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Ethics & the future of Business - Megatable summary articles
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Week 1 – Morals & Ethics1. Crane (2019) – Business Ethics: Managing Corporate Citizenship and sustainability in the age of
globalization – Normative Ethical Theories
We all have some prior beliefs about what is right/wrong to help decide what to do.
Morality = Human’s ability to distinguish between right & wrong.
Ethics = The systematic study of morality – perspective of human being instead of nature.
Descriptive relativism = Different groups have different ethics, both beliefs can be equally right.
Normative ethical theories = Aim to prescribe the morally correct way of acting: how we ought to behave.
Ethical absolutism (objective) = Right & wrong are objective qualities that can be rationally
determined, irrespective of the circumstances – moral principles.
Ethical relativism (subjective) = Right & wrong is context-depended and subjective – no universal
right and wrongs that can be rationally determined (e.g. business issues).
Ethical pluralism = There are several values which may be equally correct and fundamental & yet in
conflict with each other – Accepts that we ought to recognize that incompatible values can be
equally legitimate & tolerate them as such – not all perspectives on equal footing.
Differences between approaches
Source of rules & principles – source of right & wrong/faith/rationality
Consequences of morality & immorality – spiritual consequence for decision-maker (reincarnation)
We should understand these perspectives in making good business decisions
They help to rationalize, explain & understand the feelings we have about right/wrong.
Make it possible to engage in a rational conversation between individuals.
Comprehensive, critical thinking, cross-disciplinary.
Do we need ethics if we have the law?
In society, morality is the foundation of the law.
Law & ethics partly overlaps but, law does not cover all ethical issues, not all legal issues are ethical
& law and ethics can involve contradiction.
Road from unethical to illegal is short & slippery.
Normative Ethical Theories
Perspective 1: Ethical Egoism
Action is morally right if decision-maker decides to pursue short-term desires or long-term interests.
Focusing on outcomes & self-interest for individual decision-maker – usually not considered as theory.
Enlighted egoism = Often discusses in business ethics (e.g. invest in social environment for
satisfaction)
Adam Smiths’ ‘’invisible hand’’ – through individual self-interest & freedom of production and
consumption, the best interest of society are fulfilled.
Problems:
1) Immoral wrongs are turned into okay – ‘’anything-goes’’-violence (e.g. even murder)
2) Short-term satisfaction of needs is in contradictory with our moral principles
3) Enlightened egoism focuses on long-term interest & doesn’t take a standpunt on the nature of
interests and desires of individuals.
,Perspective 2: Utilitarianism
Action is morally right if results are for the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of
people.
1) Act utilitarianism = Looks single action & bases moral judgment of amount of pleasure & pain.
2) Rule utilitarianism = Classes of actions & asks for long-term more pleasure than pain for society –
cost-benefit analysis (advantages/disadvantages)
Problems:
1) Subjectivity – difficult to compare between people
2) Equal weighting – does not include reciprocity (wederkerigheid)
3) Distribution of utility/wealth
4) Contradictory of respecting basic rights
Hedonic view = Pleasure & pain (cost-benefit analysis) & eudemonistic view = Happiness & unhappiness
Ideal view = All intrinsically valuable human goods (friendship, love, trust)
Perspective 3: Ethics of duties (Immanuel Kant)
Involve human’s ability to develop moral law & moral rules – duty, consistency, dignity, universality.
Human moral reasoning should be central – assigning duty to act in a certain way.
Morality/decisions about right & wrong are not context-depended.
Business: Enabled to act as free & autonomous human beings.
Kant’s deontological theory = Develops principles/categorical imperatives to guide our actions.
1. Universal applicability – acceptable to every human being
o Categorical imperative: ‘’act only so that the will through its maxims could regard itself at the
same time as universally lawgiving’’.
o Main idea: Check that the principle is acceptable to every human being
2. Respect of persons – valuable autonomical being
o Categorical imperative: ‘’act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that
of another, always as an end and never as a means only.’’
o Main idea: A human being is a valuable autonomical being, and not a means to an end or a
tool.
Problems:
1) Difficult & abstract theory – undervaluing motivation
2) Morality can be seen as a heavy burden to bear (zware last)
3) Morality is founded too strictly on the use of reason
4) Ethics of duties undervalues outcomes of actions
5) Quite optimistic view of humans rationality
Perspective 4: Ethics of rights (human rights – justice)
Natural human rights are important & should be respected/protected in every situation.
Human dignity – e.g. right to life, freedom, property, privacy & fair trial.
Justice = Fair treatment of individuals in a given situation with the result that everybody gets what
they deserve – entire traffic systems needs to be fair.
Key ideas: Procedural vs. distributive fairness, veil of ignorance, social contract, equal opportunity.
Problems:
1) Most basic rights can be seen as arbitrary – critized being too Western
2) Theory does not offer practical guidance in extreme situations
Alternative perspectives on ethical theory
1. Virtue ethics – having excellent traits of character/virtues is required to be a good person.
, 2. Ethic of care – emphasizes our interdependency with those with whom we have important relationships
3. Discourse ethics – aims to solve ethical conflicts through a deliberative process of norm generation incl.
rational reflection & open communication on the real-life experience of relevant participants.
4. Postmodern ethics – based on empathy & moral impulse – locates morality beyond the sphere of
rationality in an emotional ‘’moral’’ impulse towards other – encourages to question everyday practices.
Holistic approach, practices rather than principles, ‘’think local, act local’’, preliminary
Deliberative process = Process allowing a group of actors to receive and exchange information, to critically
examine an issue, and to come to an agreement which will inform decision making.
2. Awad (2018) – The Moral Machine experiment
With rapid development of artificial intelligence have come concerns about how machines will make moral
decisions & the major challenge of quantifying societal expectations about the ethical principles that should
guide machine behavior.
Moral machine – autonomous vehicles
Online experimental platform designed to explore moral dilemmas faced by autonomous vehicles.
Take into account public morality – Need to research social expectations how autonomous vehicles
should solve moral dilemmas.
Accident scenarios – criminals/pregnant women/doctors
1. Creates trade-offs – resolution falls in the moral domain
2. Cannot be solved by simple normative ethical principles
3. Ethical guidelines do not depend on the frequency.
4. Need to agree beforehand
5. Citizens need to understand the origins of the ethical principle
People’s willingness to buy autonomous vehicles and tolerate them on the roads will depend on the palatability
(smakelijkheid) of the ethical rules that are adopted.
Challenges
1) High dimensionality of the problem – million scenarios
2) Individuals & countries may differ in their ethical principles
Results online experiment – building blocks for machine ethcis
1. Sparing humans over animals
2. Sparing more lives
3. Sparing young lives
4. Both male & female respondents indicated preference for sparing females
5. Sparing fit characters in Southern cluster
Country level predictors
1) Systematic differences between individualistic (greater number of characters) & collectivistic (weaker
preference for sparing the young) cultures
2) Whether pedestrians (voetgangers) are abiding by violating the law (same protection?)
3) Demographic reasons
Before we allow our cars to make ethical decisions, we need to have a global conversation to express our
preferences to the companies that will design moral algorithms, and to the policymakers that will regulate
them.
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