ETHICS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

 What is Ethics.  

• Derived from Greek word ‘ethos’, means ‘way of living’. Ethics is a branch of philosophy concerned
with human conduct, especially the behaviour of individuals in society.

• It refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, and
‘involves a systematic study of human actions from the point of view of its rightfulness or
wrongfulness ’usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.

• It looks at human behaviour & actions based on moral principles and values.
Brands of Ethics

• Ethics is traditionally subdivided into three.

i. Metaethics

• Study of moral thought and moral language.

• Asks and focuses on what morality actually is. A realist would say murder has the property of wrongness in the same way grass has the
property of greenness.

• Metaethics Judgments are to the effect that certain classes of things are good or bad, right or wrong, or just or unjust.

• Metaethics matters because, it reveals a new way of understanding ourselves and others.

• Studies nature, scope, and meaning of moral judgment.

• Realist metaethical theories argue that mind-independent moral properties – such as 'right', 'wrong', 'good', and 'bad' – exist.

• These moral properties give rise to moral facts, such as ‘murder is wrong’, ‘selling expired drugs in your Pharmacy for profit is wrong’.
A realist would say murder has the property of wrongness in the same way grass has the property of greenness.
Metaethics Judgments are to the effect that certain classes of things are good or bad, right or wrong, or just or unjust.
i. Metaethics matters because, it reveals a new way of understanding ourselves and others.
ii. Normative ethics
That brand of moral philosophy, or ethics, concerned with criteria of the basis of what is morally right and wrong.
It includes the formulation of moral rules that have direct implications for what human actions, institutions, and ways of life
should be like.
Formulate moral standards that regulate right and wrong conduct.
Has three major subfields: virtue ethics, deontology, and consequentialism.
Claims concerning normative ethics:
It’s wrong to kill people just because they make you angry.
We should fight to free slaves when necessary, even when doing so is illegal.
Applied ethics

• Also called practical ethics, is a brand of ethics devoted to the treatment of moral problems,
practices, and policies in personal life, professions, technology, & government.

• Applied ethics, is the application of ethics to real-problems, in various disciplines, eg

Pharmaceuticals, dentistry, law, education, accounting, journalism etc etc.

• Attempts to answer the question; ‘how should people act in specific situations?’ 

• E.g. is it morally permissible for a doctor to engage in mercy killing when a terminal cancer
patient begs to be put out of her misery?
• Medical ethics (Biomedical ethics applied in the medical field), political
ethics, journalistic ethics, legal ethics, environmental ethics, business
ethics, & the like are all branches of applied ethics.
• Practical ethics become hand in helping different professionals decide in
various situations they are faced with during the course of duty.
• Ethics is related to other sciences because it deals with the investigation
of the nature of man as a rational being and a being in relation with other
beings.
• All disciplines use or apply ethics in their decision making.
• Anything you do is only after ethics are considered.
APPLIED ETHICS THEORIES  

• There are basically three different kinds of Normative Ethics.

 Utilitarianism

• An ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on outcomes / consequences.

• it holds that, in any given situation, the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number.

• Its core idea is that we ought to improve the well-being of everyone as much as possible

• Utilitarianism is necessary because when individuals decide what to do for themselves alone, they tend to consider only their own utility. E.g, if
you are choosing ice cream for yourself, the utilitarian view is that you should choose the flavor that will give you the most pleasure.

• Utilitarianism is one of the most powerful and persuasive approaches to normative ethics in the history of philosophy
 Deontology

• an ethical theory that says actions are good or bad according to a clear set of rules.
• Only actions aligned with these rules are ethical.
Kant believed that ethical actions follow universal moral laws, such as ‘Don't lie. Don't steal. Don't cheat.’
 Virtue
Virtue Ethics is a normative philosophical approach that urges people to live a moral life by cultivating
virtuous habits.
It defines good actions as ones that embody virtuous character traits, like courage, loyalty, or wisdom.
A virtue itself is a disposition to act, think and feel in certain ways
Aristotle refers to virtues as character traits or psychological dispositions.
Virtues are those particular dispositions that are appropriately related to the situation and, to link back to
our function, encourage actions that are in accordance with reason.
4 pillars of virtue ethics are: wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation
Entrepreneurship

• is the process of developing, organizing, & running a new business to

generate profit, create & extract economic value while taking on financial risk.

• It is change that entails risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a

business.
• Ethics in entrepreneurship
• Ethical Entrepreneurship is the journey of intentionally creating a constructive
organizational culture
• The relationship between organizations and society is changing rapidly &
Businesses should increasingly focus on their impact on and
contributions to the communities in which they operate.
• Entrepreneurship ethics are concerned with truth and false, legal or
illegal, right or wrong in business operations.
Factors that affect the ethics of entrepreneurship
 Culture- refers to the social norms, customs, and beliefs of a society or
group.
 Personal Code of Ethics.
 Legislation, or Government Rules and Regulations.
 Ethical Code of the Company.
 Social Pressures.
 Ethical Climate of the Industry
Ethical issues in entrepreneurship
 Discrimination and harassment.
 Workplace health and safety.
 Whistle-blowing or social media rants.
 Ethics in accounting practices.
 Corporate espionage and nondisclosure.
 Technology & privacy practices.
 Nepotism or favouritism.
 Environmental responsibility
Ethical Issues in Business that Every Entrepreneur
Faces:
•Lack of Infrastucture
•Funders and Investors
• Desire to Achieve
• Cultural and Societal Impact
•  An ethical entrepreneur
• Respects Employees and Customers
• respects its vendors,
• pays on time and utilizes fair buying practices.
• respects its community by being environmentally responsible,
• gives back to community as it sees fit
Factors that influence ethical behavior in
entrepreneurship
• Individual factors - knowledge level, moral values & attitudes, and personal
goals,
• Social factors include cultural norms, actions and values of coworkers and
significant others.
• Opportunity factors -new ventures, funding, market niche & good return on
investment
• Offer Ethics Training - setting up seminars, workshops and similar programs to
promote ethics in the workplace and address possible ethical dilemmas.
Myth of amoral Business
• Myth- a widely held but false belief or idea.
• Amoral - lacking a moral sense; unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something.
• Business Ethics
• Business ethics concerns ethical dilemmas & the implementation of appropriate business
policies and practices with regard to arguably controversial issues faced by a company subjects
• Some of the common issues include corporate governance, insider trading, bribery,
discrimination, and social responsibilities.
• involves a system of practices and procedures that help build trust with the consumer.
• some business ethics are embedded in the law, such as minimum wages, insider trading
restrictions, and environmental regulations.
• can be influenced by management behavior, with wide-ranging effects across the company
• not involving questions of right or wrong;
• having no moral standards, restraints, or principles;
• unaware of or indifferent to questions of right or wrong:
 
• What is amoral in ethics?
• an absence of, indifference towards, disregard for, or incapacity for morality.
• Amoral should not be confused with immoral, which refers to an agent doing or thinking
something they know or believe to be wrong.

• What is an amoral behavior?

• having or showing no concern about whether behavior is morally right or wrong. amoral
politicians.
• He is an amoral, selfish person pursuing his own goals.
Most common business myths

• The customer is always right.

• Cheaper products are always best.
• Great ideas equal great businesses.
• Friends make great business partners.
• Customers will come to you.
• Running my own business will give me more free
time
Stockholder approach

• A stockholder is someone who has shares in a company. Stockholders own a piece of

that company.

• Stockholders are people who hold stocks / own shares in a corporation.

• Milton Friedman famously said, ’The business of business is business.’ 

• In order for a business to be successful it is necessary to do things that may hurt or upset
people.

• Friedman argued that returning value to shareholders was the primary responsibility of

business and suggested that. ‘Greed is Good.’
companies should focus their own efforts on creating value for shareholders.
an entity's greatest responsibility lies in the satisfaction of the shareholders.’
business should always endeavor to maximize its revenues to increase
returns for the shareholders.
’there is one and only one CSR of business - to use its resources and engage
in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules
of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without
deception or fraud.’
 
Stakeholder approach

• For Edward Freeman a company's stakeholders are ’those groups without

whose support the organization would cease to exist.’
• These groups would include customers, employees, suppliers, political action
groups, environmental groups, local communities, the media, financial
institutions, governmental groups, and more.
• A stakeholder is a person, group or organization with a vested interest, or
stake, in the decision-making and activities of a business, organization or
project.
• They can be members of the organization they have a stake in, or they can
have no official affiliation.
The big 5 of stakeholder theory

• Customers, employees, suppliers, communities and investors 

• If case of conflicting interests between stakeholders, the company must not choose one over
the other but must find a compromise, a third way which will satisfy both interests. Therefore,
for Freeman, CSR encourages innovation because it opens the door to a world of possibilities. 
• What is CSR stakeholder approach?
• The stakeholder approach indicates that a business is not only responsible to its owners but
also has obligations to various stakeholders, such as employees, customers, business
partners, government and non-governmental organizations

Group presentation
• Demonstrate how your project (chosen in unit 1) can be socially and environmentally responsible