BUSN 210 – Rubric for Debate – Take a Stand:

Clearly stated opinion on the topic: 5 points

Support of your opinion (personal, professional, text supported): 5 points
200 minimum words (-5 points)

Debate Issue One

Does being ethical result in better performance? In my opinion I believe this to be a true assentation.
One must remember that performance is not strictly just related to profits, but also includes qualities
such as reputation, social responsibility, as well as ethics. Personally I believe that being ethical adds a
lot to the reputation of the business. Being ethical will contributed to customer satisfaction. This is
logical because being ethical goes hand-in-hand with not fleecing your customers. Treating customers
right increases your chances of repeat business and getting more profit. In addition ethics contributes to
investor loyalty. As the textbook points out: “investors today are increasingly concerned about the
ethics, social responsibility, and reputation of companies in which they invest. In terms of professional
support, being ethical will increase employee commitment. With higher employee commitment,
employees will be better equipped to answer customers’ questions on a product, more knowledgeable
on the products, and will generally just care more. Finally studies have shown that ethics also
contributes to profits. As the textbook points out: “ample evidence shows that being ethical pays off
with better performance. Companies that are perceived by their employees as having a high degree of
honesty and integrity have a much higher average total return to shareholders than do companies
perceived as having a low degree of honesty and integrity.

Is it acceptable to promote a socially irresponsible but legal product to stakeholders? In my opinion I

believe that it is not acceptable to promote such a product. Personally, being a Christian, I think that
facilitating their member’s secrecy for social questionable conduct is wrong not to mention the
promoting of cheating on spouses. Noteworthy is that from a stakeholder perspective, it is wrong to
provide socially irresponsible services. The term social responsibility is defined as an organization’s
obligation to maximize its positive impact on stakeholders and to minimize its negative impact. As the
textbook notes “social responsibility can be viewed as a contract with society”. The best support my
opinion comes from using the four levels of social responsibility: economic, legal, ethical, and
philanthropic. In terms of the legal level, Avid Life Media has not broken any laws or regulations. In
terms of the economic level, Avid Life Media is meeting its responsibility of being profitable so that they
can provide a return on investment to their owners and investors as well as contribute a good or service
to the economy. In terms of the ethical level, Avid Life Media is not following a line of principles and
standards to guide their behavior in the world of business. Avid Life Media seems to have forgotten that
they have not only a duty to the people it operates with directly, but also to anyone who may be
affected by the business’s activities. The company also has the responsibility to support the public
interest when it can or to try to minimize any negative impact on the community where it acts. Clearly
Avid Life Media falls short of meeting the ethical level. Finally Avid Life Media, does nothing for the
philanthropic level of social responsibility. The company does not conduct any activities that promote
human welfare or goodwill to a community. In fact one could argue that Avid Life Media is performing in
an anti-philanthropic role. The thing to remember is that ethics is just one dimension of social
responsibility.