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Lecturer: Dr Theodora Issa
Welcome to
Business Ethics 300 (BE300)
Lecture 1
What is Business Ethics?
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BE300 Lecture 1
What do we have in
the first Module
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What is business ethics?

OR

What comes to your mind when you
hear the concept Business Ethics?
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What is business ethics?
Would it be something like this?
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What is business ethics?
WELL WE CAN ANSWER THIS QUESTION
THIS WAY
According to Grace and Cohen
(2013) business ethics
covers the whole spectrum of
interactions between firms,
individuals, industries, society
and the state.
In other words,
business ethics
is COMPLEX as
business itself.
Grace & Cohen, 2013
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BUSINESS ETHICS IS NOT
An optional accessory to
business life or a mere
enthusiasm of philosophers
and moralists;
BUT
BUSINESS ETHICS is about how we conduct our business affairs,
from the basest fraud to the highest levels of excellence.
BUSINESS ETHICS is about individuals and institutions with which
they deal.
BUSINESS ETHICS is about the expectations and requirements,
including the social and economic requirements, of society.
Grace & Cohen, 2013
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Here you might pose the question
Such a scope suggests that individuals might have
limited role in ethical matters.
If they have a limited range of business
responsibilities, then they will not be in a position
to make much of an ethical impact.
There are questions to be asked (page 28 of
your Grace and Cohen text book)
These questions would also be asked to the
business not only the individual.
Grace & Cohen, 2013
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OR
We can
answer
this
question
this way
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Well
Imagine yourself as a
company executive
faced with a major
decision.
Perhaps whether or not
to implement a
redundancy programme
or deciding on
outsourcing production
to a low-wage nation.
How do you know the
right thing to do?
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This is where an understanding of business
ethics will help.
In this unit
you will
explore an
approach
to business
ethics that
should
come in
useful.
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This is where an understanding of business
ethics will help.
In this approach there are
FOUR stages:
the first is to SEE
the ethical
dimensions,
the second is to
TALK about the
various decision that
could be made and
take an ethical
position,
the third is to ACT
and
the fourth is to
REVIEW your
decision to see if you
could do better next
time.
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STAR.

See,
Talk,
Act,
Review
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Thus
Using Sandels (2009) ideas as a point of departure,
this unit is not a descriptive account of business
ethics for YOU to remember and repeat at an
examination, it is intended as an invitation to YOU to
subject YOUR own views about business to critical
examination to figure out what YOU think and why.
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Your Workshop this week will be on the S of
the STAR
Seeing
the ethical
dimension
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We will begin our exploration using the works
of Sandel (2009) and Sen (2009).
According to Sen (2009) early Indian legal theorists argued that
it is important to avoid matsyanyaya (justice in the
world of fish) that is where big fish freely feed on smaller
fish.
Such a perspective should never be allowed to invade
the world of humans.
This is an important idea because no matter how well
organised and proper businesses might be (niti) if big fish can
still eat smaller fish at will then what actually emerges in
practice (nyaya) is still wrong. So it is important to
distinguish between the rules/policies of business
(niti) and the way business behaves (nyaya).
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In business ethics there are several perspectives
Ethical theories are many, complex and diverse
Fisher and Lovell (2006 and 2009) present
a framework of ethical theories, which has
policy and principle as its horizontal axis,
and individual and institutional
(corporation) as its vertical axis.
This framework combined these four
concepts to allow understanding of the role
of each in the development and application
of different theories by individuals and
institutions (corporations)
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Fisher and Lovel, 2006 p. 100
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However, in this unit and in order to
understand the S.T.A.R. framework we will
Focus on four
perspectives on ethics
which will be done
using the work of
Sandel (2009):
Utilitarianism, Libertarianism,
Deontology
and
Virtue.
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Utilitarianism
While this is an attractive way of doing things there are problems.
This leads us to think about efficiency in business.
When applied to business, it means weighing up the costs and benefits of decisions and
actions what will cost the least and create the maximum benefits?
This view takes as its main concern the creation of the greatest happiness for the
greatest number of people.
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Deontology
You may believe in respecting human rights,
but have you ever thought about what their moral
basis is?
Immanuel Kant (1724 1804) offers a powerful
account of duties and rights in which it is
argued that people are rational, worthy of
dignity and respect.
In deontology it is a persons motive that counts
what matters is that as autonomous (free)
people, we should do the right thing because it is
right, not for some other reason.
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Deontology
But what does duty require of us? To
understand this we must refer to the
Categorical Imperative. There are two things
to remember about the categorical imperative:
first is to act on principles
that you can apply all the
time without contradicting
yourself and
the second is to treat people
as ends in themselves that
is to act in such a way that
you do not use other
people.
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Libertarianism
According to Sandel (2009, pp.
59-60) this raises the question
whether we own ourselves?
Do we have the right to whatever we
want with the things we own
providing we respect other peoples
right to do the same?
In a market economy people make
voluntary exchanges of good and
services and in doing so make
everyone better off. Markets rule!
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Libertarianism
This idea is extended by John Rawls (1921-
2002) who introduced the idea of fairness in
that he argues that to achieve fairness in a
free society we should make choices based
on an original position of equality.
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Virtue Ethics
Virtue ethics what virtues are worthy of honour and reward?
What ways of life will create a good society?
These are questions that make us think about the purpose (telos)
of business.
Tackling these questions require us to focus on the common good
and in doing so find the right way to value things. Our decisions
as business people will then be guided by these ideas.
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Virtue Ethics
According to Sandel (2009) doing this well is like learning
to play the guitar.
You cannot do this by reading a book or listening to a
lecture you have to practice and listen to good musicians
to hear how they play.
So virtues are things we learn by doing to learn the right
habits.
We develop practical wisdom
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What did we look at this lecture
In this lecture we tried to answer these questions:
What is Business Ethics?
Why is business ethics important?
In the workshop we shall expand on the
above, and try to answer these:
How do we identify an ethical problem or issue in business?
How do we decide the right thing to do?
Who

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Conflict Gold
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/25/conflict-
gold-global-market-trading-kaloti
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In preparation for Next week
Listen to the news and see which of the perspectives
you can apply to what is going on in the business world
or the world!
Take, and upload a photo to the Bb discussion board for
Seminar 2 of something that you think is a business ethics
problem add a one sentence explanation of what the issue
is. These will form the basis of a discussion next seminar.
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In preparation for next week
Become familiar with the assessment. We will begin to
work on the assessment in class next week. Working on
assessment in class = a good grade! We will be grading
your assignments on the assumption that you have had a
lot of help and guidance in class.
Read and bring with you the article by Goodpaster (2004)
available on Bb Module 2 Unit Resources.
Bring your A3 drawing pad etc. to the workshop


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Thank you!