Ethical Worldviews & Business Ethics: A Comprehensive Guide

Posted on Aug 20, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

Morality and Love/Passion

Morality

Doing what you get paid for; nothing more, nothing less.

Going the first mile and fulfilling duty and obligation.
Does not require self-sacrifice.
Requires that one share equally with others.

Love/Passion

Motivates one to give up one’s share for others.
Philosophical love expressed by commitment and loyalty.

Two Prevailing Ethical World Views

Judeo-Christian World View

Unselfish
Not necessarily about religion
Helping people who cannot help themselves

Dominion Theory

To subdue the earth and exercise dominion over it.
To work with nature for the common good.

Kosmos World View

Selfish
Egocentrism
The system apart from the purposes of God or apart from an ethical lifestyle.
Power is to dominate.

Kosmos = Universe

Utile = To do good

Utilos = That which is good

Utilitarianism

Fathers of Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham
John Stuart Mill

Definition

Utilitarianism: The greater good, benefits the majority of society.

Key Figures

Jeremy Bentham

Founder of traditional utilitarianism.
All of mankind is under the dominance of two masters: pain and pleasure.

John Stuart Mill

A disciple of Bentham.
Married Harriet Taylor.
Together they wrote “On Liberty.”

Utility

It seeks the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people or the least amount of unhappiness for the least number of people.

On Liberty

First book to discuss utilitarianism and human rights.

Four Categories of Utility

Tangible Desirables or Pleasures
Intangible Desires
Tangible Undesirables
Intangible Undesirables

Tangible Pleasures

Include homes, cars, wealth, education, a plush office, etc.
Things we can touch.

Intangible Desirables

Such as health, freedom, love, long life, and peace of mind.
Things we cannot touch but all want.

Tangible Undesirables

Pain, sickness, death, homelessness.
Don’t want and can appropriate with the senses.

Intangible Undesirables

Ignorance, loneliness, bitterness and hatred, rejection, unforgiveness.
Category of utility that leadership encounters in the marketplace.

Utilitarian Principle

Holds that an action is ethical if and only if the sum total of utilities produced by that act is greater than the sum total of liabilities.

Consequentialist Theory

The end justifies the means.
Result-centered theory.
Looks at the end result or consequence.

Shortcomings or Errors of Utility

Limited Stakeholder Error
Single Alternative Error
Short Term Error
Utility does not always hold the line of morality.

Limited Stakeholder Error

Stakeholders are those who are affected.
Limited to the view of happiness.
Does not reflect the total picture.

Single Alternative Error

When other ethical standards are not considered.

Short Term Error

Considering only the immediate consequences and not the ultimacy of the situation.
Does not look beyond 60-90 days.

Types of Utility

Act Utilitarian

The considering of the consequences.
AKA Flexible or Spontaneous Utility.
Believe that each situation is unique, so no set company policy.

Act Utility

Every leader should perform the act that will bring about the greatest amount of good in their situation at that particular crisis.

Traditional Utility

AKA Rule Utility.
Occurs when leadership is mandated to follow established company policy benefiting the majority in all situations.

Limitations of Utilitarianism

Two areas where utilitarianism does not work:

Intangibles: When money isn’t an issue (freedom, love).
Animal (plant) rights.

Business Practices and Ethics

Cut Salaries

Most devastating psychological blow to employees.

Attrition

Occurs when an employee retires or leaves the company and is not replaced. His/her duties are divided among the remaining employees.

Caveat Emptor

Let the buyer beware.

Kantian Principles

K1: Reversibility – Company Policy
K2: Autonomy – Full Disclosure
K3: Publicity

Types of Goods

Instrumental

Are good only because they lead to “ultimate good.”
Example: Trip to a dentist’s office.

Intrinsic

Things desired in themselves, such as a long life, watching a good movie or game.

Deontology

Definition

Deontos: Duty or obligation.

Deontology: Doing the right thing.

The end DOES NOT justify the means.
The results are not ethical unless ethical means are used to produce them.
AKA Non-Consequentialist Theory.

Immanuel Kant

Father of the deontological movement.
German philosopher.
“Kantian Revolution.”
Wrote “The Metaphysics of Morality.”

Kantianism

Kantianism = Deontology

Emphasizes duties, motives, the dignity and worth of people, and a moral law that is unchanging and absolute, illustrating his Christian roots.

Universality Principle

Could what I am doing become a universal law? (Company policy)

Rights and the Law

1st Amendment

Freedoms of religion, speech, expression, clothing, action, media, and peaceful assembly.

14th Amendment

Protects rights of citizens.
Due process amendment.

Employment at Will (EAW)

In the absence of law or contract, companies have the right to demote and/or fire whomever and whenever they please. – **FALSE**

Cultus

Shady, different.

Public Health

The only time religion loses in American courts is when _______ is concerned.

30 Days

When implementing new policy, you must give your employees ____ to adjust.

Where EAW is Not Applicable

Public Sector:

Government
Military
Schools

Due Process

_____ is a federal amendment and usurps EAW.

Roe v. Wade

Legalized abortion.
Right to privacy of one’s body.

Types of Rights

Liberty Rights

AKA Freedom Rights.
Freedoms of religion, speech, peaceful assembly, the press, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Welfare Rights

AKA Moral Rights.
Not necessarily protected by the constitution, but are considered the rights of a human being.
Food, housing, education, and health care.

Limitations on Individual Rights

Society cannot trump or take priority over individual rights except in 2 cases:

When those rights are disruptive to society, or detrimental to the purposes of the collective people as a whole.
When in the exercise of my free rights I violate another’s rights.

Parens Patriae

Establishes the government as the parent over its citizenry.
Happens when the government feels like that locals have lost control of a situation.

Rule of Thumb

An individual’s rights can be restricted only if that restriction is necessary for protection of other’s rights, and if those rights are disruptive or detrimental to society.

Personna Non Grata

Person is not welcome to stay.

Reasons for Removal from the Marketplace

Four Reasons for Removal from the American Marketplace

Cause Dismissal (Firing)
Termination
Layoffs
Position Elimination

Gross Insubordination

Flagrant disobedience.
Not bitching or profanity.
Willful neglect of duty.
Failure to carry out an order.

Fraternity

Socializing.

Release of Privileged Information

AKA Corporate Espionage.
AKA Sleeping with the enemy.
AKA White Collar Crime.

Layoffs

Imply that the effected employee is subject to recall when economic conditions improve.
Due process is not required.

Position Elimination

AKA Downsizing.
Employee is offered that position at other company locations.
Due process is not required.

Privacy in the Workplace

4th Amendment

States that citizens are protected against illegal search and seizure by the government.
Applies to home, public, and at work.

Workplace Snooping Bill

Enacted 8 years ago.
Bans companies from secretly monitoring employees.
Companies must inform employees when hired that they are subject to being monitored at any time.

Privacy Invasion in the Marketplace

How privacy is invaded in the marketplace:

Eavesdropping and recording phone conversations.
Reading emails.
Surveillance cameras.

Ad Hominem

Guilt by association.
When the employees behavior damages the company’s reputation.

Polygraph

Fast, economical, reveals behavior tendencies.
Disadvantages include the stigma of having to undergo the test and 75% reliability.

Urine Samples

Must be done in privacy.
Usually done at private clinics at company expense.

Machines that Test Hair Follicles

Very expensive.
Can detect the presence of drugs taken 6 months prior.
The trend in American marketplace.

Welfare Rights

Education
Environment

Justice as Fairness

Karl Marx

19th century German Philosopher.
Wrote “A Communist Manifesto.”
Believed in economic determinism.

Economic Determinism

Man has no freedom, freedom is determined by wealth and social class.

A Communist Manifesto

A grim account of human history that saw all history as a fierce class struggle between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”
Written by Karl Marx.

Social Classes

Bourgeoisie

Ruling class.
Upper middle and rich class.

Proletariat

Common laborers.
Means “property-less.”
Poor people.

Entrepreneurship

Man and woman shall live off of the fruit of their labor.
AKA the dominion principle.
Work-shaped vacuum.

Work-Shaped Vacuum

Can only be fulfilled by working and being rewarded for that work.

John Rawls

Founder of Justice As Fairness.
Professor of philosophy at Harvard.
Most precise of all contemporary philosophers.
Wrote “A Theory of Justice.”

Communism

All things common.

Justice as Fairness

Fundamental alternative to utilitarianism.
Goal is to bring together a group of people in a societal bond to work and function as a cohesive unit.

Original Position

Everyone starts out at the same salary.
Only possible in a new company.

Veil of Ignorance

Each member chooses the desired principles in a state of unknowing
No one would know what place he/she would occupy in the society.

Equal Liberty

AKA Maximum Liberty.
AKA First Amendment Rights.

Principle of Equal Liberty

Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive liberty compatible with equal liberty for everyone else.

Difference Principle

Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are to be to everyone’s advantage.
Justice is compatible with some having more than others as long as the least advantaged are better off with the inequalities than they would be without.

W.O.P.P

Bottom 20 = Worst Off.
Can’t make it at the next level
All you can do for them is give bonuses or extra time off.

Difference Principle

Bottom 20 = Least Advantaged.
Could make it at the next level if given the opportunity.

Equal Opportunity Principle

Forbids all discrimination (racial, gender, etc).

Maximin Principle

Alternatives are ranked by their worst circumstances.
Lesser of two evils.
Maximum Minorum.
Taking the best of a bad situation.

Maximum Minorum

The best of the worst.

Worst Off Priority Principle

Numbers do not count and that a small benefit to the worst off is morally higher than a large benefit to the more advantaged.
Against utility.

Compassionate Capitalism

AKA Justice as Fairness.

Justice as Egalitarianism

AKA Equalitarianism.
Everyone is equal.
Foundation of socialism.

Entrepreneurship

Foundation of capitalism.

Capitalism vs. Communism/Socialism

Capitalism

Entrepreneurship.
Work-shaped vacuum.
God’s creation principle.

Communism/Socialism

Egalitarianism.
Equalitarianism.

Egalitarianism

Punishes both the advantaged and the disadvantaged.
Denies promotion and reward for the productive and places pressure the least advantaged by requiring something they cannot achieve.