BSB119 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: John Stuart Mill, Cultural Relativism, Morality

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25 May 2018
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Week 9 Global Business Lecture Notes
Ethical Issues
What is Ethics?
"Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong.“
"Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs."
"Being ethical is doing what the law requires.“
"Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts.“
"I don't know what the word means."
Ethics Early Philosophical Approaches
Utilitarianism (David Hume/Jeremy Bentham/ John Stuart Mill)
o Importance of ‘consequences’
o An ethical action should lead to the best possible of good consequences over
bad consequences
o Problem: unjustified treatment of the minority
Kantian (Immanuel Kant)
o People should not be treated as ‘means to the ends’ (people are not machines -
they have dignity and should be respected as such)
o Problem: no consideration for moral emotions/sentiments (eg. sympathy or
caring)
Freidman Doctrine (Milton Friedman)
o The social responsibility of business is to increase profits within the rules of
law (responsibility to shareholders should be the priority)
o Problem: should a business sacrifice ethics for profits?
Cultural Relativism
o Ethics are culturally determined (firm should adopt the ethics of the culture in
which it is operating)
o Problem: what is culturally appropriate may not be ethically justified
Righteous Moralism
o MNC’s home-country standards of ethics are the appropriate ones to follow in
foreign markets
o Problem: it may not always be appropriate to adopt home-country standards
Naïve Immoralism
o A manager should not follow ethical norms in a host nation if firms from other
nations are not following
o Problem: does this mean that we can conduct a business unlawfully if other
firms are doing so in the host nation?
What is Business Ethics?
Ethics is defined as an individual's personal beliefs about right and wrong
behaviour. Ethics is not just the practice of individuals; it is a value shared by
society as a whole.
Based on well-established standards of right/wrong, obligations, fairness, etc.
Applied to business, ethics attempts to describe how people should act within given
business structures.
Some recent cases…
o Volkswagen scandal, FIFA corruption case, Barclays Bank Libor-rigging
scandal, etc.
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