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Lecture notes of 1 pages for the course Business Ethics at UON (Lecture 2)
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Introducing Business Ethics – Lecture 2Ethics is:
- The reasoned study of rules of right and wrong.
- The study of obligations to others; concerned with what obligations you have to those
beyond yourself, and how those obligations arise.
- An ethical dilemma arises when one has to choose between actions, and someone’s welfare
will be significantly negatively affected no matter what action is taken.
Business Ethics is:
- “Business ethics is the study of business situations, activities and decisions where issues of
right and wrong are addressed” (Crane & Matten, 2007).
Law and/or Ethics:
- Driving on the wrong side of the road is a legal issue, child labour is an ethical issue, ethics
doesn’t always relate to law.
Business Ethics in Films:
- Wolf of Wall Street: Greed, sex and drugs, Blood Diamond: Mining ethics.
Business Ethics in News:
- Migrant crisis is a public and business issue, e.g.
o Angela Merkel wants businesses to take in refugee workers.
o Mark Zuckerberg wants to give asylum seekers internet access.
Utilitarianism:
- Concerned with consequences.
- The General Principle:
o “An action is right if and only if it produces the greatest balance of pleasure over pain
for everyone”.
- The simple and easy way to understand utilitarianism is as a cost-benefit approach to ethics.
Deontology:
- Commonly associated with the 18thC German philosopher Immanuel Kant.
- Kant asserts that some principles are universally right or wrong, independent of their
consequences.
- We thus have a duty to perform them.
- E.g. In the lifeboat game, ‘save the pregnant woman over the others’.
Deontology & Decision Making:
- Commercial practise should never treat another as a ‘means’, i.e. others ought to be
respected as ‘ends in themselves’.
- Business and managerial practises are defensible with reference to Kantian thought so long as
moral side constraints are respected – i.e. one refrains from hurting/stealing from others.
Traditional Ethical Approaches:
- Motivation or principles Action Outcomes.
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