Faculty of Commerce

Business Ethics
Course Code (GEN122)
(ABA) Lecture (9)
First Grade (2024)

Dr. Samah Mohamed Ahmed Aiad

Lecturer in the Department of Business Administration
Organizational Ethics

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 1- Ethical Challenges in Research and
Development
• Critical commitment to the consumer in the
provision of product quality, safety, and reliability
• In the R&D department, better, cheaper, faster
products is the ideal.
• Tough decisions made when delivery of a design
does not match the manufacturing cost figures
• Use of fresh materials or second best to save
money
• Full battery test run or just computer simulations

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 Ethical Challenges in Research and
Development
• R&D professionals carry the responsibility for the
future growth of the organization.
• R&D teams incorporate customer feedback from
market research, and each area can face ethical
challenges and dilemmas that can be both unique
to their departmental responsibilities.
• Product quality is the real ethical dilemma that
R&D professionals face.

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2- Ethical Challenges in Manufacturing

• Ethical challenges inherent in arriving at a

compromise
• Supply problem if a product is built precisely
based on the design specifications
• Use of a less reliable supplier when delivery is
held up
• Assurance of quality from the alternative
supplier

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 3- Ethical Challenges in Marketing
• Marketers see themselves as providing products
(services) to customers who have already
expressed a need for and a desire to purchase
those products.
• The marketing process is responsible for ensuring
that the product reaches the hands of a satisfied
customer.
• Unsuspecting customers are induced to buy
products they don’t really need by commercials
and advertisements
• Marketers argue that customer satisfaction justifies
the methods used to achieve the outcome inspite
of the misleading message
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 Ethical Challenges in Marketing
Utilitarianism ‫المنفعة‬

➢ Ethical choices that offer the greatest good for the greatest
number of people.
Marketers play the customer service card, and therefore argue
that, since their customers are satisfied, the outcome justifies
the methods used to achieve it, no matter how misleading the
messages or how unnecessary the product sold.
Universal ethics

Actions that are taken out of duty and obligation to a purely

moral ideal rather than based on the needs of the situation
since the universal principles are seen to apply to everyone,
everywhere, all the time.
➢ Refers to the actions placed within a strictly moral context
instead of basing actions on the needs of the particular
situation. 3-7
 Ethical Challenges in Marketing
• Code of ethics for marketing speaks about
“doing no harm, fostering trust, and improving
"customer confidence" in the integrity of the
marketing exchange system.
• Even with the code of ethics for marketing , the
question remains as to whether or not
encouraging people to buy things they don't
need is truly an ethical process.

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 True / False Questions
1. R&D professionals carry the responsibility for the future
growth of the organization. (TRUE)
2. Product quality is the real ethical dilemma that R&D
professionals face. (TRUE)
3. Given that R&D does not interact directly with customers,
the potential for ethical dilemmas is nonexistent. (FALSE)
R&D teams incorporate customer feedback from market
research, and each area can face ethical challenges and
dilemmas that can be both unique to their departmental
responsibilities.
4. Human Resource Managers carry the responsibility for the
future growth of the organization. (FALSE) R&D
professionals carry the responsibility for the future growth of
the organization.
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 True / False Questions
5. Marketers see themselves as providing products (services)
to customers who have already expressed a need for and a
desire to purchase those products. (TRUE)
6. Universal Ethics are actions performed out of duty and
obligation to a purely moral ideal, rather than based on
the needs of the situation, since the universal principles
are seen to apply to everyone, everywhere, all the time.
(TRUE)
7. Marketing professionals abide by a code of ethics. (TRUE)
8. The manufacturing process is responsible for ensuring that
the product reaches the hands of a satisfied customer.
(FALSE) The marketing process is responsible for ensuring that
the product reaches the hands of a satisfied customer.
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 True / False Questions
9. Code of ethics for marketing speaks about “doing no harm,
fostering trust, and improving "customer confidence" in
the integrity of the marketing exchange system. (TRUE)
10. The actions taken out of duty and obligation to a purely
moral ideal refers to utilitarianism. (FALSE) Universal Ethics
are actions performed out of duty and obligation to a purely
moral ideal.
11. Even with the code of ethics for marketing, the question
remains as to whether or not encouraging people to buy
things they don't need is truly an ethical process. (TRUE)
12. Universal ethics refer to the ethical choices that offer the
greatest good for the greatest number of people. (FALSE)
Utilitarianism refers to ethical choices that offer the greatest
good for the greatest number of people.
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 Multiple Choice Questions
1. The R&D department of an organization ______.
A. Is responsible mainly for updating current products offered by the
organization.
B. Has a minute impact on the success of the organization.
C. Carries the responsibility for the future growth of the organization.
D. Is the most important department of the organization.
2. In the R&D department, ______ is the ideal.
A. Higher product quality.
B. Better, cheaper, faster.
C. Uniqueness.
D. Cheaper.
3. _____is the real ethical dilemma faced by the R&D department.
A. Product costs
B. Product quality
C. Production time
D. Product originality 1-12
 Multiple Choice Questions
4. Marketers see themselves as providing products (or services) to
customers who______.
A. Are induced to buy products they don't really need.
B. Have a potential desire to purchase those products.
C. Think they need the newest products on the market.
D. Have already expressed a need for and a desire to purchase those
products.
5. Marketers play the customer service card, and therefore argue
that, since their customers are satisfied, the outcome justifies
the methods used to achieve it, no matter how misleading the
messages or how unnecessary the product sold. This argument
represents a ______ view of ethics.
A. Utilitarianism.
B. Universal ethics.
C. Descriptive.
D. Normative.
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 Multiple Choice Questions
6. ______ refers to the actions placed within a strictly moral
context instead of basing actions on the needs of the particular
situation.
A. Moral obligation theory.
B. Utilitarianism.
C. Freudian theory.
D. Universal ethics.

7. ______ refers to the actions that are taken out of duty and
obligation to a purely moral ideal, rather than based on the
needs of the situation, since the principles are seen to apply to
everyone, everywhere, and all the time.
A. Utilitarianism.
B. Universal ethics.
C. Descriptive.
D. Normative.
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