Andrés Falquez

Fall II 2012

First half: Second half:Quiz / homework 33% Quiz / homework 50%Class participation 33% Class participation 50%Project 33% Project (optional)Average 50% Average 50%Midterm exam 50% Final exam 50%

To pass this course you need a 69,5 grade or higher.

Only 6 absences are permitted. With 7 absences you FAIL the course. Three late arrivals are considered 1 absence.

Grading method

The dictionary defines ethics as a set of moral principles.

There are six different ethical viewpoints; experientialist, systemicist, transcendentalist, conventionalist, individualist, and legitimist.

Experientialists are people who base their decisions on emotions. This person would go with their "gut feeling”.

Systemicist's like to base decisions on what is right for everyone involved. If it is mostly good, then it is ethical. But, if it is bad, then it is deemed unethical.

Transcendentalists based decisions on an obligation to respond to a deep inner sense of what is right, good, internal, and divine. Basically, their decisions are religiously based.

In the situation presented, a transcendentalist would be very clear stance that stealing is bad. No matter what the reason was for stealing the money, transcendentalists would still consider it wrong and unethical.

Conventionalists base their decisions on whether or not other people believe to be right or wrong. In other words, if everyone else thinks it is okay, then it must be ethical. The downfall to this focus is that there isn't a clear viewpoint.

In contrast to the transcendentalist, what is wrong is wrong and vice versa. However, with this, one may believe something is unethical at first, but after hearing the thoughts of others, they may deem in appropriate.

The fifth decision style is that of the individualist. This style differs from all the rest in that the views are based to ensure one's own security and interests. Individualists think of the "what will benefit me" attitude.

The legitimist has a clear cut view on ethical decisions. This person believes in policies and rules and that those rules were set to be followed. Following the rules would be ethical to a legitimist because they believe rules are set for the betterment of society.

Utilitarianism, founded by John Stuart Mill, basically promotes the idea that actions are judged right or wrong according to the amount of happiness that comes from those decisions.

However, happiness is not defined in terms of the person making the decision. Happiness means for the good of all, which is not necessarily the way many people define it today.

Using Utilitarianism, an individual would make decisions according to which one would provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people. One is that this theory may force an individual to do something against his/her own morals. For example, if a man is a victim in a bank robbery and has a gun, he should shoot the robber because that would provide the greatest good. However, this man may be against killing. This would be the "least bad" solution, but not necessarily a good solution.

Some would also say that it requires too much of the human being to always have to be concerned with the common good. Others would say that the rights of those in the minority are always pushed aside with this theory.

Deontology derives from the Greek words for duty (deon) and science (or study) of (logos). It’s one of those kinds of normative theories regarding which choices are morally required, forbidden, or permitted.

Deontology falls within the domain of moral theories that guide and assess our choices of what we ought to do, in contrast to virtue theories that fundamentally guide and assess what kind of person (in terms of character traits) we are and should be.

Deontological theories judge the morality of choices by criteria different than the states of affairs those choices bring about. Roughly speaking, deontologists of all stripes hold that some choices cannot be justified by their effects that no matter how morally good their consequences, some choices are morally forbidden.

For deontologists, what makes a choice right is its conformity with a moral norm. Such norms are to be simply obeyed by each moral agent; such norm-keepings are not to be maximized by each agent. In this sense, for deontologists, the Right has priority over the Good. If an act is not in accord with the Right, it may not be undertaken, no matter the Good that it might produce (including even a Good consisting of acts in accordance with the Right).

Virtue-based ethical theories place less emphasis on which rules people should follow and instead focus on helping people develop good character traits, such as kindness and generosity. These character traits will, in turn, allow a person to make the correct decisions later on in life. Virtue theorists also emphasize the need for people to learn how to break bad habits of character, like greed or anger. These are called vices and stand in the way of becoming a good person

Recently virtue ethics has not been a very common topic for study, but it dates back to the ancient Greek thinkers and is thus the oldest type of ethical theory in Western philosophy. Plato discussed four key virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance and justice. The first systematic description of virtue ethics was given by Aristotle in his famous work Nichomachean Ethics.

According to Aristotle, when people acquire good habits of character, they are better able to regulate their emotions and their reason. This, in turn, helps us reach morally correct decisions when we are faced with difficult choices.

Virtue ethics emphasizes the central role played by motives in moral questions. To act from virtue is to act from some particular motivation; thus to say that certain virtues are necessary for correct moral decisions is to say that correct moral decisions require correct motives.

Neither teleological nor deontological moral theories require motives to play a role in our evaluation of moral decisions, but encouraging correct motivations is very often a key component of the moral education of young people. We are taught that we should desire certain outcomes and that we should want to accomplish certain goals by our actions.

Another reason why virtue theories are so attractive is that the other moral theories share in common the difficulty in dealing with complicated moral calculations over what actions to take or which moral duties to emphasize.

Virtue theories promise that once we are successful in creating the sort of person we want to be, arriving at the correct moral decisions will come naturally.

Key questions which virtue ethical systems ask include:

• What sort of person do I want to be?

• What virtues are characteristic of the person I want to be?

• What actions will cultivate the virtues I want to possess?

• What actions will be characteristic of the sort of person I want to be?

People and organizations must behave ethically and with sensitivity toward social, cultural, economic and environmental issues. Striving for social responsibility helps individuals, organizations and governments have a positive impact on development, business and society with a positive contribution to results.

A duty every individual or organization has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystem.

It’s a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms.

Also called corporate conscience, corporate citizenship, social performance, or sustainable responsible business/ Responsible Business

Came into common use in late1960s after many multinational corporations formed the term stakeholder, meaning those on whom an organization's activities have an impact.

Those in favor of CSR argue that corporations make more long term profits by operating with a perspective, while critics argue that CSR distracts from the economic role of businesses.

Others argue CSR is merely window-dressing, or an attempt to take over the role of governments as a watchdog over powerful multinational corporations.

Common approach is philanthropy. This includes monetary donations and aid given to local organizations and impoverished communities.

Fair trade is an organized social movement that aims to help producers in developing countries to make better trading conditions and promote sustainability.

It advocates the payment of a higher price to exporters as well as higher social and environmental standards. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, chocolate, flowers, and gold

Another approach is Creating Shared Value, or CSV. The shared value model is based on the idea that corporate success and social welfare are interdependent.

A business needs a healthy, educated workforce, sustainable resources and adept government to compete effectively. For society to thrive, profitable and competitive businesses must be developed and supported to create income, wealth, tax revenues, and opportunities for philanthropy.

The central premise behind Creating Shared Value is that the competitiveness of a company and the health of the communities around it are mutually dependent. Recognizing and capitalizing on these connections between societal and economic progress has the power to unleash the next wave of global growth and to redefine capitalism.

Companies can create shared value opportunities in three ways:

1) Reconceiving products and markets: Companies can meet social needs while better serving existing markets, accessing new ones, or lowering costs through innovation

2) Redefining productivity in the value chain: Companies can improve the quality, quantity, cost, and reliability of inputs and distribution while they simultaneously act as a steward for essential natural resources and drive economic and social development

3) Enabling local cluster development: Companies do not operate in isolation from their surroundings. To compete and thrive, for example, they need reliable local suppliers, a functioning infrastructure of roads and telecommunications, access to talent, and an effective and predictable legal system

Stakeholder theory suggests that the purpose of a business is to create as much value as possible for stakeholders. In order to succeed and be sustainable over time, executives must keep the interests of customers, suppliers, employees, communities and shareholders aligned and going in the same direction.

Innovation to keep these interests aligned is more important than the easy strategy of trading off the interests of stakeholders against each other

An example of how executives create value for stakeholders is the IBM’s Smarter Planet campaign.  As part of the campaign, the company helped the Memphis Police Department reduce crime by 27 per cent from 2006 to 2010 by developing a computer system  that unifies and analyses a huge amount of crime data. This benefits not only their customer, the police department, but also the entire Memphis community. 

The political philosopher Charles Blattberg has criticized ST for assuming that the interests of the various stakeholders can be, at best, compromised or balanced against each other.

He recommends conversation instead and this leads him to defend what he calls a 'patriotic' conception of the corporation as an alternative to that associated with stakeholder theory.

Making money is the purpose of a corporation. To this end, various financial strategies are employed. However, there are practices that are not acceptable for companies to engage in.

The two types of activities that are proscribed are those that are illegal and those that are unethical. While these are both important and there is significant overlap, they should not be conflated.

Corporations distribute the control and ownership of a business entity to shareholders. The shareholders are entitled to a share of the firm's profit and exert control on the operations in proportion to the amount of the stock they possess.

Because ownership and control is dispersed in this way, ethical and legal concerns are often complicated. Corporations nearly always retain full-time lawyers working "in house" and even firms of a modest size have attorneys specializing in corporate law.

Ethics, with regard to corporations, generally concerns dealing honorably with the firm's customers and vendors and with examining the impact of the company's operations on third parties. Economists often refer to effects of a transaction on those not directly involved as "externalities".

Externalities can be positive (increase in land value) or negative (pollution or unemployment) caused by a company's actions.

Besides the establishment of a corporation in the form of a particular structure, law has enormous impact on the operation of corporations. Because corporations can raise huge amounts of capital and often preside over endeavors of incredibly large scale, the arrangements they make with suppliers, distributors and others are sealed with contracts.

Legal council is essential and must be well versed in the generalities of contract law and the specifics of how this relates to corporations with an eye to the impact of legal jurisdiction.

Corporations want to be known as good "citizens". The reasons range from cynical public relations driven self-interest to a sincere desire to make a better world. While complying with criminal law represents a minimum standard, most go beyond this standard in order to curry favor with the public. Even though manufacturers can open offshore operations to exploit lower labor standards, some exceed the minimum standards to local labor, providing more employment domestically.

Since the 1990s, corporate ethics has been recognized as a primary function of organizations. Corporate ethics is divided into business ethics (BE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The two concepts are not synonymous but complement and support each other. BE refers to the company's organizational behavior in an ethical and legal fashion. CSR is the behavior and action by a company in relation to society. A company has to function ethically and develop social welfare activities.

The rationale of a corporate ethics strategy depends on the reason a company has to believe and follow BE and CSR. A corporate entity must realize that ethical actions and behavior will eventually reduce and cut through red tape and other administrative legal hassles.

A company must acknowledge that it does not exist alone. It functions in a society with the help of society members. It employs people, uses society resources and time. So it must give back to society by participating in welfare activities.

A realization of the meaning and importance of BE and CSR will result in increased efficiency, performance and goodwill. These factors are critical to the company`s daily functions.

Be and CSR need to be proactive in nature. This means that corporate ethics has to form an integral part of organizational business strategy. Usually, a company adopts a short-term reactive approach to BE and a long-term approach to CSR. But BE and CSR have similar aims and so need to be fused together to have one approach.

In 1991, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (FSGO) ruled that all organizations should have an ethics program in place. This includes a staff manual outlining code of conduct, organizational business expectations of non-discrimination practices and employee working conditions and leave. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 1992 further tightened the BE strategy by introducing policies of accounting reform and financial reporting regulations.

Kant's Mechanism for determining whether a moral judgment is a moral rule is called the "Categorical Imperative." You should obey only those rules which you can consistently consider as universal law. This version, called the "Universalizability Principle" is very much like the Golden Rule.

By choosing only those rules that can be universalized, Kant is building fairness, lack of bias, and universality into his ethical system. You are, in effect, saying “this is how all rational beings will and should behave”.

The Golden Rule imposes on each of us an independent, enduring moral obligation to help and be kind to others even if they ignore their similar obligations to us. Despite the temptations, it is not ethical to lie to a liar nor to cheat a cheater.

It demands consistency and a willingness to treat others better than they treat us (willingness to be a victim at least from time to time). People who are honest, fair, and caring to everyone should not expect everyone to be honest, fair and caring to them.

Bluffing = to mislead or deceive Unethical behavior in sales

interactions can take many forms such as: misrepresentation of product features, false promises on delivery times, hidden costs, or silence in response to customer inquiries. It involves the failure to tell the truth.

Bluffing, concealment, distortion of facts, deception, conscious misstatement, hiding information and lies are not same. Communication strategies often involve withholding of information but not deception or conscious misstatement.

By eliminating the elements of deception and lying, bluffing does not prove to be ethical; rather it falls in the category of “grey area” on continuum of ethics.

Bluffing can be “passive” or “active”. A passive bluff is one where one consciously omits some useful information in order to make the statement impressive. It is not the act of making a false statement, but merely concealing certain facts. Active bluffing involves deliberate misstatements for the purpose of impressing others.

Conception of the value and use of property has evolved (slavery & family)

Civilization has evolved from tribal to private ownership

It began as the appropriation of the strongest to the reward for someone’s skills and hard work

What gives us the right to say….”this is mine”?

Is it right for you to receive more than others do?

What were the sources of that property and wealth?

Karl Marx’s theory describes alienation as the systemic result of living in a socially stratified society. Being a “mechanical” part of a social class alienates a person from his and her humanity.

The worker invariably loses the ability to determine his or her life and destiny, when deprived of the right to think of himself as the director of his actions, to define his relationship with other people, and to own the things and use the value of the goods and services, produced with his labour. Although the worker is an autonomous, self-realised human being, as an economic entity, he or she is directed to goals and diverted to activities that are dictated by the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production, in order to extract from the worker the maximal amount of surplus value, in the course of business competition among industrialists.

Although the worker is an autonomous, self-realised human being, as an economic entity, he or she is directed to goals and diverted to activities that are dictated by the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production, in order to extract from the worker the maximal amount of surplus value.

Capitalism reduces the labor of the worker to a business commodity that can be traded in the competitive labor-market, rather than as a constructive socio-economic activity part of the collective common effort for personal survival and the improvement of society