Ethics and the Conduct of Business BU 691c Winter 2000

1
Ethics and the Conduct of Business BU 691c
Winter 2000

• Dr. A. Scott Carson, Dean and Professor of
  Business Policy
• School of Business and Economics
• Wilfrid Laurier University

2
Four Ethical Situations

• A forest products company discovers that a rare
  species of owl inhabits a large area where the
  company is to begin logging.
• A young manager whose career is progressing very
  rapidly overhears a senior officer making racial
  jokes to a group of other senior managers

3

• A loans officer from the Bank of Montreal in
  Kitchener receives a case of scotch from the
  owner of a construction company at Christmas. The
  loan application of the company has just been
  successfully renewed.
• Pepsico has just approached the Waterloo Regional
  School Board with an offer to pay 1 million for
  the exclusive rights to sell soft drinks in
  schools.

4
Ethical Issues Compared to Law, Custom, Etiquette
and Religion

• Ethics is the study of morality moral values
• human welfare/harms, happiness, goodness
• human or natural rights, moral obligations
• virtues integrity, trustworthiness, honesty
• All values are not moral values
• tastes
• values in business life

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• Moral Values
• Discrimination in the workplace is wrong
• Misrepresentation in advertising is wrong
• Insider trading is unfair
• Employers have a right to expect loyalty from
  employees

• Non Moral Values
• The Mona Lisa is a beautiful painting
• Chocolate tastes good
• The forest is serene
• The Prime Minister is doing an excellent job
• The Bank of Canada should continue to monitor
  inflation

6

• Normative ethics
• what we morally ought to do
• moral principles
• morally right decisions
• morally correct behaviour
• Descriptive ethics
• laws, customs, conventions

7

• Normative Ethics Employees have a right to
  privacy
• The distribution of wealth in Canada is unjust
• It is wrong for a manager to harm an employees
  self-esteem

• Descriptive Ethics
• Canadians believe privacy rights are important
• The right to private property is central to John
  Lockes theory of ethics
• Most Canadian employers show respect to employees

8

• Religious and secular ethics
• the principles that justify beliefs and
  judgements
• Relativism and absolute truth
• Ethics and rational judgement

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Is it Possible to be Moral in the Business World?

• What if everybody cheated?
• Could you make a contract without telling the
  truth?
• What is your role as a business manager?
• Is it the role of business simply to make a
  profit?