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(Download PDF) Ethics and Business A Global Introduction Bart Wernaart Online Ebook All Chapter PDF
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Foreword
However, attention for this subject seems to have intensified for various
reasons, as a result of several social trends. As we will see in Chapter 5,
privatization, technological and digital innovation, changes in moral
perception, economic and financial crises and globalization are important
factors that stir a more recent debate on how companies should behave in
our societies.
As a result of this renewed attention, many books have been written from
many perspectives covering the academic discipline of ethics applied in
national and international business context. We could perhaps say that the
market for such books is already saturated. The literature list at the end of
each chapter speaks for itself. I still, however, felt the urge to write this book,
for various reasons.
As a teacher of applied sciences, I noticed that there was not really a fitting
book on ethics that would truly cover all I want to teach in my lectures.
There are wonderful books that discuss normative ethics in the context of
the individual, focusing on ethical decision-making. There are outstanding
books introducing triple bottom line thinking or circular economy concepts
in the context of implementing ethics in a company. Last, there are great
books discussing our global economy, geo-political relations and cultural
diversity. There are, however, hardly any books that discuss and connect all
three levels, while this seems to me a necessity to fully understand ethics in
any economic profession.
Furthermore, I noticed amongst my students that they grew weary from the
moral tone of most books on ethics. Many are written from either a
European or an Anglo-Saxon perspective and communicate Western
arrogance, while this does not do justice to other regions of the world, such
as Asian, African, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries.
Please accept that each time when I use ‘he’ it might as well be a ‘she’.
However, the book would become less readable if I would use both.
Although writing is a lonely business, I was never truly alone. I owe a great
deal to some individuals who played an important role in the creation of
this book, both on a professional and a personal level.
First of all, as with each book that I write, I would like to thank my students.
In each lecture, they make me understand a little more about this world by
asking the right questions, challenging each other’s viewpoints, or simply
say brilliant things. They keep my knives sharp, and I truly enjoy their
intellect and talents. Without them, there would simply be no book.
I would like to thank my parents and brothers, for their ongoing love and
support, as well as my family in law, who all together were of great help in
getting our little family up and running.
Thank you, Vik, for showing me what we are, and your untamable
enthusiasm in life.
To conclude, I would like to thank my wife, Sylvia. She is the best possible
sparring partner in the field of education, didactics and social studies. Our
‘kitchen table talks’ with a good glass of wine always lead to innovative ideas
in education, which I thankfully use every day. On a more personal note,
she is my partner-in-crime in many fields, including the raising of two
beautiful children, music, academics and much more. During the writing
process of this book, she gave birth to our beautiful daughter Bo, sister of
our beautiful son Vik.
Therefore I would like to dedicate this book to our daughter. Your open
attitude towards the world around you is a blessing, and will open many
doors. While the world may seem a dark place once in a while, remember
that it is your own morality that is the only true compass in dealing with
whatever happens in life. I have no doubt that you will become a woman
with the best possible compass that sterns from who you are, because that
what you are, is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
Bart Wernaart
Valkenswaard, summer 2018
© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv
Content
Introduction 9
PART 1
Ethics and the individual 11
1 What is ethics? 13
2 Responsibility 49
3 Normative ethics 69
PART 2
Business and ethics 111
9 Accountability 257
PART 3
Ethics in a globalized world 293
Index 343
Introduction
A book is almost per definition not up to date. After its publication, the
world will inevitably change. To fill this ‘time gap’ we will regularly publish
blog posts and videos in which we comment on current developments that
relate to this book. More info can be found at www.drwernaart.com, or on
his socials. For teachers, presentations for each chapter as well as a
teacher’s manual are available to support lectures based on this book.
10 © Noordhoff Uitgevers bv
Value
Interest Virtue
Chapter 1:
Morality
Chapter 4:
Norm Ethical
decision-making
Chapter 2:
Responsibility
PART 1 0
1 What is ethics? 13
2 Responsibility 49
3 Normative ethics 69
4 A model for ethical decision-making 99
In the first part of this book we will examine the relationship between ethics
and the individual.
To this end, we will discuss what ethics really is in chapter one, and observe
that morality is at the core of this discipline. While each individual has his
own morality, it may collide with someone else’s sense of morality. In case
of such conflicting morality, the matter of responsibility is addressed. In the
second chapter we discuss what factors may affect the way an individual
can and wants to take a certain responsibility in a given situation. In ethics,
there are various opinions on when and how people should take on a
certain responsibility in their daily lives. This is called normative ethics,
which we will explore in chapter three. Finally, in the last chapter of this
part, we will introduce an ethical decision model, in which the most
important elements of the first three chapters are embedded. This model
can be used to structurally approach an ethical dilemma.
12
© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv 13
1 1
0
What is ethics?
1
Leadership? It’s in your DNA!
Braincompass is a dutch platform, located in test. the first is the more ‘traditional’ way
rotterdam. together with a scientific board, of assessing people regarding their
they developed a method to assess professional competencies. the last
employees in the field of leadership method is rather revolutionary: the dna test
competencies. it is the view of this platform will tell you how your biological systems
that talent is not only a combination of work, based on five hormonal features. For
someone’s mind-set and environmental instance, someone with a naturally high
factors (in other words: how someone is level of dopamine will generally respond
raised/nurtured). Braincompass argues that quicker to things that happen in his
we also need to go back to our basics in order environment, and be more sensitive to such
to get a full view of someone’s potential (how stimuli. as a result, someone with a high
we are born). this can be found in our dna. hormonal level of dopamine will be more
therefore, individuals are assessed by an qualified for a job in the sphere of sales
online development assessment and a dna management (hakker, 2016).
The example ‘Leadership? It’s in your DNA!’ can lead to discussions and is
food for thought. The fact that someone’s body is used to assess that person
regarding his professional competencies may lead to different and
conflicting opinions and is therefore a controversial topic. Some might
consider this a serious violation of someone’s physical integrity and privacy,
while others may see this as just another method to assess someone on a
voluntary basis.
This case can raise various questions that relate to ethics in various grades
of complexity. For example, a journalist once called me to pose the
following question regarding this case:
• ‘Is it ethically right to use DNA research as an assessment tool?’
However, formulating a question like this is perhaps too easy: it will lead to
an unrealistic simplification by suggesting the answer could be either ‘yes’
or ‘no’. If I understood that journalist correctly, he expected me to give the
answer ‘no’, since physical integrity is considered by many people to be
more important than assessing people for professional purposes. Using
someone’s DNA for such reasons makes people feel uncomfortable.
I strongly felt that the reason why he called me is that he wanted to
substantiate this feeling by arguments from the ethics discipline. However,
I did not give him such arguments.
Instead, I kindly told him that ethics as a discipline does not necessarily
agree on something or rejects certain things. Ethics explores morality on a
structural level, as we will see in the next section. It helps us to reflect on
what we consider as morally right or wrong, but does not necessarily
prescribe what is right or wrong. There is not a single correct answer, as we
might find in a discipline such as statistics. Instead, the answer is usually
very personal.
© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv What is Ethics? 15
The added value of studying ethics is that it helps us structure our moral
reasoning, and it gives us the opportunity to try and understand different
ethical viewpoints regarding a certain ethical dilemma. This helps us
better understand the world around us, and may give us a more
sophisticated opinion on complex issues, such as the ethics in
1
technological innovation. DNA research used in assessing people
could be an example of this.
Since the quality of the answer is as good as the quality of the question, it all
starts with asking the right question first. When you truly want a reflective
and useful answer in ethics, just make sure the question you ask is specific
enough to go in-depth, and open enough to allow various viewpoints reach
the surface.
Therefore, in the context of our DNA case a much more relevant question
would be:
• ‘Under what conditions is it morally acceptable to use DNA research in
the assessment of individuals regarding professional competencies?’
Or, alternatively:
• ‘How far may a company go in requesting (potential) employees to
undergo an assessment in which analysing their DNA is part of the
procedure?’
Both questions are not simply answered with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Although we
might have to reflect on formulating an answer for a while, asking a
question like this will definitely lead to more in-depth answers that are
more useful and do more justice to what is actually at stake.
If you really want to know: I answered the journalist that there are at least
two ways of looking at this. The first is that physical integrity is a very
important value that cannot be set aside too easily. There are less drastic
ways to assess people than to ask them to make their bodies available for
scientific research. While (potential) employees might participate on a
voluntary basis regarding such assessments, it remains to be seen if an
employee can truly say ‘no’ to such a method when his next career
opportunity depends on it. The second way of looking at the issue is
result-driven: in the end, alternative test methods in which we do not use
someone’s DNA sample will probably lead to similar conclusions. However,
they are much more costly, time consuming and intense for the (potential)
employee. Using a DNA sample, as long as privacy is guaranteed, is a
cheaper, less time-consuming and less intense way of figuring out whether
someone matches a certain job profile. In essence, everyone – including
the owner of the DNA – is better off in the end. As we will see in chapter 3,
this is the classic difference between deontological and consequentialist
ethics. To his credit, the journalist in his article included both of my
answers, concluding that there are more viewpoints from an ethics
perspective, greatly depending on how such DNA samples are specifically
processed.
16 Part 1 Ethics and thE individual © Noordhoff Uitgevers bv
This definition can be subdivided into four elements that need some further
explanation: morality, structure, analysis and evaluation.
First, in ethics we try to answer the question of what is right and wrong.
Someone’s general perception of ‘rightness’ is also labelled as someone’s
Morality ‘morality’. Any person, organization, country or other organized groups of
people have their own idea of what is right or wrong and have developed
their own morality. As we will see in the next section, morality is the
combination of norms and values someone (or a group) seeks to realize.
Second, ethics as an academic discipline adds a thorough and well-
Structure considered structure in finding this answer to the question of what is right
and wrong. Most debates in ethics – especially the one that touches highly
sensitive matters – will not excel in a structured conversation. Just look at
any heated discussion between politicians during an electoral race. Ethics
as a discipline may offer structure to such a discussion, and in taking
subsequent decisions in an ethical dilemma. This structure is sought in two
academic approaches: analysis and evaluation.
Analysis In the case of analysis the researcher has a neutral attitude, and mainly tries
to structurally map various ethical viewpoints on a certain matter. As you
will see in section 1.4, we will use a comparative method for this called
‘functionalism’. This can be a useful activity when someone tries to reach
consensus in taking a certain ethical decision, and wants to find out the
common ground of the involved parties, or where the difficulties can be
expected. It is also a good exercise in preparation of taking your own moral
decisions; you want to make sure you have considered the case from all
possible viewpoints and as a result take the best decision you can possibly
come up with.
Evaluation This last activity is the structural evaluation, in which you eventually move
from a neutral towards a more subjective perspective. When we evaluate,
we do have an opinion about these ethical viewpoints, and carefully
conclude what you consider to be the moral thing to do in a particular
situation. There is no right or wrong here, since evaluating is a very personal
activity, and really depends on the morality of the researcher. However,
when the evaluation is preceded by a structural analysis, you will probably
be better equipped to explain to others (and yourself ) why you took that
decision, or have a certain opinion about something.
In figure 1.3 you may find a schematic overview of this functionalist method.
As we will see in chapter 4, elements of this functionalist method are
integrated in the ethical decision model.
1
FIGURE 1.3 the functionalist method in ethics
Moral
question
Underlying Underlying
value(s) A value(s) B
But even while the beast was in mid-air, a great yellow body came
hurtling over the underbrush and struck the jaguar almost at right
angles.
The impact was terrible, and the two brutes went down in a heap.
Snarling and spitting, they scrambled up and faced each other, and
the next moment were engaged in a life and death grapple.
The thud of the collision had come just as Bomba’s bow twanged.
The arrow would have found its mark unerringly if the body of the
jaguar had not been thrown out of the line of its flight.
Astounded beyond expression, Bomba thought for a moment that
two jaguars were doing battle for their prey. But the next moment he
recognized in the newcomer Polulu, the great puma, Bomba’s chief
friend and ally among the jungle folk.
“Polulu!” he gasped in delight. “Good Polulu! He saw that Bomba
was in danger and has come to his help.”
It was a titanic struggle that was going on before his eyes. Both
brutes were among the largest and most powerful of their kind. They
rolled over and over, tearing from each other great strips of hide,
fighting with teeth and claws, each trying to get a death hold on the
other’s throat.
Bomba drew as near the antagonists as he could, circling about in
an attempt to find a target in the jaguar. But the two beasts were
whirling about like a giant pinwheel, first one on top and then the
other, and Bomba did not dare use either arrow or machete for fear
that he would wound or kill Polulu instead of the jaguar.
But Polulu needed no help to dispose of his enemy. He had no
match in the jungle for size and strength, and was rapidly getting the
better of the combat when, with a savage roar, a second jaguar,
possibly the mate of the first, plunged into the fight.
The newcomer sank its teeth deep into Polulu’s flank while at the
same time a claw of its hindleg tore a strip of the puma’s hide. Polulu
turned upon his second assailant and gave him a blow with his great
paw that loosened the brute’s hold and sent him rolling six feet away.
But the jaguar was up in an instant and returned to the attack. At the
same time the first jaguar, inspired to fresh efforts by the coming of
its ally, redoubled the ferocity of its fighting.
The odds were too great. Polulu could have conquered either jaguar
alone with comparative ease. But with two attacking him at once, he
had no chance.
Such rage swept over Bomba as he had scarcely ever known before.
With a yell of encouragement to Polulu, he leaped into the fray,
throwing caution to the winds. His only thought was that Polulu, his
friend, must not die.
He buried his hand in the thick fur of the second jaguar’s neck, and
as the beast turned snarling to meet this new attack, raised his
machete and, with all his force, drove it downward.
He sensed the bite of the sharp steel on flesh, felt it slip along bone
and reach the brain of the beast.
As though lifted by an earthquake, Bomba was hurled from the back
of the jaguar upon the ground. With a roar that echoed and re-
echoed through the jungle, the stricken brute rose on its hind legs,
pawed the air blindly for a moment, and then fell.
Bomba lifted himself, half-dazed, on his elbow and stared at the
great cat, a moment before so terrible, now stretched out prone and
inert.
Then the lad scrambled to his feet, regained his machete, which had
been knocked from his hand as he withdrew it, and hurried again to
the help of Polulu.
But Polulu stood in no need of help. Relieved of the flank attack, he
had at last got the hold upon his opponent’s throat for which he had
been seeking, and in a few moments more the fight was over.
Polulu rose to his feet and sent a roar of triumph through the jungle.
But he staggered as he did it, and then he sank down on the ground,
panting, too spent and exhausted even to lick his wounds.
Bomba was beside him on the instant, caressing the great brute’s
shaggy head. The animal’s eyes, of late so furious, were now soft
with affection, and it tried weakly to lick Bomba’s hand.
“Good Polulu!” cried the lad. “Brave Polulu! There is no beast of the
jungle so strong as Polulu, the friend of Bomba. He has saved
Bomba’s life.”
The queer friendship between the two had begun some years before
when Bomba had found the puma pinned beneath a falling tree that
had caught and broken one of its legs. Bomba had been stirred to
pity by the animal’s plight, had released it from the trap, bound up
the broken leg, and nursed the puma, bringing it food and drink until
the leg had mended. The brute had sensed his pity and goodness of
heart and had been intensely grateful. By the time it was well again it
had grown as fond of Bomba as a dog is of its master.
Again and again they had met in the jungle, and on several
occasions, in times of great stress, Bomba had owed his life to the
puma’s devotion. And now he was once more in the animal’s debt.
Bomba saw that the animal was bleeding from a dozen wounds,
many of them deep, from which the blood was flowing freely. The lad
ran to a stream that rippled through the brushwood not far off and
brought back water with which he washed the wounds. Then he
covered them with river mud, the universal and healing ointment of
the jungle. Polulu let him do as he would, purring his gratitude and
rubbing his head against the lad’s body.
Then, having done all he could to sooth the pain and staunch the
bleeding, Bomba offered Polulu food and drink. But though the beast
drank avidly of the cool water, he would not touch the food.
Bomba’s own supplies were running low now, and he saw in the
dead jaguars a chance to replenish them. Jaguar meat was not
exactly the kind of food that would please an epicure, but it was
eatable, and the opportunity could not be neglected. The lad cut
great steaks from the bodies, built a fire and roasted them. Then he
ate to repletion and stored what was left away in his pouch for future
needs. By this time Polulu was so far recovered that he was ready to
join in the feast.
Bomba patted the great brute on the head and intertwined his fingers
in the shaggy mane.
“Bomba is glad that Polulu is strong again,” the lad said. “Now Polulu
can go back to his mate and tell her how he came to the help of
Bomba when the jaguars were hungry for his life. If he had lost his
life, Bomba would have grieved for Polulu. Bomba will never forget
his friend. But now Bomba must go on, for he has lost much time.”
The puma whined, pressed against him, and looked up into his face
as though beseeching that he might go with him.
But Bomba shook his head sadly.
“Where Bomba goes he must go alone,” he said. “The man he goes
to see would be afraid if he saw Polulu, and would tell his people to
kill him. Then Bomba’s heart would be heavy. No, Polulu cannot go.
But Bomba will come back, if it is so decreed, and then he will talk
and feast with Polulu again.”
He pointed back in the direction from which Polulu had come, and
the brute reluctantly obeyed. Bomba listened until the padding of the
animal’s feet had died away and then once more turned his face and
steps toward Jaguar Island.
He had been warned by the attack of the jaguar that he must now be
doubly on his guard. He realized that, whereas the big cats usually
hesitated to attack unless they themselves were attacked or were
sorely pressed by hunger, here in this desolate region they would
assail him boldly, fearlessly, knowing little of man and his strange
powers.
The forces of the jungle would now be unleashed upon him, and in
the matter of mere physical strength they were stronger than he was.
From now on he must pit his wit against brute strength, trusting to his
keen brain to win against odds that would otherwise be
overwhelming.
So, though he stepped swiftly, he stepped softly, constantly on the
alert, bow and arrows, machete and revolver ready at hand in case
of need, eyes searching out every moving shadow in the
underbrush.
Before long his supply of meat was exhausted, for he had had to eat
freely to maintain his strength. He hated to devote any more time to
hunting than he had to, for it meant that much delay in his journey.
Berries and nuts and turtle eggs helped to eke out his supplies, but
he needed meat.
Luck was with him, for he killed a tapir, and this time he cured
enough of the meat to last him, by his calculations, until he could
reach the island of Japazy. Now with his larder stocked, he could
devote himself solely to the one end he had in view.
His conviction never faltered that once he came face to face with the
half-breed he would be able to get from him the knowledge he
craved, provided that Japazy had that knowledge. The possibility of
a hostile reception occurred to him at times, but he dismissed it
promptly. Why should such a natural and simple request arouse
Japazy’s ire? Jojasta had told him something. Sobrinini had told him
more. Why should not Japazy scatter the last shred of mystery that
hung about the secret of his birth?
Musing thus, he was pushing his way through an unusually thick part
of the jungle late on the third afternoon after he had left Polulu when
he stopped abruptly.
A scream had halted him, a man’s scream, the scream of one in
mortal agony!
CHAPTER XIII
IN THE BOA CONSTRICTOR’S FOLDS