Ethical

Dilemma in
Business
Presented By
Shivani Arora 09BS0002233
Piyush Phull 09BS0001589
Jyotika Vohra 09BS0000984
Kanika Sachdeva 09BS0003130
Astha Gautam 09BS0000476 1
INTRODUCTION
 Ethical dilemma is a complex situation that involves an
apparent mental conflict between
 one’s personal and professional values
 two values/ethical principles
 two possible actions each with reasons strongly favorable and unfavorable
 two unsatisfactory alternatives
 one’s values/principles and one’s perceived role
 the need to act and the need to reflect
 Ethics involves learning what is right or wrong, and then
doing the right thing
 Business ethics set the standard for how your business is
conducted.
 They define the value system of how you operate in the
marketplace and within the business
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Terminology
 Ethical Code – A set of principles governing morality and
acceptable behavior. It covers –
 Personal Behavior – when dealing with customers & clients
 Corporate behavior – when negotiating deals
 Behavior towards society – when recruiting
 Behavior towards environment – when deciding on process of
production
 Ethical Audit – It is a process which measures the internal
and external consistency of an organization’s values base. It
is done in order –
 To check that ethical principles are being pursued
 To check the extent to which actions are consistent with the
organization’s stated ethical intentions
 To establish action plans if they are not.
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 Ethical Decision making

 It requires a trained sensitivity to ethical issues and a practiced

method for exploring the ethical aspects of a decision and weighing
the considerations that should impact

 It ensures that all companies not only meet but continue to perform
at the highest ethical level without leaving any room for laxity.

 It ensures to promote an ethical conduct while penalizing those

actions that are not in line with the rules.

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Four Ethical Theories
 Utilitarianism: do what provides the most utility to
the group.

 Duty Ethics: do your duty.

 Rights Ethics: respect other’s moral rights.

 Virtue Ethics: try to be a virtuous person.

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 Utilitarianism
 Building a new dam will cause dislocation of the local
population, but it will provide substantial benefits to society:
 Drinking water
 Water for crops
 Flood control
 Recreational boating
 Variations of Utilitarianism
 Act utilitarianism - Judge individual actions based on whether they
provide the most good in a given situation. Break rules if the actions
produce the most good (A military officer may need to decide to
sacrifice one life to save a thousand)
 Rule utilitarianism - Moral rules are most important; e.g., do not
harm others, do not steal.
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 Duty Ethics (Kant's Theory)
 Ethical actions are those actions that can be
written as a list of duties; e.g.,

 Be honest
 Don’t cause others to suffer
 Treat others fairly
 …

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 Rights Ethics (Locke's Theory)

 People have fundamental rights, that others

have a duty to respect.

 Example. There are 6 fundamental rights

that are observed by the constitution of
India

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Virtue Ethics

 Virtue ethics addresses

determining what kind of

people we should be.

Virtue is moral distinction

and goodness.

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Using Ethical Theories

 Example 1. A chemical plant near a city

discharges a hazardous waste into the
ground water. The city takes its water from
nearby wells.

 Rights Ethics: Pollution is unethical, since it

harms city residents.

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Using Ethical Theories

 Example 1. A chemical plant near a city

discharges a hazardous waste into the
ground water. The city takes its water from
nearby wells.

 Virtue Ethics: The plant manager is not

demonstrating loyalty to the community.

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Using Ethical Theories
 Example 1. A chemical plant near a city
discharges a hazardous waste into the ground
water. The city takes its water from nearby
wells.

 Utilitarianism. Economic benefits of the plant

are outweighed by the negative effects of
pollution and safety violations.

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 Ethical Consumerism
 Ethical consumerism is the intentional purchase of products and
services that the customer considers to be made ethically.

 The rise in ethical consumerism and green brands that identify

themselves as ethical, has led to a rise in ethic-based decisions in
the mass market.

 Alternative terms for the same are ethical consumption, ethical

purchasing, moral purchasing, ethical sourcing, ethical
shopping or green consumerism.

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 Global morality

 An electric wire reel reused

like a center table in a 
Rio de Janeiro decoration 
fair.

 When consumers choose and

reuse environmentally
friendly material like this,
they are practicing ethical
consumerism.

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Positive Buying
 Positive buying means favoring ethical products, be they fair trade, cruelty free,
organic, recycled, re-used, or produced locally.

 A number of standards and labels have been introduced to induce positive buying
like equal exchange, product red.

 The international symbol for recycling.

 Along with disclosure of ingredients, some mandatory labeling of origins of clothing

or food is required in all developed nations. This practice has been extended in
some developing nations, e.g., where every item carries the name, phone number
and fax number of the factory where it was made so a buyer can inspect its conditions

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Related concepts
 Conscious Consuming: is a social movement that based around increased
awareness of the impact of purchasing decisions on the environment and the
consumers health and life in general.

 Alternative giving is a form of gift giving in which the giver makes

a donation to a charitable institution in the recipient’s name, rather than giving an
item.
 Some charities promote alternative giving at weddings in place of wedding
favors  normally providing several cards to be left on tables at the reception
letting guests know a donation has been made rather than individual cards for
each guest.

 Pull apart is a curbside packaging recycling classification system used in

the UK which combines both environmental and consumer packaging surveys. It
encourages local people to buy products that are fully, and simple to  curbside
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recyclable.
 Green Websites and Online General Stores

 Green websites:
 A lot of organics is a portal of sites "bringing you organic food, fair
trade, vegan, special diets, ethical, eco-friendly and other organic
products“
 allthingsgreen.net  specializes in promoting ethical companies
that produce ecologically sound products.
 BuyOrganics say they are "passionate about organic shopping and
specialize in bringing you the purest, toxin-free, genuine organic
products on the market.
 Econatural "an on-line store offering a wide range of natural,
organic, eco-friendly and Fair Trade products for you, your family,
your home and your workplace."
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 Contd..
 General Stores:
 EcoHip has a simple philosophy – to offer the best natural
products around, so you can maintain a chemical-free home,
body and spirit.
 Nigel's Eco Store "sells eco friendly stuff" including towels made
from bamboo fiber.
 Spirit of Nature sell natural and environmentally-friendly products
including baby stuff, organic clothes and cosmetics and
household goods.
 Guide me green was created to provide a platform for 'green'
businesses and brands to reach consumers who are increasingly
becoming ethically and environmentally conscious
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 EMPLOYEE POACHING
 The term 'employee poaching' can be defined as an act of enticing
key employees to move from one firm to a competitor in return for
an appreciable raise in salary and/or allowances.

 It has emerged as the biggest HR challenge for enterprises, both big

and small, across all industry verticals.

 Losing employees to competitors is common; but now many

industries are increasingly finding their employees poached by their
own vendors and distributors
e.g.. "Poaching by vendors and distributors has become rampant in
the past two years. Of the 20 people we lost, 10 were certified mid-
level sales and technical executives, while the rest were from our
telemarketing team," says CEO Sanjay Srivastava. 19
 Why Poaching takes place?

 The problem all industries face is the lack of enough

qualified and skilled people not just from within their own
ranks but also from outside.

 They have recognised that in reality they are all competing

for a small pool of people and will end up drawing people
away from other member organisations.

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Advantages of Poaching

 Getting currently employed

 Well Trained & high caliber employees.

 Cost Saving

 Strategic move for competitive edge

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 Disadvantages for the company
 Transfer of Trade secrets.

 Money & time are lost-e.g.. if a senior manager in charge of a

particular tender quits at a critical time, you lose that tender and this
could cost a couple of crores in revenues. Getting another employee
and training him can easily take 5-6 months.

 Trust-trust between the vendor and partner that's the biggest

casualty

 Competitive Strength

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 Time for collective action

 Contractual agreements, either with the employee or

vendors or competitors, serve little purpose- We are here
to do business. Who has the time and money to fight
protracted legal cases with employees, competitors and
vendors? Besides, you don't want to make enemies of your
vendors. The problem can only be tackled by collective
action.

 E.g.. APPLE ,GOOGLE,ADOBE had entered into a anti

poaching agreement. Likewise there are many other
companies which enter into such contracts
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Resolving a dilemma

 Ask 3 questions:
 Utility
 Rights
 Justice
 Then follow these steps:
 Analyze the consequences
 Analyze the actions
 Make a decision

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 solution can not be predicted

 No software, mathematical solution or magic

wand to solve them.

 Think deep, well and take responsibility for

your actions.

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Thank You!!!

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