SUBJECT:

Professional Ethics and Values

Submitted By:
Eva Ruddra
October 31st, 2021

Question:
Explain the difference between Morals, Values and Ethics (Give one example
to explain the difference).

Answer:
To begin with the explanation of Morals, Values and Ethics, a simple
example can be used to understand them that is a brick that is the unit of a
wall can be considered as values, the wall that is the basis of a house can be
considered as morals and the house that is finally built can be considered as
Ethics.
Values are the rules by which we make decisions about right and wrong,
should and shouldn't, good and bad. They also tell us what is more or less
important and what is useful when we have to trade off. Values are basic and
fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate attitudes or actions. They help us
to determine what is important to us. Values describe the personal qualities
we choose to embody to guide our actions; the sort of person we want to be;
the manner in which we treat ourselves and others, and our interaction with
the world around us. They provide the general guidelines for conduct.

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Example: The values of Hinduism say to worship idols of their gods
whereas other religions such as Jainism, Sikhism or Buddhism do not value
or recommend worshipping idols. This shows that every religion has different
values than each other and prioritizes different things.
Morality is something that is concerned with principles of distinction
between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. Morals have a greater
social element to values and tend to have a very broad acceptance.

Example: Women entry in Sabarimala Temple was considered immoral by

the society, however, ethically it was accepted while law-makers gave
women equal rights in the society but still if a woman entered the temple, she
became immoral.
Ethics, whereas is a system of moral principles. Ethics is concerned with
what is good for individuals and society. The term is derived from the Greek
word ethos which can mean custom, habit, character or disposition. In
another way ethics can be explained as something that is external and social
in nature. It is the rightfulness and wrongfulness decided by society.

Example: If 10 out of 9 people think that stealing is bad and unethical and
one of those 10 people is robin hood, who does not consider it bad on a
personal level then on a majority basis the stealing will be considered
unethical by the society.

CASE STUDY 2: Meet Me at Starbucks

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On April 12, 2018, at a Starbucks location in Philadelphia, two black
men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, were waiting for a friend,
Andrew Yaffe. Nelson and Robinson were entrepreneurs and were
going to discuss business investment opportunities with Yaffe, a white
real estate developer. As they waited, an employee asked if she could
help them. They said “no,” that they were just waiting for a business
meeting. Then a manager told Nelson that he couldn’t use the
restroom because he was not a paying customer.

Because the two men had not purchased anything yet, a store
manager called police, even though Robinson had been a customer at

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the store for almost a decade and both men had used the store
location for business meetings before. At least six Philadelphia Police
Department officers arrived. The police officers did not ask the men
any questions; they just demanded that they leave immediately. They
declined. The police officers then proceeded to arrest the men for
trespassing. As the arrest occurred, Mr. Yaffe arrived. He said: “Why
would they be asked to leave? Does anyone else think this is
ridiculous? It’s absolute discrimination.” The two men were taken out
in handcuffs. They were taken to the police station, photographed,
and fingerprinted. They were held for almost nine hours before being
released from custody. Prosecutors decided that there was
insufficient evidence to charge the men with a crime.

After a video of the arrest went viral, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson
released a statement: “We apologize to the two individuals and our
customers and are disappointed this led to an arrest. We take these
matters seriously and clearly have more work to do when it comes to
how we handle incidents in our stores. We are reviewing our policies
and will continue to engage with the community and the police
department to try to ensure these types of situations never happen in
any of our stores.”

Johnson then announced that every company-owned Starbucks

location in the nation would close on May 29, 2018, for “racial-bias
education.” When one customer complained on Facebook that
closing the stores because of just one incident seemed overkill,

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Starbucks responded: “There are countless examples of implicit bias
resulting in discrimination against people of color, both in and
outside our stores. Addressing bias is crucial in ensuring that all our
customers feel safe and welcome in our stores.” A similar complaint
about closing thousands of stores because of the actions of a handful
of employees prompted this response from Starbucks: “Our goal is to
make our stores a safe and welcoming place for everyone, and we
have failed. This training is crucial in making sure we meet our goal.”

Question 1:
Do you think the manager of the Starbucks in Philadelphia thought of herself
as racist? Do you think that what happened to Nelson and Robinson would
have happened had they been white? What stereotypes were invoked in this
case and by whom?

Answer 1:
Rashin and Donte were sitting peacefully and discussing business and
nothing else, the manager, because of some Implicit stereotypes, thought they
should be asked to leave the place for no reason, shows that she did not care
if she was being racist or not, but as a reader and viewer it clearly shows that
she was being one, as she took the situation to that extent that she had to call
the police, which might not have been the case, if only they were white.
Because, how often do you hear or go through the news where 'white' people
were asked to leave a property for no reason and were arrested for the same.
In the story, the stereotypical thought of the 'manager' that the blacks will
not pay or buy anything or that they might hurt somebody because they were
'black' and the stereotypical thought of the police to take them as a prisoner

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because of their colour and not hearing what they had to say, along with the
bystanders who simply chose to ignore the situation and not act in opposition
clearly shows the ones who were being biased and ignorant in the complete
scenario.

Question 2:
How did stereotyping influence and/or frame the situation for the manager?
For the police? For bystanders? What is your opinion about Starbucks’
response to the arrest of Nelson and Robinson? Will Starbucks’ training
session on implicit bias have a beneficial impact?

Answer 2:
The influence of implicit biasness was so much on everyone involved in the
story, that it did not even matter when one of their own races, pointed the
discrimination out. The manager when disrespected Rashin and Donte and
asked them to leave the store when all they were doing was sitting peacefully,
she made them seem like a dangerous people to hang around in the store and
felt that the concern was major enough to call police and get them arrested
and the fact that not a single bystander came in to oppose the wrong, shows
how blind they had become with the blindfold of racial discrimation. The
policemen, on reaching the apparent "crime scene" did not feel the need to
listen to what Rashin and Donte wanted to say on their behalf, took
advantage of their power and arrested them for a trespassing case, also shows
how naive they were and how deep rooted the concept of racial discrimation
was in them.
Starbucks's CEO did what it could and very rightly emphasized on the point
of arrest that was way too much to happen for such a small reason. The fact

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that Kevin Johnson took responsibility to review their complete store policies
to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again shows how dedicatedly he
cared for his customers. When May 29, 2018 was specified by the company
as a holiday for “racial-bias education”, it also shows that the company cared
more about its ethics than profits. Starbucks's response and public acceptance
of their flaws and failing also gives us an idea how much the whole incident
affected the company hence, Starbucks’s changed policies will definitely be
strict enough to ensure nothing like this ever happens again because if
anything close to this happens again, this time the whole company will be at
fault and not just the low- minded employees.