Business Ethics

BAET 20300: Introduction to

Business Ethics

Fall 2013

1BAET 20300:

Introduction to Business Ethics

Course Overview

Requirements

Grading

Assignments 35%

Quiz 15%

Attendance & Discussion 15%

Exam 35%

_____

100%

PLEASE NOTE: In all correspondence to me, including emails and your reflection papers, be sure to include your course section number.

Thank you.

Course Objectives

• Raise ethical awareness – the course will introduce and explore the ethical dimensions of business. The objective is to enhance awareness of and sensitivity to the broad range of ethical issues in business.

• Improve ethical knowledge – the course will introduce key terms and concepts. The objective is to understand the major theoretical foundations of ethics, moral reasoning and decision making, and to enhance our capacity to engage in fruitful ethical dialogue and consideration.

• Improve ethical judgment – the course will provide and improve skills of ethical decision making. The objective is to move beyond identifying and understanding ethical issues in business to orienting ourselves toward ethical decision making and action.

Slides for individual student use only. Do not distribute.

FINAL EXAM: All sections, Tuesday, November 5, MCOB Jordan Auditorium

Sections 03, 04, 05, 08, 09: 7:00-8:00 PMSections 10, 11, 12, 13: 8:15-9:15 PM

Attendance with your section is required; due to space constraints, no time changes will be

permitted.


Dates by section……….

fill in your syllabus

Class meeting dates – once per week


3 Assignments – EVERYTHING IS COMPLETED ONLINE!

1) Ethical Lens Inventory (due by next class!) – instructions on Sakai

2) Online case assignment (due Week 5) – “Assignments” on Sakai

3) External lecture/reflection (see syllabus) – “Assignments” on Sakai

Quiz: In class Week 7

Course assignments


Getting started……

Introductions:

Name, major?, hometown, something you did this summer!


Discussion Question

To whom do you look as a model of good decision making?

Why?


Are values universal?

Universally admired,

valued character traits:

VIRTUES


Creating culture – what is the role of a leader?

How do we create culture?

What does this tell us about corporate culture?


Session 1On talent in organizations…….

“The broader failing of McKinsey and its acolytes at Enron is their assumption that an organization's intelligence is simply a function of the intelligence of its employees. They believe in stars, because they don't believe in systems.

In a way, that's understandable, because our lives are so obviously enriched by individual brilliance. Groups don't write great novels, and a committee didn't come up with the theory of relativity. But companies work by different rules.

They don't just create; they execute and compete and coordinate the efforts of many different people, and the organizations that are most successful at that task are the ones where the system is the star.”

- Malcolm GladwellSlides for individual student use only. Do

not distribute.

Session 1US/Global Financial Crisis

What are the ethical implications of how

we got here? Where we’re going?


Due next class

1) Read “Why Study Ethics” 2) Complete EthicsGame

“Ethical Lens Inventory”

– Access directions/link are

posted on Sakai

– Hard copy printout of your

ELI report due in class


Week 2: Why Study Ethics?

Today’s Agenda

• Chapter 1: “Why Study

Ethics?”

• Ethical Lens Inventory


Desjardins: Chapter 1: Why Study Ethics?

• Discussion Case: Bernie Madoff – why does this case resonate?

• Why Study Business Ethics?

– Course objectives – sensitivity, knowledge, judgment

– No longer “why” or “should” – now “which” ethics and “how”

– Stakeholders

– Legal requirements

• Sarbanes-Oxley

– Legal risks, financial risks, marketing risks

– Competitive advantage/disadvantage

– Is ethics good for business? Trust, loyalty, initiative, creativity


Values and Ethics: Doing Good and Doing Well

– Key findings of Collins and Porras study

– Values: those beliefs or standards that incline us to act or choose

in one way rather than another.

– Is good ethics clearly connected to good business?

– Ethical Values: distinguished by the ends that they serve

• serve the ends of human well-being – not personal/selfish

• ethical acts and choices should be acceptable and reasonable

from all relevant points of view – consider ELI!

• Thus: Ethical values are those beliefs and principles that

seek to promote human well-being in an impartial way.


Session 2Chapter 1 (cont.)

• Malden Mills example

• Are strong ethical values good for business?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YcWLXBXaD8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YcWLXBXaD8&feature=related

Session 2Chapter 1 (cont.)

• The Nature and Goals of Business Ethics

– Business Ethics: those values, standards, and principles that

operate within business; also,

– The academic discipline that not only studies those standards,

values and principles, but seeks to articulate and defend those

that ought or should operate in business – describe, examine and

evaluate ethical issues that arise within business settings

– Common goals, concepts, principles and frameworks of BE

– Theories and principles should translate into behavior

• Knowing versus doing

– Concerned with process of ethical reasoning – principled

reasoning


• Business Ethics and the Law

– Legal compliance versus ethical responsibility

– We can’t always rely on the law to decide what is right or wrong

–ignores role of managerial discretion

– Whether we examine ethical questions explicitly or not, they are

answered by each of us every day in the course of living our

lives – it is our choice whether we answer them deliberately or

unconsciously

Chapter 1 (cont.)


• Ethics and Ethos

– Ethics derived from Greek ethos

– Philosophical ethics does not accept this – conformity and

obedience are not the best guides to how we should live.

– Reason as the foundation of ethics – a reasoned analysis of

custom and a reasoned defense of how we should live

– Difference between what is valued and what ought to be valued

– How ought we to live?

• Questions of individual morality and social ethics and public policy

Chapter 1 (cont.)


Session 2

• Ethical Perspectives: Managers and other Stakeholders

– “Perspective-taking” – a variety of perspectives can be

taken when examining ethical issues in business – ethical

lenses matter

– Questions of management are key

– Perspective/point of view matters

– Context matters – social, legal

Chapter 1 (cont.)


A Model for Ethical Decision-Making

(more later)

1) Understand the facts, identify the ethical issues involved

2) Identify the stakeholders and how they will be affected

3) Explore alternatives

4) Consider the consequences

5) Make a principled decision

Chapter 1 (cont.)


Ethical Lens Inventory

“Business ethics can be understood in a broad sense to cover “the

whole domain of life. Understood in this way, business ethics

deals with the individual decision-making of economic actors

(such as managers and employees), the shaping and conduct of

economic organizations, business-related public policies,

economic systems and global economic and financial institutions.”

– G. Enderle


GOAL OF ETHICAL MATURITY

Raise ethical awareness

Make good decisions

Change behavior

Notice the positive impact

© EthicsGameAll Rights Reserved


VALUES IN TENSION

RATIONALITY(reason/head)

SENSIBILITY(intuition/heart)

AUTONOMY EQUALITY



BECOME AN ETHICS ADVOCATE

Live from your core values and encourage others

to do the same. One person can change a culture!

Are the RIGHTS of constituents being respected?

Do the RESULTS focus on excellence?

Are RELATIONSHIPS fair and just?

Is your REPUTATION stellar?



ELI Spring 2013 BAET 20300 – SAMPLE RESULTS


QUESTIONS? MORE LATER…… KEEP YOUR REPORT!

RATIONALITY(reason/head)

SENSIBILITY(intuition/heart)

AUTONOMY EQUALITY



For next class…..

• Read DesJardins: “Ethical Theory & Business”

(in textbook)


Chapter 2: Ethical Theory and Business

AIG Bonuses and Executive Salary Caps

Executive compensation – how are they paid?


Ethical theories – systematic answers to the fundamental question of how human beings should live their lives. Based on reason and principles.

Major Approaches

• Utilitarian

• Rights-based/Kantian

• Virtue

• But first…



Ethical Relativism and Reasoning in Ethics

– Ethical relativism

– Presents a challenge to ethics

– Particularly important as we consider international business – different cultures and standards

– For our purposes – important to learn from ethical relativism, agree on importance of tolerance – BUT agree that our own opinions are not adequate

– Though there is a variety of cultural beliefs, customs, values and practices, there is a wide agreement about many values as well

– Respect, tolerance, impartiality ≠ relativism



Utilitarian ethics

• Especially influential in business, public policy, politics, economics

• Determine the ethical significance of any action by looking to the consequences of that act – “the greatest good”

• Consequentialist ethics

• Expert and market conceptions of utilitarian ethics



Challenges to the Utilitarian Perspective

• Must find a defensible way to measure happiness

• Committed to considering all consequences to all affected parties

• Different versions of what is “good” for mankind

• Balance between individual freedom and the overall good

– Sacrificing the good of individuals for the overall good of mankind

• The essence of utilitarianism: the end justifies the means

• May violate the principles of justice, equality and respect

• Attempts to calculate/quantify the “unquantifiable” – what of duty? Commitments? Love?



Rights-Based and Kantian Ethics

• Some things we should and should not do regardless of consequences

• Individuals have rights that should not be sacrificed just for a means to an end – the common good

• We should act only in way that our intentions for the act could be made a universal law; i.e. telling the truth is a universal ethical law – the categorical imperative

• Act only in those ways in which the maxim (intention) of our acts could be made universal law

• Ethics requires us to treat all people as ends and never only as means

• We are required to treat people as subjects, not as objects

• Rights and duties



Child labor example

Wants versus interests……. Sugar cereal example…….

Wants and interests can coincide, but are they the same thing?

Rights offer protection of certain central human interests….. Those interests are connected to human well-being in an impartial way.




Virtue Ethics

Seeks a full and detailed description of those character traits (virtues) that would constitute a good and full human life

Our motivations (interests, wants, desires) are rooted in character – human beings actin and from character - character plays a deciding role in our behavior

Thus – how these traits of character are formed and illustrated is the focus of virtue ethics – parents, schools, social institutions, business - role modeling

What type of person are we to be?

Look at actual practices found in businesses and ask what type of people are created by them

What type of person would you become when working for this type of business?

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an

act, but a habit.”-Aristotle


Tom Mendoza

“Best Company to Work for”


http://www.garone.com/article/SB121251528966441919.html?mod=How-I-Got-Here

http://www.garone.com/article/SB121251528966441919.html?mod=How-I-Got-Here

Ford Pinto

J & J Tylenol

• What happened?

• Which ethical perspectives were reflected in

the companies’ decision making?



Reflections on the chapter discussion case

What is our response?


DUE NEXT CLASS!

1) Read Audi Chapter excerpt (on Sakai)

Come prepared to discuss this required reading which you will use for upcoming homework assignment (due Week 5)


Business Ethics

Documents

Transcript of Business Ethics