Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter 2 - Business Ethics and Social Responsibilities
Chapter 2 - Business Ethics and Social Responsibilities
Chapter 2 - Business Ethics and Social Responsibilities
1 Legal Environment
2
2 Legal Environment
Quotes of the Day
“The one and only social responsibility of
business is to increase its profits.”
Milton Friedman (b. 1912),
Nobel laureate in economics
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• What are the consequences of this choice?
• Does this action violate important values?
Is more than one alternative right?
8 Legal Environment
Responsibility To Society
Businesses must take a stand on sexual
and racial exploitation in advertising.
Alternatives in advertisement ethics
• Ignore ethics and try to create ads that sell the
most product, no matter the underlying
message.
• Try generally to minimize exploitation.
• Include a systematic, focused review of
underlying messages as part of the
2
development process.
• Refuse to create any ads that are even
potentially offensive.
9 Legal Environment
Other Responsibilities
To customers
• Is a business responsible if its decisions create a
financial hardship for someone else? What if a
decision leaves someone homeless?
To employees
• Should employers be required to treat all
employees the same in regard to benefits?
To shareholders
• Questions are often raised about uses of a
company’s profits -- distributed to shareholders,
raising executives’ salaries, improving business?
• Should a company be allowed to intentionally lower 2
profits to improve in other areas?
10 Legal Environment
Other Responsibilities (cont’d)
To -- and in -- foreign countries
• Companies with operations in foreign countries are
often criticized for deplorable working conditions
and low wages.
• Response to these criticisms is often that even low-
wage jobs are better than destitution and that these
jobs are the beginnings of economic growth.
Employees’ responsibility to company
• Should employees report unethical behavior among
co-workers? Should promotion decisions be made
based on friendships?
• These questions show the difficult choices that 2
have to be made every day in the work place.
11 Legal Environment
2
12 Legal Environment
The Best Insurance
Even employees who are ethical in their
personal lives may find it difficult to
uphold their standard at work if those
around them behave differently.
13 Legal Environment
2
14 Legal Environment
“Ethical behavior offers significant
advantages: society as a whole
benefits; executives who behave
ethically have happier, more
fulfilled lives; and unethical
behavior can destroy a company.”
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15 Legal Environment
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16 Legal Environment