Business Ethics - Lecture 1pdf

Reference Books
 Laura P. Hartman & Joe Desjardins, Business Ethics: Decision

Making for personal integrity and responsibility
 Tom L. Beauchamp & Noman E Boucle, Ethics Theory and
Business
 Andrew Crane & Dirk Matten,2010, Business Ethics(3rd
edition)
 Dr A R Khan, 2009, Business Ethics(2nd edition)
 O.C. Ferrell, John Fraedrich, Linda Ferrell, 2006, Business
Ethics: Ethical Decision Making & Cases(6th edition)
 Manuel G. Velasouez, 2010, Business Ethics: Concepts &
Cases (6th edition)
1
Business Ethics
Lecture 01
Debashis Saha, BBA / ISHAKHA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY BANGLADESH / Spring Term 2012/13
Ethics
 Greek word ethos “ meaning character or
custom”
 A branch of Philosophy
 Set of Moral principles that govern a person's or

group's behavior
 The moral correctness of specified conduct
 Refers to a bunch of Norms
 Judgments from society
3
Terms Defined
 Moral Values
“beliefs or ideals of a person or  Judgments
social group, which are judged “the ability to make a
in the light of reason and decision, or form
humanity” an opinion wisely; with
good sense”
 Norms
“explicit or implicit rules
 Right Vs. Good
specifying what behaviors are
 Wrong Vs. Bad
acceptable within
a society or group”  Unethical Vs. Illegal
Ethics (An Expert…..)
 The practical normative study of the rightness
and wrongness of human conduct as known by
natural reason
 The standards that govern moral conduct
 Based on beliefs
 Sources of belief:
 Tradition
 Religion
 Reasoned Judgments
5
Morality
Morality
The standards that an individual or a group has
about what is right and wrong or good and bad
Moral Standard
The norms about the kinds of actions believed to
be morally right and wrong as well as the values
placed on the kinds of objects believed to be
morally good and morally bad. Ex: Always tell the
truth, Honesty is good etc.
6
Morality
Characteristics of Moral Standard
 Involved with serious injuries
 Not established by law
 Should be preferred to others values including

self-interest
 Based on impartial considerations
Associated with special emotions and vocabulary
7
Morality
Nonmoral Standard
The standard by which we judge what is good or
bad and right or wrong in a nonmoral standard
Example: we judge how well a game of football or
basketball is being played
Law
 Law codifies a society’s customs, ideals, norms
and moral values
 It is essentially an institutionalization or
codification of ethics into specific social rules,
regulation and proscriptions
 It is a minimum acceptable standards of
behaviour
Example: Driving the right or left side of the road,
traffic rules etc.
9
Morality & Law ( Example)
Match the actions up by placing the number of
the category next to appropriate examples from
the list
 Ethical & Legal
 Unethical & Illegal
 Ethical & Illegal
 Unethical & Legal
10
Types of Ethical Study
 Descriptive Ethics
 Normative Ethics
 Metaethics
11
 Descriptive Ethics:
Studying and describing the morality of a people,
culture or society
 Related to anthropology, sociology and
psychology
 Consists in studying and describing the
morality of a people, culture or society
 Compares and contrasts different moral
systems, codes, beliefs, principles and
values 12
 Normative Ethics
 Systematically attempts to supply and to justify a
coherent moral system
 Seeks to uncover, develop and to justify the basic moral
principles, or the basic moral values of a moral system
13
 Metaethics
 It studies both normative & descriptive ethics
called analytical studies
 It deals with the meaning of moral terms and
with the logic of moral reasoning
 The analysis of moral reasoning involves
clarifying and evaluating presuppositions and
investigating the validity of moral arguments
14
What Business Ethics is?
 comprises principles and standards that guide
behavior in the world of business
 acceptable or unacceptable behavior within or
outside the organization
 is determined by key stakeholders
 Both normative and descriptive dimensions
 what is right and wrong, good and bad, and

harmful or beneficial regarding decisions and
actions in & around organizational activities 15
Terms Defined
Ethical principles-honesty, respect, fairness
trustworthiness and co-operation
Stakeholders are influenced by business, but they

have the ability to affect business
 Primary Stakeholder
 Employees, customer, investor, shareholder
 Secondary Stakeholder
 Media, trade associations and special-interest
groups 16
What do you do?
Bad for your company

Good for your
self-interest
Bad for your

Good for your self-interest
company
Self-interest may not always be the best way for you to

decide what to do…
Others actors also count… 17
What should the company do?
Bad for you

Good for the company
?
Bad for the company

Good for you
Reciprocity may not always be an ethical value for

everybody…
18
Ethics and Business
Looking at
Looking at the good
We are the bad side side
honest We feel good
It feels bad Full of

energy
But we
anticipate We may be
blind to risks
Purely Purely
unethical ethical
You
are
here!
To strive in the grey zone, we need to identify both the good and the
bad side, in particular for the alternative that is in our interest
19
Ethics in the Workplace
Ethics
Beliefs about what’s right and wrong or good
and bad
Ethical Behavior
Behavior conforming to individual beliefs and
social norms about what’s right and good
Unethical Behavior
Behavior conforming to individual beliefs and
social norms about what is defined as wrong
and bad 20
Business Ethics: What Does It
Really Mean?
Business Ethics: Today vs. Earlier Period
Society’s
Expectations
of Business
Ethics
Ethical
Problem
Actual
Ethical Problem Business
Ethics
1950s Time Early 2000s

21

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Reference Books

 Laura P. Hartman & Joe Desjardins, Business Ethics: Decision

 Set of Moral principles that govern a person's or

 Not established by law

 Should be preferred to others values including

 Ethical & Legal

 Unethical & Illegal

 Ethical & Illegal

 Unethical & Legal

 Both normative and descriptive dimensions

 what is right and wrong, good and bad, and

Stakeholders are influenced by business, but they

Bad for your company

Bad for your

Self-interest may not always be the best way for you to

Bad for you

Bad for the company

Reciprocity may not always be an ethical value for

It feels bad Full of

1950s Time Early 2000s

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