LEARNING MODULE

ETHICAL ISSUES IN RELATION TO THE GOVERNMENT, NATURAL

ENVIRONMENT AND EMPLOYER-WORKER RELATIONS

A. ETHICAL ISSUES IN EMPLOYER-WORKER RELATIONS

Learning Objectives:
 Present some of the ethical issues in relation to employer-worker relations
 Explain what is involved in the issue of labor contractualization
 Describe the good intentions of a labor union
 Present the conditions for a justified strike
 Explain the meaning of fiduciary duties
 Describe conflict of interest and whistleblowing

 Ethics of Labor Contractualization

 The legal term for contractualization is fixed-term employment which is
defined as “a contract of employment for a definite period which
terminates by its own terms or the end of such period.”
 The progressive Filipino legislator Satur Ocampo also defined it as “hiring
workers for short-term, nonregular employment without the benefits
accorded by law to regular workers.
 Commonly known as ENDO in the Philippines.
 We can usually find contractual workers in retail sales job such as in the
malls and department stores, janitorial, and security services.
 Critics of contractualization in the Philippines usually point to former
Senator Ernesto Herrera’s penning in 1989 of Republic Act 6715 (RA
6715), An Act Amend the Labor Code of the Philippines) as the main
culprit for the widespread contractualization practices. On the other hand,
advocates of the said law respond that it is not RA 6715 but rather it is
former president Ferdinand Marcos’s Presidential Decree 422 (PD 422,
Labor Code of the Philippines) that is to blame. Supporters of Herrera
explained that PD 422 paved the way for the Department of Labor and
Employment to issue Department Order 10 (DO 10) which opened the
floodgates for rampant contractualization. In at least one instance,
Herrera himself admitted that contractualization is illegal.
 Why do employers want to contractualize?
 The main reason is to reduce business cost.
 - In itself, cost-reduction is a legitimate strategy for business
especially because of the many exigencies that businesses in
the Philippines are facing. What becomes ethically questionable
is when businesses desire unreasonably big profits at the
expense of the workers.
- Those who generally favor contractualization and see nothing
wrong about it point to the benefits of the said practice. First,
employers do not encounter the ordinary problems of workers
who become lax and less productive because of the protection
of job tenure. Second, many employers believe that when a
worker is contractual he or she is likely to be more serious and
productive for at least two reasons: fear of being terminated
and aspiration to be hired. Third, contractualization frees the
employers from the many headaches brought by the high cost
of employee benefits. Fourth, more workers are given
opportunity to work because after five months, contractual
workers would be replaced by a new batch of contractual
workers.
 Avoid workers to join unions.
- Unconscientious contractualization undermines many basic
rights of the worker. These rights include the right to security of
tenure, right to other benefits of workers (insurance, maternity
benefits), right to organize and right to join unions.
 Contractualization of workers degrade the value of work and the
worker. Work is simply reduced to a commodity that can easily be
bought and sold. The worker is also reduced to a commodity that can
easily be replaced on the whims and caprice of the employer.
 Contractualization violates fundamental justice. In many instances, the
business establishment accumulates huge profits with the help of the
contractual worker. But the contractual worker only receives minimum
wage and benefits mandated by the law.
 Labor contractualization is also an open invitation to more abuses of
the rights of the workers. Poor working conditions, unsafe workplace,
wage below what is prescribed by the law, and other violations of
mandated rules that protect contractual workers are not unusual. It is
because contractual workers hesitate and fear to question these unjust
and exploitative practices; to question them would endanger their job.
 It is not far-fetched to assume as well that one of the main reasons
why poor Filipinos decide to work abroad even if it is against their
wishes and despite the many dangers that accompany it, is the
absence of job security of labor contractualization.
  In one of his talks, Kabataan Party-list representative Raymond
Palatino said: “If there are employment opportunities in the country,
the youth would no longer have to stop schooling and work abroad.”
 The issue of Just Wage
 It has become ordinary for us to hear from the news about workers
demanding for increase in their wage. The dilemma arises mainly because
the employer and the worker usually come from opposing interest. The
main interest of the employer is to reduce the cost of his or her business,
and the worker’s salary is part of at cost. On the other hand, the main
interest of the worker is to increase his or her wage because it is usually
his or her main way of supporting his or her family.
 Manuel Velasquez identifies at least seven factors that must be considered
in determining a fair and just wage.
 Comparative wage – a business owner must consider the
prevailing wage in the industry and in the area. For example, a
bank owner must have sufficient data on the predominant wage
rates in the banking industry. In determining the salary of a newly
hired bank teller, the bank owner must have compared his or her
salary scheme to those of other banks. If the bank teller is given a
salary that is way below what other bank tellers receive, the salary
may be unjust.
 Capability of the business – a business owner must consider the
capability of his or her business. For example, one can easily
understand that a start-up business cannot at once give huge
salary. However, when the business is already profitable, the owner
has the moral duty to also increase the salary of his or her workers.
Profits must be shared because workers are partly responsible for
the increase of the owner’s profit. Sales assistants in many big
malls in the Philippines receive minimum wage. Meanwhile, the
owners of these malls are considered to be the wealthiest in the
country. Would it not be fair and just that the huge profits trickle
down to the ordinary workers by increasing their wage and
benefits?
 A business owner must consider the nature of the job. Velasquez
says: “Jobs that involve greater health risks, offer less security,
require more training or experience, impose heavier physical or
emotional burdens, or take greater effort should carry higher levels
of compensation.” In the Philippines, many critics question the
salary of a public school teacher. The nature of their job and the
condition of public schools make their job very challenging.
  A business owner must be cognizant of the laws on minimum
wage. Obeying the law on minimum wage is the least that the
business owner can do for the workers. A business owner must
also be sensitive enough to see whether a minimum wage is
sufficient for the needs of his or her workers.
 A business owner must take into consideration the relative
proportionality and similarity of the nature of the job of the workers
within the organization. For example, if the work of a guidance
counselor is roughly similar to the work of a regular teacher, then
their salary must not differ significantly.
 Both the employer and the employee must consider the fairness of
wage negotiations. Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between
the employer and the workers must be done in good faith. If the
wage is a result of coercive and deceitful negotiations, then it is
usually unjust and unfair.
 A business owner must account for the cost of living within the
specific locality where his or her business operates. This is called
the “living wage” as opposed to the minimum wage.
 William Shaw defines the living wage as “the amount of money a
full-time employee needs to afford the necessities of life, support a
family, and live above the poverty line.”
 A worker who lives in Cagayan, Cavite, Bulacan and Laguna may
receive a lower minimum wage (provincial rate) compared to one
who lives in the National Capital Region (NCR) even if the cost of
living in those provincial cities may already be roughly the same
with the cost of living in the NCR.
 The right to a just and fair wage must be recognized not just
because of its legal foundation but because it is rooted in an ethical
relationship between persons (employer and worker).

 The Right to Form Union and to Strike

 The labor union is usually the most effective mechanism that gives power
and leverage to the workers as employers are naturally more powerful. It
assures that workers are not exploited, abused, and subjected to inhuman
working conditions.
 A labor union is an association of employees that advances member
interests through collective bargaining with an employer. Areas of
negotiation typically include wages, benefits, work rules, and other
conditions of employment, such as hiring, discipline, and termination of
employees.
 The right to organize is part of the fundamental human rights enshrined in
the 1948 United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Article 20 of the UDHR states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of
assembly and associations.” Furthermore, our 1987 Philippine Constitution
reiterates this right. Article 3 or the Bill of Rights declares: “The right of
the people, including those employed in the public and private sectors, to
form unions, associations, or societies for purposes not contrary to law
shall not be abridged.”
 Democrito Mendoza, a former president of the Trade Union Congress of
the Philippines (TUCP) summarized the objectives of a union in these
words: “decent work, decent pay, decent lives.”
 The main objectives of a union are:
 Democratization of wealth – refers to the labor union’s
objective of ensuring that the workers receive just wage and safe
working conditions.
 Democratization of power – pertains to the labor union’s
objective of balancing the power between the employer and the
employee. If there is a union, there is a sort of equality and
interdependence between the employer and the worker.
 Humanizing the working class – pertains to the function of
labor union to educate the workers, the employers and the society
as a whole with regard to the value of human labor and the dignity
of the workers.
 A CBA, which can only happen when there is a union, is a major factor for
the avoidance of employment-at-will which pertains to the traditional
absolute right of the employer to fire an employee whenever the former
wants without any consideration for a just cause and due process for
firing. At present, employment-at-will is no longer an acceptable practice.
 When all attempts to reach agreement between the employer and workers
fail, the workers usually resort to a labor strike.
 A strike occurs when an organized body of workers withholds its labor to
force the employer to comply with its demands.
 The right to strike is also a basic right.
 William Shaw cited the work of Austin Fagothey and Milton Gonsalves to
explain the condition for a morally justified labor strike.
 First, there must be a just cause such as unjust wages and
inhuman working conditions.
 Second, there must be proper authorization from the members of
the union and from the proper government body (DOLE).
  Third, the labor strike must be the last resort, which means that all
attempts and efforts by both parties had already been exhausted,
yet, there remains a deadlock in the CBA.

 Fiduciary Duty of the Employee

 Employees have corresponding moral duties toward the employer that
they serve.
 The basic principle that underlies the duties of the employees toward the
employer is captured in what is now famously known as the theory of
agency.
 The online Legal Dictionary defines the theory of agency as: “a consensual
relationship created by contract or by law where one party, the principal,
grants authority for another party, the agent, to act on behalf of and
under the control of the principal to deal with a third party.”
 The employee is called the agent of the business owner, while the
business owner is called the principal. The agent (employee) acts in
behalf of the principal (owner).
 Fiduciary duty is the legal and technical term to refer to the obligations
of the employee (agent) to always act on behalf of his or her employer
(principal).
 The online Business Dictionary defines fiduciary duty as: “a legal
obligation of one party to act in the best interest of another. The obligated
party is typically a fiduciary, that is, someone entrusted with the care of
money or property.”
 The Latin root word of “fiduciary” is fidere which means “to trust”.
 A fiduciary relationship is a relationship of trust between two parties.
 A fiduciary duty is one’s obligation to carry out the tasks entrusted to him
or her.
 A fiduciary is a person “who has been entrusted with the care of another’s
property or other valuables and who has a responsibility to exercise
discretionary judgment in this capacity solely in the interest of this other
person’s interest.”
 The three (3) main principles of fiduciary according to John Boatright are:
 Candor – refers to the agent’s moral duty to be always truthful
and honest to his or her principal.
 Care – refers to the duty of the employee to take good care of al
the assets entrusted to him or her by the owner of the business.
  Loyalty – If somebody is maligning the company, loyal employee
finds ways in order to support, protect, and defend the company
from malicious and false accusations. If an employee happens to
find another work that offers bigger salary and benefits, a loyal
employee does not simply leave the company, endangering its
smooth operation. While it is the employee’s right to leave his or
her work for better opportunities, he or she must do so with
proper coordination with the supervisor, the manager, or the
business owner. But as far as fiduciary is concerned, the duty of
loyalty mainly pertains to the employee’s obligation “to act in the
interest of the beneficiary and to avoid taking any personal
advantage of the relationship.”
 Fiduciary duty aids in keeping the integrity of the employee intact.

 Conflict of Interest
 A conflict of interest is an actual or a potential violation of a fiduciary
duty of loyalty to the business owner.
 Conflict of interest exists when “the independence and impartiality of
decision-makers is compromised due to competing interests
influencing the outcome of a decision, for personal benefit in
particular.”
 For example, there is a conflict of interest when a human resources
manager interviews a job applicant who happens to be his or her
godson. The manager has a potential interest to extend care toward
somebody who is close to him or her. This personal interest conflicts
with the interest of the business owner who wants the best qualified
candidate for the job position.
 Nepotism (favoring one’s relatives and friends) is a common practice
of organizations in the Philippines.
 There is also a conflict of interest when the purchasing officer favors
buying the supplies from a company that he or she is also a part-
owner.
 According to John Boatright, the following are other examples of
conflict of interest:
 Self-dealing – activities that are those transactions wherein
the employee (usually, somebody who has power in the
company) uses his or her position to gain personal profits to the
detriment of the company where he or she has the duty of
loyalty and care. “If a director, for instance, would benefit from
the sale of land or real estate to the corporation, the deal must
be an economically prudent deal for the corporation. The
 director must not promote such a real estate transaction if only
the director benefits, while the corporation would gain more
from an alternative transaction.”
 Direct competition – this happens when the employee has
another business activity that directly competes with his or her
current employer. The employee may even use the knowledge,
skills and other assets that he or she gets from the company in
order to use it for his or her own business undertaking.
 Use of confidential information – some employees
especially in the top-level position of the firm possess
confidential and valuable information. Examples of confidential
information are trade secrets and patent rights. When an
employee uses this information for his or her personal interest,
then he or she is also disloyal to the company.
 Accepting bribes – bribes in the form of money or privileges
would always work for the advantage or interests of the
employee who receives it. The burden of bribery’s legal
implications lies not only on the shoulders of the bribed
employee; the company may also be found to be legally liable.
In short, the acceptance of a bribe by a fiduciary is not to the
interest of the firm.
 A dilemma may arise when one finds it difficult to distinguish between
a bribe and a gift. The employee must be knowledgeable enough
about the policies of the company with regard to gift-giving in order to
avoid the possible conflict of interest.
 The employee must also be attentive in order to determine whether
the gift-giver does not expect anything in return or whether the
intention of gift-giving is an honest token of gratitude or an attempt to
influence the receiver of the gift.
 A very expensive gift may not really be a gift at all but a bribe.
 When a luxury car ordinarily cost 6 million pesos and a government
official gets a very big discount by buying it for only 1.5 million pesos,
there is a reason to believe that this offer is not merely a gift. The gift-
giver may be expecting something in return.

 Whistleblowing
 Indeed, the employee has the moral duty to be loyal to the employer.
But what if the employee discovered company activities and operations
that are illegal, unethical, and harmful to the public or to the
environment? In some instances, the employee has the moral duty to
break its loyalty towards the company and think of his/her greater
 responsibility towards the public. This leads to the rise of the
phenomenon that we call whistleblowing.
 Whistleblowing is an attempt by a member or former member of an
organization to disclose wrongdoing in or by the organization.”
 Velasquez maintains that whistleblowing is morally justifiable under
certain condition:
 First, the whistleblower must have sufficient and accurate
evidences of the wrongdoing. One should not blow the whistle
based on hearsay and unfounded accusations.
 Second, the whistleblower must have already exhausted all
means to resolve the issue internally with his or her superiors.
He or she has found ways to correct the wrongdoing through
the various mechanisms that the company offers.
 Third, there should be a high probability that whistleblowing
would lead to the correction of the wrongdoing.
 Lastly, the wrongdoing must be something so serious that it
justifies the potential harmful effects to the whistleblower and
his or her family and to other involved parties.
 Whistleblowing is not an easy thing to do. The whistleblower may be
compared to a dwarf who fights the giant that is the corporation.
 Business owners must devise mechanisms in order to encourage their
workers to report at once to the management any illegal or unethical
practice that they witness.
 Businesses must collaborate with the government in formulating
meaningful laws that would encourage whistleblowers and protect
their rights; that is, if the business is true to its promise of being
morally upright and socially responsible.

 Workplace sexual harassment

 Sexual harassment includes unwanted sexual advances, request for
sexual favors, direct or indirect threats or bribes for sexual activity,
sexual innuendos and comments, sexually suggestive jokes,
unwelcome touching or brushing against a person, pervasive displays
of materials with sexually illicit or graphic content, and attempted or
completed sexual assault.
 Anybody, male or female, can be a victim of sexual harassment.
Simply, a man might harass another man, and a woman might harass
another woman.
 Victims are not always of direct supervision. Conduct may still amount
to sexual harassment even if the victim is a co-worker, a supervisor in
 another area, or even a person not employed in the victim’s
workplace.
 There are two (2) forms of sexual harassment:
 Quid pro quo (an employment decision) – like in a promotion,
an assignment, or even keeping one’s job and is based on
submission to the sexual harassment.
 Hostile work environment – the sexual harassment makes
the workplace environment frightening, intimidating, or
offensive. All verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature
constitutes hostile-environment. Sexual harassment in this form
has the intention of unfairly meddling with an employee’s work
performance.
B. ETHICAL ISSUES IN RELATION TO THE GOVERNMENT
Learning Objectives:
 Present some of the ethical issues in relation to business-government relations
 Explore the ethical issues involved in tax evasion and bribery
 Differentiate tax evasion and tax avoidance
 Explain the main reason why tax evasion is morally objectionable
 Explain the main reason why bribery is morally objectionable

 Tax Evasion
 The online Business Dictionary defines taxation as “a means by which
governments finance their expenditure by imposing charges on citizens
and corporate entities.”
 Benjamin Franklin said, “In this world nothing can be said to be
certain, except death and taxes.”
 With regard to the object being taxed, we can say that there are two
kinds of taxation:
 Individual taxation – refers to taxation directed to the
individual citizen who gain income and who consume goods and
services.
 Business taxation – refers to taxation directed to the income
accumulated by the different forms of business establishments
such as sole proprietorship, partnership and corporations.
 A business has to pay taxes in many forms:
 Corporate taxes – coming from the corporate income
 Value-added taxes – coming from the direct sales of products
 Fees – implemented in localities such as business permits and
licenses.
 Why do we have to pay taxes? Why should business institutions pay
taxes? The main reason behind the imposition of taxes is to provide
and sustain the activities of the government. Another reason is for the
purpose of social welfare and wealth redistribution.
 There are two (2) common ways of escaping the net of taxation:
 Tax evasion – failure to make full disclosure to the
government
 Tax avoidance – use of lawful tax planning techniques
 Tax evasion is both illegal and unethical. Tax avoidance is legal but
raises some ethical questions.
 Investopedia defines tax evasion as “an illegal practice where a
person, organization, or corporation intentionally avoids paying
his/her/its true tax liability.
 Common practices of tax evasion include: underreporting of income,
overstatement of expenses, use of fictitious receipts, the keeping of
double sets of books, false or fictitious entries in books, fictitious
transactions in the name of dummies, nonrecording of sales, and
others.
 One author defines tax avoidance as involving “legal rearrangements
of one’s economic activities in order to lower the tax liability. This is
done by moving capital or labor to areas, geographical or otherwise,
where tax rates are lower and/or by manipulating the tax parameters
through the legal means to spread or defer the tax liability over time
thereby effectively reducing the tax rate.
 Tax evasion is usually accomplished with the help of unscrupulous
government official while tax avoidance is usually planned and
implemented with the help of experts such as accountants, lawyers
and financial managers.
 Filipino economist Rosario Manasan said that the impact of tax
avoidance on the economy is very similar with tax evasion practices:
“loss of government revenue, increase in taxpayer’s after-tax income,
and perverse effects on the equity and efficiency goals of the tax
system.
 It is reported that tax evasion costs the Philippine government an
amount of 360 billion pesos every year.
 Why is tax evasion ethically wrong?
 First, when you evade taxes you also undermine the most
important purposes of taxation that were discussed above. You
do not contribute to the maintenance of a government that
ensures and promotes peace, security and the well-being of the
whole society.
  Second, when you evade taxes you disobey a legitimate
government entrusted to create laws that are beneficial to the
society. Just like ordinary citizens, businesspersons have the
moral duty to follow the laws, especially those that directly
pertain to the workings of their businesses.
 What if we go to an extreme situation wherein a government is proven
to be oppressive, inhuman, and unjust? For example, should you still
honestly pay your taxes to a government that kills people who openly
oppose it? Would you pay taxes to a leader like Adolf Hitler? On these
extreme instances, it is difficult to blame some people who decide not
to pay taxes. For them, it is not just proper not to pay taxes, it may
even be one’s duty not to cooperate with an oppressive government
by not paying your taxes.

 Bribery
 Bribery is generally considered as a form of corruption.
 According to the Gallup Survey done in 2012, “about two in three
adults worldwide believe corruption is widespread in the businesses in
their countries.
 In 2013, Transparency International released its global survey called
Corruption Perception Index (CPI). It shows that Denmark and New
Zealand are perceived to be the least corrupt among all the countries
in the world. The Philippines was 94th in the rank.
 According to Scott Turrow: “Bribery occurs when property or personal
advantage is offered, without the authority of law, to a public official
with the intent that the public official act favorably to the offeror at
any time or fashion in execution of the public official’s duties.”
 Why is Bribery ethically wrong?
 According to Scott Turrow: First, bribery violates the
fundamental notion of equality. The briber becomes unfair in
relation to other businesspersons who want to do business with
the government, the playing field is no longer level. The briber
has an advantage over and against other businesspersons. This
is a violation of fundamental justice and fairness resulting to
clear inequality among businesspeople, thus, bribery is
considered as a crime against justice.
 Second, it undermines the vitality of the institutions affected.
Bribery and corruption may be contributory to why people lose
their trust in public institutions such as the government and
business.
  Bribery seriously hurts the economy of a country. Lots of resources
that may be used for meaningful programs are lost in corrupt
practices.
 What business ethicists found out is that corruption, bribery, and
extortion are certainly unethical practices. These acts violate
fundamental ethical principles and values that the society holds to be
important. Furthermore, these acts have many harmful effects to
economic, political, social, and business institutions.

C. ETHICAL ISSUES IN RELATION TO THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Learning Objectives:
 Differentiate the different theories of environment ethics
 Analyze each theory by presenting its strengths and weaknesses
 Present the connection of these environmental theories to the conduct of
business

 Environmentalism
 Environmentalism generally refers to “a concern with safeguarding the
natural world and its various elements and the differing ways in which
such a concern is expressed by people.”

 Anthropocentric Approach to Environmental Ethics

 Anthropocentrism refers to “the view that human beings are the
central fact on earth.” The implication of this view is that other
existents (lower forms of animals, plants, minerals, etc.) are taken to
be of inferior nature in comparison to human beings.
 The anthropocentric approach to environmental ethics is anchored on
the idea that only human beings have moral value and deserve to be
the object of moral deliberation.
 Concrete illustration: the rampant cutting of trees in the mountains of
many provinces in the Philippines is morally objectionable because it
will eventually cause floods that could be fatal to the lowlanders.
Trees, forests, and animals that dwell in the area are not really
 valuable in themselves, we do not have direct responsibilities toward
them. However, we have direct responsibilities to humans who will
eventually be harmed by the effects of forest depletion.

 Anthropocentric Extensionism (Joseph DesJardins)

 The anthropocentric view is also extended to those human beings who
are not yet born.
 It is the notion that the moral duty to care for the environment is not
only on account of the presently existing human beings but also on
account of those who do not yet exist, the unborn. This is also called
the “duties to posterity” or the moral obligation to “the type of world
that future people will inherit from us.”
 Manuel Velasquez states the argument of anthropocentric
extensionism in this way: “It might appear that we have an obligation
to conserve resources for future generations because they have an
equal right to the world’s resources, then by depleting these resources
we are taking what is actually theirs and violating their equal right to
these resources.”
 One of the most important criticisms that anthropocentric extensionism
confronts is the question of whether people who do not exist yet can
really have rights. In many countries where abortion is legal, pro-
abortion groups believe that the fetus does not yet have rights equal
to those granted to the citizens. In line with such a belief, what right,
then, if any, would the unborn have? Velasquez expressed the criticism
this way: “Because there is a possibility that future generations may
never exist, they cannot ‘possess’ rights.”

 Animal Rights and Animal Welfare

 Jeremy Bentham is considered as one of the earliest proponents of
animal rights. Bentham was concerned with the calculation of overall
pleasure and pain. On account of their sentience (the ability to feel
pain and pleasure), animals also suffer. Thus, just like human beings
they deserve moral considerations. Bentham main point is: “The
question is not, ‘Can they reason?’ nor, ‘Can they talk?’ but ‘Can they
suffer?’”
 Another philosopher Peter Singer also follow the lead of Bentham, for
him, “when humans eat animals, experiment on them, and perform
acts of animal cruelty in agribusiness, they do not give equal
consideration to the interest that animals are said to have, thereby
making these behaviors morally objectionable and questionable. Singer
defends animal welfare based mainly on utilitarian considerations.
 Thus, “if eating and experimenting upon animals causes them more
harm than the good it does us, we should not do those things.”
 At present, there are still many reports of the cruel treatment of
animals for food and entertainment across the globe.

 Biocentric and Ecocentric Approaches to Environmental Ethics

 Biocentrism means the centrality of life is an ethical perspective
holding that all life deserves equal moral consideration or has equal
moral standing. This approach maintains that the human being is not
the only existent that has intrinsic value. Everything that has life has
values independent from the concerns of human beings. In this view,
human beings are held to be a mere animal species coexisting with
others and without any outstanding dignity over other animals.
 Judi Bari said: “Nature does not exist to serve humans. Rather,
humans are a part of nature, one species among many. All species
have the right to exist for their own sake, regardless of their
usefulness to humans.
 Ecocentrism is derived from the Greek word oikos (house) and
kentron (center). Literally, it means “house-centered.”
 For the ecocentrists, the natural environment is a house for everybody
and evertything: living things and nonliving things alike.
 Econcentrism sees the natural environment as one giant ecosystem
wherein all the parts are interconnected with each other.
 The ecocentric argument is grounded in the belief that compared to
the undoubted importance of the human part, the whole Ecosphere is
even more significant and consequential: more inclusive, more
complex, more integrated, more creative, more beautiful, more
mysterious, and older than time.

 Social Ecology and Ecofeminism

 Social ecology and ecological feminism (ecofemism) bring the issues of
justice, oppression, and domination into the realm of environmental
ethics. For these two groups, environmental concerns cannot be
understood independently of economic and political issues. There are
relevant links between power relationships in the society and
environmental problems. Hence, environmental problems cannot truly
be solved without social and economic justice.
 Environmental colonialism (ecocolonialism or ecological
imperialism) continues in various guises. Companies make minor
alterations to crop varieties developed by third-world farmers over
 countries, and unlike the native farmers, companies have the
necessary funds to patent these strains as their intellectual property.
 The term social ecology is usually attributed to Murray Bookchin.
For social ecology, “environmental problems are rooted in an economic
system that is deeply exploitative not only of nature but also of
humans; overcoming the environmental crisis involves a radical
overhaul of economic and social organization, and in particular the
overthrowing of capitalism.”
 Ecofemism seeks to “understand the connections between woman
and nature and between the domination of women by men and that of
nature by man.”
 Karen Warren defined ecofemism as “the position that there are
important connections between how one treats women, people of
color, and the underclass on one hand and how one treats the
nonhuman natural environment on the other hand.
 The natural environment is usually perceived as being feminine in
gender and quality; hence the term “Mother Nature.” Ecofeminists,
criticize this view seeing the direct relationship between the oppression
of women and the degradation of the environment.
 Ecopedagogy – Paulo Freire said “Ecology has gained tremendous
importance at the end of this century.
 Today, people who are identified with ecopedagogy include Moacir
Gadotti and Richard Kahn. Gadotti explains that ecopedagogy involves
not only education on environmental problems but also “making
changes on economic, social and cultural structures.
 The neolibralist ideology which drives globalization processes must
be seen as accountable to the hyperconsumeristic and materialistic
culture of many societies especially in the developing world.
Hyperconsumerism and materialism are key contributions to many
environmental crises.

 Business Activity and Environmental Ethics

 Why are businesses duty-bound not to harm the environment?
 From an anthropocentric point of view, harming the natural
environment would eventually lead to harming the people who
inhabit the environment. And just like any other citizens,
business owners have the duty not to harm people. People have
the right not to be harmed, injured nor have their health be put
into risk.
 From the point of view of biocentrism and ecocentrism,
businesses have the duty not to harm the natural environment
 because everything in it has intrinsic value and interests
independent from human beings and that all things are
interrelated so that harming one part would eventually create
imbalance to the whole ecosystem. Ecocentrism stresses that
businesses must become more conscious of their use of the
natural environment because we are all living in one giant
house and that our actions are interconnected.
 From the point of view of social ecology, business activity would
always pose as a danger to the environment and to people if it
remains captive to the individualist and morally insensitive
capitalist economic system where the main business of business
is business and where economic survival is the name of the
game.
 The concept and practice of environmental sustainability is one of the
concrete positive responses of the business institutions in addressing
the issues raised by environmental ethicists. Some concrete examples
of business activities that support environmental sustainability are:
 Building more fuel-efficient cars
 Power plants adopting technologies that drastically reduce
greenhouse gas emissions
 Use of paper bags instead of plastic
 Tree-planting in areas used for business purposes