Transcript business objective v. ethics

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BUSINESS OBJECTIVE V. ETHICS
Often ethical conflict between making
money and doing what is right
People in business claim they are bound
only by law, not by normal norms
Business is no concern with ethics
Moral is personal matter
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• Positive business ethics:
• i.e – personal ethics, fairness, integrity, truth
telling, dependability, business plan, values
based.
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ETHICS AND MORALITY
 Ethics
Solomon – ethics means character/custom
How people ought to act - individual
character
Its basic concept:A.individual character – ‘a good person’
B. the social rules that govern and limit our
conduct – ‘morality’
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Ethics means how people ought to be
distinguish from morality which refers to
human conduct & values.
Ethics presupposes the existence of
morality.
The morality of society is related to its
customs and law of society.
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 Morality
 Rules of human behavior/human conduct and
values
 Specifies certain act as wrong or immoral
 Action can be viewed from moral perspective –
including business
 Those practices & activities that are considered
importantly right and wrong
 The rules that govern those activities
 The values that embedded, fostered or pursued by
those activities & practices
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BUSINESS ETHICS
Part of general field of ethics
What is business ethics?
A study what constitutes right and
wrong/good and bad in business activities
Thus, it is not the study of what is legal but
of the application of moral standards to
business decisions.
Moral standard s are canons of personal
behaviour that are neither legislated nor
changed by legislation.
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AMERICAN MYTH OF A MORAL
BUSINESS
A popular & widespread view among
American businessman
It describes how American Business and
businessman perceive themselves & are
perceived by others.
Business is concerned primarily with profit
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Business & people in business are not
explicitly concerned with ethics
They are not unethical or immoral
Business is not expected to be concerned
with ethics
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RELATION BETWEEN BUSINESS
AND MORALITY
Business and moral are related
Business is an important part of
contemporary society
Morality consist of rules of human
behaviors & specifies that certain actions
are wrong or immoral or vice versa
Business presuppose a background of
morality & would be impossible without it.
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• BUSINESS RESPONSIBILITIES
Merely profit making or
Social responsibilities?
 Narrow view – profit maximization
Frieman: ‘business has no special
responsibilities other than to maximize
profits’
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• Broader view – corporate social responsibility
 Keith Davies: ‘ social responsibility implies that
business decision maker in the process of serving
his own business interests is obliged to take
actions that also protect and enhance society’s
interest…’
 In this manner, harmony is achieved between
business’s action and the larger social system.
 The businessman becomes concerned with social
as well as economic outputs and with total effect
of his institutional actions in society.
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