Framework for Teaching Business Ethics

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Framework for Teaching Business Ethics
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Morality covers

• Those practices and activities that are
  considered importantly right and wrong,
• The rules that govern those activities,
• And the values that are embedded, fostered, or
  pursued by those activities and practices.
• (R. T. De George 2006)

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Ethics is the study of morality.

• It is a systematic attempt to make sense of our
  individual and social moral experience, in such a
  way as
• To determine the rules that ought to govern human
  conduct,
• The values worth pursuing,
• And the character traits deserving development in
  life.
• (R. T. De George 2006)

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Social Arrangements
Nature
Political System
Economic System
Sociocultural System
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Extended Three-Level Conception of Business Ethics
MICRO-LEVEL
E m p i r e T y p e
F o r e i g n c o u n t r y T y p e
G l o b a l i z a t i o n T y p e
MESO-LEVEL
I n t e r c o n n e c t i o n T y p e
MACRO-LEVEL
NATIONAL

INTERNATIONAL
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Combining Social Arrangements and Levels of Action
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Responsibility is self-commitment originating
from freedom in worldly relationships. Verantwo
rtung ist Selbsteinsatz aus Freiheit in
welthaftem Bezug
Walter Schulz
University of Tübingen 1972
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Freedom is only part of the story and half of
the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of
the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is
responsibility. In fact, freedom is in danger of
degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is
lived in terms of responsibility. That is why I
recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East
Coast be supplemented by a Statue of
Responsibility on the West Coast.

Viktor E. Frankl
Mans Search for Meaning 1984
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Space of Freedom and Responsibility
Choice WITHIN Constraints Areas
Choice OF Constraints Lines
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More Freedom Than Responsibility
SpaceofFreedom
Responsibility
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More Responsibility Than Freedom
SpaceofFreedom
Responsibility
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Use your space of freedom

• You do as much as you can, as well as you can, as
  long as you can, and especially you dont beef
  about what you cant do anymore.
• Father Theodore Hesburgh

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Serenity Prayer

• God grant me the serenity
• to accept the things I cannot change,
• the courage to change the things I can,
• and the wisdom to know the difference.
• Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

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The Idea of an Overlapping Consensus (John Rawls)
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Of particular interest is Amartya Sens
proposal Development a process of
expanding the real freedoms that
people enjoy
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Human Development Report 1990
Development expanding the choices people have
to lead lives that they value
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The constituents of an economic system

• (1) Ownership and decision-making
• Who participates in the process of economic
  decision-making? Who plans and controls
  production, distribution, and consumption?
• (2) Information and co-ordination
• With the help of what information system are the
  individual decisions co-ordinated?
• By (decentralized) market
• By (centralized) planning

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Economic system (contin.)

• (3) Motivation
• What objectives motivate the various
  decision-makers?
• Which ways are chosen to implement economic
  decisions and what type of behavior is expected?
• Self-interest
• Common good
• Loyalties, etc.

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Corporate Responsibilityor Corporate Ethicsor
The Ethics of Business Organizations
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Dunlaps notion of responsibility
Best Balance sheets
Max.
Shareholder Value
Executive
Best Employees
Best Facilities
COMPANY
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Stakeholder Approach
Customers
Employees
Owners/ Investors
Company
Competitors
Suppliers
Communities
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• Can there be any truly sustainable development?
  Will it be possible to deliver economic progress,
  social development, and environmental
  improvement?
• In spite of the current harsh economic pressures,
  we remain totally committed to a strategy that
  generates profits while contributing to the
  well-being of the planet and its people.
• We all need to assess the impact our business
  makes on society and ensure that we balance the
  economic, environmental, and social aspects of
  everything we do. And we urge our peers in the
  world of industry and commerce to think and act
  in the same way.
• Mark Moody-Stuart
• Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies

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Realms of Corporate Responsibilities
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Realms of Corporate Responsibilities (cont.)
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Strictly hierarchicalconcept of the firm
Economic End
Environmental Means
Political-legal means
Socio-cultural Means
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Circular interrelationship of different types of
responsibilities
Social Responsibility
Economic Responsibility
Environmental Responsibility
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Mapping Corporate Responsibilities
Social Responsibilities
Economic Responsibilities
(3)
(2)
Corporate Responsibilities
(1)
Environmental Responsibilities

• Three Kinds of Ethical Challenges
• Minimal ethical requirements
• Positive obligations beyond the minimum
• (3) Aspirations for ethical ideals

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Various Possibilities to Assume Corporate
Responsibilities
Firm A
Firm B
Firm C
SocialResp.
EconomicResp.
Econ.Resp.
Econ.Resp.
SocialResp.
SocialResp.
Environmental Responsibilities
Environmental Responsibilities
Environmental Responsibilities
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Overlapping and Diverging Responsibilities
Environmental Responsibility
Apex1
Apex2
Economic Responsibility
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CSR is a concept whereby companies integrate
social and environmental concerns in their
business operations and in their interaction with
their stakeholders on a voluntary basis.
European Unions Green Paper on CSR in 2001
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