Professional Ethics

HU-222

Instructor
Dr. Ehsan ul Hassan

Slides Courtesy
Mr. Ammar Ahmed
Ethics and
Business

Chapter 1
Application of Ethical Concepts
to Corporation

Should Ethical Qualities be Attributed to People or to Corporations?

• One view says corporations, like people, act intentionally and have
moral rights, and obligations, and are morally responsible.
• Another view says it makes no sense to attribute ethical qualities to
corporations since they are not like people but more like machines; only
humans can have ethical qualities.
• A middle view says that humans carry out the corporation’s actions so
they are morally responsible for what they do and ethical qualities apply
in a primary sense to them; corporations have ethical qualities only in a
derivative sense.
 Can ethical concepts be applied to business
or only on individuals
→A corporate organization has moral duties and is morally responsible for
its acts but in a secondary or derivative sense.
→Consequently, human individuals are the primary carriers of moral duties
and responsibilities we attribute in a secondary sense to the corporation.
→A corporation has a moral duty to do something only if some of its
members have a moral duty to make sure it is done.
→A corporation is morally responsible for something only if some of its
members are morally responsible for what happened, i.e., they acted
with knowledge and of their own free will
→Humans who make up a corporation are influenced by each other and
their corporate environment. Corporate policies, culture, and norms have
an enormous influence on the behavior of corporate employees but they
do not make the employee’s choices for him (or her) and so they are not
responsible for the actions of that employee.
 Ethical Dilemma
Trolley Scenario
A trolley is running out of control down a track. In its path are 5 people who
have been tied to the track by a mad philosopher. Fortunately, you can flip a
switch which will lead the trolley down a different track, there is a single
person tied to that track.

• Should you flip the switch? Why?

• What if there is someone related to you among those 5 persons?
• What if the single person is someone dear to you?
Is your answer same in all these scenarios?
If yes why and if no then why?