Ethical Decisions

in Business
 Why study ethics?
• Build a positive vision of the world
• Enhance critical thinking skill and acceptance of varied
perspectives
• Deal with the existential questions of ‘how ought I live’?
And ‘what is the right thing to do’?

Certain preliminary assumptions:

1. We are in conversation to discover what is good living
2. As we are capable of acting from the point of universe
3. Capable of changing social forces and institutions that is
reasoned to be unjust/oppressive
 Goal of ethics: Upward drive
Human nature: Poles apart but continuums
One extreme Other extreme
• Individual • Social
• Egoist • Altruist
• Cater to the Base • Cater to the Highest
• Cater to desires and instincts • Search for meaning of life and
existence
• Actions moderated by
• Actions are Instinctive Universal Reason
• Fundamental force • Fundamental force
• Instinct for survival of the self • Longing to expand limitlessly
Lower self Complex Human Nature Higher self
The discourse
• Ethics is a human science
• It draws on science/ facts – not dogma
• That aims at well being / good life
• Ethical objectivity is an outcome of human rationality
(reason)

• Ethical standards evolve/ perfect over human evolution

and state of evolution of science
• Even while it is evolving it still maintains a fair
objectivity
Characteristics of ethical standards
• Involved with serious harms and benefits to self and others
• Based on objective (impartial) considerations of value/ what is good?
• Immanuel Kant’s ‘Categorical Imperative’
• Rousseau’s ‘General Will’
• John Rawls ‘Veil of Ignorance’

• Rests on adequacy of reason

• Human science and draws from and dependent on conclusive

scientific facts

• May neither be established nor be enforced by legislation

• Should be preferred over other values especially the instinct of self
serving (caution: it does not ridicule self interest)
• Associated with special emotion and vocabulary
Two Conceptions of Ethics
• We can contrast two approaches to the moral life.
• The childhood conception of ethics:
• Comes from outside (usually parents).
• Is negative (“don’t touch that stove burner!”).
• Rules and habit formation are central.
• The adult conception of ethics.
• Comes from within (self-directed).
• Is positive (“this is the kind of person I want to be.”).
• Virtue-centered,often modeled on ideals.
Ethics implants a broader perspective in
Business
Other disciplines Ethics
• Managerial Efficiency - • Human efficiency – Holistic
Capitalist • Good life
• Good business
• All inclusive
• Creating hegemony • Space for all
• Exclusivity • Survival of even the
• Survival of the strongest weakest
• Appeal to the Basic in us • Appeal to the Highest in us
• instinct • Meaning of life
• Basis of explanation • Basis of explanation
• Scientific: reason, logic • Scientific: reason, logic
• Empathy
 Ethical Frameworks
• Egoism – self love / self interest
• Altruism – self sacrifice
Classical: character
• Virtue Ethics – golden mean for general well being and well being of self –
virtue - character- practical wisdom
Modern: Universal standards established through reason
• Utilitarianism – human flourishing and amelioration of suffering – Maximum
benefit for maximum number
• Deontology – universal rules of justice – respect for rights and dignity of
others
• Contractual system – social survival and resolving conflict of interest –
principles + practice
Post Modern: varies with change of perspective
• Feminist Ethics – amelioration of power and domination
• Ethics of Care
Can we deal with all purposes in any given case?
Satisfactorily?
The alternative is Tradeoffs
Recognize an Ethical Issue
• Is there something wrong personally, interpersonally, or socially?
Could the conflict, the situation, or the decision be damaging to
people or to the community?
• Does the issue go beyond legal or institutional
concerns? What does it do to people, who have dignity, rights, and
hopes for a better life together?
Objectivity: social conflict
• Shift in perspective on the conflict
• A bird’s eye view perspective (impartial Spectator)
• Also Put your feet in other’s shoes
• Shift from adversarial to cooperative attitude
• Conflict is viewed as a joint problem
• Allow my interlocutors a share in defining the problem
• I already accord a degree of legitimacy to their point of view
• I have granted them the status of reasonable participants in defining the
objectively correct solution and vice versa
Ethical objectivity in social interaction
• The main issue with objective ethical norms
• Transcend the particular contingencies
• Transcend variable interest of different individuals

• Reasonable people share certain judgments and concepts

about the world of physical facts
• They also share moral judgments and norms
• Interrelationship among moral objectivity, knowledge, truth
and how one attains the appropriate perspective – the moral
point of view – for identifying objectively correct moral norms
• Practical wisdom - Aristotle
• Reflective equilibrium - Rawls
• Acknowledging the other – put your feet in other’s shoes - Kant
Ethical Objectivity: social conflict
• Objectivity is located in the notion of adequately
responding to all aspects of a conflict
• And rational agreement is brought in subsequently as
part of what an adequate response involves
• Engineers way of solving design problems
• Unlikely to arrive at a unique resolution able to address every
relevant aspect of the conflict
• Take a number of shortcuts in order to arrive at some reasonable
resolution of the problem
• It would be irrational not to given the need to resolve the conflict
Tradeoffs
In design
• Tradeoff between: precision, speed, capacity, weight, volume, power, aesthetics,
so on.

In ethics
• Self and others
• Consequence/utility and Intrinsic (human) values: Rights, justice, equality (at
least impartiality) so on
• Reason/rationality and Emotions,
• Duty and Care/love,
• Intention/motive and outcome
• Practical wisdom/Character and context
How to prioritize values?
A complex tradeoff
Reasoned choice with – a sort of universal appeal
• Safeguards rights – Intrinsic (human) values
• Rights of the vulnerable – rights, justice, equality (at
least impartiality)
• Best outcome – utility - Consequence
• Emotions -Care
• Intention/motive
Character – practical wisdom

A practically wise person takes the best reasoned decision

Basic structure of a just society?
• How to determine the division of advantages from social
cooperation?
• Fairness / Just
• Contribution
• Talent
• Need
• Utility
• Sustainability
Justice as fairness
• While justice in the broader sense is often thought
of as transcendental, justice as fairness is more
context-bound.
• Justice is action that pays due regard to the proper
interests, property, and safety of one's fellows
• Parties concerned with fairness typically strive to
work out something comfortable and adopt
procedures that resemble rules of a game.
• They work to ensure that people receive their "fair
share" of benefits and burdens and adhere to a
system of "fair play."
Principles of justice
• The safest principles will provide for the highest minimum standards
of justice in the projected society.
• How to work out that principle?
• To use a more mundane illustration, imagine that you had
the task of determining how to divide a cake fairly among a
group of individuals.
• What rule or method should govern the cutting?
• A simple one would be to let the person who does the
cutting receive the last piece.
• This would lead that person to cut all pieces as equally as
possible in order to receive the best remaining share.
• Of course if the pieces were cut unequally, someone would
get the largest share, but if you are the cutter, you can
hardly rely on that piece being left over at the end.
Two rules
• Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic
liberty compatible with similar liberty for others.
• Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are
both:
• a) reasonably expected to be to everyone's advantage and to the greatest
benefit of the least advantaged
• b) attached to positions and offices open to all under conditions of fair
equality of opportunity
• the first principle--often called the Liberty Principle --
provides for basic and universal respect for persons as a
minimum standard for all just institutions. But while all
persons may be morally equal, we also know that in the
"real world" there are significant differences between
individuals that under conditions of liberty will lead to
social and economic inequalities.

• The second principle--called the Difference Principle --

permits this condition and even suggests that it will be to
the advantage of all (similar to the utility principle), but
only if it meets these two conditions.
 Basic structure of a just society?
• How should the Political, Economic, Social institutions
be arranged?
• How should these major social institutions ensure fair
distribution of fundamental rights and duties?

So as to balance: as much as possible

• Liberty with equality
• Utility with rights
• Contribution and talent with basic needs