CHAPTER 1

BUSINESS ETHICS, THE CHANGING ENVIRONMENT, AND STAKEHOLDER

MANAGEMENT

TOPICS COVERED

1.1 Business Ethics and the Changing Environment

1.2 What is Business Ethics? Why Does It Matter?
1.3 Levels of Business Ethics
1.4 Five Myths about Business Ethics
1.5 Why Use Ethical Reasoning in Business?
1.6 Can Business Ethics be Taught and Trained?
1.7 Plan of the Book

LECTURE OUTLINE

1.1 Business Ethics and the Changing Environment

Businesses and governments operate in changing technological, legal, economic, social, and
political environments with competing stakeholders and power claims. Stakeholders are
individuals, companies, groups, and nations that cause and respond to external issues,
opportunities, and threats. Disruptive technologies, increased working hours, increased personal
and professional stress create pressure on stakeholders. Examples include: Enron, Adelphia, and
others; excessive CEO pay and poor corporate performance; new regulation (eg., Sarbanes-
Oxley Act of 2002); and increased outsourcing.

A. Seeing the “Big Picture”

1. Thomas Friedman has written a vivid account of the accelerating trend

toward globalization in The Lexus and the Olive Tree.

B. Environmental Forces and Stakeholders

1. Organizations are embedded in and interact with multiple changing local,

national, and international environments.

2. The economic environment continues to evolve into a more global context of

trade, markets, and resource flows.

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3. Technologically, the advent of electronic communication and the Internet is

changing economies, industries, companies, jobs, and the way business is
conducted.

4. Politically, the fall of communist regimes and the rise of global terrorism are
also changing trading and business partners.

5. Governmental and regulatory laws and procedures also are changing.

6. Legal questions and issues affect all of the environmental dimensions and every
stakeholder.

7. Demographically, the workforce has become more diverse.

C. Stakeholder Management Approach

1. The stakeholder management approach is a way of understanding the ethical

effects of environmental forces and groups on specific issues that affect real-
time stakeholders and their welfare.

2. Begins by enabling win-win strategies based on:

a. identifying and prioritizing issues, threats, or opportunities.

b. mapping who the stakeholders are.

c. identifying their stakes, interests, and power sources.

d. showing who the members of coalitions are or may become.

e. showing what each stakeholder’s ethics are (and should be).

f. developing collaborative strategies and dialogue from a “higher ground”

perspective to move plans and interactions to the desired closure for all
parties.

1.2 What is Business Ethics? Why Does It Matter?

Ethical “solutions” to business and organizational problems may have more than one alternative
and sometimes no right solution may seem available. Learning to think, reason, and act ethically
can enable us to be aware of and recognize a potential ethical problem. Laura Nash defined

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business ethics as “the study of how personal moral norms apply to the activities and goals of
commercial enterprise.” Nash stated that business ethics deal with three basic areas of
managerial decision making that include: choices about what the laws should be and whether to
follow them; choices about economic and social issues outside the domain of law; and choices
about the priority of self-interest over the company’s interests.

A. Unethical Business Practices of Employees

1. The third National Business Ethics Survey found that:

a. nearly 1/3 of respondents say coworkers show respect for those who
achieve success using questionable ethics practices.

b. the most frequent types of misconduct observed are abusive or

intimidating behavior (21%), misreporting hours worked (20%), lying
(19%), and withholding needed information (18%).

c. employees in organizations undergoing merger, acquisition, or

restructuring observe misconduct and feel pressure at nearly double the
rate of those in more stable organizations.

d. younger managers with low tenure in their organizations are twice as

likely to feel pressure to compromise ethics standards.

e. nearly half of all non-management employees do not report misconduct

they observe.

f. younger employees with low tenure are among the least likely to report
misconduct.

g. less than 58% of employees who report misconduct are satisfied with their
organization’s response.

h. senior and middle managers have less fear of reporting misconduct, are
more satisfied with the response of their organizations, and feel that honest
and respect are practiced more frequently than do lower level employees.

B. Unethical Business Practices by Industry

1. One survey showed that the most unethical behavior happens in the following
areas, beginning with the industry that has the most instances of unethical
behavior:

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a. government

b. sales

c. law

d. media

e. finance

f. medicine

g. banking

h. manufacturing

2. Ethical issues in business suggest that any useful definition of business ethics
must address a range of problems in the workplace, including relationships
among professionals at all levels and among corporate executives and external
groups.

3. Other ethical issues include effects of information technology, sexual

harassment, invasion of privacy on the Internet, limits on a company’s
competitiveness, employee rights and issues, diversity, and the future of
capitalism.

C. Why Does Ethics Matter in Business?

1. “Doing the right thing” matters to employers, employees, stakeholders, and the
public.

a. Acting legally and ethically means saving billions of dollars each year in
lawsuits, settlements, and theft.

b. It has been estimated that workplace theft costs businesses $600 billion
annually.

c. Costs to businesses also include deterioration of relationships, damage to

reputation, declining employee productivity, creativity, and loyalty,
ineffective information flow throughout the organization, absenteeism,
and difficulty recruiting and retaining valued professionals.

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2. Managing ethically also means managing with integrity.

D. Working for the Best Companies

1. Employees are attracted to ethically and socially responsible companies.

2. Employees repeatedly cited profit sharing, bonuses, monetary awards, policies

and benefits that balance work and personal life, and those that encourage social
responsibility as characteristic of good employers.

3. Ethics matters in organizations because all stakeholders stand to gain when

organizations, groups, and individuals seek to do the right thing as well as do
things the right way.

1.3 Levels of Business Ethics

Ethical and moral issues in business can be examined from at least five levels, including
individual, organizational, association, societal, and international.

A. Asking Key Questions

1. It is helpful for an individual, group, or company to be aware of the ethical

levels of a situation and the possible interaction between these levels when
confronting a marketing, management, or simple policy question that has moral
implications. This can be accomplished by asking six key questions.

a. What are my core values and beliefs?

b. What are the core values and beliefs of my organization?

c. Whose values, beliefs, and interests may be at risk in this decision? Why?

d. Who will be harmed or helped by my decision or by the decision of my

organization?

e. How will my own and my organization’s core values and beliefs be

affected or changed by this decision?

f. How will I and my organization be affected by the decision?

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1.4 Five Myths about Business Ethics

A myth is “a belief given uncritical acceptance by the members of a group, especially in support
of existing or traditional practices and institutions.” The five most popular myths include:

A. Ethics is a personal, individual affair, not a public or debatable matter.

1. This myth holds that individual ethics is based on personal or religious beliefs,
and that one decides what is right and wrong in the privacy of one’s own
conscience.

B. Business and ethics do not mix.

1. This myth holds that business practices are basically amoral because businesses
operate in a free market. This myth also asserts that management is based on
scientific, rather than religious or ethical, principles.

C. Ethics in business is relative.

1. This is one of the more popular myths and it holds that no right or wrong way of
believing or acting exists. Right and wrong are in the eyes of the beholder.

D. Good business means good ethics.

1. The reasoning here is that executives and firms that maintain a good corporate
image, practice fair and equitable dealings with customers and employees, and
earn profits by legitimate, legal means are de facto ethical.

E. Information and computing are amoral.

1. This myth holds that information and computing are neither moral nor immoral,
but are amoral, i.e. they are in a “gray zone,” a questionable area regarding
ethics.

1.5 Why Use Ethical Reasoning in Business?

A. Ethical reasoning is required in business for at least three major reasons:

1. Many times, laws are insufficient and do not cover all aspects or “gray areas” of
a problem.

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2. Free-market and regulated-market mechanisms do not effectively inform

owners and managers about how to respond to complex issues that have far-
reaching ethical consequences.

3. Complex moral problems require “an intuitive or learned understanding and

concern for fairness, justice, due process to people, groups and communities.”

1.6 Can Business Ethics be Taught and Trained?

A. The ongoing debate on the ability of ethics to be taught and trained has no final
answer and studies continue to address the issue.

B. According to the author:

1. Ethics courses should not advocate a single set of rules from a single
perspective or offer one best solution to a specific ethical problem.

2. Ethics courses or training sessions should not promise superior or absolute ways
of thinking and behaving in situations.

3. Ethics courses and training can do the following:

a. Provide people with rationales, ideas, and vocabulary to help them

participate effectively in the process of ethical decision-making.

b. Help people “make sense” of their environments by abstracting and

selecting ethical priorities.

c. Provide intellectual weapons to do battle with advocates of economic

fundamentalism and those who violate ethical standards.

d. Enable employees to act as alarm systems for company practices that will
not pass society’s ethical tests.

e. Enhance conscientiousness and sensitivity to moral issues and

commitment to finding moral solutions.

f. Enhance moral reflectiveness and strengthen moral courage.

g. Increase people’s ability to become morally autonomous, ethical

dissenters and the conscience of a group.

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h. Improve the moral climate of the firm by providing ethical concepts and
tools for creating ethical codes and social audits.

4. Ethical training can add value to the moral environment of a firm and to
relationships in the workplace in the following ways:

a. Finding a match between an employee’s and employer’s values.

b. Managing the push-back point, where an employee’s values are tested by

peers, employees, and supervisors.

c. Handling an unethical directive from a boss.

d. Coping with a performance system that encourages cutting ethical corners.

5. Lawrence Kohlberg’s study of the stages of moral development, as well as

studies on the relevance of Kohlberg’s study for managers and professionals,
offers a useful framework for evaluating ethics training.

C. Stages of Moral Development

1. Lawrence Kohlberg’s three levels with six stages of moral development offer a
guide for observing a person’s level of moral maturity, especially as he or she
engages in different organizational transactions.

a. Level 1: Preconventional Level (Self-Orientation)

 Stage 1: Punishment avoidance: avoiding punishment by not

breaking rules. The person has little awareness of others’ needs.

 Stage 2: Reward seeking: acting to receive rewards for oneself. The

person has awareness of others’ needs but not of right and wrong as
abstract concepts.

b. Level 2: Conventional Level (Others Orientation)

 Stage 3: Good person: acting “right” to be a “good person” and to

be accepted by family and friends, not to fulfill any moral ideal.

 Stage 4: Law and order: acting “right” to comply with law and
order and norms in societal institutions.

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c. Level 3: Postconventional, Autonomous, or Principles Level (Universal,

Humankind Orientation)

 Stage 5: Social contract: acting “right” to reach consensus by due

process and agreement. The person is aware of relativity of values
and tolerates differing views.

 Stage 6: Universal ethical principles: acting “right” according to

universal, abstract principles of justice and rights. The person
reasons and uses conscience and moral rules to guide actions.

D. Kohlberg’s Study and Business Ethics

1. One study of 219 corporate managers working in different companies found

that:

a. Managers typically reason at moral stages 3 or 4.

b. Managers in large-to-medium-sized firms reasoned at lower moral stages

than managers who were self-employed or who worked at small firms.

c. Managers reasoned at a higher level when responding to a moral dilemma

in which the main character was not a corporate employee.

2. Another important study argued that moral decision making is “issue

dependent” and, more specifically, that “the moral intensity of the issue itself
has a significant effect on moral decision making and behavior at all stages of
the process.”

1.7 Plan of the Book

A. This book focuses on applying stakeholder and issues-management approaches

along with students’ own critical reasoning to situations that involve groups and
individuals who often have competing demands and interpretations of a problem,
crisis, or opportunity.

1. Chapter 2 provides a systematic approach for structuring and evaluating

stakeholder issues, strategies, and options at the outset.

2. Chapter 3 provides ethical principles, “quick tests,” and scenarios for evaluating
motivations for certain decisions and actions.

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3. Chapter 4 examines an organization’s management of external stakeholders,

including the environment.

4. Chapter 5 looks at organizations as stakeholders, leadership, culture, and a

collaborative approach for integrating ethics into organizations.

5. Chapter 6 looks at the twenty-first-century workforce and discusses rights and

obligations of employees and employers as stakeholders.

6. Chapter 7 views nations as stakeholders and looks at how multinational

corporations operate in host countries and different systems of capitalism.

QUESTIONS

1. Refer to Figure 1.1 to identify three specific environmental influences that the organization
for which you work (or study) must address to survive and be competitive. Explain. How do
these influences, pressures, and opportunities affect you and how ethically you get your work
and goals accomplished?

Answer: The environments in which organizations must manage, survive, and compete are:
economic, political, legal, technological, demographic/social, and governmental/regulatory.
These environmental dimensions can impact upon industries, organizations, and jobs.

The economic environment is shifting into a more global, international context of trade, markets,
and resource flows. Technologically, the advent of the “information age,” facilitated by Internet
and telecommunications innovations is also changing economies, industries, companies, and jobs
and the way business is conducted. Politically, the fall of communist regimes and the rise of
global terrorism are also changing trading and business partners. National and organizational
strategic coalitions and political borders and boundaries are blurring. Many government and
regulatory laws and procedures are changing and with these changes, owners and managers have
increasingly complex ethical and moral decisions to make. Legal questions and issues affect all
of the environmental dimensions and every stakeholder. In addition, demographically, the
workforce has become more diverse. Employers and employees are faced with sexual
harassment and discrimination issues and the effects of downsizing on morale, career changes,
productivity, and security.

The three requested environmental influences at work or school that students identify should be
derived from text information and the above list of environmental influences and dimensions.
An explanation of how they impact upon students’ organizations will vary, but must be provided
in the response.

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2. What are the three major ethical issues you face now in your work or student life? What is
“ethical” about these issues?

Answer: Students’ responses to these questions will vary based on a number of factors, but may
include the following recurring themes:

Lying
Office nepotism and favoritism
Taking credit for others’ work
Receiving or offering kickbacks
Stealing from the company
Firing an employee for whistle-blowing
Padding expense accounts to obtain reimbursement for questionable expenses
Divulging confidential information or trade secrets
Terminating employment without giving sufficient notice
Using company property and materials for personal use

3. Identify some benefits of using a stakeholder approach in ethical decision making. How
would using a stakeholder approach help you plan and/or solve an ethical issue in your
working life? Explain.

Answer: The stakeholder management approach is a way of understanding the effects of

environmental forces and groups on specific issues that affect real-time stakeholders and their
welfare. A stakeholder approach enables decision makers to clarify relationships, strategies, and
events in order to describe and evaluate moral options that address issues of justice, fairness, and
equity in all stakeholder interests.

Students’ responses to the second part of this question will vary based on their individual work
circumstances.

4. Which, if any, of the five business myths in the chapter do you not accept as a myth, i.e., that
you believe is true? Explain.

Answer: Responses will vary with each student’s opinion.

5. Identify one myth you had/have about business ethics. Where did it originate? Why is it a
“myth”? What led you to abandon this myth; or, do you still believe in it? Explain.

Answer: Responses will vary based on experiences and opinion, but should include sufficient
introspective comments to explain the evolution and current status of the myth.

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6. Identify three reasons presented in this chapter for using ethical reasoning in business
situations. Which of these reasons do you find the most valid? The least valid? Explain.

Answer: Three reasons for using ethical reasoning in business situations are:

1) Many times laws are insufficient and do not cover all aspects or “gray areas” of a
problem.
2) Free-market and regulated-market mechanisms do not effectively inform owners and
managers about how to respond to complex crises that have far-reaching ethical
consequences.
3) Complex moral problems require an intuitive or learned understanding and concern for
fairness, justice, and due process to people, groups, and communities.

Students’ responses regarding the validity of the three reasons will vary, but should offer logical
and convincing arguments for their choices.

7. Is the law sufficient to help managers and employees solve ethical dilemmas? Explain and
offer an example from your own experiences or from a contemporary event.

Answer: Law, formal policy, and written procedures may not always be sufficient in certain
situations to enable those who must act to do so with clear, unquestionable authority. Ethics play
a role in business because laws are often absent or insufficient to guide morally complex
decisions.

8. What are some important distinctive characteristics of ethical problems? What distinguishes
an ethical problem from a legal problem?

Answer: LaRue Hosmer offered five major characteristics of ethical problems that also show
the complexity of managerial ethics and point out the nature of ethical reasoning:

1) Most ethical decisions have extended consequences. The consequences and effects
should be considered before decisions are made.
2) Most ethical decisions have multiple alternatives. Simple “yes” or “no” choices do not
adequately characterize the many alternatives that exist and should be considered.
3) Most ethical decisions have mixed outcomes. The outcomes of different alternatives
have a variety of social benefits and costs, as well as financial revenues and expenses,
associated with them.
4) Most ethical decisions have uncertain consequences. Unanticipated and unknown
consequences can follow ethical choices.
5) Most ethical decisions have personal implications. Such decisions can affect the lives
and careers of the decision makers. Individual costs and benefits in addition to financial and
social ones are associated with most alternatives in ethical decisions.

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There are many ethical problems that do not have corresponding laws. In other words, while
ethics problems often involve the violation standards, norms, or policies, they frequently do not
involve the breaking of laws, and are therefore not legal problems.

9. What (if any) specific attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors of yours do you think could be
changed from an ethics course? Explain.

Answer: Responses will vary with each student’s opinion and self-assessment.

10. Identify and describe a specific belief or behavior of yours that you would like to be changed
from an ethics course.

Answer: While responses will vary with each student’s opinion and self-assessment, but should
clearly identify and focus on the individual student’s behavior rather than listing generally
recognized benefits of ethics training.

EXERCISES

(Responses to the following exercises will vary with students’ experiences and views.
However, sample responses are provided as suggestions where possible.)

1. Invent and state your own definition of “business ethics.” Do you believe that ethics is an
important factor in conducting business transactions today? If you were the chief executive
officer (CEO) of a corporation, how would you communicate your perspective on the
importance of ethics to your employees, customers, and other stakeholder groups?

Answer: (example) Business Ethicsto apply morally responsible behavior and beliefs to all
business decisions“first do no harm.” As a CEO, I would communicate the importance of
ethics in the company’s business dealings by developing a Code of Ethics for the company,
establishing an Organizational Ethics Officer, and ensuring that ethics is addressed in some way
in virtually EVERYTHING my company does, and that it is presented or discussed in every
formal gathering of employees.

2. Conduct your own small survey of two people regarding their opinions on the importance of
unethical practices in business today. Do your interviewees give more importance to
economic performance or socially irresponsible behavior? Or do they think other factors
are more important? Summarize your results.

Answer: (example) A survey of two people communicated that socially irresponsible behavior
by corporations is thought to be of importance when discussing unethical business practices.

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3. You are giving a speech at an important community business association meeting. You are
asked to give a presentation called “an introduction to business ethics” for the members.
Give an outline of your speech.

Answer: (example)
Speech Outline

Introduction: Definition of Business Ethics

Body: How does ethical behavior apply to business?
As an employee, what is your responsibility to the ethical behavior of your employer?
As an employer, what is your responsibility for the ethical behavior of your employees?
Shared responsibility with the community in which you operate.
Conclusion: The benefits of ethically and morally responsible business behavior.

4. Explain how a major trend in the environment has affected your profession, job, or skills—as
a professional or student. Be specific. Are any ethical consequences involved, and has this
trend affected you?

Answer: (example) In the business environment of financial accounting, business mergers and
acquisitions are happening on a global basis. This presents problems in how to account for these
complex business dealings. There are specific reporting requirements in the United States, but
these requirements contain some gray areas, of which unethical accountants could take
advantage.

5. Review Kohlberg’s levels and stages of moral development. After careful consideration,
briefly explain which stage, predominantly or characteristically, defines your ethical level of
development. Explain. Has this stage influenced a recent decision you have made or action
you have taken? Explain.

Answer: Responses will vary with students’ perspectives and self-assessments.

6. How can Kohlberg’s framework assist professionals in organizations to see, prevent, and
solve ethical problems and dilemmas?

Answer: Kohlberg’s framework assists professionals and managers with ethical decision
making by identifying the basic underlying moral arguments and motivations for individual
behavior.

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7. You are applying to a prestigious organization for an important, highly visible position. The
application requires you to describe an ethical dilemma in your history and how you handled
it. Describe the dilemma and your ethical position.

Answer: (example) I was working for a manufacturing firm doing job costing for customer
invoicing. One day, the job foreman came to me and told me that he needed me to charge a
particular customer extra for an item that did not appear on the job sheet. He explained that this
customer had been causing his team a great deal of trouble, and he felt that his team deserved an
extra bonus. Bonuses were paid on total dollars of sales attributed to each of four teams.
Although I understood, having dealt with this customer myself in the past, I explained that I
could not do that and that I would need to report his request to his supervisor.

Ethical Dilemma

You’re in the Hot Seat

This case scenario explores a hypothetical ethical dilemma experienced within a major
public accounting firm.

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