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Ethics and law sometimes prohibit the same conduct (bribing, stealing). Law may sometimes permit something that would be ethically wrong
Ex: Occupational safety laws set standards for emissions of dust from toxic chemicals in the workplace – company can reduce the emission below the legal standard by spending additional money. Only benefit from the extra $ is better health – ethics requires this extra / law doesn’t |
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Term
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person looks to an outside source for ethical rules or commands (book, person)
Critics argue that ethical fundamentalism doesn’t permit people to determine right / wrong |
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moral theory dictating that people must choose actions or follow the rule that provides the greatest good to society, not the greatest for the good for the greatest number of people
Ex: If an action would increase the good of 25 people 1 unit each and alternative action would increase the good of 1 person 26 unties, the latter action should be taken
Criticized because hard to estimate the “good”
Ex: company trying to determine whether to close an unprofitable plant located in a small community
Utilitarianism would require that the benefits to shareholders from closing the plant be compared to the benefits to employees, families, and others in community |
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Term
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duty ethics – people owe moral duties that are based on universal rules
Ex: keeping a promise to abide by a contract is a moral duty even if that contract turns out to be detrimental to the obliged party
People can use reasoning to reach ethical decisions – “do unto others as you would have them do to you” – categorical imperative
Based on 2 principles (1) consistency and (2) reversibility |
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Term
| Rawls’s Social Justice Theory |
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Definition
fairness is considered the essence of justice
Social contract theory states that each person is presumed to have entered into a social contract with all others in society to obey moral rules that are necessary for people to line in peace and harmony
Under Rawls’s, principles of justice should be chosen by persons who do not yet know their station in society – veil of ignorance would permit the fairest possible principles to be selected
Least advantaged in society must receive special assistance to allow them to realize their potential
Criticized for 2 reasons: (1) establishing the blind “original position” for choosing moral principles is impossible in real world and (2) many persons in society would choose not to maximize the benefit to the least advantaged in society |
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holds that individuals must decide what is ethical based on their own feelings as to what is right or wrong.
No universal ethical rules to guide a person’s conduct
Criticized because action that is usually thought to be unethical would not be unethical if the perpetrator thought it was ethi |
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Term
| Social responsibility of businesses- max profits |
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Definition
raditional view of the social responsibility of businesses is that business should maximize profits for shareholders. Interests of constituencies are not important in and of themselves
In Dodge v. Ford Motor Company, a shareholder sued the car company when Ford introduced a plan to reduce the prices of cars so more people would be able to work and own cars
Shareholders alleged that such a plain would not increase dividends |
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a corporation’s duty is to make a profit while avoiding causing harm to others. As long as a business avoids or corrects the social injury it causes, it has met its duty of social responsibility
Ex: a company pollutes waters and then compensates those whom it injures
Legislative and Judicial branches have est. laws that enforce the moral minimum on corporations |
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corporation must consider the effects its actions have on other stakeholders
Ex: corporation would violate the stakeholder interest theory if it viewed employees solely as a means of maximizing stockholder wealth
Criticized because it is difficult to harmonize the conflicting interests of stakeholders |
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argues that business has a responsibility to do well – responsible for helping people to solve social problems that it did little to cause
Ex: corporations owe a duty to subsidize schools and help educate children
Criticism is that the duty of a corporation to do good cannot be expanded beyond certain limits – there is always some problem and corporate funds are limited |
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