Ethics

Abstract

            Over the last two decades, bad business ethics has turned out to be a major facet in assimilation of a competitive advantage at the local and global market. This has been assimilated as a major shenanigan by the business managements even as the understanding of the resultant impacts become more evident. As a result, the economic effects have been very profound with analysts predicting future doom if the problem is not addressed.  This paper seeks to generate the effects of the poor business ethics on the economy from an intrinsic perspective.  Using the necessary theoretical perspectives, it also generates effective recommendations to address s the problem.

The effects of poor business ethics on our economy

Introduction

            Poor business ethics form one of the most important factors that negatively affect the national and global economy.  This has been especially evident in the recent past where more business units tend to assimilate unethical operation practices which promote their short term gains while inducing long term dents to the economy.  According to Sergio (2002), 21st century has posted vast pressures to the businesses and business managements to deliver their results within the specified time limits.  This has seen most of the managers employ highly unethical means to assimilate these results irrespective of the resultant externalities. Besides, an equal number of reported unethical cases are out of bad practices and bad organization managements personnel characters.  Compounded by spontaneous emergence of opportunistic chances for acting unethically in an organization stetting, the cumulative effect has been cited to be tremendous to the economy.  A major question many researchers ask themselves is whether the perpetrators of bad business comprehend their overall impact on the economy.

Inconsistent economic growth

            One of the most observable effects of poor business ethics is the impact it exerts on the general consistence of the global economy.  Sergio (2002) argues that the emergence of modern economy has seen the emergence of the new roles of the modern firms both at the local and the international levels. In this respect the complexity involved due to the demands of hyper-compensation and free market has seen most of the managements seek to use alternative methods for achieving their targets. Corruption has been a major tool by most of the corporate managements to undermine the forces of the market.  However, as Charlie (2004) reports, corruption edges out economic growth by separating the legally viable enterprises land/ or individuals to contribute to the economic growth or access the market.  Illegal awarding of tenders through fraudulent binding processes, as Charlie continues to say, kills not just the spirit of creativity and innovation, but holistically obscures the long term economic aspirations of a nation (2004). Most of the small and medium enterprises are denied the chance to contribute to the economic growth and therefore continue producing minimally as opposed to further expansion to offer greater support to the economic development.  However, the impact is further aggravated by the fact that through most of the business units are involved in corrupt dealings, only a few are held accountable for their bad machinations.

            In addition, further inconsistencies are generated by unwarranted withdrawal of funds from the economy through falsehood auditing and statistics.  It is no doubt that finances form one of the most important aspects that dictates the ability of an economy to assimilate the expected growth.  However, managements have assimilated fraudulent systems of illegally withdrawing funds from business units or altering the books of accounts to reflect the wrong perception of organizations status.  This consideration creates strong inconsistencies as the economic indicators fail to cohere with the provided data therefore causing major inconsistencies.  Resultant legal battles and subsequent recovery trends slow economic growth and therefore causing further stagnation of the economy.

Abstraction to creativity and innovation

            One of the major malpractices by most of the business units has been mistreatment of laborers in the workplace.  Researchers generally agree that employees form one of the most important business elements that determine its overall ability to assimilate high levels of creativity and innovation.  According to Anton (2003), businesses’ role is not just based on the need to generate profits to the shareholders, but to provide the necessary social fiber for further societal progress.  However, as indicated earlier, due to the present pressure to assimilate high profits and minimize the overall cost of production, most of the staff and employees get very low payments, are overworked, and often operate in very harmful working environments.  By assimilating a highly mechanistic system to force people to work, the general sense of identity of the staff with the business unit is lost from them as they view the business as part of the oppressive force.  Therefore, this destruction of the necessary morale for innovation leads to withdrawal of the employees’ innovation and creativity as they seek to only attain the set standards without any extra efforts.  At a time when the ability of an economy to compete at the global reams is entirely based on its innovative and creative capacity, withdrawal of the workers from holistic contribution gives other economies a competitive advantage at the global market.  After realization of the negative effects that poor working conditions had to the staff and employees contribution to the national economy, Charlie (2003) point out that the government passed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act (OSHA) to enhance intrinsic contribution of all the stakeholders in the country to economic growth. The ACT sought to ensure that all the employees were provided with the most suitable working environment for maximum productivity.

            According to Rooney and Mckenna (2007), creativity in the business environment has further been limited by poor policies in the management that seek to favor only a few stakeholders at the expense of others.  In the year 2003, the bush administration revoked and denied differing policies relating better ergonomics demands at the work places. To begin with the policy requiring the employers to keep track of carp tunnel syndrome was revoked while the rule that required hospitals, prisons, as well as other highly risky areas for the health workers to offer intensive protection to them was dropped.  Besides, even after the negative effects on the workers being reported, the government was considering exempting the industries from hazardous and other related waste regulations. Though quantitative effects of the above aspects are subject of further debate, Rooney and McKenna (2007) further indicate that they reduce the urge by the staff to positively contribute to the economy and therefore strongly reduce it achievement of maximum capacity.  Such effects are however more evident in smaller and developing economies as every aspects that touches on the economy directly correlates to the general outcome at the national and global scale.

Poor global competitiveness

            Glopbalization in the 21st century has brought strong interdependences of different economies where its capacity and growth are not just dictated by the local operations, but by the global perceptions.  Owing to the increasing demand for high levels of ethics in the work place, acceptance of the goods made at the local level using bad practices may be denied the international markets. This has further been made worse by the present upsurge of integration demands by the different economies and therefore magnifying the general rejection of products and services from a given business unit.  In most of the cases, this demand has been applied with reference to negative environmental impacts of a business unit and the overall bad working conditions.  Economically, this points at great losses from the different products market denial and even possible bans or other related punitive measures.

Natural systems production capacity reduction

            The last two decades have seen some of the most remarkable destruction of the natural systems in the history of the globe.  Equally important, have been the heightening calls for greater efforts to reduce the negative impacts of environmental degradation. Whereas many of the business enterprises management understands the role played by the natural systems in facilitating their overall production capacity, little efforts have been made to counter the same problem.  According to Rooney and McKenna (2007), the modern market place has forced most of the businesses to view the environmental resources as being free and therefore indefinite in nature.  However, this is not true as exhibited by the current revelation of the finite status of the petroleum resources.  As a result, there has been a strong withdrawal of resources from the natural environment with little focus to their resilience capacities.  Though it has been viewed as a minor shenanigan under the business practices of minimizing their overall costs, the economic growth is highly unsustainable at the long term as there is no guarantee of the same products in future.

            To add to that, many of the business enterprises have been directly associated with vast pollution of the natural environment.  In a complex tie up, US has over the years failed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, a notion that has been interpreted to give the business units a direct leeway to act unethically on the same line.  Due to the trans-boundary nature of the air pollutants, the impacts are felt on a global scale but with US equally included.  Global warming, resilience of the tropical diseases, and harsh climatic conditions has seen the country shift its resources to addressing these disasters as opposed to concentrating on its economic development (McKenna, 2007). As Peppin (1999) indicates, pollution of the environment has been a major player in reducing the ability of the economic resources to holistically support the fast enlarging economy.  For instance, water pollution makes the water resources to not only be unusable for domestic purposes, but also demand pre-treatment before its industrial use; a notion that further increases the cost of production and subsequent poor competition of these products at the market place.

Conclusion

            Poor business ethics act is the main recipe for economic down fall due to the direct and indirect effects posted to it.  Many of the businesses have assimilated poor ethical basements following the international market demand that has turned out to be highly competitive.  Due to this shift towards a highly unethical orientation, the cumulative effect has equally become very tremendous either from the internal discomfort or external demands.  Internally as it came out in the paper, staff operates in social circles arranged in internal cultures which withdraw from total participation in case of oppression and therefore causing anomalies in the economic development. Externally, the global market may reject the products from the businesses due to unethical practices precipitating to vast losses. Malpractices related to corruption and frauds are equally deceptive to the human beings but chocking to the economy on a long term consideration.  It is from this consideration that this paper concludes by emphasizing on the need for holistic ethical considerations anchored on policy frameworks to generate the best ethical practices for faster and sustainable development of the economy.

Reference list

Anton, A. (2003). Can business ethics teaching halt corruption in companies? Matieland: Center            for applied ethics.

Charlie, C. (2004). Dissecting Bush administration. Multinational Monitor. May/June, 2004.

David, R. and Bernard, M. (2007). Wisdom in Organizations: Whence and  Whither Social          Epistemology  (21)2:113–138

Peppin, J. (199). Business Ethics and Health Care: The Re-Emerging Institution-Patient   Relationship. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, (24)5:535–550

Sergio, S. (2002). Business Quality and business ethics. Total Quality management (13)8:1141-1149.

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird, Atticus Finch possesses many characteristics that shape him as a man, a lawyer and a father. Atticus is a wise man, devoted to justice and equality, and who feels it is his duty to live his public life as he does his private life. Atticus is also a very honest and loving father who has nothing but the best intentions for his children, Scout and Jem. Atticus is devoted to putting his legal profession before his self-image, or public perception, and is able to realize that the individual worth of a man without incorporating physical appearances.

All the positive characteristics Atticus Finch possesses contribute to the reason why he is very respected and liked by most of the people of Macomb County as well as his family and close friends. Atticus living his public life as he does his private life defines what he stands for and holds a duty he feels is important for him to fulfill as a man. When Atticus and Sherriff Heck Tate discuss what caused Bob Ewell’s death the night he attacked Jem and Scout, the Sheriff tells Atticus that Bob killed himself when he fell on his knife.

However, Atticus does not believe Heck and he believes that Jem killed Bob and tells Heck Tate “If they [Scout and Jem] hear me saying downtown something different happened-Heck I wont have them anymore. I cant live one way in town and another way in my home. ”(367) This quote shows Atticus is willing and devoted to make any sacrifice to live an honest and unconcealed life including letting the public know, Jem killed Bob Ewell.

Atticus always tries to be the best father he can by trying to get his kids to notice and appreciate all of the good things that are present in the world even in such a prejudice and discriminatory town such as Maycomb during the 1930’s. When Atticus and Jem are talking about the recently deceased Mrs. Dubose, Atticus tells Jem. “Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It is knowing you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. ”(149) By telling this to Jem Atticus taught Jem an important life lesson.

He taught Jem success is not always about winning, but instead just trying to fight for a good cause. Atticus believed you were successful if you fought for a good cause, even if you failed. Atticus is committed to always doing the right thing when it comes to his profession whether it means he will be risking his reputation or even his life. This trait of Atticus is clearly demonstrated when Scout questions Atticus about the Tom Robinson case and says, “Atticus, are we going to win it” and he replies “No, honey” which leads to her question “Then why-” (101).

Atticus is revealing to Scout that even though he has more to lose than to gain out of this situation he is accepting of that because he is doing what his conscience is telling him is the noble, fair thing to do, and he is trying to ignore all the negative influences that appears to him in Maycomb County. This is also revealed when Atticus is protecting Tom from a group of dangerous men who are looking for revenge outside the jail. Atticus holds them off and risks his own safety to protect Tom because he knew Tom did not deserve what those men outside the jail were looking to do to him that night. Atticus is a humble, honest and devoted man.

He is one of the few people in society who puts the needs of others before himself. By sharing the characteristics he acquired over many years with his children he is supporting them with the foundation to living a morally good life according to the standards of what they believe is right and wrong and not what it is made out to be by society. By sharing his knowledge and skills as a lawyer with those who are wrongfully convicted he is establishing justice in those parts in which justice seems not to exist. Atticus Finch is a man of good moral who sets a perfect example for those who are looking for a role model, a hero, and a loving father.

Kent has to deal with some ethical and possibly legal issues in the marketing of his game “Lucky”. Ethically he has to figure out if it is acceptable to market a game that focuses on nudity, violence, and gambling. As far as legal issues, is it legal to market these things in foreign countries and even online. If they can market this game in other countries they will have to change portions of the game for each of the countries that Brad has looked into targeting. Kent has basically two options. Discontinue the development of the game due to moral and ethical issues.

Or he could go along with what Brad has suggested and market foreign countries. The question here seems to be is it worth the trouble it could bring to market nudity, violence, and gambling? Or should they just go in a different direction that would be less of a moral and ethical issue. Sex, violence, and gambling are basically everywhere these days. There are ads on television all the time that use sex to sell anything from beer to cars. Movies these days play off all three of these. Video games for kids these days promote violence all the time.

Just look at Las Vegas, they openly market sex on the street as you walk down the road. And clearly it is know for gambling. Casinos are starting to pop up everywhere these days, not to mention that almost every state has a lottery. It is all accepted, but some people find it unacceptable, especially if they have young children. Marketing sex, violence, and gambling in other countries is acceptable if it is a part of their culture. But then again it comes down to a moral issue for the people or company that is involved.

The ‘Heinz’ Dilemma Date Period Mr. Heinz is ordinarily a law-abiding man. One day, his wife becomes gravely ill. Heinz takes her to the doctor, who prescribes a medication for her. She does quite well on this medication and begins to recover. However, Heinz has no insurance and runs out of money quickly paying for this expensive medication. After a few months, he can no longer purchase the medication and his wife begins to take a turn for the worse. One day, he Is in the pharmacy and notices that no one Is behind the counter.

The medication is in plain view. Should he steal the medication to help his sick wife? The Old Woman in the Airport You are In the airport, trying to catch a flight that is about to leave. As you run down the crowded corridor, an elderly woman suddenly slips In front of you and falls to the ground with a cry. Doyou stop to help, if you know you will miss your flight because of It? The ‘Trolley Trolley Scenario 1 A trolley Is running out of control down a track. In Its path are 5 people who have been tied to the track by a mad philosopher.

Fortunately, you can flip a switch which ill lead the trolley down a different track. unfortunately, there Is a single person tied to that track. Should you flip the switch? Why? Trolley Scenario 2 As before, a trolley Is hurtling down a track towards five people. You are on a bridge under which it will pass, and you can stop it by dropping a heavy weight in front of it. As it happens, there Is a man next to you – your only way to stop the trolley Is to push him over the bridge and onto the track, killing him to save five. Should you proceed? Why? How is this case different from the first?

Ethical Considerations Associated with Plea Bargaining Plea bargaining occurs when both sides in a case compromise to settle the matter before having a Judge or Jury decide. More often than not, the defendant pleads guilty to a crime that carries a less harsh sentence than the actual accused offense. The ethical dilemma is one of convenience over Justice. This approach, however, might cause ethical dilemmas, such as inequality in the Justice system. The courts are clogged, prosecutors are overworked, and there is the constitutional demand for “Speedy Trial. On one hand you have the courts doing their best to manage logjams, and on the other the need to provide Justice. Plea bargaining is done for several reasons such as, the chances of a lengthy trial or the lack of concrete evidence. Courts frequently bargain away charges that are just in order to get a guilty verdict on a lesser charge because they want the case to go away, or they don’t want to take the risk in a trial because they doubt the conclusiveness of their evidence.

Plea Bargains often cut out many court costs and help the legal system move cases along more quickly. This many lead to guilty individuals going free, receiving a fine, probation or a drastically reduced prison sentence for committing a heinous crime. Parties that work on a bargain agreement usually get a lesser sentence than a person who attempts to contest charges through a proper trial. Moreover, Justice can be harmed when the guilty are not properly punished, and this can have a corrosive effect on popular belief in the fairness of the ystem.

Whether an ethical dilemma exists with plea bargaining depends on how a person views the ultimate goal of the court system. Those who think the Judicial system should deter crime and work efficiently, see plea bargains as a useful tool. However, those who prize equality see them as ethically dubious. Supporters of plea bargaining may admit to some deficiencies in the court system, however, the often seemly unanswerable question remains; what’s the alternative?

In order to make a fully justified decision on whether human cloning is ethical or not, one must be exposed to the background of the subject. To start, a clone is an exact replica of an organism, cell, or gene. The process itself is done asexually with the use of a cell from the original human. It is then placed inside a female capable of bearing a child and is then born as a clone. Along with this comes questions of whether or not it is right to clone a human being based on different facts and opinions of small groups or communities(Dudley 11).

The technology of cloning is not quite developed enough for a doctor to be certain that an experiment will be successful. In Scotland, the first sheep was cloned and was named Dolly. It took over 250 tries before they were successful in creating the clone. When news of this reached America, immediately polls showed that ninety percent of Americans were against the idea of cloning humans. Those who support cloning research replied by saying the public based their opinions on fallacies of the news media and, therefore, could not comprehend the whole picture(Farnsworth).

Those in favor of cloning might say it can push forward medical research. For example, with cloning technology it may be possible to learn how to replace old cells with new ones. This could lead to a longer life for each individual. Also, with enough research scientists could create clones to act as donors. Some scientists say that human cloning may eventually reverse heart attacks. This accomplishment would take place by injecting healthy heart cells into damaged heart tissue. In addition, cloning could help improve family life.

For example, if a couple lost a hild they loved dearly and could not reproduce naturally, cloning that child could be an alternative. In this way, the parents would have the chance to love the clone just as much as the original child. On the other hand, those against cloning would say that it is wrong for a doctor to harm a clone. If this were allowed, eventually we would compromise the individual. Clones would become second-class citizens. Cloning strips humanity from natural reproduction by leaving a clone with only one parent. In addition, there would be a decline in genetic diversity.

In ther words, if some day we all have the same genetic makeup and lose the technology of cloning, we would have to resort back to natural reproduction. This would cause problems because it has the same effect as inbreeding. In the same way, clones would feel like they had lost their individuality. For example, their genetic makeup would be known. Also, there could be negative psychological effects that will impact the family and society. For instance, if a clone finds out that s/he has no biological father it may suppress the clone’s feeling of equality among other naturally born people.

Also, there is a chance that the mother or the clone may become sterile. Among all of these there are too many risks for the bearing mothers and embryos. Eventually, it would turn into a routine to destroy human embryos in the process of cloning(”The Ethics of Cloning”). According to Latter-Day Saints, cloning does not respect the fact that humans have souls and it robs clones of their humanity. God intended the power to create humans to be practiced between a man and a woman in the boundaries of marriage. Do otherwise is taking the work of God into your own hands.

This means that humans lack the authority to make ecisions about creating or destroying a life. In addition, humans do not have enough knowledge or power to control outcomes of certain events (Dudley 56). However, others believe religion has no place in the debate. They argue, interpreters of the Bible can not agree on what actions God would allow to be done with justified means. In addition, the Koran or the Bible have limits to their validity because they do not address specific issues that need to be answered(Dudley 66). After analyzing the situation, Aristotle would say that human cloning is unethical because bad means are used.

For instance, it took scientists 277 tries to create the first cloned sheep. This means that there were hundreds of deformities before the successful specimen was created. In the same way, deformities of humans would be a result of experimentation, which would decrease the quality of life for those specific clones. And, even if we found a cure for a disease, let’s say cancer, it would be reaching a good end through bad means. On the other hand, Kant would say that human cloning is ethical in that the number of people who benefit from it outweighs the number of people who suffer from it.

For example, cloning could be a way to help expand the length of human life, but it would cost the lives of clones who were failures in the experiment. In this way, Kant would agree that bettering all of humanity in exchange for a small group of less fortunate people is justified. Somewhat closer to agreeing with Aristotle than Kant, Sartre would say the act of cloning a human being is an act of free will. Therefore, if an individual decided to go forward in this act, they would be correct because each situation is unique.

According to Sartre, owever, the individual is involved in this action is, in fact, responsible and would receive the consequences that come about in the particular act. Therefore, Sartre would come to a consensus that it is ethical to clone humans, but the consequences of doing so are upon those who are apart of the act. After taking into account many of the alternatives and situations of cloning, I would not support human cloning. The effects from all of the harms that are unknown outweigh all of the good that can come from the research of cloning.

In addition, I agree with Aristotle that ou must not use bad means to reach a good end. Therefore, seeing that cloning human is both degrading to the clone and to humanity, I believe that cloning involves too much unknown information that we would need in order to even consider it. However, if scientists had enough information to be able to clone a human without a shadow of a doubt, then it might be more ethical to clone. But, the social glitch would still be present; clones would be seen as inferior to naturally reproduced humans. Therefore, I do not support the legalization of cloning or any practices thereof.

My solution bends more towards the objective part of the spectrum. I think that if humans could be cloned without the risk of death or intentional killing of clones for organ transplants it would be more acceptable to practice it. But, the clone’s social status could not change as easily as the latter. Universally, therefore, cloning should be banned in order to preserve the natural functions which we were made to perform as human beings. A general rule for cloning humans is “do not clone unless there are no negative consequences as a result of performing the act. ”

Abstract

This article looks into the three moral philosophies; meta-ethics, normative-ethics and applied-ethics from a business decision maker’s perspective and concludes that which is the most apt philosophy depending on the nature of decision to be made.

Amongst the Meta-ethics, Normative-ethics and Applied-ethics the best suited moral philosophy shall be Normative-ethics which gives a moral framework to abide to.

Normative ethics bridges the gap between meta-ethics and applied ethics. It provides one with general moral standards that enable us to distinguish between right and  wrong, and how to live moral lives. It highlights that which character or good habits should we acquire, our duties and what can be the consequences of our behavior on ourselves and others.

Looking at it from business decision makers perspective; it provides the decision maker with boundaries and jurisdictions by establishing general standards. That is, one is able to differentiate and evaluate between right and wrong. Secondly, it defines the role and expected capabilities of that decision maker. Finally, it declares that the decision maker is also accountable for outcome of his decision and its over-all impact. An organization may be using this moral philosophy to guide its employee for its day to day operations. Generally, this framework or moral philosophy is applicable to businesses and decision makers irrespective of the nature of business.

However, in certain cases where an individual issues is to be dealt with, Applied-ethics is a more suited. For instance, issue of employing disable individuals is better resolved using applied-ethics when each individual is independently evaluated rather then a generic decision.

Often distinction between meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics is blurred, therefore, a business decision maker ought to be able to distinguish that which are the issues that require a normative-ethics approach and which are more suited for applied-ethics approach.

Bibliography

Kant’s Moral Philosophy – Stanford Encyclopedia Of Philosophy (2004), Retreived on 31^st December, 2006 from: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-moral/