CHAPTER 6

THE GLOBAL BUSINESS PLACE AS A FIELD OF APPLIED ETHICS

ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION AND THE GLOBAL BUSINESS PLACE

Economic globalization is paramount important, it would be shortsighted to conceive of it

exclusively in these terms (economic globalization and the global business place). This system in

the making is about "global transformation", including, political, cultural, and environmental

globalization, migration and the expanding reach of organized crimes, as stated by D. Held and

A. McGrew (2002).

To understand and evaluate economic globalization, one has to investigate & account for

not only economic activities & their impact but also the institutions & the rules that govern &

should govern these activities & consequences. The rules of the market in particular are at stake.

Nevertheless, Effective, fair, and sustainable global institutions do not suffice single

handedly to make economic globalization succeed. The successful "game" depends not only on

the quality of the rules but also on how "the players play" First and foremost, it is the moral

responsibility of the "big players", that is, powerful nation-states, unions of states, and

multinational corporations, to shape globalization according to universal, ethical

standards. This enormous task includes two simultaneous tracks the big player should exhibit

exemplary behavior toward the goal of globalization "with a human face", while also fairly

participating in establishing the necessary global institutions.

A MULTI-LEVEL AND TWO-LEGGED APPROACH TO BUSINESS ETHICS

The highly complicated challenges of business ethics in the process of economic

globalization, it does not suffice to focus only on institutions and rules or on the behavior of

particular states and corporations alone. Rather, a more sophisticated approach to the complex

field of global marketing ethics is needed, which we might call a multi-level and two-legged

approach, according to G. Enderle (1999).

To identify the subjects of responsibility, three qualitatively different levels of acting are

proposed by G. Gundlach, L Block and W. Wilkie (2007), each of which includes actors with

their respective objectives, interests, and motivations: the micro, meso, and macro levels. At the

micro-level, the focus is on the individual, that is what he or she, as employee or employer,

colleague or manager, consumer, supplier, or investor, does, can do, and ought to do in order to

perceive assume his or her ethical responsibility. Also groups composed of small lumbers of

individuals without organizational structures, making collective decisions and taking collective

actions, are attributed to third level. At the meso-level, at stake is the decision making and action

of economic organizations, chiefly business firms, but also trade-unions, consumer

organizations, professional associations, NGOs etc. Finally, the macro-level includes the

economic system as such and shaping of the overall economic conditions of business: the

economic, financial, & social, policies, & others.

INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE REPORTING IN ECONOMIC,

SOCIAL, AND ENVIRONMENTAL TERMS

In exploring the emergence of ethics and CSR in the global business place, researchers

have identified multiple forms, different players, and various underlying arguments. Compared

with the 1980s, it is safe to say that today's expectations about corporate responsibilities in

economic, social, and environmental terms are considerably higher, the pressures on corporations

by non-governmental organizations have substantially increased; many companies have

expanded their PR efforts on CSR and some also improved their behaviors; and various legal and

regulatory provisions have supported the emergence ethics and CSR.

Thus, reporting on and monitoring of corporate responsibilities has gained momentum,

greatly facilitated by the Internet. Today, we can find an abundance of all kinds of reports. Under

a variety of titles, such as sustainability report; corporate social responsibility report, corporate

citizenship report; energy report; and corporate responsibility report, which they vary greatly in

format, length, & substance.

NORMATIVE PERSPECTIVE FOR ETHICAL AND SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE

BUSINESS

G.R. Laczniak &P.E. Murphy suggested seven basic perspectives for ethical & socially

responsible business, such as:

1. Ethical business puts people first.

2. Ethical business must achieve a behavioral standard in excess of the law.

3. Businessmen are responsible /or whatever they intend as a means or ends with a

business action.

4. Business organizations should cultivate better (that is higher) moral imagination in

their managers and employees.

5. Business should articulate and embrace a core set of ethical principles.

6. Adoption of a stakeholder orientation is essential to ethical decisions.

7. Business organizations ought to delineate an ethical decision-making protocol

While all the seven basic perspectives have relationship to the topics discussed in Part II, we

concentrate on two of them here 11 and 5. The first basic perspective focuses on the centrality of

people Min all ethical exchanges land relationship. Business concepts should be directed where

the needs of the consumer are placed a head before the needs of the businessmen.

The other basic perspective that relates indirectly to our analysis here is the fifth one. According

to G. Laczniak and P.E. Murphy (2006): businessmen who aspire to operate on a high ethical

plane should articulate and embrace a core set of ethical principles: These principles should

address ethical issues concerning the tightness or fairness of various business strategies. The first

is the principle of "no malfeasance" means that businessmen should never knowingly do harm

when discharging business duties.

The second principle is one of "non-deception" This principle states that businessmen

ought intentionally mislead or unfairly manipulate consumers.

Safeguarding vulnerable segments represents the third principle. Uniquely vulnerable

segments include children, the elderly, mentally or physically handicapped and economically

disadvantaged consumers.

The fourth essential moral percept for business is the principle of "distributive justice".

This principle suggests that there is an obligation in the part of all business organizations to

assess the, fairness of – business place consequences flowing from their collective business

practices.

A fifth principle of enlightened business is “stewardship” which reminds businessmen of

their social duties to do the common good.

The stewardship principle particularly addresses environmental ecological

responsibilities of businessmen. It suggests that businessmen have a moral obligation to protect

the environment via a socially sustainable pattern of consumption such that damages are not

imposed on the ecological system in a way that penalizes future generations. Although

some business organizations initially looked at the environment as only a promotional

opportunity and were guilty of "green washing" by touting products of questionable

environmental as being compatible, such as plastic trash bags, several firms such as Interface

and its visionary chairman Ray Anderson have embraced sustainable practices and changed their

products and business efforts dramatically, as stated by P. E. Murphy (2005).

CHAPTER 6

THE GLOBAL BUSINESS PLACE AS A FIELD OF APPLIED ETHICS

Presented to:

Dean Fidel A. Oblena

Faculty of College of Business Administration

Southern Luzon State University

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY & GOOD GOVERNMENT

Presented By:

Do Thi Mai Huong/ Mary

BSBA_ FM IV A

February 7, 2011