
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Should business be concerned with ethics at
all? Some perspectives from Carr in
Chryssides & Kalor:
"It is fair to say that...if a businessman feels obliged to tell the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth - then he is
ignoring opportunities permitted by the rules and is at a heavy
disadvantage in his business dealings”
" So long as a businessman complies with the law of the land
and avoids telling malicious lies, he's ethical. If the law as
written gives a man a wide open chance to make a killing, he'd
be a fool not to take advantage of it... if the law says he can do
it, that's all the justification he needs. There's nothing unethical
about that: it's just plain business sense."
Business, Life and Ethics 2.
(Contd.)…………….
" If we're going to stay in business, we have to look for profits
wherever the law permits. We don't make the laws: we obey
them. Then why do we have to put up with this 'holier than thou'
talk about ethics. If ethics aren't embodied in the laws by the
men who made them you can't expect businessmen to fill in the
lack.”
'Decisions in business are ones of strategy, not of ethics"
Business, Life and Ethics 3.
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But is it that clear cut?
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MMC report publication 98 on Vertical Integration in travel & tourism operation to
counter the worry that the concentration in the hands of the multiples, though not
illegal, was producing a number of unsavoury, even unethical, side-effects.
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Estelle Morris ‘falling on her sword’ and resigning after some not inconsiderable
education system failings came to light ‘on her watch’.
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Nolan Committee on Standards in Public Life ('Cash for Questions' etc)
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Greenbury Committee on boardroom pay policy & 'fatcats'
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BMA consideration of gene research / transplants/ euthanasia etc
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ASA on race discrimination and professional standards in advertising. (A car
manufacturer took a promotional photo of a group of the workforce then airbrushed
out the one coloured guy in the picture and used the photo)
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Ulrika Jonsson’s disclosures/allegations of a private matter in the public domain … or
is the problem with the press feeding frenzy and the inevitable name-dropping?
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BA v Virgin 'saga'
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Body Shop ethical credentials questioned
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Enron, Arthur Andersen.. WorldCom..MyTravel .. ‘interesting’ accounting procedures..
Business, Life and Ethics 4.
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But is it that clear cut? We now have:
– A raft of watchdogs and regulators established by the
public sector principally to try and exert some moderating
social and political influences over the recently privatised
utilities and other areas of commerce :
• Ombudsmen,
• OFWAT / OFGAS / OFTEL etc,
• PIA.
– Beyond this we have other private sector self-regulatory
organisations such as:
• ABTA, BIA etc (these being formed in many cases as a
proactive venture by principal industry players as a 'buffer'
intended to reduce the perceived need for legislation or
state regulation.)
Business and Ethics 5.
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But is it that clear cut? We now also have:
– Media programmes like ‘Watchdog’ and ‘Holiday Hell’ and
consumer rights organisations like the Consumers’
Association.
– ‘Movements’ in society and the marketplace:
• ‘Rights’ - demanding 100% of personal legal entitlement…and
beyond from society, the state and suppliers
• Responsibilities - people who accept that they bear some
responsibility towards others in their consumption activities.
Both of these different yet distinctive pressures are forcing
businesses to consider how their stakeholders are
perceiving activities which my be legal but which may not
be entirely ethical. As a result, self-regulatory body
memberships are up and companies are adopting ‘codes
of conduct’ and ‘ethical policy statements’. The
motivations behind them and the will to police them,
however, are other issues entirely.
The ‘Beautiful Game’
(with apologies to Ben Elton)
When the body of existing law is
inappropriate (perhaps overtaken by
technological development or product
and service innovation) both the
consumer and commercial sector
providers are, if you like, playing on the
'football' field without a referee.
The ‘Beautiful Game’
(with apologies to Ben Elton)
As the basic ‘rules of the game’ as set by law seem to
be inappropriate or outmoded, the commercial team
tends to take on the role of developing general rules
(often in association with the consumer, who in effect
owns the ball, so the commercial sector cannot have it
all its own way) so that a reasonably acceptable game
can be played until the state referee belatedly arrives
with a new set of draft FA rules under his arm (Green
Paper / White paper) to conduct a 'friendly game'
(consultation).
Thereafter the new rulebook is adopted, but inevitably
with new pressures even this becomes inappropriate
after a time so the whole process re-starts.
Codes of Conduct
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The big problem here is one of visibility,
compliance and enforcement. See:
– WTO Global Code of Tourism Ethics
(then
scroll down & see menu on LHS)
• Look at the Articles and consider
– will you change as a result
– will corporations
– If not, how will it be enforced to change the status
quo?
– Journal of Business Ethics - Payne, D &
Dimanche, F: Towards a code of conduct for the tourism industry: An
ethics model (Sept 96 Vol 15 Issue 9)
Further Sources
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See my Ethics page
Business Ethics: A European Review
(Journal via Ingenta)
Journal of Business Ethics