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Book Professional Ethics New
Book Professional Ethics New
OUMM3203
Professional Ethics
References 140
Answers 142
INTRODUCTION
OUMM3203 Professional Ethics is one of the courses offered by the Faculty of
Business and Management at Open University Malaysia (OUM). This course is
worth 3 credit hours and should be covered over 8 to 15 weeks.
COURSE AUDIENCE
This is a compulsory OUM course for all students of OUM.
STUDY SCHEDULE
It is a standard OUM practice that learners accumulate 40 study hours for every
credit hour. As such, for a three-credit hour course, you are expected to spend
120 study hours. Table 1 gives an estimation of how the 120 study hours could be
accumulated.
Study
Study Activities
Hours
Briefly go through the course content and participate in initial discussion 3
Study the module 60
Attend 3 to 5 tutorial sessions 10
Online participation 12
Revision 15
Assignment(s), Test(s) and Examination(s) 20
TOTAL STUDY HOURS 120
COURSE OUTCOMES
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
1. Discuss a variety of ethical issues related to business and professional
practices;
2. Explain different ethical and theoretical perspectives and apply the
theories;
3. Elaborate the concept and perspectives of stakeholders;
4. Describe the future of corporate governance;
5. Explain law as a combined moral judgment;
6. Discuss several causes of unethical behaviour in organisations and
approaches to overcome them; and
7. Discuss good management, employment rights and how the economic
system deals with opportunities related to employment.
COURSE SYNOPSIS
This course is divided into 10 topics. The synopsis for each topic is presented
below:
Topic 3 deals with the question of finding a balance between economic performance
and the social performance of an organisation when faced with an ethical dilemma.
This topic also discusses about ethics in Islam.
Topic 4 examines issues related to the law as a guide to managerial decisions and
actions, and the processes involved in formation of the law.
Topic 6 exposes the learner to the concept and effects of corporate social
responsibility and managing it effectively.
Topic 7 discusses corporate governance, its definition, reasons for studying it and
the future of corporate governance.
Topic 8 outlines the general economic systems in dealing with the issues related
to employment.
Topic 9 details the employeeÊs right to privacy and instances leading to violations
of privacy.
Learning Outcomes: This section refers to what you should achieve after you
have completely covered a topic. As you go through each topic, you should
frequently refer to these learning outcomes. By doing this, you can continuously
gauge your understanding of the topic.
sections. It usually comes in the form of a question. When you come across this
component, try to reflect on what you have already learnt thus far. By attempting
to answer the question, you should be able to gauge how well you have
understood the sub-section(s). Most of the time, the answers to the questions can
be found directly from the module itself.
Summary: You will find this component at the end of each topic. This component
helps you to recap the whole topic. By going through the summary, you should
be able to gauge your knowledge retention level. Should you find points in the
summary that you do not fully understand, it would be a good idea for you to
revisit the details in the module.
Key Terms: This component can be found at the end of each topic. You should go
through this component to remind yourself of important terms or jargon used
throughout the module. Should you find terms here that you are not able to
explain, you should look for the terms in the module.
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
None.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
Please refer to myINSPIRE.
REFERENCES
Carroll, A. B., & Buchholtz, A. K. (2006). Business and Society: Ethics and
Stakeholder Management. (6th ed.). Ohio: South-Western.
Donaldson, T., & Preston, L. (1995). The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation:
Concepts, Evidence, Implications. Academy of Management Review 20(1),
65-91.
Institute for Global Ethics. (2006). Cooked Books, Fried Reputation: Study, Ethics
Newsline (Vol. 2006): Ethics Newsline.
Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2011). Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics
and Public Policy (13th ed.). Singapore: McGraw-Hill.
Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2011). Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics
and Public Policy. (13th ed.). Singapore: McGraw-Hill.
Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. (1997). Toward a Theory of Stakeholder
Identification and Salience: Defining the Principle of Who and What Really
Counts. The Academy of Management Review, 22(4), 853-886.
Thorne, D. M., Ferrell, O. C., & Ferrell, L. (2008). Business and Society. (3rd ed.).
Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Wheeler, D., & Sillanpaa, M., The Stakeholder Corporation: A Blueprint for
Maximising Stakeholder Value, London: Pitman Publishing. (1997). The
Stakeholder Corporation: A Blueprint for Maximising Stakeholder Value.
London: Pitman Publishing.
INTRODUCTION
What comes to your mind when someone mentions the word „ethics‰? Perhaps
your answer is correct. Let us see what we are going to learn in this topic.
In this topic, you will be exposed to the fundamental concepts and theories of
morals; the history and development of ethical theories; and also the systematic
study of right and wrong, good and evil. These concepts and theories will then
be applied to contemporary managerial dilemmas.
Ethical problems are also pervasive because managers make decisions and take
actions that affect other people. Managerial decisions and actions need to be
addressed and require some degree of moral analysis when these:
Affect other people negatively; or
Harms or hurt other people in ways beyond their individual control.
In the following sections, you will be given the definition of ethics, business
ethics and professional ethics. You will also find out why a business should be
ethical as well as about the formation of individual ethics.
(c) Ethics is relative; it is not absolute. This means ethical behaviour usually
conforms to generally accepted social norms.
People internalise the rules and values of their professional culture just as they
do those of their society. They reflexively adhere to professional rules and values
when deciding how to behave.
ACTIVITY 1.1
For example, a person who steals something and does not get caught might
feel no remorse and continue to steal. However, a person who is caught
stealing might feel guilty enough to change his ethical standards and make
it a point not to steal in the future.
ACTIVITY 1.2
greatly between Malaysia and the United States, or between the contemporary
period and the late 19th century.
SELF-CHECK 1.1
Explain briefly the following terms:
(a) Normative philosophy; and
(b) Ethical relativism.
Figure 1.2: Five major theories with direct relevance to managerial decisions
Let us look at the explanations provided for these theories in the following
sections.
If people have the right to „life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,‰ then
they also have the obligation to ensure the same right to others. Religious
leaders tend to emphasise the revealed source of the truth more than
the reasoned nature. However, they also believe that the state of the Law is
unchanging, and that the rights and duties are obvious: if we are loved,
then we must love others. This reciprocal exchange is summarised in
Christian theology by the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would
have others do unto you.
What is wrong with eternal law or natural law (interpreted by religious leaders
or normative philosophers) being the basis for an ethical system in management?
Nothing, except for the number of interpretations. No two natural law theorists
and very few religious writers have been able to agree on the exact provisions of
the revealed or reasoned truth. Each religion provides moral standards for their
members and many of the members observe those standards in daily life.
However, the standards differ between groups, and there is no infallible way to
determine which one is right or best or proper for society. Even the Golden Rule,
that simple, elegant, sensible guide to life, cannot be applied universally at all
times.
There is more to life than the acquisition of material benefits alone. Friendships,
knowledge, health and other satisfactions we find in life should be taken into
account as well. The aggregate satisfactions or benefits for everyone within
society have to be considered. However, there are negative costs and adverse
outcomes associated with each action, and these have to be considered to
establish a balance. The negative costs and adverse outcomes (refer to Figure 1.3)
include pain, sickness, death, ignorance, isolation and unhappiness. The
aggregate harm or costs have to be considered, and then a balance of the net
consequences can be computed.
This teleological ethical system which focuses on net consequences rather than
individual intentions is termed utilitarianism. It is commonly associated with
Jeremy Bentham (1748 1832), a British thinker. The name of the philosophy is
derived from the word utility which, in the 18th century, referred to the degree of
usefulness of a household object or domestic animal. In microeconomic theory, it
measures our degree of preference for a given good or service relative to price. In
utilitarian theory, the term refers to our perception of the net benefits and costs
associated with a given act.
are net benefits to society, and each individual within the society has to be
considered and treated equally in the distribution as shown below.
„The greatest good for the greatest number‰ takes precedence in Utilitarian
theory over „The greatest good for a smaller, more elite number.‰
What is wrong with utilitarianism? Not much, except for the possibility of
exploitation. In the vast majority of cases, where no one is going to be hurt badly,
and particularly where it is possible to use financial equivalents for both the costs
and the benefits, it is a familiar and useful form of analysis. However, there is
always the possibility of justifying benefits for the great majority of the
population by imposing sacrifices or penalties on a small minority.
The deontological theory states that the moral worth of an action cannot be
dependent upon the outcome because these outcomes are so indefinite
and uncertain at the time of the decision to act is made. The moral worth of
an action has to instead depend upon the intentions of the person
making the decision or performing the act.
If you wish the best for others, then your moral actions are praiseworthy, even if
you happen to be an unimpressive and clumsy individual who often seems to be
doing the wrong thing. Therefore, these good intentions will usually result in
beneficial outcomes.
The first of these, the theory of distributive justice, was proposed by John
Rawls and is explicitly based upon the primacy of a single value:
justice.
Justice is felt to be the first virtue of social institutions, just as truth is the first
virtue of systems of thought.
John Rawls proposes (1971) that society and the institutions within it are marked
by these two elements:
(a) Collaboration
Collaboration comes about since individuals recognise that joint actions
generate much greater benefits than solitary efforts.
(b) Conflict
Conflict is inevitable because people are concerned with the just
distribution of gained benefits. Each person prefers a greater to a lesser
share, as well as a system of distribution that ensures the greater share to
himself. These distributive systems can have very different bases to each
person equally, or to each according to his need, effort, contribution or
competence.
Most modern economic systems make use of all five principles: equal, need,
effort, contribution and competence. For instance, public education is,
theoretically speaking, distributed equally, welfare payments on the basis of
need, sales commissions on effort, public honours on contribution, and
managerial salaries on competence.
People would not normally select absolute equality in the distribution of benefits.
This is because they recognise that some of them would put forth greater effort,
have higher skills and so on. They would also not agree to absolute inequality
based upon effort, skill or competence because they would not know who among
them have those qualities and consequently who among them should receive
more or less benefits. Instead, they would develop a concept of conditional
inequality, where differences in benefits have to be justified. They would propose
a rule to ensure that these differences in benefits be justified only if they are
shown to result in compensating benefits for everyone, particularly the most
disadvantaged members of their society.
What are the problems with distributive justice? It is entirely dependent upon the
acceptance of the proposition that social cooperation provides the basis for all
economic and social benefits. Individual effort is downplayed, if not ignored.
Personal liberty can be expanded from a market system for the exchange of
holdings to an ethical system for the evaluation of behaviour. Individuals must
be allowed to make informed choices among alternative courses of action leading
towards their own welfare. These choices would be considered just, right or
proper as long as the same opportunities for informed choices are extended to
others. Justice depends upon equal opportunities for choice and exchange, not
upon equal allocations of wealth and income.
SELF-CHECK 1.2
Using a mind map, summarise these five ethical theories:
(a) Eternal law t h e o r y (Natural law);
(b) Classical teleological ethical theory: Utilitarianism;
(c) Classical deontological ethical theory: Universalism;
(d) Distributive justice theory; and
(e) Personal liberty theory.
EXERCISE 1.1
1. Compare and contrast some of the features of utilitarianism and
universalism with respect to ethical theory.
2. Discuss some of the weaknesses of each ethical theory that you
have studied.
We have looked at all the major systems, now, let us shift our attention to the
following two significant ethical perspectives:
Golden rule; and
Kantian rights.
courses of action and choosing the one that treats others the way you would
want to be treated. In terms of business organisation, „others‰ refers to the
organisationÊs stakeholders. Stakeholders include the organisationÊs investors,
partners, employees, unions, customers, suppliers and governments.
Rights Explanation
Free consent People have the right to be treated only as they knowingly and
willingly want to be treated.
Privacy People have the right to do what they want in their private lives, and
they have the right to reveal the extent of their private activities.
Freedom of People have the right to refuse to do what violates their moral beliefs
conscience as these beliefs reflect commonly accepted norms.
Freedom of People have the right to conscientiously criticise an organisationÊs
criticising ethics, as long as their criticisms do not violate the rights of
individuals in the organisation.
Fairness If people believe their rights are being violated, they have the right to
a fair and impartial hearing.
Under this view of ethics, the morally correct action is the one that minimises
violations of these rights. To resolve an ethical dilemma from this viewpoint, one
would have to consider which stakeholders are affected by the action and to
what extent their rights may be violated.
ACTIVITY 1.3
EXERCISE 1.2
1. What are ethics? How are individual ethics formed?
2. Elaborate on some of the personal rights as indicated by
Immanuel Kant.
3. Do you agree with the Golden Rule? How does it contrast
with Islamic teachings?
4. In your opinion, what is the most important factor that
influences the formation of individual ethics?
ACTIVITY 1.4
Read this case study:
Here are some key points of the good and bad consequences to be weighed:
Your companyÊs profits will be enhanced, allowing it to pay higher salaries
to employees and higher dividends to shareholders.
Your own financial and career interests will be enhanced.
The acquiring company may find itself with a company that is not
financially viable and may incur severe losses as a result.
Your companyÊs reputation and long-term prospects would be affected
if your deception became known.
Some moralists hold that certain actions are wrong in themselves. Others
believe that no action can be judged immoral in itself since circumstances and
social conditions play the decisive role in determining whether or not a given
action is right or wrong.
Distributive justice is based upon the primacy of a single value (justice) rather
than a single principle. Belief in the primacy of justice will lead us to make
decisions and take actions that are expected to result in compensating
benefits for all, especially the least advantaged members of our society.
Personal liberty is also based upon the primacy of a single value (liberty)
rather than a single principle. Belief in the primacy of liberty will lead us to
make decisions and take actions that will result in greater happiness and
increased benefits for all.
Eternal law refers to moral standards that are revealed in scripture or nature
to religious leaders or human philosophers. The belief is that law is
unchanging and valid for all times.
INTRODUCTION
In this topic, we will discuss the concept of stakeholders. We will also touch on
the concept of stakeholder management and the management of stakeholder
relationships.
On the other hand, the community can also affect the organisationÊs
operations when the community does not welcome an organisation and
objects to its plans to set up operations in the communityÊs neighbourhood.
Let us now look at Table 2.1 which shows examples of an organisationÊs market
and non-market stakeholders.
SELF-CHECK 2.1
„The normative argument says that taking care of its stakeholders is simply
the right thing for organisations to do. As organisations have vast power
and resources, they have a duty towards all those affected by the
organisationÊs actions‰.
(Lawrence & Weber, 2011)
ACTIVITY 2.1
EXERCISE 2.1
1. What is the difference between a market stakeholder and a non-
market stakeholder?
2. Read the following situation.
You are a fruit juice manufacturer. You just learned that a few
customers have become sick from drinking your product. You
suspect that the juice was not properly pasteurised. You need to
ensure this incident causes minimal damage to your reputation.
EXERCISE 2.2
Do you think it is important for an organisation to engage in
stakeholder management? Provide reasons for your answer.
For example, a company like Amazon or Dell which sells its products directly to
its customers would not have retailers or distributors. However, distributors
would be an important stakeholder for a company like Nestle which sells its
products mainly through supermarkets and sundry shops.
„Stakeholders can have utilitarian power when they have the power to
control the organisation resources such as financial or material resources‰.
(Thorne et al., 2008)
„Stakeholders can possess symbolic power when they have access to or are
able to use symbols or prestige‰.
(Thorne et al., 2008)
ACTIVITY 2.2
(b) Criticality
This refers to the importance of a claim or relationship to a stakeholder.
SELF-CHECK 2.2
Responsibilities Explanation
Economic Be profitable; maximise sales and minimise costs. Provide investors
with adequate and attractive returns for their investments.
Legal Obey all laws and regulations such as environmental, employment and
consumer laws.
Ethical Do what is right, fair and just. Assert ethical leadership in the
organisation. Operate the minimum legal requirement.
Philanthropic Be a good corporate citizen; engage in volunteerism. Give support to the
community by providing education programmes, healthcare services,
cultural and arts programmes.
ACTIVITY 2.3
Imagine that you have your own firm. Explain your organisationÊs
responsibilities towards its stakeholders. Provide some examples to
support your explanation.
(a) Integrate stakeholder management into the firmÊs philosophy, values and
vision
Identify your organisationÊs missions, values and norms. Then, specify
which stakeholder groups and issues are relevant to your organisation.
EXERCISE 2.3
State whether the following statements are True or False:
1. Stakeholders are divided into two categories; primary stakeholders
and secondary stakeholders. (____)
2. An organisation only has the following responsibilities towards its
stakeholders:
(a) Economic responsibility
(b) Legal responsibility
(c) Ethical responsibility (____)
The strategic steps that can lead organisations to manage their stakeholder
relationships successfully are:
INTRODUCTION
In this topic, we shall examine various ways through which organisations
attempt to strike a balance between economic and social performance when faced
with an ethical dilemma.
balance and consider various theoretical structures that may assist management
in finding solutions.
Sections 3.2.1 - 3.2.5 are taken from the book, The Ethics of Management, by
LaRue Tone Hosmer (1991).
For example:
(a) Bribes change governmental processes.
(b) Pollution affects environmental health.
(c) Unsafe products destroy lives.
So, let us look at the remaining four characteristics of ethical problems which
play a significant role in the management of an organisation.
For example, some would assume that these would be the questions dealt in an
organisation:
(a) Should a manager pay bribes or not?
(b) Should a factory pollute the air or not?
(c) Should a company manufacture unsafe products or not?
However, the above questions do not reveal the real situation faced in a business
organisation. Although a dichotomous framework presents the ethical issues in
sharp contrast, it does not accurately reflect the managerial dilemma. Therefore,
multiple alternatives have to be considered in making ethical choices.
Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)
34 TOPIC 3 NATURE OF ETHICS IN MODERN BUSINESS
Like the dichotomous framework, the antithetical model for outcome evaluation
presents ethical issues in sharp focus but it does not accurately portray the
managerial dilemma. Social benefits and costs as well as financial revenues and
expenses are associated with almost all the alternatives in ethical choices.
ACTIVITY 3.1
How do you deal with this situation using the ethical choice of
multiple alternatives?
A deterministic model, that is, one without probabilities, simplifies the process of
analysis but it does not accurately describe the managerial dilemma. It is not
clear what consequences would follow from the alternatives considered to avoid
paying indirect bribes to customs officials. Neither is it clear what consequences
will follow from most ethical choices.
You have just read the characteristics of ethical problems in management. Before
we proceed to the next section, attempt the exercises below to enhance your
understanding.
EXERCISE 3.1
Moral standards differ between individuals because the ethical systems of belief,
the values or priorities, the convictions that people believe are truly important,
and upon which their moral standards are based also differ. These beliefs depend
upon each personÊs family background, cultural heritage, educational experience
and other factors.
Difference in ethical beliefs are not important at this stage of discussion. What is
more important at this stage is to recognise that they can affect people adversely.
They may even hurt or harm others in ways beyond the control of those holding
the ethical beliefs. The condition of hurt or harm to others in ways beyond their
control is the essential element in the ethical dilemma of management. That
condition is present in all the examples outlined below.
Most frequent flyers travel on business, yet the benefits are given to the
traveller who decides which airline to use, not to the company that
generates the volume of traffic and pays for the tickets. The cost of these
benefits is borne by the non-business traveller, who generally flies much
less often.
You may regard some of the examples cited in the previous section as simple
instances of practical management. Meanwhile, you may regard some other
examples as outrageous abuse of power and position. Ethical decisions are much
more difficult to make when a person is directly involved in the situation.
Ethical decisions are not simple choices between right and wrong. They are
complex judgements on the balance between the economic and social
performances of an organisation. There has to be a balance between economic
and social performances. How do we reach this balance? We can create the
balance through these three relevant methods of analysis which resolve ethical
dilemmas in management (Figure 3.2).
By using the example of work force reductions and plant closures, let us see how
the three methods are applied to create a balance between economic and social
performances as shown in Table 3.1.
Methods Explanation
Economic We can look at many ethical problems from the viewpoint of the
Analysis microeconomic approach; relying on impersonal market forces to make
the decision between economic and social performances. It is utterly
unpleasant for workers to lose their jobs when work force reductions and
plant closures happen. Yet, there is a labour market, and these workers
will be employed again, provided they are willing to adjust their wage
demands to market conditions.
The underlying belief is that a democratic society can establish its own
rules. If people and organisations follow these rules, members of that
society will be treated as justly as possible.
Ethical Lastly, it is possible for us to look at ethical problems using the structure
Analysis of normative philosophy; relying on basic principles to decide between
right and wrong. We can compute the greatest good for the greatest
number and decide on that basis when workforce reductions and plant
closures happen.
The underlying belief is that if all the rational men and women in a
society acted on the same principles of beneficiency or consistency,
members of that society would be treated as fairly as possible.
The above three methods of analysis have been proposed to resolve ethical
dilemmas in management. Now, try applying what you have learnt in this
section by answering the following questions.
EXERCISE 3.2
1. What are the available mechanisms for analysing ethical
problems in management? Briefly explain each of method of
analysing.
2. List some ethical problems in management.
People sometimes question whether there is such a thing as Islamic ethics. They
are obviously puzzled by the legalism and ritualism of the religious and
institutional life of Muslims. They also wonder why the contribution of the
Muslim authors to the issue is insufficient compared to their contributions in
literary, linguistic, philosophical, historical, theological and scientific subjects.
Actually, there is a modest attempt to exhibit the ethical material in Islamic
thought as objectively as possible.
Due to these tenets, Islam is deemed as universal and timeless. As such, it applies
to all people in all places. Islam is not a new religion but the continuation of
divine revelations from Prophet Abraham to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w, who
was the last prophet assigned to the human being. The QurÊan explicitly states
that Islam is the continuation and conclusion of the CreatorÊs religion given to
mankind.
3.5.2 Syariah
Before we move on to discuss the ethical aspects of Islam, let us look at what
syariah means.
Syariah is the law of Islam based on the QurÊan. Probably the most encompassing
and most universal ethical prescription of the syariah is contained in one of the
verses of the QurÊan which requires a Muslim, at all times and in all
circumstances, to act in what can be translated from Arabic as a decent and
benevolent way, and to refrain from wrongdoing.
„Do not harm others and deal with others as one would wish to have others
deal with oneself‰.
The basic message of the Creator is found in all His religious revelations to
humankind as shown below:
„None of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he
desires for himself.‰
„Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.‰
„What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man. That is the entire
law; all the rest is commentary.‰
Beyond this fundamental teaching which is shared with other great ethical
traditions, the Syariah regulates almost every aspect of relationships, ranging
from that which is between the Creator and humankind, to intimate matters of
interpersonal relations. As the Syariah is a comprehensive legal system, rules of
interpretation achieve a prominent position, and techniques of legal
interpretation based on the different schools of jurisprudence are outstanding. A
variety of contrasting positions and schools of thought has developed among
Muslims over the centuries.
Renowned for their tradition of trade and commerce, Arabs who became
Muslims continued that tradition. It was due to their superiority in navigation,
shipbuilding, astronomy and scientific measuring devices that Arab and Muslim
trade and commerce developed and spread across the world.
Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)
TOPIC 3 NATURE OF ETHICS IN MODERN BUSINESS 43
Furthermore, the Muslim world, during its first few centuries, was at the
crossroads of ancient trade routes from the Mediterranean, the Arabian Gulf, East
Africa, the Indian subcontinent and all the way to China. Due to this trading link,
a significant number of Arab words relating to trade and commerce have found
their way into Western languages. However, Muslim traders could not have
grown their faith and trade if it were not for their strong attachment to what we
now know as business ethics .
The syariah recognises the right to private property but retains the communityÊs
right to what may be termed as eminent domain or collective interests. In fact,
one of the important ethical considerations in property is that its use is
permissible but abuse and waste are forbidden.
In a hadith, the prophet said that nine-tenths of all GodÊs bounty, which includes
income, is derived from commerce. To a large extent, this explains the drive of
Muslims over the centuries to meet their economic needs through commerce and
to consider profits as not only legitimate but a desirable way of engaging in any
kind of industry. Making profits is very much a part of the activities of Muslims,
provided the profits are obtained in a permissible way. However, profits cannot
overshadow the duties of brotherhood, solidarity and charity. They are, of
course, subject to zakat, which is a tax imposed upon Muslims.
The syariah divides rules of conduct between halal and haram, meaning
essentially that which is permissible and that which is not. The distinction
between halal and haram applies to legitimate and illegitimate. Illegitimate
profits are exemplified by riba, which is to a large extent the equivalent of usury.
However, it also has come to mean the collection of a predetermined fixed
amount of interest.
A Muslim is allowed to earn profit only from his work or, if his capital is
involved, whenever he shares the risk of loss. Consequently, gambling is
prohibited, as it is a sin to profit from the need or misery of others.
„It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards East or West; but it is
righteousness to believe in God and the last day, and the angels and the Book,
and the messengers; to spend of your substance, out of love for Him, for your
kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the
ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer, and practise regular charity; to
fulfil the contracts which you have made.‰
A contract is the most important bond that exists between Muslims, as well as
between Muslims and non-Muslims as shown in the following hadith:
„The buyer and the seller have the option (of cancelling the contract), as long
as they have not separated; then, if they both speak the truth and make it
manifest, their transaction shall be blessed, but if they conceal and tell lies, the
blessing of their transaction shall be obliterated.‰
Translation: Any defect in the thing sold must be made obvious. In the case of
defects being hidden, the contract or agreement made will be void.
Source: http://aaiil.org/text/had/manhad/ch22had.shtml
3.5.6 Conclusion
Those qualities and characteristics mentioned above are particularly significant
because Prophet Muhammad was a merchant whose life is an example to follow.
Fifteen centuries ago, Islam brought about a spiritual, social and legal revolution. Its
potential for effecting progress in a positive way remains unchanged. This is
essentially the belief of enlightened liberal Muslims who do not have a regressive
view of religion and history. Indeed, at the height of its civilisation, between the
seventh and twelfth centuries, Islam was neither repressive nor regressive. On the
contrary, it was a progressive, humanistic and legalistic force for reform and justice.
EXERCISE 3.3
There are three forms of analysis that can assist us in reaching the proper
balance between economic and social performances. They are:
Economic (based upon impersonal market forces);
The main guiding principles in Islamic ethical issues are found in the syariah.
X INTRODUCTION
What is an ethical dilemma? Have you ever encountered a situation where you
need to make a choice between two very difficult options? Figure 4.1 shows an
example of a moral dilemma or an ethical dilemma. A psychiatrist recognises
that his patient needs rest. However, he is concerned that the longer his patient
sleeps, the more the patient will need to pay for his counselling session.
This topic focuses on issues related to the law as a guide to managerial decisions
and actions when one is confronted with an ethical dilemma.
We would fall back on these rules (law) when faced with a conflict between an
organisationÊs economic performance and social performance. We should let the
law decide, particularly in a democratic society, where the argument can easily
be made that the rules within the law represent the collective judgments made by
members of the society. We should follow these collective judgments, instead of
trying to establish our own moral opinions. There are numerous examples of
laws that reflect collective moral judgments.
Example:
Halim, a bank officer who has to decide whether to:
(a) Make a high-risk loan to a small, local company with the return interest rate
limited by law; or
(b) Provide an equivalent loan to a larger, distant corporation at much lower
risk but equal return, doubtless a higher return, if the lower administrative
costs of loaning to large, well-financed corporations are included in the
calculation.
ACTIVITY 4.1
If you were the bank officer mentioned in the above example, how
would you decide which way to proceed if you really want to adopt
the legal argument?
Let us say that, in this case, society has determined that excessive interest charges
are more harmful than limited local support and that consequently the loan
should be given to the larger, distant firm. Should we object to this? Suppose we
believe it is necessary, for the good of our society, that the formation of small,
entrepreneurial companies be encouraged. It is often said that:
(a) If we do not like an action by a corporation, we should attempt to pass a
law which prohibits that action or encourages an alternative action; and
(b) If we cannot get the law approved through democratic processes, then we
should accept the situation as it is.
The assumption here is that we should rely on the law in making decisions and
agree that a given act is right if legal and wrong if illegal, with the understanding
that this determination of right and wrong can be changed to reflect the view of
the majority.
In the example given above (of the bank which refuses to advance funds to a
high-risk company in the local community), it would be fairly easy to design
corrective legislation. Each bank within the state, or within the nation, may be
forced by law to invest a certain percentage of its funds within the communities
from which it draws those funds from depositors.
How would the banker decide when faced with this kind of dilemma? If he
replies to the owners of the small company that he would very much like to help,
he will face the following:
• The law prevents an adequate return to compensate for the risk;
• No government guarantees or interest subsidies are presently available; and
• Bank officers are required by the legal system to minimise risks for their
depositors.
Of course, the usual response of most bankers to socially desirable but financially
risky loans is to reject them without giving any explanation. They would usually
suggest to potential borrowers that they seek funds elsewhere. The question in
this case, however, is not whether banks should make socially desirable but
economically unfeasible loans. No bank can give out loans to everybody and
remain in business. By the same token, a bank cannot be too rigid in giving loans
at the expense of the society in which it operates. There has to be a limit on both
sides and a balance. The question is: How does one achieve this balance?
ACTIVITY 4.2
„If we want to go beyond the basic rules of law in our own decisions and
actions, we can do so. However, we cannot go beyond the law, for then we are
adhering to moral standards which are not complying with the majority of the
population. We live in a democratic society. Hence, if we do not like something
that we are doing, we need to get the majority of voters to pass a law
restricting these actions. However, until then we have to comply with majority
of the population.‰
The law can be defined as a consistent set of universal rules that are widely
published, generally accepted and usually enforced.
There are certain ways in which people are required to act in their relationships
with others within a society. They are required to act in a certain way, not just
expected, suggested or petitioned to act in that way. There is an element of
persistence about the law, which defines what we must do. Figure 4.2 shows five
characteristics of law.
Characteristics Explanation
Consistent The requirements to act or not to act have to be consistent to be
considered as part of the law. For example, if two requirements
contradict each other, both cannot be termed as law because
obviously people cannot obey both.
Universal The requirements to act or not act must be universal or applicable to
everyone with similar characteristics and facing the same set of
circumstances.
Published The requirements to act or not act must be published and put in
print so that they are accessible to everyone within the society. No
doubt that not everyone has the time to read up or understand
everything that is published. However, trained professionals such
as attorneys are available to interpret and explain the law. Hence,
ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse.
Accepted The requirements to act or not act in a given way must be obeyed. If
most members of the society do not voluntarily follow the law, they
would have to be compelled to do so.
Enforced The requirements to act or not act in a given way must be enforced.
Members of society have to understand that they will be compelled
to obey the law if they do not do so voluntarily. People have to
recognise that if they disobey the law, and if it is noted and can be
proven, they will suffer loss of convenience, time, money, freedom
or life. There is an element of persistence about the law. There is
also or should be an element of certainty as it defines what will
happen if we do not follow rules.
This set of rules that are consistent, universal, published, accepted and enforced
is supported by a framework of highly specialised social institutions, as shown in
Table 4.2 below.
The adversary relationships of the trial court often seem to ignore the provisions of
consistency and universality, and focus instead on winning rather than justice. The
enforcement actions of the police also often seem arbitrary and to concentrate on
keeping the peace rather than maintaining equity. Let us admit that:
(a) Enforcing the law is a difficult and occasionally dangerous task.
(b) Interpreting the law, as in court cases, often involves the award of large
amounts of money. The potential gain or loss of these funds has distorted
the concept of the law as a set of published and accepted regulations.
SELF-CHECK 4.1
Conclusion 1
However, the area of overlapping is not complete. There are some laws that
are morally unresponsive, with no ethical content whatsoever. For example,
the requirement that we drive on the left-hand side of the road is neither right
nor wrong; it is just important that we all agree on which side to drive.
Finally, there are some moral standards that have no legal standing at all. We
all object to lying as it goes against our moral standards. However,
truthfulness is not required by law except in court and under oath, and in a
few other specific instances, such as employment contracts and property sales.
Conclusion 2
For example, there is no law insisting that we must aid a drowning child. Here,
we do have a situation where the moral standards of the majority can be
inferred as most of the adult population in any country would go to the aid of
a drowning child, to the limit of their ability.
Conclusion 3
The requirements of the law tend to lag behind the apparent moral standards of
society. Slavery, of course, is the most unpleasant example. However, sexual
and racial discrimination, environmental pollution and bribery in foreign
countries can all be cited as moral problems that were slowly remedied by
legislation.
Advocates of the rule of law would say, however, that the evidence of a delay
between apparent moral consensus and enacted legal sanctions does not
necessarily indicate a lack of relationship between legal requirements and
moral standards. It only serves to confirm that relationship, they would claim,
for laws controlling discrimination, pollution and bribery were eventually
passed.
SELF-CHECK 4.2
Based on your understanding of the relationship between law and moral
standards, provide examples of:
(a) Legally and morally accepted behaviour; and
(b) Legally and morally unaccepted behaviour.
EXERCISE 4.1
1. Define law.
2. Discuss the basic characteristics of law.
The question is whether these changes in law can be attributed to changes in the
moral standards of the majority of our population through social and political
processes, and consequently, whether the law represents the collective moral
standards of our society. The social and political processes by which the
changing moral standards of individual human beings are alleged to become
institutionalised into the formal legal framework of society is lengthy and
complex, but a simplified version is shown in Figure 4.5.
Each individual has a set of norms, beliefs and values which collectively forms
his or her moral standards as shown in Table 4.4.
Moral
Explanation
Standards
Norms Norms are criteria of behaviour. They are the ways in which an
individual expects everyone to act when faced with a given situation.
Beliefs Beliefs are criteria of thought. Beliefs are different from norms in that
they involve no action (no apparent behaviour towards others), but an
abstract way of thinking that tends to support an individualÊs norms.
They are the ways an individual expects people to think about given
concepts.
For example, if you believe in participatory democracy, then you expect
others to recognise the worth of that concept and accept it as a form of
government.
Values Values are the rankings or priorities that a person gives to his or her
norms and beliefs. Most people do not consider all their norms and
beliefs are of equal importance. Generally, some are more important
than the others. The important norms and beliefs are the ones that a
person „values‰ or holds in high esteem.
Do you know that values are often controversial? Do you know why? It is
because a norm or belief that one person holds in high esteem can conflict with a
different norm or belief that another person holds in equally high esteem.
Generally, there will be little tolerance or compromise, as each person attaches
great importance to his criteria of:
• Behaviour (ways in which people ought to act); and
• Beliefs (ways in which people ought to think).
SELF-CHECK 4.3
Explain the following terms briefly:
(a) Norms;
(b) Beliefs; and
(c) Values.
The interwoven nature of the context, within which individual choices of norms,
beliefs and values are made, ensures that all the mentioned factors interact with
one another. As can be seen in Figure 4.7, technological changes in
communication bring political changes in governance. The political changes
cause economic changes in spending and taxation patterns, which eventually
result in cultural changes in personal lifestyle.
People with similar norms, beliefs and values tend to become associated in small
groups. It is just natural to join others who have parallel views. These small
groups generally are part of much larger organisations such as:
• Business firms;
• Labour unions;
• Political parties;
• Charitable agencies;
EXERCISE 4.2
• There are four chain processes of formation of the law ă individual process,
group process, social process and political process.
INTRODUCTION
What do you think after reading the comic strip in Figure 5.1? Do you feel the act
of asking money or bribes is equivalent to breaching the ethical codes laid out in
an organisation?
We can assume that the senior executives of most business firms want their staff
members to act in ways that they would consider right, proper and just. We can
also be reasonably certain that they want them to act in ways that will not offend
the majority of the population, and not attract adverse publicity from the nationÊs
media.
Yet, this unethical behaviour happens ever so often. Why do they occur and what
can be done to prevent them? In this topic, we will examine several ways of
preventing unethical behaviour and discuss the causes and solutions of unethical
behaviour.
In the following sections, we will look at each approach and see how it improves
an organisationÊs ethical environment.
Ethical codes are statements about the norms and beliefs of an organisation.
These norms and beliefs are generally proposed, discussed and defined by the
senior executives in the firm before being published and distributed to all its
members. Now, let us look at Table 5.1 for an explanation of norms and beliefs in
relation to ethical codes of an organisation.
Do you think ethical codes work? Are they helpful in conveying to all employees
the moral standards selected by the board of directors and president? The answer
is, not really.
The problem is that it is not possible to state clearly and explicitly the norms and
beliefs of an organisation relative to the various constituent groups (employees,
customers, suppliers, distributors, stockholders and the general public) without
offending at least one of these groups. For example, it is not possible for a
company to say that it considers its employees are more important to the success
of the firm than its stockholders. By saying that, the company sends the message
that profits and dividends come second, which goes against the goal of many
business organisations.
The basic difficulty with codes of ethics is that they do not establish priorities
between norms and beliefs. Priorities are the true values of a firm. For example,
let us say that one division in a firm is faced with declining sales and profits.
Thus, the firm would be faced with the question of whether it should reduce its
middle management employment and cut its overhead costs (the classic
downsizing decision). The code of ethics says, in one section, that we respect our
employees; while in another section, that we expect fair profits. How then do we
decide on the best course of action? What is fair in this instance? The code of
ethics does not provide us the answer.
Ethical dilemmas are conflicts between economic and social performances. The
latter is expressed as obligations to employees, customers, suppliers, distributors
and the general public. Ethical codes can express a general sense of obligations
which members of senior management feel towards those groups. However, they
cannot help the middle management or lower-level management to choose
between groups, or between economic and social performances.
ACTIVITY 5.1
The term „ombudsman‰ originated from the Swedish language and it means:
Does the position of ombudsman work? Actually, it does not. The problem is that
the person reporting the incident is not truly „not implicated in any way.‰ We
can assume that ombudsmen are generally discreet in talking to an offender.
However, the source of information for the ombudsman (the originator of the
complaint) is usually clear. It has to be a person within the organisation who has
information about the practice and the moral scruples to report it. He is generally
someone who has spoken to the offender about the practice within the past 30
days. The ombudsman does not have to be concerned about retribution but his
informer generally does.
ACTIVITY 5.2
In your opinion, do you think an ombudsman can effectively play his
role in solving cases involving ethical issues? Explain your reasons.
SELF-CHECK 5.1
Most large companies today are diversified, with numerous divisions. Each
division normally consists of a given product line, market segment and
production process. Divisionalised structures of this type are generally
decentralised authority for product, market and process changes are allocated
to divisional managers, who are then held responsible for economic performance.
There are two major problems with the divisionalised and decentralised type of
organisational structure:
(a) Interrelationships between divisions (in products, markets, processes or
technologies) cannot be used as the basis for economies of scale or
economies of scope due to the separate nature of the divisions.
(b) Corporate management in a decentralised structure has little control over
the strategies of the divisions until after an outstanding success or an
absolute failure has occurred. They are reduced to an ineffective review
function. These problems brought changes in the management of
diversification, starting around 1975.
Before moving to the next section, attempt the exercise shown below.
EXERCISE 5.1
We can put less emphasis on the financial measures of performance (sales revenues,
variable costs, fixed expenses and quarterly profits) and more on the numerical
What do you think will happen if the conflict is not specifically addressed and
resolved by senior executives within the firm? If it is not resolved properly by the
senior executives within the firm, the natural tendency of middle-level and
operating-level managers will tend to favour the economic performance of the
organisation. This is so as under the current managerial systems, their performance
is measured by economic criteria and their future is dependent upon economic
results.
ACTIVITY 5.3
If you were a manager who has to solve the problem of unethical
conduct in your organisation, how would you go about it? Discuss
with your coursemates.
If you are a corporate executive, how would you answer these difficult ethical
questions?
(a) „One of our major clients insists upon putting inaccurate statements in
their advertisements. Should we maintain that client?‰
(b) „We can reduce our costs by replacing the wholesale distributors who
helped us in building the market. Should we start direct factory-to-store
shipments?‰
It also entails having the character to recognise that personal costs may be associated
with the choice and courage to bear those costs. However, others may disagree with
this decision because of the following differences:
Differences in perspectives within the firm; or
Differences in beliefs in the importance of economic outcomes, legal
requirements, moral principles of benevolence and consistency, and moral
values of justice and liberty.
SELF-CHECK 5.2
EXERCISE 5.2
Ethical codes are lists of statements containing the norms and beliefs of an
organisation published and distributed to all members of the firm.
The solution for unethical behaviour is placing less emphasis on the financial
measures of performance and more on numerical measures.
The management has to make decisions related to unethical conduct based upon
their sense of responsibility to others as it is a test of their character and a
measure of their courage.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Describe the three eras involved in the evolution of thought about
social responsibility;
2. Explain the three areas of social responsibility;
3. Discuss the arguments for and against social responsibility; and
4. Explain how the government and organisations influence each other.
INTRODUCTION
After comprehending the principles of ethics on an individual level, let us now
focus on organisational best practices from the stakeholder perspective. One of
the most talked about corporate best practices is corporate social responsibility
(CSR). Do you know what CSR stands for? Take a look at Figure 6.1 to get
clearer understanding of the term.
As can be seen in Figure 6.1, CSR revolves around four main areas of
responsibility economic, legal, ethical and philanthropy.
In this topic, we will look into the following aspects related to social
responsibility historical views, organisational approaches, influences of
government and organisations to each other, management and social audit.
Let us look in detail at each era of social responsibility in the following sections.
Practices of Early
Explanation
Entrepreneurs
Labour lockouts Some employers use this tactic of withholding employment to
hinder union organisations or to gain leverage in labour disputes.
It is often accomplished by literally locking employees out of the
workplace but it is also possible through work stoppage, layoffs
or the hiring of non-union replacement workers.
(Source: http://www.britannica.com)
Discriminatory Some providers of products and services charge unreasonable
pricing policies prices for them. Certain groups of consumers are made to pay
different prices for the same products and services. The providers
introduced the discriminatory pricing policies to take into
account the economic status of individuals, that is, their ability
and willingness to pay.
(Source: http://www.globecon.org)
Eventually, outcries from public officials and other leaders forced the federal
government to step in and pass laws that outlawed some undesirable business
practices and restricted others. These laws were significant in that they
acknowledged the relationship among business, government and society. This
also indicated for the first time that business had a role to play in society beyond
the pure maximisation of profit.
Let us look below to learn more about the New Deal Programme brought
forward by the 32nd President of United States of America, Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
The New Deal was a series of social, economic and governmental reforms
initiated by Franklin. It focused on providing relief to unemployed Americans
and the troubled manufacturing sector while promoting economic recovery and
reforming the American finance system to prevent the recurrence of the
Depression Era. At that time, the New Deal was met with huge amounts of
criticism from some quarters and massive praise from others. In retrospect, the
New Deal was a major event in American history as it shaped the landscape and
attitudes of Americans.
(Source: http://www.wisegeek.com)
The growing trend towards social responsibility raised two important questions:
(a) To whom should a business organisation be responsible?
(b) Who is ultimately accountable for an organisationÊs practices?
ACTIVITY 6.1
The interests of people who own and invest in an organisation are affected
by virtually anything the firm does. If the firmÊs manager is caught
committing criminal acts or violating acceptable ethical standards, the
resulting bad press and public outcry are likely to hurt the organisationÊs
profits, stock prices and so forth. Organisations that are socially responsible
in their dealings with employees treat workers fairly, make them a part of
the team, and respect their dignity and basic human needs.
air and on vacant land. Now, however, many laws have been put in place
to regulate the disposal of waste materials. In many instances, companies
have seen the consequence of their actions and have become more socially
responsible in their handling of pollutants.
Figure 6.4 shows the raw sewage overflow which can contaminate the river
and endanger the livelihood of the organisms living there. This act of
disposing waste material is strictly prohibited by the law.
Figure 6.5 shows the cause and effect of global warming which is
threatening the livelihood of organisms living on Earth. Global warming is
mainly caused by the emission of factory fumes which contain a high
percentage of carbon dioxide. The heat released into the atmosphere makes
the ice cap thin and easy to melt. This makes the Earth prone to danger if
left unresolved.
For example, companies may follow these practices to comply with their
responsibility towards the natural environment:
Contributions to charities, philanthropic organisations, non-profit
foundations and associations;
Support for museums, symphonies, public radio and television; and
Taking a role in improving public health and education.
SELF-CHECK 6.1
1. Describe the three eras of social responsibility briefly.
2. Explain the three areas of social responsibility in detail.
ACTIVITY 6.2
Organisational
Explanation
Approaches
Social This approach has the lowest degree of social responsibility. The few
Obstruction organisations that take this approach usually do as little as possible
to solve social or environmental problems. When they cross the
ethical or legal line that separates acceptable from unacceptable
practices, their typical response is to deny or cover up their actions.
Social This approach involves doing everything that is legally required to
Obligation solve social or environmental problems but nothing more. This
approach is most consistent with the arguments against social
responsibility which were described earlier. Managers in
organisations that take this approach usually insist that their job is to
generate profits.
Social Response This approach involves meeting legal and ethical requirements and
going beyond those requirements in certain cases. Such firms
voluntarily agree to participate in certain limited social programmes,
but solicitors must convince the organisations that they are worthy
of support.
Social This approach has the highest degree of social responsibility. This
Contribution approach goes far beyond minimal requirements and involves
proactively seeking opportunities to contribute to society. Firms that
adopt this approach take to heart the arguments in favour of social
responsibility. They view themselves as citizens in a society.
Regulation is the establishment of laws and rules that dictate what organisations
can and cannot do under certain circumstances.
OrganisationsÊ
Explanation
Methods
Personal Many corporate executives and political leaders are in the same
Contacts social circles. Thus, personal contacts and networks offer one
method of influence. A business executive may be able to contact a
politician directly and present his case regarding a piece of
legislation being considered.
Lobbying Lobbying is an attempt by individuals or groups to influence
legislation. A lobbyist formally represents an organisation before a
law-making body.
Political Action PACs are special organisations created to solicit and then distribute
Committees money to political candidates, because companies cannot legally
make direct donations to political campaigns. Employees of a firm
(PACs)
may be encouraged to make donations to a particular PAC as
managers know that the PAC supports candidates with political
views similar to their own. The PAC, in turn, makes the
contribution itself, usually across the board to state and national
candidates.
Favours Organisations sometimes rely on favours and other influence tactics
to gain support.
The formal approaches that organisations can use to manage social responsibility
are as shown in Table 6.5 below.
Formal
Explanantion
Approaches
Legal Legal compliance is the extent to which an organisation complies with
Compliance local, state, federal and international laws. The task of managing legal
compliance is generally assigned to the appropriate functional
managers.
Ethical Ethical compliance is the extent to which members of an organisation
Compliance follow basic ethical (and legal) standards of behaviour. Many
organisations also establish formal ethics committees, which may be
asked to review proposals for new projects, help evaluate new hiring
strategies or assess a new environmental plan.
Philanthropic Philanthropic giving is the awarding of funds or other gifts to
Giving charities or other programmes. In this age of cutbacks, many
corporations have limited their charitable gifts over the past several
years as they trim their budget.
Informal
Explanation
Approaches
Organisation Leadership practices and organisation culture can go a long way
Leadership and towards defining the social responsibility stance that an organisation
Culture and its members will adopt. Thus, providing appropriate leadership
and culture is vital in managing an organisation informally.
Whistle- Whistle-blowing is the disclosure by an employee of illegal or
Blowing unethical conducts by others within their organisation. Whistle-
blowers may have to proceed through a number of channels to be
heard and may even be fired for their effort of disclosing the conduct.
However, many organisations welcome their contributions.
Ideally, the outcome of social audit is a social report. Corporate social reporting is
the reporting of corporationsÊ social performance; it is the reporting of what a
corporation has or has not achieved at the end of a financial year. At the moment,
there are no one formalised reporting standard available. However, the Global
Reporting Initiatives (GRI) introduced one of the most comprehensive social
reporting guidelines. You can refer to www.globalreporting.org to get more
information on GRI.
Stockholders and investors are able to make informed decisions as they judge
whether a corporation is achieving the goals it has established and abiding by the
values it has specified as important.
SELF-CHECK 6.2
EXERCISE 6.1
There are three different eras of social responsibility: social era, depression
era and entrepreneurial era.
Arguments which oppose social responsibility say that businesses lack the
expertise to manage social programmes, there is a potential for conflict of
interest and the purpose of business is to generate profit for owners.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Explain corporate governance;
2. Identify three components in the definition of corporate governance;
3. Explain the two perspectives of corporate governance; and
4. Interpret good corporate practices based on the Code of Corporate
Governance.
INTRODUCTION
Have you heard of corporate governance? What does it mean? Occasionally,
business organisations would use this term due to the importance placed on it.
In the following sections, we will look into these aspects to learn more about
corporate governance:
Definition of corporate governance;
Components of corporate governance;
Perspective of corporate governance;
Corporate governance dealing with top management;
Reasons for studying corporate governance;
Code of corporate governance; and
Future of corporate governance.
(a) Oversight
Oversight simply means check and balance. Hence, oversight allows
management decisions to be questioned and challenged, thereby reducing
(b) Accountability
Accountability means how the decisions taken by the management align
with the firmÊs stated strategic direction. In simple words, did the
management act based on their stated mission or vision? As promises are
made to the public, management has to be accountable to them or else they
will lose the publicÊs trust. For example, a corporation promises to reduce
its carbon emissions. The question raised will be: Did the corporation
commit or take any effort to fulfil its promises? If it did not, then the
accountability of the corporation is at stake due to its undelivered promises.
(c) Control
Control is a process of auditing and improving organisational decisions and
actions. Actual performance is compared with budget, standard and goal.
Ultimately, corporate governance aims to balance power, address mistakes,
reduce risks and avoid misconduct in order to achieve integrity.
SELF-CHECK 7.1
1. In your own words, define corporate governance.
2. Explain briefly the components of corporate governance.
All discussions, decisions and actions are made based on these perspectives.
Therefore, the top management needs to be clear about the perspective of
corporate governance that they hold. From the shareholder perspective, the spirit
of practising good corporate governance is in the interest of shareholders. Being
the owners of companies, the purpose of corporate governance is in the interest
of shareholders. The rationale according to Friedman (1962, 1970) is that
shareholders are owners of the corporation. Therefore, the corporation should be
responsible and accountable to its shareholders.
For example, if shareholders are pleased with the top managementÊs decision and
action to clear a piece of land for development, the top management will proceed
with the process. All other stakeholdersÊ interests are of secondary importance.
Consequently, loyal employees will leave the corporation and loyal customers
might discontinue purchasing and using the corporationÊs products or services.
This signifies the reflexive relationship between businesses and their
stakeholders.
ACTIVITY 7.1
From the stakeholder perspective, if an organisation decided to limit
its budget, what would happen to its stakeholders? Discuss with
your coursemates.
When top management practises due care, it makes informed and prudent
decisions. These decisions range from merger, acquisition, investment to
divesting. Top management and board of directors are expected to be loyal. It is
only when they are loyal that all decisions are made in the interests of the
corporation and its stakeholders.
SELF-CHECK 7.2
1. Elaborate on the two perspectives of corporate governance briefly.
2. Explain why one needs to learn about corporate governance.
Now, let us move on to the Code. First issued in 2000, it covers the following
three main areas:
(a) Directors
The Code covers director appointments, formality and transparency.
(b) Shareholders
The Code emphasises information for investment decisions and annual
general meetings.
(c) Accountability and Audit
Accountability and audit refer to internal control and auditor relations.
The revised 2007 version of the Code mainly concentrates on strengthening the
Board of Directors and the audit committee. It focuses on the eligibility criteria of
board members on ensuring the effectiveness of the boards in carrying out its
responsibility. For further information on the revised 2007 version of the Code,
you may refer to this website: http://www.sc.com.my/eng/html/cg/cg2007.pdf
However, it is worth noting that compliance with the Code is not mandatory.
Compliance is not regulated so as to reduce the ticking-the-box exercise. The
flexibility is to promote self-regulation in responding to the marketÊs best
practices. Under the Listing Requirements of Bursa Malaysia, companies have to
include a narrative account of how they have applied the principles and best
practices set out in the Code. In other words, a corporation has to disclose how it
has complied with the Code. Failure to do so will result in the corporation having
to provide a narrative explanation of the reasons. The goal is to give investors
information of the corporationsÊ performance, both financially and its
governance, in which they can make informed and sound decisions.
EXERCISE 7.1
ACTIVITY 7.2
Visit the Securities Commission website at www.sc.com.my and the
Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance (MICG) at
http://www.micg.net/history.htm.
ACTIVITY 7.3
EXERCISE 7.2
Discuss the aspects that the management should look into in order to
have good corporate governance.
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever heard the term „economic system‰? An economic system is an
ongoing process where people exchange material goods and personal services in
support of a wide range of human interests.
In this topic, we will look into these components: economic system, employment
and wages, ranking and rating, and ethical implications for performance
appraisal.
Resources are given generously in nature; no one has a sole title to any of them.
The needs, ability and willingness of individuals to expend their efforts dictate
how the products of resources are generated and distributed. Thus, it is not
morally required that everyone has the same or equal share of resources. What is
required is that all human beings have equal opportunity to access and use the
available resources and that each person has the right to a minimum share of the
resources.
The society, in which the economic system operates, has an obligation to use its
government and social agencies to reallocate resources whenever they are
unjustly distributed among its members.
Did you know that how well employees are paid usually depends on how well
they are rated by their employers? All employees are subject to a formal or
informal appraisal process. Large companies customarily establish ranking and
rating systems that compare employees in a business unit and award merit pay
treatment to those judged to be doing better jobs and contributing more for the
organisation.
SELF-CHECK 8.1
Good managers will attract capable people into the business, keep their turnover
low, secure their loyalty to the company and its objectives, and maintain and
increase their productivity level wherever possible.
A business that wants to keep good employees will have to offer competitive
salaries along with health insurance coverage, savings and pension plans as part
of its basic wage package. To motivate and satisfy employees, managers also
need to do the following:
(a) Provide them with on- and off-the-job training;
(b) Give them effective job performance feedback;
SELF-CHECK 8.2
List the factors that indicate good management. Discuss each factor
briefly.
Figure 8.2 clearly illustrates the effects of the shutting down, relocating and
downsizing of American plants and industries.
Figure 8.2: Effects of shutting down, relocating and downsizing American plants and
industries
Some might argue that the people involved in the shutdowns, relocations and
force reductions also suffered a violation of their legal right to employment.
However, the question is whether such a moral right can be shown to exist and
exactly against whom it may be asserted.
All of us are born into some kind of economic system which may range from the
relatively simple practices of primitive tribes to complex transactions in highly
industrialised, technology-oriented societies. Most of us, who are in highly
industrialised countries, get our access to material resources by way of a job or by
work, instead of farming or hunting.
As argued earlier, every human being has a moral right to acquire and use some
share of material resources to ensure they live at a decent level of physical and
psychological well-being. It seems to follow that if most people are subject to an
economic system in which a job is the means to obtain resources, then they have
a moral right to the job; the economic system „owes‰ them employment.
In a capitalistic economic system, like in the United States, the private sector
provides most of the job opportunities. Hence, the responsibility of actualising
the moral right to employment falls on the private employers.
In relation to the above sentence, how will you answer the following question?
The answer is „No‰. The society highlighted in the question has adopted an
economic system whose very nature requires extensive freedom in its
commercial enterprises in order to generate a maximum level of material
prosperity for its members.
It also seems to include taking on only those people whose education, skills and
personality traits are judged as best-suited to the operations the business engages
in. One of the assumptions being made here is that the option to live under the
capitalistic system can be shown to be freely chosen by the members of a society,
either through some direct democratic process or indirect social contract.
In other words, by continuing to live under the system without political protest,
they indirectly indicate their preference for it. Given this assumption, the
freedom of employers to hire and retain employees as they see fit means that no
member of the society in which they operate has a moral claim to any specific job
offered in the private sector.
(b) Utilitarian
The utilitarian would come to the same conclusion adopted by the natural
law moralist, although his judgement would be dependent upon the
overall consequences of these practices.
Let us look at the viewpoints presented by the ethical theorists in relation to the
above question:
(ii) Utilitarian
The utilitarian, on the other hand, would likely weigh the consequences for
the agencies concerned such as the possibility of losing clients by refusing
to cooperate in anti-discriminatory practices. He would also attempt to
determine if a better state of affairs would result from compliance.
Affirmative action may range all the way from setting specific numbers of
minorities to be moved into positions over a given period. The proportion of
the positions they hold begins to approach their numerical distribution in
the general population, to establishing the overall principle that
employment and promotion opportunities are open to all, regardless of
gender, race, religion, age or disability.
It is very likely that both natural law and utilitarian moralists would agree that
everyone should have equal opportunity to compete for any job he or she is
qualified to do and would endorse this sense of affirmative action. Meanwhile,
cultural relativists would fall back on societyÊs customary practices and would
agree with the idea of equal opportunity.
Figure 8.3 shows clearly the distinction between affirmative action and
preferential treatment.
8.2.4 Wages
When it comes to wages, employees usually ask the following questions:
In any case, since it is not possible to require a particular business to pay wages
higher than it can legitimately afford, what these people cannot earn towards
their minimally decent standard of living needs to come from the government as
a matter of distributive justice. That amount will be based on appropriate
economic statistics, such as „what it takes to sustain a family of four‰.
ACTIVITY 8.1
Does social justice require that employees with dependents (with family
members that need to be taken care of) be paid more than people with no
dependents (single people) but who are doing the same amount of work?
(a) It is unlikely that such unequal treatment would ever be accepted in the
United States;
(b) Single people would surely argue that an employer only has to pay the
market wage for a particular job and is not in the business of caring for
social justice; and
(c) If distributive justice is at issue, then the obligation falls on the society.
Special welfare or family-subsidy programmes might be necessary and the
responsibility should be shared by everyone in the community on an
equitable basis.
and lorry drivers, require the same relative levels of education, skill, knowledge
and experience.
Do you think that equal pay for comparable work is a requirement of justice? The
answer is no as the market is still the most efficient allocator of jobs. Even though
skill and knowledge requirements may look the same for many jobs, other factors
(e.g. long working hours, varying risk factors and physical environment) also
have to be considered.
ACTIVITY 8.2
What is your opinion on equal pay for equal work and equal pay for
comparable work? Discuss with your coursemates.
Managers and workers, then, have the right to a fair share of the returns in
proportion to their contribution to the enterpriseÊs success. Top managers usually
think they make the biggest contribution and, as a result, expect to receive the
biggest share of wages and bonuses paid by the enterprise.
Shareholders, of course, have the right to a fair share of their companiesÊ return.
They have first claim on the returns and the right to the largest share. The
shareholders, through their investment, are simply accessing resources and are
entitled to a fair share of the returns on the resources.
SELF-CHECK 8.3
In relation to fair hiring practices, explain the viewpoints of the
following ethical theorists:
(a) Natural law moralist;
(b) Utilitarian; and
(c) Cultural relativist.
All employees are subject to some kind of performance appraisal, whether formal
or informal. Let us see how appraisal works in small and large organisations:
ACTIVITY 8.3
The companyÊs appraisal plan which outlines the ground rules for preparing
performance evaluations constitutes a moral contract with employees because it
is a promise. It normally stipulates that how well an individual meets the
standards established in the plan will determine how much he or she will be
paid. A supervisor who fails to follow the appraisal plan acts unjustly towards
his subordinates who have a right to be assessed in line with their provisions and
standards.
Guidelines Explanation
Set the Subordinates need to have clear and concrete objectives set out for the
objectives appraisal period, and they need to provide their own input to these
objectives.
Get the Employees have the right to get feedback on their performance on a
feedback regular basis. It would be unfair to wait until the end of the appraisal
period to tell someone that he or she is performing poorly. A
subordinate whose performance is poor or unsatisfactory has to be
made aware of the fact. It would be unkind and unjust to let a person
think that he or she is doing a good job when that is not the case.
EXERCISE 8.1
1. What moral claims and rights do employees have against their
employers as far as employment and wages are concerned?
2. Conduct a comparison between affirmative action and
preferential treatment.
3. What are the factors to be considered in employeesÊ performance
appraisal?
4. „Performance appraisal systems have an ethical dimension‰. Do
you agree with this statement? State your reasons.
5. Indicate some key ethical guidelines for performance appraisal.
If managers want to hire and retain productive and loyal employees, they
need to offer competitive salaries and benefits, adequate training and
Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)
120 TOPIC 8 MORAL DIMENSIONS OF ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Managers and their agents are obliged to follow fair hiring practices, and to
avoid discrimination against people on grounds of gender, race, age and
disabled status when those characteristics are irrelevant to the job.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Define employeesÊ right to privacy;
2. Identify the moral grounds a company has to take prior to hiring
employees; and
3. Identify instances leading to violations of privacy.
INTRODUCTION
During an interview, the interviewer may request the job applicant to take a drug
test. Why do you think a drug test is necessary? What is the rationale behind this
request?
Does a company have the right, in its own interest, to this kind of information or
is it an unwarranted intrusion on the employeesÊ privacy? This is an issue which
we will explore in this topic.
Since employees can be a potential source of these harms, managers often need to
investigate the personal history of their job applicants. Some companies use pre-
employment tests to get a reading on their employeesÊ level of honesty.
Polygraph tests, for example, were used in the past by many companies as a pre-
employment screening device but the practice is now illegal.
Figure 9.1 shows a man undergoing a polygraph test, which is used to determine
an individualÊs level of honesty.
Managers may also want to monitor or even attempt to restrict the private life
activities of those on the payroll to ensure that they do not pose a threat to the
business. These questions arise:
(a) How far can managers invade a prospective or current employeeÊs privacy
in the interests of the enterprise?
(b) Does a companyÊs right to protect itself always override an employeeÊs
right to privacy?
ACTIVITY 9.1
Check with your Human Resource Manager. Find out the extent to
which your employer can test his or her employees. Compare your
findings with your coursemates. Then, summarise the findings by
using a mind map.
Figure 9.2 shows the image taken by a closed-circuit television which enables the
employer to monitor employeesÊ movement.
ACTIVITY 9.2
Discuss the following questions.
(a) How far can employers invade a prospective or current
employeeÊs privacy in the interests of the organisation?
(b) Does an organisationÊs right to protect itself always override an
employeeÊs right to privacy?
ACTIVITY 9.3
There are cases in Malaysia where employers are found to check on
their employeesÊ social life through social networking sites such as
Facebook.
Source: http://itblog.ws
The right not to have oneÊs privacy invaded is not absolute in the sense that a
person may never waive it. In the interest of showing a potential employer that he
or she is not a possible threat to the company, a job applicant may agree to be
tested for drugs.
(b) The results of the tests remain confidential and will be made known only to
those who have a legitimate need to know.
SELF-CHECK 9.1
What are the factors that need to be considered before an organisation
intends to conduct a drug test on its employees?
Bosses may scold their subordinates for a number of reasons, usually due to
failures related to work. However, employees may even be threatened with the
loss of their jobs for such failures as:
(a) Not agreeing to falsify financial statements;
(b) Refusing sexual advances;
(c) Not trying to get out of jury duty; or
(d) Refusing to commit deception on behalf of a union or company.
For the natural law moralist or any rights-based moralist, these instances are
evidence of employee abuse, of violations of human dignity and respect for
persons. Therefore, they are considered as immoral. It is unlikely that a utilitarian
moralist would ever argue that these practices are morally justified and would
produce good results on the whole. As for a cultural relativist, it is unlikely that
social customs anywhere in the world would accept this kind of treatment at the
workplace.
SELF-CHECK 9.2
What are the aspects that might be regarded as an intrusion of
employeesÊ privacy?
EXERCISE 9.1
An employee has the right to privacy and no one, not even the employer,
has the right to intrude into the employeeÊs privacy.
Companies need to know personal details such as the history and habit of
their employees in order to guard against fraud, theft and harmful acts that
employees might do.
INTRODUCTION
What do you see in Figure 10.1? It is a scene from a wedding ceremony; the
bridegroom and the bride are rushing away to celebrate this wonderful occasion.
During the ceremony, the bridegroom and bride made marriage vows which
among others included the question of whether they would be loyal to each
other. Loyalty is vital for a happy marriage.
Do you know that loyalty is a prized virtue, at least as far as employers are
concerned? Once a person accepts a job with a company, he is considered to owe
his loyalty to the company, both while employed and under certain conditions,
even after leaving the company.
Is loyalty to oneÊs employer a moral obligation? The answer depends on how you
define loyalty. If it means that people are expected to do their job at some
acceptable level of competence or to do what their supervisors tell them to do,
whether in terms of their job description or day-to-day directives, then loyalty is
a matter of moral obligation because these expectations are the very essence of
the employment contract.
Furthermore, doing oneÊs job includes understanding that the employee will
keep trade secrets, marketing plans, strategic decisions and personnel
information confidential. It also means that the employee will not share the
confidential information with outsiders, whether friends, family members or the
media.
Any manager who violates the terms of the employment contract is subject to
disciplinary action by the company up to and including dismissal, as official
company documents frequently caution. A manager who discloses company
information to outsiders may even face a lawsuit by the company for damages.
Clearly, loyalty in this sense involves a moral obligation.
Managers may not carry on activities that conflict with their companiesÊ interests,
unless directly permitted by the companies for good reasons. Furthermore,
managers should not provide off-hours consulting services to competitors, nor
attempt to patent inventions or sell technical processes they may have developed
largely from information derived directly from their employment or by using
company materials and facilities.
Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)
132 TOPIC 10 LOYALTY TO A COMPANY
Future managers may ask the following questions in order to shed light on
matters related to loyalty:
ACTIVITY 10.1
http://www.ups.com/europe/ch/news/speech/gerloyalty.html
SELF-CHECK 10.1
10.2 WHISTLE-BLOWING
Who is a whistle-blower? Read the explanation below in order to learn more
about whistle-blowers.
Figure 10.2 shows how a whistle-blower can have a very significant position in
an organisation.
The most likely justification for blowing the whistle is in situations where
somebody in a company is engaging in or tolerating an activity that will harm
employees, stockholders or the public. The only way to stop the activity is to
inform the appropriate supervisors in the company or, if that channel is blocked,
one can go to the authorities or the media. So you need to answer these two
questions.
Since the answers to these questions vary depending on whether the whistle-
blowing is internal or external, each variety will be treated separately in the
following sections.
You may consider it as a mark of loyalty to your company to blow the whistle on
your manager who is obviously doing an illegal action. However, is it
permissible for you to blow the whistle on this person who is a manager of the
firm where you are working?
Justification Explanation
Significant harm It should be evident that the harm to the company is significant.
Accurate facts The whistle-blower has to be sure of his facts. Wrongful accusation
may seriously damage the reputation of the accused, even if it is
proved later that the allegation is false.
Activity already The whistle-blower should try to find out whether the suspectÊs
known by the activity is already known by the higher management, perhaps as a
management result of audits or discreet investigations carried out by the company
security.
Reasonable There should be some reasonable expectation that blowing the
expectation of whistle will be effective; that the suspectÊs supervisor will put a stop
effectiveness to what is going on because he believes that the offence is as serious
as the whistle-blower thinks it is.
Impact on The whistle-blower has to consider the possible damage to his own
oneself reputation and prospects in the business. Will the action be seen as a
mark of loyalty, trivial talk, an act of spite, or simply a chance to
smear a rival for promotion? Will the whistle-blower be labelled as a
troublemaker, however good his intentions may be?
Finally, the whistle-blower might discover that, in some instances
Moral obligation such as using company equipment for personal use, simply
confronting the guilty employee with his wrongdoing might be
enough to stop it.
Is it morally obligatory to blow the whistle on a manager? The answer
to this question begins with establishing who has the primary
obligation to watch out for and investigate any questionable action by
any employee.
Let us say that if a manager signs an agreement with the company
acknowledging a responsibility to report, through the proper lines of
supervision, all instances of possible wrongdoing he or she might
encounter. Then, there would be moral obligation to blow the whistle
whenever the need arises. However, such explicit formal agreements
are rare.
ACTIVITY 10.2
What actions would you take if you suspect disloyalty from a
manager in your company?
In addition to the criteria of justifications listed earlier for the internal whistle-
blower, several others are required before external whistle-blowing is justified, as
shown in Table 10.2.
Criteria of
Explanation
Justification
Internal report It must be ensured that effort has to be made to report wrongful
of wrongful conduct internally, through proper lines of organisation. The
conduct company concerned should have a chance to clean up its act before
the whistle-blower goes public.
External It must be evident that external agencies like auditors or public
agencies regulatory bodies are unable or unwilling to report what is going on.
Significant case A significant case of harm to stockholders, employees or the public
of harm has to be at issue, such as fraud, embezzlement, unsafe working
conditions or illegal dumping of hazardous materials.
Degree of harm The degree of harm that the company will suffer as a result of
whistle-blowing should be proportionate to the harm its wrongdoing
is causing.
The primary obligation for preventing and stopping wrongdoing lies with the
degree of supervision. The more responsibilities a manager has for company
operations, the stronger that obligation is. A manager would be obliged to report
wrongdoing to outsiders only if serious harm is at issue and if it is evident that
appropriate levels of supervision are unable to stop it.
In the United States, government employees who blow the whistle are protected
by law against retaliation. The government appears to think that whistle-blowers
demonstrate a high degree of loyalty when they report wrongdoing. In the
SELF-CHECK 10.2
EXERCISE 10.1
A subordinate has to carry out the legitimate orders of his supervisor and keep
him informed about the progress of his work or task. The subordinate may even
be obliged to tell the supervisor about actions of other persons or groups that
may adversely affect boss's operations. However, wrongdoing by his boss should
not be ignored.
Let us now see how much you have understood from your reading by
attempting the following exercise.
EXERCISE 10.2
The obligation to blow the whistle internally depends on who has primary
responsibility for discovering and investigating an employeeÊs questionable
actions.
Loyalty Whistle-blowing
Whistle-blower
References
Boo Su-Lynn & Dinesh Kumar. (2010, August 5). Pakatan questions Sime DarbyÊs
corporate governance. The Malaysian Insider. Retrieved from
http://www.Themalaysianinsider.com.
Carroll, A. B., & Buchholtz, A. K. (2006). Business and society: Ethics and
stakeholder management (6th ed.). Ohio: South-Western.
Donaldson, T., & Preston, L. (1995). The stakeholder theory of the corporation:
Concepts, evidence, implications. Academy of Management Review 20(1),
65-91.
Elkington, J. (1997). Cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of 21st century
business. Oxford: Capstone Publishing.
Ferrell, O.C., Thorne, D.M., & Ferrell, L. (2011). Social responsibility and business.
(4th ed.). Canada: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
Institute for Global Ethics. (2006). Cooked books, fried reputation: Study, ethics
newsline. Ethics Newsline.
Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2011). Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics and
public policy (13th ed.). Singapore: McGraw-Hill.
Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. (1997). Toward a theory of stakeholder
identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really
counts. The Academy of Management Review, 22(4), 853-886.
Thorne, D. M., Ferrell, O. C., & Ferrell, L. (2008). Business and society (3rd ed.).
Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Wheeler, D., & Sillanpaa, M. (1997). The stakeholder corporation: A blueprint for
maximising stakeholder value. London: Pitman Publishing.
Answers
Exercise 1.1
1. In utilitarian theory, the term refers to our perception of the net benefits
and costs associated with a given act. Utilitarianism differs from the
economic concept of cost/benefit analysis in that the distribution of the
costs and benefits has to be included as well. That is, these are net benefits
to society, and each individual within the society has to be considered and
treated equally in the distribution.
(b) Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism fails because of these factors:
(i) In reality, it is about these two principles: the greatest good and
the greatest number. At some point in our decision-making on
important matters, these two principles come into conflict. Then,
(c) Universalism
(i) It is a useful method of moral reasoning but there are no
priorities and no degrees.
(ii) It is difficult to treat others as ends and not as means all the time,
particularly when many serve as means to our personal ends.
Storekeepers are means of procuring our groceries; customers
are our means of earning our livelihoods; employees are the
means of staffing our factories.
Exercise 1.2
1. Ethics can generally be defined as the principles of morally acceptable
conduct of individuals. Ethics also means an individualÊs personal beliefs
about right and wrong behaviours. Individual ethics formed through
various factors.
3. The Golden Rule is a Christian principle based on verse in the Bible „Do
unto others as you would have them do unto you‰. This principle can also
be found in most, if not all, world religions. It requires identifying various
courses of action and choosing the one that treats others the way you would
want to be treated. In terms of business organisation, the ÂothersÊ refers to
the organisationÊs stakeholders. Stakeholders include the organisationÊs
investors, partners, employees, unions, customers, suppliers and
governments.
Students need to discuss which factor is the most important and give
reasons for the answer.
Exercise 2.1
1. Market stakeholders are individuals or groups which have a direct interest
in the organisation as well as engaged in economic transactions with the
organisation as it produces its goods and services.
2. Customers, employees.
Exercise 2.2
Yes, stakeholders management is very important. Stakeholder management
refers to the process of managing the expectations of the individuals and groups
who have an interest in your organisation or will be affected by the
organisationÊs activities. Failing to address the concern of stakeholders can
damage a firmÊs reputation and ultimately affect its bottom line.
Exercise 2.3
1. True
2. False, one more responsibility is philanthropic responsibility.
Exercise 3.1
1. Ethical problems are managerial problems because they represent a conflict
between an organisationÊs economic performance and its social
performance. There should be a right or proper balance between economic
performance and social performance. Thus, the managementÊs dilemma is
to strike a balance between economic and social performances.
2. Features/characteristics of ethical problems in management:
(a) Extended consequences
(b) Multiple alternatives
(c) Mixed outcomes
(d) Uncertain consequences
(e) Personal implications
Exercise 3.2
1. (a) Economic analysis
(b) Legal analysis
(c) Ethical analysis
Exercise 3.3
1. Maintaining the quality of a product. Some stakeholders wants to produce
the product in a short period of time which may affect the quality of the
product. Despite this activity being in conflict with the law, it still occurs
widely.
2. Discussion must cover all the characteristics of ethical problems in
management which includes:
(a) Most ethical decisions have extended consequences.
(b) Most ethical decisions have multiple alternatives.
(c) Most ethical decisions have mixed outcomes.
(d) Most ethical decisions have uncertain consequences.
(e) Most ethical decisions have personal implications.
Exercise 4.1
1. The law is a set of rules established by a society to govern behaviour within
that society. The law can be defined as a consistent set of universal rules
that are widely published, generally accepted and usually enforced.
2. Characteristics of Law:
(a) Consistent
The requirements to act or not to act have to be consistent to be
considered as part of the law. For example, if two requirements
contradict each other, both cannot be termed as a law, because
obviously people cannot obey both.
(b) Universal
The requirements to act or not to act also have to be universal, or
applicable to everyone with similar characteristics and who are facing
the same set of circumstances.
(c) Published
The requirements to act or not to act have to be published and put in
print so that they are accessible to everyone within the society. No
doubt that not everyone has the time to read up or understand
everything that is published. However, trained professionals such as
attorneys are available to interpret and explain the law. Hence,
ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse.
(d) Accepted
The requirements to act or not to act in a given way have to be
obeyed. If most members of the society do not voluntarily follow the
law, they would have to be compelled to do so.
(e) Enforced
The requirements to act or not to act in a given way have to be
enforced. Members of the society have to understand that they will be
compelled to obey the law, if they do not choose to do so voluntarily.
People have to recognise that, if they disobeyed the law, and if it is
noted and can be proven, they will suffer from loss of convenience,
time, money, freedom or life. There is an element of persistency about
the law. There is also or should be an element of certainty as it defines
what will happen if we do not follow the rules.
Exercise 4.2
1. Students have to discuss the processes involved in formation of law which
includes:
(a) Individual process
(b) Group process
Exercise 5.2
There are no complete satisfactory means of changing the planning, control and
motivational systems to ensure that the moral standards of senior executives will
be followed. What we can do are using Multiple analysis (using economic, legal
and moral forms of reasoning) appears to make the issues clearer, and the
proper, right or just decision more apparent. However, the process does not
guarantee unanimity as the values and the priorities arising from economic, legal
and moral outcomes differ among members of every organisation.
2.
Supporting Social Responsibility Opposing Social Responsibility
Businesses create problems and The purpose of businesses is to
should therefore help to solve them. generate profit for owner.
Corporations are citizens in our Involvement in social programmes
society. gives businesses too much power.
Businesses often have the There is a potential for conflict of
resources necessary to solve problems. interest.
Social responsibility can enhance Businesses lack the expertise to
profits. manage social programmes.
Exercise 7.2
In order to have good corporate governance in the organisation, the
management should look into the following aspects:
they operate has a moral claim on any specific job offered in the private
sector.
2. Affirmative action may range all the way from setting specific numbers of
minorities to be moved into positions over a given time period. The
proportion of the positions they hold begins to approach their numerical
distribution in the general population, to establishing the overall principle
that employment and promotion opportunities are open to all, regardless of
gender, race, religion, age or disability.
3. Yes, agree with the statement that performance appraisal systems have an
ethical dimension. There is a moral dimension to this responsibility. We
need to consider the impact which appraisals have on the persons being
evaluated and on their perception of their self-worth as measured by what
their supervisors think of them. The companyÊs appraisal plan which
outlines the ground rules for preparing performance evaluations constitutes
a moral contract with employees because it is a promise. It normally
stipulates that how well an individual meets the standards established in
the plan will determine how much he or she will be paid. A supervisor,
who fails to follow the appraisal plan, acts unjustly toward his subordinates
who have a right to be judged in line with their provisions and standards.
To ensure ethical treatment of employees in the appraisal process, some
fundamental guidelines need to be observed.
3. The principle of probable cause seems applicable, meaning that testing for
drug abuse is legitimate only if an employer has a valid suspicion that an
employeeÊs work performance is being adversely affected by drug use.
Exercise 10.2
1. Loyalty to a company means the moral obligation of employees to
discharge their duties competently, to obey the legitimate orders of their
superiors, to keep proprietary information and trade secrets confidential,
and to avoid any conduct that is in conflict with the companyÊs rightful
interests.
2. Refer to Table 10.1: Criteria of Justification for Internal Whistle-blowing.
3. That belief is simply false. A manager has a fiduciary duty to the owners of
the business. Thus, it would be a violation of that duty to cover up actions
by a supervisor who is harming the ownersÊ interests in any serious way. A
subordinate has to carry out the legitimate orders of his supervisor and
keep him informed about the progress of his work or task. The subordinate
may even be obliged to tell the supervisor about actions of other persons or
groups that may adversely affect boss's operations. However, wrongdoing
by his boss should not be ignored. The wrongdoings should be reported.
OR
Thank you.