Project on, Ethical view of a company according to stakeholder theory  

Prepared for:

Mr Afroz Imtiaz (BAI)

Lecturer, Department of Law

PHI401: Business Ethics

Section: 9; Semester: Spring 2019

Name ID
Hamima Sultana(Leader) 1612809030
Kazi Farhana Hoque (Co-Leader) 1531205030
Mousumi Akter 1310776030
Al-Rafi Ahmed 1331145630
Syed Nafee Ahmed 1510367030
Muhibur Rahman 1510981030
Faiza islam 1712076030
Omar Abdul Mannan Sharif 1610222030

Prepared by:

Submission Date: April 10, 2019

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 Letter of Transmittal
10th April 2019

Md. Afroz Imtiaz

Lecturer, Department of Law

School of Business and Economics,

North South University

Subject: Submission of business report on “Ethical view of a company according to

stakeholder theory”.

Dear Sir,

It is a great honor for us submitting a report regarding overall production process of a leading
organization according to your instruction; we have worked on “Ethical view of a company
according to stakeholder theory”. It was a great opportunity to learn practically about the
overall operations and procedure. The analysis helped us immensely to enrich our experience,
knowledge and skill which will help us in the future. We have worked harder for this report
with utmost sincerity to learn about the operations process of a renowned organization. We
sincerely hope that this report will fulfill the course requirement and will stand up to your
expectations. In the end, we would like to thank you for giving us such a task and for all the
ideas and guidance you provided us throughout the semester. Therefore, we would be obliged
if you kindly accept our report.

Sincerely,

Hamima Sultana(Leader)

Kazi Farhana Hoque (Co-Leader)

Mousumi Akter

Al-Rafi Ahmed

Syed Nafee Ahmed

Muhibur Rahman

Faiza Islam

Omar Abdul mannan sharif

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 Executive summary
The purpose of this group assignment was to demonstrate the ethical view of a company
according to stakeholder theory whether that's justified or not. We selected ride sharing
application X and we justified certain actions of its operations and opposed as required. To do
so we implemented three subdivisions of stakeholder theory and evaluated one at a time with
relevant scenarios or facts.

Frist in normative theory we discussed about its data-thieving issues, sexual harassment,
accident proportion and other relevant topics and how they define these as right and wrong.
In descriptive theory we showed detailed factors that influence ethical decision making of X,
both innate and acquired. For instrumental theory we highlighted how X define beneficial act
for its company and how it is related to customer as well as employee stakeholders.

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 Table of Contents

NORMATIVE THEORIES..........................................................................................................................5

What is Utilitarianism?......................................................................................................................5

What is Ethics of Duties?...................................................................................................................6

Moral rules must respect human beings:......................................................................................6

What is Egoism?..............................................................................................................................10

DESCRIPTIVE THEORIES.......................................................................................................................13

Ethical Decision Making Process......................................................................................................13

Individual Influences on Decision Making........................................................................................15

Situational influences on ethical Decision making...........................................................................17

INSTRUMENTAL THEORY.....................................................................................................................20

Stakeholder.....................................................................................................................................20

Instrumental theory in context of employee as stakeholders.........................................................21

Instrumental theory in context of employee as stakeholders.........................................................22

Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................24

Bibliography.........................................................................................................................................25

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 NORMATIVE THEORIES

What is Utilitarianism?

The idea of good could be decreased to one basic sense: the scan for joy and the evading of
suffering. A moral framework was made dependent on it, called utilitarianism. This theory is
one of the influential and best known theories of morality. We should always take actions
which will give the best result or consequences for all people affected by it. “Best
consequences” generally refers to well-being. Utilitarian’s just do not focus on their close
ones. They are also worried about distant strangers, coming future generations. We can apply
the rule of utility to either Particular actions or General rules. Utilitarianism is also
‘consequentialist’ hypothesis. Where activities are judged solely by their results, without
respect to character, inspiration, or any comprehension of good and dishonest and separate
from their ability to make bliss and delight. Utilitarianism can be largely divided into two
categories:-

Act-utilitarianism - Believe that whenever we decide what to do, the action that will create
the greatest net utility that should be carried out. In their view, the utility principle— doing
anything that produces the best overall results — should be applied on a case-by-case basis.
In any situation, the right action is one that provides more usefulness (i.e. creates more well-
being) than other available actions

• Criticisms of this view point to the trouble of accomplishing a full learning and surely
of the outcomes of our activities.

• It is conceivable to legitimize improper acts utilizing AU: Suppose you could end a
regional war by tormenting youngsters whose fathers are fighters, accordingly uncovering the
refuges of the dads.

Rule utilitarianism - The rule of utility is utilized to decide the legitimacy of tenets of direct
(moral standards). A standard like guarantee keeping is built up by taking a gander at the
outcomes of a world in which individuals broke guarantees freely and a world in which
guarantees were official. Good and bad are then characterized as following or defying those
norms.

• Some reactions of this position call attention to that if the Rules consider an ever
increasing number of special cases, RU falls into AU.

• More general reactions of this view contend that it is conceivable to create "unfair
tenets" as indicated by the rule of utility. [ CITATION And \l 1033 ]

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For example: startup of the ride sharing service in Bangladesh gave job opportunities to a
mass number of people especially students who gave rides during free time and could earn
some money from the action thus getting best results

What is Ethics of Duties?

Under this type of morals you can't legitimize an activity by demonstrating that it delivered
great results, which is the reason it's occasionally called 'non-Consequentialist ‘Ethical duties
seem to do it in a different way; think about what activities are 'correct' and continue from
that point. (As a matter of fact this is their main event practically speaking, yet it isn't
generally the beginning stage of considering.) So an individual is accomplishing something
great on the off chance that they are completing an ethically right activity. Ethical Duties can
be generally divided into two categories:-

Moral rules need to be universal:

If you are not willing to follow the ethical rule that you claim to apply to everyone - including
you - equally, then that rule is not a valid moral rule. I cannot claim that something is a valid
moral rule, and I and my family and friends make an exception to it. So for instance, if I
wonder if I should break a promise, I can test if it's okay by asking myself if I want a
universal rule that says ' it's okay to break promises. 'Since I don't want a rule to allow people
to break their promises to me, I can conclude that breaking the promise I made would be
wrong for me. If the ethical rule that you claim to follow cannot be made a universal rule
logically, it is not a valid moral rule.

Moral rules must respect human beings:

Kant believed that all human beings should be treated as free and equal members of a shared
moral community, and this is reflected in the second version of the categorical imperative by
stressing the importance of properly treating people. It also recognizes the morality relevance
of intention. Act so that we always treat humanity as an end and never merely as a means,
both in our own person and in that of another person .an every rational being exists as an end
in itself and not merely as a means to be used arbitrarily by this or that will. In all his actions,
whether directed towards himself or other rational beings, he must always be considered
simultaneously.

For example: Having access to people’s phone with out there consent is illegal and unethical
actions even if they are monitored by bureaucrats for terrorist movement.

Thus, following the above mentioned concepts lead to help and at times suffering of user’s
.So in-terms of the ride sharing app company (Company-X), both the theories would be

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seeing the company's impact on its customers, shareholders or society and also the country as
a whole which is getting affected by the company's presence.

SOME POINTS ARE:

 Bangladeshi ride-sharing application X which has delighted in a dynamite

ascend in the course of recent years, has been blamed for logging and putting
away private information – SMS ,contact, records ,emails and vulnerable
media – without clients' learning. What if any employee of the service
downloads lady customers personal photos from her email account and
threatened to make them viral on social media unless she agreed to have a
relationship with him? Who will be responsible? The act might make her
vulnerable to fall prey in cybercrimes again asking the ethical question whose
action is more unethical the employee for blackmailing or the X service for
giving access? As client and organization have a fiduciary relation based on
trust.
 X services claimed envious of its popularity, some people use social media to
spread wrong, misleading and false information. Certainty and determination
that X provides its driver and user with maximum protection and security of
information. All customer information is secured and safe with them. X does
not collect personally identifiable information incorrectly without permission.
X experts likewise guaranteed that they never gather information with no
buyer assent.

 X service provides more promo codes for users rather than drivers thus more users are
benefiting but not drivers who needs to give 20% of their income from the ride
service. A result more drivers are compelled to share ride with clients without using
the app so they do not have to share the earning amount with the organizations which
is unethical as well raises safety issues of both driver and users. Related with ethical
issues as organizations are mostly gaining profit.

 Data breach of customers is a major concern in which 1% of the 600 cases

filed were associated with terrorism, 7% to blackmail or money extortion,
14% to financial frauds, 20% to hacking, 18% to defamation, 20% to fake IDs
and 6% to other issues. An ethical issue arises about customer’s privacy which
is endangered. What if any employee of X service access any clients online
bank account due to saved passwords? This unethical action will lead to rise in
crime among innocent youngsters. Will it be ethical to use the service then?
This relates with human dignity duties of ethics.

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  There were charges of trouble making and sexual harassment regarding the
service. A lady who works at a firm in Dhanmondi region affirmed
inappropriate behavior by a driver. There were many claims of lewd behavior
against X service. Anyway that biker was essentially obstructed with no real
discipline. In the Facebook post it is regularly observed such charges against
the bikers. Related with Human dignity ethics as the driver was terminated
only and no police charge was pressed against him. An ethical issue arises that
who was guilty the user, rider or the X service for not taking proper actions?

 The physical wellbeing of the driver accomplices and travelers from mishaps has
additionally come up as a noteworthy concern. Motorbike drivers are seen abusing the
traffic manages widely which essentially increment the danger of accidents. Every
vehicle is required to stop before the zebra crossing at convergences however
motorcyclists frequently disregard this standard and cross the convergence. They
disregard laws and drive on the pathways. This is related with duties of ethics if
followed properly then accidents could be avoided to some extent.

 An owner of a few vehicles can be permitted to enlist just a solitary one of his
vehicles with a ride-sharing organization. Once more, the rule compels the
organizations to gather definite data about just the driver yet there is no notice about
the traveller which can make the vehicle and driver helpless against incendiary
exercises executed by raucous travellers. It is important to discover when a vehicle
was enlisted with a ride-sharing organization and when it was given enrolment by the
BRTA. While on duty in the boulevards, we can just analyze the enrolment papers,
permit, charge token and protection. We authorize the current transit regulations and
punish the violators as indicated by the law. This is related with ethics of duties

• Now with X service it takes less than half of the time to travel than before. And the
traffic is easy to travel in packed and avoid being stuck in bottlenecks. Whereas waiting in
heavy traffic resulted in poor work - life balance and family issues that severely damaged
people’s ability to function properly. Related with utilitarianism as serving greatest happiness
principal

• In spite of X service fame, the clients time to time have griped about high admission
rate, unprofessional frame of mind, absence of preparing and poor wellbeing gears, and at
times riding without using app, all the factors risks security of customers. Related with ethical
duties

• In accordance with the rule all ridesharing organizations and engine vehicle
proprietors must get selection declarations from Bangladesh Road Transport Authority. This
can be related with duties of ethics

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  X complies with the same rules and regulations for the collection of information by
international and domestic technology organizations in order to provide their
customers with the desired service. This related with universal ethics

 x administration declared presentation of protection administrations for the two its

clients and riders Under the administration, X clients can get four overages -
Accidental Death Benefit, Accidental Permanent Total Disability, Accidental
Hospitalization and Natural Death Benefit .This is related human dignity duties of
ethics as both user and rider will be benefitted.

 X service voyage of engaging the young, the organization has stepped up to the plate
and advance feasible financial development for the young gainful business and nice
work for all. This is related to rule utilitarianism as greatest happiness principal when
students are not wasting time and can earn Tk 20,000 to Tk 30,000 a month when
working part time
 Several hundred unemployed youth took X service as their full or part - time job,
while availability and lower prices contributed to the initial popularity of ridesharing.
Apart from earnings, the service's plus point is freedom and having enough family
time. Which is disguise in helping the society with making others life better. This is
related with utilitarianism
 Around 10,000 free head protectors have been given away for passengers. As of late
it has been made obligatory for X riders to have an additional head protector with
them, or else they are given a negative 'wellbeing survey' by the clients. This is related
with single act utilitarianism.
 The rules specify that the drivers will undoubtedly take the travelers regardless of
what the separation is, however a large number of the drivers mock the rule. About
half of the drivers need to know the goal first before affirming the trip. I have perused
the ride sharing rule. This (requesting goal) is opposing to the rules. Other than this,
most drivers don't have the foggiest idea how to pursue the guide to come precisely to
the pickup point. What's more, they don't pursue the particular course and go in
misguided course. For this they charge additional. This is related with ethics of duties
as drivers at times cancel the ride after knowing the destination and at times make the
customer wait for long period without canceling ride or showing up.

So will it be ethical to use the X service which is giving opportunity and rise to corruption
simultaneously? For recent times police are working with businesses X service to address
some security issues. Some initiative has been taken to protect users or riders from various
crimes, including sexual harassment, hijacking, cybercrime and even terrorist attacks. We
urge the government to provide a proper guideline for the entire service and society to take a
stand against unethical actions

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What is Egoism?

Egoism as we know it is a foundation of morality that treats self-interest other than anything
else. It is a view that each human always pursues their own self-interest and that no person
wants to promote anyone else's interest. It is the moral doctrine that everyone ought to act to
promote his or her own interests exclusively. Ethical egoism makes a claim about how
people should behave rather than how they actually behave.

Ethical egoism can be broadly divided into three categories: individual, personal, and
universal. An individual ethical egoist would hold that all people should do whatever benefits
"my" (the individual's) self-interest; a personal ethical egoist would hold that he or she should
act in his or her self-interest, but would make no claims about what anyone else ought to do;
a universal ethical egoist would argue that everyone should act in ways that are in their self-
interest.

Adam Smith is known for making a connected point on the level of broad economic trade and
capitalism. In the end, it usually doesn’t matter whether people actually care about the well-
being of others, because there exists an invisible hand at work in the marketplace. The
invisible hand is the belief that businesses out in the world trying to do well for themselves
tend to do good for others too. It may even be that they do more good than generous altruists.
It’s hard to know for sure, but it can be said that there’s a distance between ethical egoism in
reality and the image of the egoist as a ruthless destroyer of broad social happiness.

It is not only a theory that is criticized as inconsistent and self-contradictory. Many people
argue that business as an enterprise is antithetical to ethics. They believe that a business
cannot survive for too long if it is filled with morality. As they believe-

 We have the right to economic survival. For instance, to survive in a business,

 We have no obligation to do anything that is incompatible with surviving in business.
 One cannot survive in business if one is too ethical
 No business dealings in everyday fair-play, honesty and law-abidingness.

Thus, following the above mentioned concept leads to sufferings of the customers sometimes.
So in-terms of the ride sharing app company (Company-X), egoism would be seeing the
company's interest before its customers, shareholders or other people who are affected by the
company's presence.

So key points in this case would be-

 Because of the presence of Company-X, taxi and CNG services have been severely
affected. The taxi licenses and everything which were very hard and expensive to
acquire have now comedown so much in their value. There are people whose
livelihood depended on driving taxis or CNGS, but now those people are forced to
look for something new to earn their living. This is an example of the egoism done by
the X-company. This is because the company is just thinking about their own interest

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 and not about how it affects other people and their situation.
 Next one is not caring enough about the customers, as there have been incident
reports of certain drivers of the Company-X. If the company cared about their
customers at that level, then they would have done enough background checks of the
drivers/riders to get a more reliable and honest person.
 There have been incident reports of lost goods during delivery as well from the
company which clearly show signs of egoism as it proves the company does not care
who joins as a rider as long they can get more riders in the street despite the security
of the goods being delivered. am an
 A self-proclaimed security researcher uploaded a video showing how Company-X has
been fetching and storing information. According to the video, Company-X is
forwarding the sensitive information of the users which includes hardware details to a
third-party server in California. Storing and forwarding of these information abroad is
a violation of the newly minted ride sharing guidelines. The most alarming part is
fetching of information (such as installed apps) without even getting the approval of
the user.

 Another thing person-X pointed out is that Company-X only informs the user about
location seeking information but when the permission box pops up (a Google safety
protocol to ensure users consent), it sneakily takes location, and SMS and contact
access related permission. You might be wondering whether this happens every time
you install the device and the answer is no. It happens every time you open the app
and it will fetch all the new info (i.e. could be all the new SMSs you got since the first
install). The implications of these data fetching might be catastrophic.

 Imagine banking, social media, MFS, email related OTP will get fetched to
‘COMPANY X. If this was done by a social media app, then the entire process would
have still raised eyebrows but would have been still been understandable. But for a
ride-hailing service, unwarranted fetching and storing of these data is totally uncalled
for and violates all ethical practices.

In a press brief issued later, company X said they are ensuring the optimum security
of the stored data and they are following all the best practices. We didn't get a
response either when we approached company X regarding what data privacy and
security compliance certification or standards have the ride-hailing company has
obtained so far.

In Brief, it can be addressed that in this world people use internet banking and many other
online money transference apps. If the users’ passwords are easily accessible then how
will one get back their privacy which is a matter of great concern? Everyone should have
their own privacy. Anyone suffering from egoism may lead their documents in wrong
hands such as, hackers or other cyber criminals. Thus, the presence of egoism in business
can be sometimes fatal for others as unethical decisions can lead to cover-up and more

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unethical decisions down the road. Ethics is about what someone does when no one is
looking. In other words, we are what we do and ethical people are motivated to do the
right thing, not make a decision based on selfishness – egoism.

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 DESCRIPTIVE THEORIES

Ethical Decision Making Process

Recognize moral issue

A working definition of an issue of moral concern is presented as any issue with the potential
to help or harm anyone, including oneself. I. Hypothesis 1: Moral issues are those which
involve a difference of belief and not a matter of preference.

The introduction of ride sharing app revolutionized the taxi transport services. The ride
sharing app brought this old industry into a new err using GPS and automated payment
system which all linked with the smart phones. Prior of introduction of ride sharing services
the taxis and auto rickshaws was the only option which decreased the bargaining power of the
consumers but after the introduction of the ride sharing apps motor bike and private cars also
joined in people transportation industry which empowered the consumers. The ride sharing
app may have solved the old problems of taxi industry subsequently brought some new
challenges.

Unlike the ride sharing services the old taxi and auto rickshaws were governed by BRTA
(Bangladesh road transport authority). The ride sharing services are governed by the
companies itself which introduces many moral issues. In the ride sharing industry to operate
drivers are very important but they are considered as an independent contractor therefore
drivers often earn less than minimum wage and they do not receive any compensation for any
damages for their vehicles. Drivers are also forced to share the discount the company gives to
the consumers. Beside that the ride sharing companies also disrupts the old taxi and auto
rickshaw industry which will raise the unemployment and in the future might create
monopoly. Even though the drivers of the ride sharing industry are independent contractor
they are only allowed to contract with one company which is significantly reducing the
number of rides for them. Due to lack of rules and regulations the ride sharing company often
allows drivers to use their app without proper background check which puts the consumers at
risk. Due to the ride sharing companies recently the number of cars and motor bikes rise on
the street of Dhaka which already is very congested city. It is contributing to traffic and
pollution.

Make moral judgment

Moral judgment is the process by which one defines what is wrong, good, bad, zany,
absolutely bizarre, surreal, quasi-reasoned, ethical vs unethical vs neutral or adjoining
deviations to the previous as stated that warrant categorizations of their own accord
depending on the nature of the object or entity to be judged (as one's reasoning has to be
aligned for justice), fundamentally, in sentient human perspective, against some standard of

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'good' as established by rational consensus formed from an established ideal by whose
commune the incumbent exhibiting or contradicting moral judgment is affiliated with for
purposes of actualization of the question as dictated above. The ride sharing industry also
trying to make the rules which is beneficial for the society. The most recent example is
providing free helmet to the bike rider and making it mandatory for the driver to carry helmet
for the passenger.

Establish moral intent

Moral intent is the desire to act ethically when facing a decision and overcome the
rationalization to not be ethical “this time.” The ride sharing companies needs to needs to
create moral intent. They should think a solution. Beside that this ride sharing companies are
also tech companies who owns their user data. To use ride sharing apps on smart phones user
needs to agree to give permission to their contacts, locations, and financial information and to
many other features of the phones. This information is very sensitive. The ride sharing
companies needs to develop a culture among their employees so that they do not miss use
these information for their own benefit. Beside that the ride sharing companies needs to
invest more on cyber security so that any outside hackers cannot get access to consumer’s
personal information. Taking this steps will show consumers their moral intent to safe guard
the consumer’s information which will not only make the companies more ethical but also
will improve their profitability as it will encourage more people to use the ride sharing apps.

Engage in moral behavior

Moral engagement requires moral courage–that is, a commitment to behaving morally in

regards to others despite social pressures to participate in or passively comply with policies
and actions that are hurtful to others. Being morally engaged requires: Accepting
responsibility for one's own behavior. Even though ride sharing apps gave more power to
consumers but for drivers the situation went bad to worse. Even though our economy is
growing and people are spending more money on travelling but the inequality between
drivers and the companies are at all-time high. The profit for the ride sharing companies is
growing every year but the drivers are not getting any benefit from it and as the companies
view the drivers as an independent contractor they drivers don’t receive any employment
benefit and can’t even create union to negotiate better with the companies.

Typically these problems are regulated by governments but as the government allow them to
self-regulate the ride sharing companies are only thinking about themselves or even if there is
a law they simply ignores it. So to fix this the ride sharing company’s needs to be socialize
and tie the drivers by giving them part of the profit otherwise the disparity between high
income and low income people will increase and the whole society won’t be able to develop.

[ CITATION And \l 1033 ]

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Individual Influences on Decision Making

Individual decision factors came from unique characteristics which are given by birth and
acquired by moral decision, socialization and more. Who is going through the decision
making process and how he/she acts in a particular way when any ethical problem occurs.
Employees certain traits and characteristics can influence the ethical decision as they think
and behave different from each other. We will discuss how individual factors are into
unethical conduct than others. Hence we are not determining the reason why people might be
more or less ethical, but focusing on the factors influencing us to think, feel, and act in a
certain ways that are relevant to ethical decision making. Individual factors have strong
biasness on ethical decision making in Asia.[ CITATION www1 \l 1033 ]

In our company we are going to focus on age, gender, national and cultural characteristics,
cognitive moral development, education and employment, moral imagination.

Age and gender: Age plays a vital role when are looking for experienced people cause it
may impact on the situation results. More experienced people make fewer mistakes so they
are preferable in organization. But when are considering on ride sharing service we prefer
young people than older people. There can be a question who is more ethical men or women
but it gives a very mixed and unclear results. Some people are more ethical than others and
gender is not main issue with person’s moral values. In fact there are some limitations when
we consider female candidate. So we can state that age n experience might shape themselves
in a way that they can easily recognize and response to the ethical problem.

National and cultural characteristics: There is cultural, national difference which varies
countries to countries. Each and every country has different cultural background even if we
consider in job sector acceptance. People prefer more male when it comes to ride sharing
service. They think male service holders are more likely to tackle any situation and do fewer
mistakes on roads. Female biker is comparatively less in this sector cause our Bangladeshi
culture is not used to it .And sadly there are security and harassments issue with female biker.
That’s the main reason women biker are less in ride sharing service rather than male biker.
But if we look to other developed country we see there are almost same amount of male and
female who are doing ride sharing job. Whereas we can see female biker takes this job as
part-time and for a short period of time. We can also see there are power distances,
masculinity femininity facts as well.

Education and employment: Education and employment might also play a significant role
in shaping our ethical beliefs and values. Individual morality can be developed through
upbringing and general education. When we select candidates for our organization we mainly
focus on how effectively they can run and use our ride sharing app. To make app more user-
friendly, we trains them for a short period time. We train them how to deal with different
situation with previous records and example so that relate those problems and take decision

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ethically. Through this ethical training they can easily understand, recognize and deals with
ethical problem in work place in shortest time possible.

Cognitive moral development: Psychological factors, principals and disciplines theories are
related to cognitive moral development. Individual influence and cognitive moral
development influence subordinates’ ethical decision-making and ethical. To know this we
can follow three levels which are how much individuals are concern with self-interest,
external reward and punishment, what individual expect from others and is decision making
right or justified rather than external influences. However, cognitive moral development
theory has been influential in the ethical decision making literature. Here we can see gender
biasness due to its emphasis on the abstract principle. The influence supervisors have on
subordinates may stem from the supervisor’s role in establishing the ethical climate of the
workgroup, his or her control over subordinates, and the supervisor’s own ethical behavior.
These attempts are still appropriate given the current levels organizational and individual
ethical misdeeds that continue to be disclosed. An understanding of ethical decision-making
will enhance our ability to curb ethical misconduct. Supervisor is the exemplar of appropriate
ethical conduct for business regardless of whether or not the supervisor is actually ethical in
his or her department.

Personal integrity: Integrity is defined as an adherence to moral principles and values.

Personal integrity involves being the best, most honest and morally-sound version of you.
Your integrity may stem from your religious beliefs, your personal goals in life, or from
experience. Integrity is one of the fundamental values that employers seek in the employees
that they hire. Integrity is the foundation on which trust and effective interpersonal
relationships. It is the hallmark of a person who demonstrates sound moral and ethical
principles at work. Honesty and trust is the core in integrity. We also train them and expect
not to talk badly about someone. Show respect to coworkers. If rider knows confidential
information, never disclose to anyone. Return money or anything that rider noticed someone
dropped without expecting a reward. Adhere to company policies and procedures.
Organization give three chances to a rider, if they found more than three complains
organization verify the actual incident and take action against the rider. And company kept
the employees up-to-date on the struggles the ride sharing experiencing with clear and
frequent communication at team meetings. Whatever the case, personal integrity is clearly an
important aspect of ethical decision making.

Moral imagination: Moral imagination is concerned with sense of variety of possibilities

and moral consequences of their decisions and the ability to imagine a wide range of possible
issues, consequences and solutions. Moral imagination is the creativity which an individual is
able to reflect about an ethical dilemma. Higher level of moral imagination allow people to
see beyond the rules and holds significant potential for help. That’s why we prefer higher
moral imagination people in higher position.

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[ CITATION www \l 1033 ]

Situational influences on ethical Decision making

These are the particular features of the context that influence whether the individual will
make an ethical or an unethical decision. These include factors associated with the work
context such as reward system, job roles and organizational culture and those associated with
the issue itself such as the intensity of the moral issue or the ethical framing of the issue. In
our company we saw some situational influences on ethical decision making.

Situational influences are two types,

 Issue Related
 Context Related

ISSUE RELETED:

Moral Intensity- This is reasonably a new factor which got some evidence to suggest
taking the decision. For example in company X which is a ride sharing company, the riders
suddenly called a strike against the company because the company cut down their extra bonus
10 taka per trip. It is a totally new issue for the company. In this issue the top management
sits for a meeting to decide what to do. In that meeting they collect all the available contents
of the issue as like the breakeven of a random trip and look at the extra 10 taka which were
given for no reason and the riders do not owe that money. So that to stop the protest
immediately the top management took a decision to suspend the leaders of that protest and
stop giving away that extra 10 taka to the riders.

Moral framing- This has limited evidence, it have e the same problem or dilemma
can be perceived very differently according to the way that the issue is framed. For example,
ride cancelations and bad experiences are the regular issue for a ride sharing company. The
company has a separate team for this purpose to solve these issues. That team looks for some
limited contents by calling both the rider and the user. And make the decision by hearing
from both ends. Each employee from that team has their own way to solve these kinds of
problems. The way of this issue solving is varies from person to person which creates
different results for the situation. Some employees always takes the sides of the customers as
the customer is bringing us money, but they should have also take that in mind that the riders
are the way the money is coming to the company.[ CITATION And \l 1033 ]

CONTEXT RELATED:

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 The company’s context in which the employees and the workers are working
with expectations and demand placed on them within the working environment that are likely
influence their perceptions of what is morally right and what is wrong.

System of Reward- We saw in the company giving away of rewards is influencing

the ethical decision makings of the employees and the workers. For example, the riders more
often gets the quests, which are like if a rider gives 50 rides in a week then they will get 5000
taka as a reward. Which is a healthy amount for the riders to get in a week? For these types of
quests the riders rush to fulfill the 50 rides in a week and the quality of service drops.
Because in that time the only thing works in their mind is that they have to finish 50 rides.
For these quests some riders do something more unethical which is fake ride, in this case the
riders calls a ride and he accepts that ride by his own and starts the ride by actually not giving
the ride and completes the quest by their own.

Authority- Every company faces this problem because every company has their
hierarchy in the company. Employees do what they have been told to do directly or
indirectly. Sometimes these can be direct instructions from the supervisors or the line
managers to do something that the subordinate does not refuse or questions just because of
their lower status in the hierarchy. Sometimes their instructions are not directly to do
unethical things but the subordinates do not have any other ways to do so. For example in our
company if a line manager told something to his/ her team then the team have to do that by
any cost. Recently in our operations team the account management which is a sub team has
been told to suspend 50 riders in one day. It was just because to give warning to those riders
who are not maintaining the quality. In a short period of time the employees do not had time
to read the history of all the riders for the suspension. For that some innocent riders got
suspended in those 50 suspensions. This happened because the top management told the team
to suspend 50 riders in a short notice.

Work Roles- Work roles make an employee to learn how to behave, what to value,
how to relate to others. In this company there are some ways the employees come to know
their work roles. Company arranges training sessions and seminars for both office employees
and also for the riders. The employees and riders learns how to value their works, how to
behave clients and customers. By the training the riders knows how to operate the app and
how to behave with the users. In the other hand employees learns which team dose what
work. The employees come to know the roles of top management. And they also come to
know that how the company works. These seminars and training sessions also helps the
employees and the riders in decision making.

Organizational Norms and Culture- As a startup in Bangladesh this company do

not have the typical norms and culture like the other corporate companies. Employees do not
have to address their seniors as sir or madam. Employees address their managers, supervisors
even CEO as Bhai and Apu. There is no dress code in the office, but employees have to dress
up liberal dressing. Employees can wear tshirt and jeans instate of formal shirt and pants. The
seniors are very friendly with the junior employees. The office culture is very friendly for

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every employee because it contains open desk so that one can communicate with other
employee even from another department without hesitation.

National and Cultural Context- This context dose have relation with ethical
decision makings. In this context the decision is made as a context of the nation. All the
decisions in the company are made in Bangladeshi context. Even the employees have to wear
colorful Panjabi and Saree during the “Pohela Falgun”, “Pohela Boishakh” in these cultural
occasions. The employees need to make any decision by taking it in the mind that how
Bangladeshi people will react for the decision. Our company runs operation at Nepal so they
also make decision by taking in mind that how Nepalese people will react.

[ CITATION And \l 1033 ]

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 INSTRUMENTAL THEORY

Stakeholder

Stakeholders are different groups of people who have claim or ownership, rights or interests
in a corporation and its activities. They can be harmed or benefited by the corporation. They
can also be beneficial to the corporation.

Now from the Andrew Crane & Dirk Matten’s Business Ethics book we get stakeholder
theory’s Stakeholder model. From that we can generalize who are the main stakeholders.
They are given below,

 Government
 Competitors
 Customers
 Employees
 Civil Society
 Suppliers
 Shareholders

These are not written in any particular order. All of these stakeholders are important for a
business’s survival. They also play a crucial role in a business’s success.

Now there are different forms of stake holder theory, they are Normative stakeholder theory,
Descriptive stakeholder theory and Instrumental stakeholder theory. First two theories were
discussed previously.

Instrumental stakeholder theory was established to answer a certain question, which is,
whether it is beneficial for a corporation to take into account stakeholder interests. This
segment of report will focus on benefits of taking stakeholder interest into account.
Especially the most important of all the stakeholders, the customers. If a company ignores it
customer interest their fate will be same as some cellphone manufacturer’s fate. Thus we can
say instrumental stakeholder theory suggests if a company wants to maximize shareholder
value in the long run they must keep stakeholder’s interest in their mind. So we must keep
other happy to be happy ourselves. Which is just opposite of self-interest, which were
practiced by some ancient and now out of business corporations.

[ CITATION And \l 1033 ]

Why corporations must think taking stakeholder’s interests are beneficial for them?

I think corporation keeping a watch and reacting on interests of stakeholders are successful in
the long term. This is backed by years of data and reading news about failing corporations. A

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simple lawsuit can consume a corporation’s resources like time and money, decrease their
reputation and share value. This is against their ultimate goal.

[ CITATION And \l 1033 ]

Now certain problem arises when a corporation tries to collaborate with its stakeholders.
These problems are discussed below,

1. Uncontrollability: Even with the best intentions of both parties there are no guarantees
of coming to a mutually acceptable solution. By collaborating with many different
partners a company can lose control of their strategic direction.
2. Resource Intensity: Stakeholder collaborations are extremely time consuming and
expensive. They can fail to meet short term financial expectations of their
shareholders. It is even harder for small businesses.
3. Co-optations: Some stakeholder groups are placing themselves close to business thus
suggesting more business friendly agenda rather than maintaining true independence.
There were multiple cases of this throughout the world.
4. Culture clash: Companies and their stakeholder can have very different values and
goals. This can lead to significant clash both between and within collaborating groups.
5. Schizophrenia: Even when agreeing on one issue the stakeholders can disagree on
another issue this schizophrenic behavior is very hard to deal with.
6. Accountability: Government bodies, trade unions and NGO’s can be challenged on
the ground of accountability. When these stakeholders and business set a meeting
behind closed doors the transparency and rights of general people are compromised.
7. Resistance: Organizational member and external parties may and can try to resist the
development of collaborative relations. Which prevents stakeholders from fully
achieving their goals?

Instrumental theory in context of employee as stakeholders

Some scandals relating local companies and considering consumer as main stakeholders are
discussed below,

Some multinational pharmaceutical companies allow only patented drugs to be sold at a high
price and prevent the sale of generic cheaper drugs. In case of Bangladeshi companies there
are cases of duplicate medicines with zero medicinal values and caused death of thousands of
infants.

Recently ride sharing apps are becoming very popular. There are cases against some
companies for showing one fair in their app and then after reaching the destination charging
more for the same distance. Which is very unpleasant for the customers and illegal in a way?
There are lawsuits of these kind against this company and this can cause then fortune because
of forestall legislation and fees for lawyer.

22
There are also allegations of drivers not knowing the way to a destination, cancelling trips
after wasting the users' time, refusing to go to a destination, misbehaving with passengers and
last but not least violating traffic rules.

There are also allegations of them stealing personal information from consumers mobile
which breaks every ethical values of modern world. The worst part is consumers didn’t even
know as there were no permissions asked for that. Imagine your personal text, text related to
banking OTP, email OTP and scarily enough texts regarding mobile financial services are
sent abroad and stored in foreign server. Although the corporation claimed their consumer’s
data are safe but their brand image took a big hit. They lost many consumers. I myself can be
a great example as I uninstalled their app and switched to their rival service provider as my
personal data and MFS data are more important for me than some convenient service. The
company didn’t even deny the allegations and they are looking at their sales figure and
thinking whatever happens their customers will stay with them for convenience factor but as
consumer will get more educated on sensitivity of personal data they will switch to
competitors as well. Here we can clearly see short term financial goal focus.

If company abide by stakeholders interest what benefits and losses, they will get? Loyal
customers this helps their long term focus. If company doesn’t abide by stakeholder what
benefits and losses, they will get? Money focused goals will be met but only in sense of short
term focus. Eventually they will lose customers Thus it is important for corporations to know
and consider instrumental stakeholder theory.

[ CITATION And \l 1033 ]

Instrumental theory in context of employee as stakeholders

Employees as an internal agent of the corporation as they directly affect and are affected by
the corporation. As stakeholder employee plays a vital role. With organizations being flatter
in its hierarchy voice of employee are now heard more than ever. They exercise their rights
and sometimes take part in active strategic role. Corporation without its effective employees
is worthless. Therefore, it does consider these stakeholders in account in some extant if not
completely. Though no company can provide all the interests of this kind of stakeholder as it
will definitely slow down the business process and chain of command might get disturbed.
Besides all these, a corporation can never be anything but self-interested

Here we will go through some context in terms of corporation and the relation (beneficial or
conflicting) with its employee as stakeholder.

1. Employee over exploitation

Our selected company X deals with a very competitive market and is exposed to global
competitors as well. To survive with these big fishes, it follows competitive strategy. For this
along with other strategies, it sets competitive low service charge. This leads to low salary

23
plan for employees. Our ride sharing company X has one of the most diversified employees
as it’s basically a part time job or alternative income source. Most of them are students or
individuals with low income. If the company takes their opinion to pay them better, it will
expose itself to high risk of bankruptcy. As a result, it lets its employees suffer or live with
disturbed work-life balance with immoral practices which benefits its self-interest.

2. Relevant duties

In the name of ‘job enrichment’ or ‘job re-engineering’ additional duties are assigned to the
employee. This shows the company is not committed to its employee and treated like just
money making machine. Company X does the same in some context to its employee.
Bangladesh is a country of low wedge labor and on top of it irrelevant duties for the
betterment of only the company makes it more unethical even though it is extremely
profitable with proper paperwork.

3. Discrimination

Common basis of discrimination is religion, race, age, gender, disability etc. The drivers of
the ride sharing app cannot be disable in any chance. In that case it cannot be defined as
discrimination or violation of equal opportunity as safety concern comes with it. Here
corporation interest is towards its stakeholders.

In other contexts, sexism is practice in corporations more than its regulations. Up to certain
level biasness is human error but more than that it’s a violation of EEO and human rights.
Companies could easily solve the problem with execution of code of conduct but doing so
sometimes create clashes and productivity falls.

4. Harassment

We will see two distinctive stakeholders here, one employee stakeholder and other consumer
stakeholder. A recent scandal as discussed earlier reveled relation based on challenge and the
problem faced by the company X is termed as accountability. Accountability and
transparency is not possible in all cases. Most of the times companies covers up their
misdeeds to keep up the image for good business. And in some context fiduciary
responsibility comes along.

Company X will not put its employee reputation on stake for anything then again if it does
not respond to its customers it will suffer in the long run. Best way to solve this kind of
schizophrenia is to maintain an etiquette amount of transparency and enforce corporate
accountability with incentives (negative or positive) to abide by organization wide.

[ CITATION And \l 1033 ]

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 Conclusion

Throughout the discussion we faced some severe unethical practices and how a company
justify, recognizes and act according to its own priority. This business entity just like every
other company is success driven and highly self-interested. We have seen in denying,
covering and not responding to ethical issues caused by itself frankly. This could be justified
with its existing constraints but by doing so such practices cannot be encouraged. Therefore,
from ethical point of view, X will jump to extreme unethical entity if corrective measures are
not taken properly.

Word Count: 8373

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integrity-really-1917676

(n.d.). Business Ethics. In A. C. Matten.

www.link.springer.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1006072231066

McIntosh, N. (2014). BBC - Ethics - Introduction to ethics: Duty-based ethics. [online] Bbc.co.uk.
Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/duty_1.shtml [Accessed 9 Apr. 2019].

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