Summary MSc UvA Business Administration - Ethics and the Future of Business (6314M0507Y) [LECTURES]
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Course
Ethics and the Future of Business (6012B0428Y)
Institution
Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
Book
Business Ethics
Notes of all the compulsory lectures of the course Ethics and the Future of Business, (6314M0507Y). This is a mandatory course for all tracks of the MSc Business Administration at University of Amsterdam (UvA). Includes all the 4 lectures given by lecturer dr. A.E. Kourula:
1a) morals & ethics
...
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uva msc business administration: digital marketing track | semester I - period I (2023-2024) [by gycc]
ETHICS AND THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS
[6314M0507Y]
2023.09.05 | LECTURE 1 | Morals & Ethics
COURSE OBJECTIVES
● Understand, evaluate, and criticise core ethical theories and models of ethical
decision-making
● Reflect and improve their own decision-making towards value-based and stakeholder
approaches
● Explain and criticise leading concepts and theories within corporate responsibility and
sustainability
● Learn and analyse key ethics and sustainability themes within your chosen specialisation
● Reflect and apply learned concepts and theories to social and environmental issues that
organisations face
question to keep in mind: are management theories amoral, apolitical, and value-free?
COURSE STRUCTURE
ETHICS
→ systematic study of right and wrong
Part 1 | individual level | foundations: philosophy,
psychology, (behavioural) economics, leadership
RESPONSIBILITY
→ integration of triple bottom line into companies
Part 2 | organisation level | foundation: management
SUSTAINABILITY
→ human welfare within ecological balance
Part 3 | society level | foundations: sustainability,
political science, complexity
COURSE ASSESSMENT
1
, uva msc business administration: digital marketing track | semester I - period I (2023-2024) [by gycc]
INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS ETHICS
● MORALITY → humans’ ability to distinguish between right and wrong
● ETHICS → the systematic study of morality
● ETHICAL THEORIES → principles and rules that determine right and wrong in different
situations
● Normative ethics → the study of how we ought to behave
ETHICS: an on-going discussion about morality with a very long history; typically examines right
and wrong from the perspective of a human being (anthropocentric), instead of, e.g. nature
● Key questions
○ What kind of moral principles should guide our actions?
○ What kind of outcomes should we aim for?
● Ethics is not just theorization of morals, but the aim is also to affect practice
● Ethical theories can give contradictory solutions to the same problem
● Business ethics → the study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of
right and wrong are addressed
● Do we need ethics when we have the law?
○ In society, morality is the foundation of the law
○ Law and ethics are also partly overlapping
○ However,
■ The law does not cover all ethical issues (e.g. cheating)
■ Not all problems are legal situations and not all legal issues are ethical (e.g.
driving on the right side of the road - it’s legal)
■ Law and ethics can involve contradictions (e.g. apartheid); regularly, laws
could be unethical
○ The road from unethical to illegal is short and slippery
○ Companies can operate in locations with lacking legal infrastructure
TROLLEY PROBLEM: an ethical experiment that illustrates the dilemma of sacrificing one person
to save five (context: a trolley has a defect and has two roads to choose from, the one it was following
but kills five people, or sidetrack to another path and kill one worker)
● Forces us to think/choose when there are no good choices
● Most people apply a utilitarianism view; choosing based on the greater good
● In ethical dilemmas, people don’t think logically but depend their choices on factors / context
● The choices made are related to emotional aversion (the type and amount of emotional
feelings you assert for a certain factor, e.g. kids and females)
2
, uva msc business administration: digital marketing track | semester I - period I (2023-2024) [by gycc]
NORMATIVE ETHICAL THEORIES
Various theories / perspectives
1) ETHICAL EGOISM
● Not considered as an ethical theory, more a perspective
● This view is very foundational in economics: focusing on self-interest, rational thinking
● An action is morally right if the decision-maker freely decides in order to pursue either
their (short-term) desires or their (long-term) interests <= what’s in it for me?
● Authors
○ Thomas Hobbes
○ Adam Smith
○ Ayn Rand
● The influence of egoism is related to the perception of ideal markets and Adam Smith’s
‘invisible hand’: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that
we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest” (1776)
● Problems
○ Inconsistent => it condones immoral wrongs, even if its violence / theft, or against
the vulnerable, as long as the egoist’s needs are served
○ Self-conflicting => you cannot always act upon self-interest and personal desires
○ A moral view based on short term satisfaction of needs is contradictory with our own
moral principles
○ Enlightened egoism → focuses on the meeting of long-term human interests
○ It also does not take a stance on the nature of the interests and desires of individuals,
which can still lead to problems due to conflicting interests
○ Although taking care of your needs and interest is morally important, theory needs to
be complemented by more developed ethical theories
● Application to moral machine: self-driving car
○ Ethical egoist decision: protecting those they love, protect themselves first and that
they care about
○ If an ethical egoist is buying a car, she/he would protect the people inside the car
○ If an ethical egoist is manufacturing the car, she/he would likely aim to serve egoist
customers to sell more cars
3
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