Business Ethics/Corporate Social

Responsibility Overview
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Ethics is concerned with the following:

 Good vs Bad
 Right vs Wrong

 Fair vs Unfair

 Praise vs Blame
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Legal View

 What are the differences between legal,

social, and ethical responsibility?
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Legal View

 What is implied by shareholder wealth

maximization? Specifically, what does
this perspective 'mean' for the interests
of other stakeholders?
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Deontology:
 An ethical theory that holds that actions are right or
wrong independent of their consequences
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Does the contemplated action:

 Conform to important principles?
Ethical Decision-making Model

1 2 3 4 5 6
principles
outcomes
fairness
caring
liberty
character
sustainability
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Problem:
 It is not clear on what basis non-humans can be
considered to have ‘rights’
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Utilitarianism:
 An ethical theory that holds that actions are right if
they produce, or tend to produce, the greatest
amount of good for the greatest number of persons
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Does the contemplated action:

 Conform to important principles?
 Create more good than harm?
Ethical Decision-making Model

1 2 3 4 5 6
principles
outcomes
fairness
caring
liberty
character
sustainability
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Problem:
 This perspective only recognizes the
instrumental value of ‘goods’
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Justice:
 Consists in giving each person his or her due,
treating equals equally and unequals unequally
 Distributive
 Procedural

 Compensatory
 Retributive
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Does the contemplated action:

 Conform to important principles?
 Create more good than harm?

 Lead to fair outcomes?

Ethical Decision-making Model

1 2 3 4 5 6
principles
outcomes
fairness
caring
liberty
character
sustainability
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Problem:
 Focus is on persons, and giving them what they
‘deserve’ based on ‘merit’
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Ethic of Care:
 Asks us to recognize and take seriously the moral
worth of relationships, particularly those
characterized by caring
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Does the contemplated action:

 Conform to important principles?
 Create more good than harm?

 Lead to fair outcomes?

 Promote caring relationships?

Ethical Decision-making Model

1 2 3 4 5 6
principles
outcomes
fairness
caring
liberty
character
sustainability
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Problem:
 It is not clear what might be meant by ‘caring’
for non-humans—or what it might mean for
them to ‘care’ for us
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Libertarianism:
 Suggest right action consists in maximizing the
capacity for free, informed personal choice
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Does the contemplated action:

 Conform to important principles?
 Create more good than harm?

 Lead to fair outcomes?

 Promote caring relationships?

 Advance personal liberty?

Ethical Decision-making Model

1 2 3 4 5 6
principles
outcomes
fairness
caring
liberty
character
sustainability
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Problem:
 Non-humans are not considered to have
‘choices’ in the way in which humans do, and
therefore are not privileged with liberty
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Virtue theory:
 Focus is on achieving our personal ethical ideal–a
matter of who we are, not what we do
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Does the contemplated action:

 Conform to important principles?
 Create more good than harm?

 Lead to fair outcomes?

 Promote caring relationships?

 Advance personal liberty?

 Stimulate personal ideals?

Ethical Decision-making Model

1 2 3 4 5 6
principles
outcomes
fairness
caring
liberty
character
sustainability
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Problem:
 ‘Who’ we are in an ideal sense may have little or no
relation with the ‘external’ world
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Legal View

 And to compound the problem...what of

the entity known as the corporation?
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Legal View

 What is a corporation?
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Social View

Corporations are not human beings. The

differences between human individuals and
corporations, other formal organizations, and
nations are significant from a moral point of
view and from the point of view of moral
responsibility.
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Social View

A corporation as such has no conscience, no

feelings, no consciousness of its own. It has a
conscience only to the extent that those who
make it up act for it in such a way as to evince
something comparable to conscience.
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Social View

Because a corporation only acts through those who

act for it, it is the latter who must assume
responsibility for the corporation.
Business Ethics/Corporate Social Responsibility
Overview

The exclusively economic

definition of the purpose of the
corporation is a deadly
oversimplification, allowing
overemphasis on self-interest at the
expense of consideration of others.
--Kenneth Andrews
Business Ethics/Corporate Social Responsibility
Overview

Man…ought to regard himself, not as

something separated and detached, but as a
citizen of the world, a member of the vast
commonwealth of nature…to the interest
of this great community, he ought at all
times to be willing that his own little
interest should be sacrificed.
--Adam Smith
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Land Ethic:
 A thing is right when it tends to preserve the beauty,
stability, and integrity of the biotic community. It is
wrong when it tends otherwise.
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moral View

 Does the contemplated action:

 Conform to important principles?
 Create more good than harm?

 Lead to fair outcomes?

 Promote caring relationships?

 Advance personal liberty?

 Stimulate personal ideals?

 Contribute to sustainability?
Ethical Decision-making Model

1 2 3 4 5 6
principles
outcomes
fairness
caring
liberty
character
sustainability
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: Mindwalk

Locke believes land that is left "wholly to

nature" is "waste." How does this
viewpoint compare with the attitudes of
today's American businesses? Give
examples.
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: Mindwalk

 One of the distinguishing characteristics

of any social system is the way in which
property is owned and transferred from
one party to another. What are the
socio-political implications of community
property ownership? Of private property
ownership?
 Business Ethics &
Corporate Social Responsibility: Mindwalk

If the best way to insure adequate treatment of the

environment is through some form of community
ownership, can we conclude socialism is a better
political system for ensuring the protection of nature?
What evidence do we have for this conclusion?
Perhaps a hybrid system would be a good framework for
preserving the environment. Either "community owned,
individually managed" or "individually owned, managed
for the community." What type of system do you
recommend?
Business Ethics/Corporate Social
Responsibility Overview