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MODULE 1. INTRODUCTION. Our acts or responses to a situation practically reflect our feelings, thinking and judgment based on our moral principles and values.
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INTRODUCTION • Our acts or responses to a situation practically reflect our feelings, thinking and judgment based on our moral principles and values. • The ultimate aim of ethical behaviour and practice is to feel satisfied (and not necessarily justified) about one’s conduct and behaviour or action and its outcome. • Acting in keeping with one’s ethics involves making an effort to know the possible consequences of one’s action and, then, to be sure that the action is to his or her satisfaction.
ETHICS • Ethics is a system of moral principles and attitude that guides our actions to be morally correct, fair and just. • Ethics is about enforceable morality, justice and fairness of conduct, actions and governance by individuals, institutions, companies, organizations, societies and governments. • However, ethics are not the law unto itself nor are they instruments parallel to the laws of the land.
MORALITY • Morality and morality of actions are the yardsticks of ethics. • ‘Morality’ is the subject matter that ethics investigates through a process of moral reasoning. • Moral standards include those norms that we believe are morally right or wrong as well as the value we place on subject matters that are morally good or bad.
CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL STANDARDS • Morality and morality of actions are the yardsticks of ethics. • ‘Morality’ is the subject matter that ethics investigates through a process of moral reasoning. • Moral standards include those norms that we believe are morally right or wrong as well as the value we place on subject matters that are morally good or bad.
MORAL REASONING FOR ETHICS • Moral reasoning tries to logically place or project facts and figures that help one to judge human behaviour, institutional activities, policies, programmes, etc. as to whether they are in accordance to, or in violation of, acceptable moral standards. • Distinct features of Moral or ethical reasoning: • identifying what constitutes ‘moral standards’; • examining facts and figures concerning the policy, behaviour and actions under the specific situation; and • arriving at a moral judgment on the basis of rightness or wrongness of policy, behaviour or actions.
Cont… • To decide if an action or policy is ethical, one has to exercise moral reasoning by examining the factual information with regard to morality of the action or policy by analyzing: • the utility of the decision, rights and duties of the individuals concerned with the decision; • if justice is being meted out by the decision; • the amount of care being shown to those who are related and valued in the subject matter; and • the consistency of the decision with the past and present.
MORAL RESPONSIBILITY • ‘Moral responsibility’ means owning responsibility for doing something knowingly and deliberately that had caused harm or injury to others. • Establishing moral responsibility has the connotation of law or rules, in addition to its ethical implications. • If any one under the circumstances acted out of (a) ignorance or (b) inability, he or she may be excused of moral responsibility. • However, one cannot deliberately stay ignorant and claim innocence for a wrongdoing – be it as a person or company.
BUSINESS ETHICS • "Business Ethics" can be defined as the critical, structured examination of how people & institutions should behave in the world of commerce. In particular, it involves examining appropriate constraints on the pursuit of self-interest, or (for firms) profits, when the actions of individuals or firms affects others.
CONT… • Business Ethics can be defined as written and unwritten codes of principles and values that govern decisions and actions within a company. • In the business world, the organization's culture sets standards for determining the difference between good and bad decision making and behavior.
BUSINESS ETHICS • A branch of philosophical ethics • Reflect: In what ways do the practices and decisions made within business promote or undermine human well-being? • How ought we to live?
WHY STUDY BUSINESS ETHICS? • Is it a discipline of sentimentality and personal opinion? • Who’s to say what is right and what is wrong? • Is there a place for ethics in business? • FAMOUS CLICHÉ – “The business of business is business”
WHAT ARE VALUES? • Those beliefs or standards that incline us to act or to choose in one way rather than another. • A company’s core values are those beliefs and principles that provide the ultimate guide in the company’s decision-making.
“It’s not doing things right, but doing the right things. “
You have been given a cheque for Rs. 100000 to do whatever you like with it. What would you do with it? • Share with the class what you would do with it. Conclusion: • What you spend the money on has everything to do with what you value
What things did you do during the past week. • What you choose to do with your time also has everything to do with what you values.
COMPANIES CITED TO STUDY VALUES • IBM • Johnson & Johnson • Hewlett Packard • Procter and Gamble • Wal-Mart • Merck • Motorola • Sony • General Electric
CORPORATE CULTURE • Another way of saying a corporation has a set of identifiable values. • But there is no “right” set of core values.
WAYS OF THINKING • The field of ethics is usually broken down into three different ways of thinking about ethics: descriptive, normative and analytic.
DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS • The category of descriptive ethics is the easiest to understand - it simply involves describing how people behave and/or what sorts of moral standards they claim to follow.
Descriptive ethics (non-normative) • analysis of role of ethics in the social world • analysis of human "worldviews," narratives, customs, rites, and so on; the cultural carriers of moral notions and claims • heavily dependent on the social science
CONT… In short, descriptive ethics asks these two questions: • 1. What do people claim as their moral norms?2. How do people actually behave when it comes to moral problems? Here are some examples of statements from Descriptive Ethics: • Most Indian think that racism is wrong. • Among certain cultures, there is no stigma attached to homosexuality. Stanley Milgram's study found a great discrepancy between what people claimed and what they actually did.
NORMATIVE ETHICS • The category of normative ethics is also relatively easy to understand - it involves creating or evaluating moral standards. Thus, it is an attempt to figure out what people should do or whether their current moral behavior is reasonable.
CONT… • In short, normative ethics addresses questions like the following: • What should be our moral obligations?What is Right and what is Wrong?What should be our moral values?What is Good and what is Evil? Here are some examples of statements from Normative Ethics: • 1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (Golden Rule)2. That which God wills is the Good.
METAEHICS • Metaethics involves reasoning about the presuppositions behind the moral systems developed under the category of normative ethics. • Whenever a moral system is created, it is based upon certain premises about reality, human nature, values, etc. Metaethics is all about questioning the validity of those premises and arguing that perhaps we don't really know what we are talking about after all.
CONT… Analytic ethics asks quite a lot of questions, including: • How are moral judgments even possible? Why be moral at all? • Do moral values exist objectively or only subjectively? • Are moral values relative to something, like culture or individuals? • Can morality exist independently of religion?Do people have a free will which would make moral judgments possible?
“Metathics” (non-normative) • analysis of concepts such as "ought" "right" and "wrong", "good" and "bad", duty, responsibility, etc. • analysis about how people come to, reason about, and justify their normative ethics. • heavily dependent on Analytic Philosophy
WHAT IS NOT BUSINESS ETHICS? • Ethics is different from religion • Ethics is not synonyms with law • Ethical standards are different from cultural traits • Ethics is different from feelings • Ethics is not a science in the strictest sense of the term • Ethics is not just a collection of values
CODE OF CONDUCT AMD ETHICS FOR MANAGERS • Integrity • Impartiality • Responsiveness to the public interest • Accountability • Honesty • Transparency
FACTORS INFLUENCING BUSINESS DECISION MAKING • Economic Point of view • Legal Point of view • Moral Point of view How these point of view may be integrated to form an approach to business decision making that can aid people facing difficult ethical situations.
JOHNSON & JOHNSON’S • An example of an integrated approach is provided by J & J ‘s response to the Tylenol crisis. Under the leadership of CEO James Burke, the company quickly cleared all bottles of Extra Strength Tylenol capsules off store shelves in the Chicago area. A decision was made to be completely candid with the medical community, the media, and the public. Accordingly, the company issued warnings to physicians and hospitals around the world, briefed the press fully, and provided a toll free number for answering consumer inquiries.
ETHICAL THEORIES • Teleological (Utilitarian or consequentialist) • Deontological theory (Duty Based) • Relativism : Subjective and Cultural • Divine Command theory • Character based theory • Social contract theory
TELEOLOGICAL • Actions are justified on teleological theories by virtue of the end they achieve, rather than some feature of the actions themselves. • According to utilitarianism, our obligation in any situation is to perform the action that will result in the greatest possible balance of good over evil.
CONT… • CREATORS OF CLASSICAL UTILITARIANISM: Jeremy Banthem, John Stuart Mill • JEREMY BANTHEM’S VERSION - Principle of utility - Hedonistic calculus - Objections
CONT… • MILL’S VERSION - Greatest happiness principle - Treatment of Pleasure - Objections
FORMS OF UTILITARIANISM • Consequentialism • Hedonism • Maximalism • Univarsalism
ACT AND RULE UTILITARIANISM • An action is right if and only if it produces the greatest balance of pleasure over pain for everyone. • An action is right if and only if it conforms to a set of rules the general acceptance of which would produce the greatest balance of pleasure over pain for everyone.
DEONTOLOGICAL THEORY • Deontologists maintain that actions are morally right or wrong independent of their consequences. • Creator: German Philosopher Immanuel Kant • Action is right if it has a certain form i.e. nature of reason
RELATIVISM • Subjective • Cultural
Relativism • No universal norms of right and wrong • One person can say ”X is right,” another can say ”X is wrong,” and both can be right
Subjective relativism • Each person decides right and wrong for herself • ”What’s right for you may not be right for me” • Pros: – Well-meaning and intelligent people disagree on moral issues – Ethical debates are disagreeable and pointless • Cons: – Blurs distinction between what you think is right and what you want to do – Makes no moral distinction between the actions of different people – not the same as tolerance – Decisions may not be based on reason • Not a workable ethical theory
Cont... • • Pros: • – Different contexts demand different guidelines • – It is arrogant for one society to judge another • – Morality is reflected in actual behavior
Cont… • • Cons: • – Because two societies do have different moral views • doesnt mean they ought to • – Doesn’t explain how moral guidelines are determined • – Doesn’t explain how guidelines evolve • – Provides no way out for cultures in conflict • – Because many practices are acceptable does not mean • any cultural practice is (many/any fallacy) • – Societies do, in fact, share certain core values • – Only indirectly based on reason • • Not a workable ethical theory
Divine Command Theory • • Good actions: those aligned with Gods will • • Bad actions: those contrary to Gods will • • Holy books reveal Gods will. • • Use holy books as moral decision-making guides. • • Pros: • – We owe obedience to our Creator. • – God is all-good and all-knowing. • – God is the ultimate authority.
