Business Ethics

Week 3

Article on:You See, the Ends Don’t Justify the Means: Visual Imagery and Moral Judgment

• Visual imagery and Moral judgement – based on 3 experiments.– Individuals with more visual cognitive styles made more deontological

judgments• Cognitive theory to explain human behavior by understanding the thought

processes. The assumption is that humans are logical beings that make the choices that make the most sense to them

– Visual interference, relative to verbal interference and no interference, decreases deontological judgment.

– These effects are due to people’s tendency to visualize the harmful means (sacrificing one person) more than the beneficial end (saving others)

Theories of Economic JusticeChapter 2

• Marxian Liberalism– Belief that people have a natural right to liberty– A right to be free of unwanted coercion– Marxian belief that private property is coercive

• John Rawl – Difference principle– Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total

system of basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all

– Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are reducing the inequalities to the minimum

DISCUSSION: Any other views

The Corporation as an IndividualChapter 3

• Corporation being morally responsible for what it does– “Corporate veil” • Limited liability concept; absolves directors, officers

and stockholders from personal liability

– Government policy is towards ethics• Direct activity of the corporation towards a common

good

The Corporation as a Community- Stakeholder Theory

• Primary stakeholders– Owners, customers, employees and suppliers– Weigh more heavily in the decision making process

• Secondary stakeholders– All other interested groups

• Competitors, government and the general public

• Stockholder theory– Management expected to do everything in the interests of stockholders

• Maximize Shareholder wealth concept• fiduciary responsibility on directors and management

• DISCUSSION• Alternatives

– Stakeholder theory– Corporation as a morally responsible individual

Can a corporation have a conscience?

• Individuals can exercise their right as citizens• But for a Corporation– Economic view in a social arena?– Leads to difference in:– What a corporation should do and what it can do

• A corporation must have a conscience– Executives must be both philosophical and

practical

Defining the Responsibility of persons

1. Being accountable

2. Rule following– http://web.mit.edu/holton/www/courses/language/rule.following.pdf – Individuals are subject to externally imposed norms with some social

role that people have to play– What is socially expected

3. Decision making– Persons independent thought process that justify an attitude of trust

with whom there is interaction– Key characteristic of moral responsibility

• Intellectual and emotional process leading to moral reasoning

2 traits of MoralityFrankena – Page 58

1. Rationality– Lack of impulsiveness, care in considering alternatives etc.

2. Respect– A special awareness and concern for the effects of one’s decisions and policies

on others

• A person acts responsibly if they gather information on the impact of their decisions on others.

• Same applies to Corporate responsibility– Monitoring employment practices, effects of one’s production processes on

the environment and humans, are considered to show the same kind of morality/ respect as individuals

– Differences in corporations compared to persons• Some have inbuilt features into their management incentive systems

– How applicable should this be?

• Evaluating the idea of Moral Projection– Where is the concept of moral responsibility

useful?• Guiding corporate policy

• What are proper Business practices?– Chapter 4

• Competition and the Practice of Business– Fair competition: a set of community originated

professional practices, consistent with morality.• Eg: as in Virtue ethics