Submitted to:

Barrister Afroz Imtiaz (BAI)

Department of History and Philosophy
HIS101 (Bangladesh History and culture)
Section : 18
Final Assignment – Individual Question

Date of Submission: June 02, 2020

Submitted By
Name ID
Nizamul Karim 1721651030
Letter of Transmittal

June 02, 2020.

Barrister Afroz Imtiaz (BAI)

Department of History and Philosophy

School of Business and Economics

North South University

Subject: Submission of Assignment on ‘Question Answer “

Dear sir,

The project has been completed by the knowledge that we have gathered from the course . We
are grateful to all those persons who provided us important information and gave us valuable
advices. We would be happy if you read the project carefully and we will be trying to answer all
the questions that you have about this project.

We have tried our best to complete this project meaningfully and correctly. We do believe that
our tiresome effort will help you to get ahead with this sort of project. However, if you need
any assistance in interpreting this project please contact us without any kind of hesitation.

Yours obediently,

Nizamul Karim
Do you think that people who make unethical decisions are inherently bad? Are there any
other reasons that can expedite ethical problems in business?

I do think people see themselves as more ethical than they really are. Tons of people make
unethical decisions for many reasons. I think that sometimes if a person makes a lot of unethical
decisions then they may not even notice they do it. If all their unethical decisions are small like
white lies or the bending of rules, they probably don’t recognize those as being unethical and
therefore don’t see themselves as unethical people. I believe this is the case for most people. I
also believe it can be quite hard for some to admit a wrong doing. Half the people who make
unethical decisions most likely know of it but wouldn’t admit to it. I personally know I make
unethical decisions such as white lies, the bending of rules, and gossiping sometimes. I can admit
to my unethical decisions but at the same time I try to justify them. I always have an actual
reason as to why I lied or bent a rule.
What factors make the workplace dehumanized and how can such places be rehumanized?

‘Alienation’ of the individual work in the era of industrialised mass production

Brought tremendous efficiencies and material wealth, but have also created the prospect of a
dehumanised and deskilled workplace

Attempts to re-humanize the workplace

‘Empowering’ the employee

‘job enlargement’

‘job enrichment’

Success of such schemes contested

Suggested that ‘humanized’ approach might be more appropriate and effective in some
cultures (e.g. Scandinavia) than others

Large numbers of unemployed people becomes the norm in many countries due to
mechanisation

This threatens:

Right to work
Social fabric of particular communities

New technologies herald the ‘end of work’? (Rifkin 1995)

From sustainability perspective: ensure that what work exists is shared out more equitably

Green jobs’ are:

In industries making environmentally-friendly products

Workplace & organization of labour is also more environmentally sustainable

Gained attention in late 2000s; part of broader debate on restructuring economies to be more
sustainable

Examples of specific measures:

Car-pooling

Paperless office

Video-conferencing rather than business travel

Home-based teleworking

Potential benefits are social, economic and ecological

3. Explain the role of a corporation as a political actor.

Corporate accountability refers to whether a corporation is answerable in some way for the
consequences of its actions

Firms have begun to take on the role of ‘political’ actors – taken up many of the functions
previously undertaken by government because:

Governmental failure
Increasing power and influence of corporations

Government failure

Risk society thesis

Rise of ‘subpolitics’

‘Organized irresponsibility’

Corporate power on the rise

Liberalization and deregulation results in more power and choice for private actors

Privatization of ‘public’ services

Responsible for employment decisions

Globalization

Governments increasingly encourage self-regulation

On the other hand, European scholars have recently promoted an understanding of corporate
social responsibility (CSR) emphasizing that firms often assume a political role because they
increasingly provide public goods and become involved in multi-actor governance processes

The author attributes this change in the role of the corporation to the increasing concentration
of economic activity and power in a few corporations which has resulted in 1) a few companies
having a very large impact on society, 2) corporations and influential actors which are easier to
locate, and 3) increasing separation of ownership and control. These events have led to what
scholars Berle and Means (1932) predicted more than 80 years ago: both owners and "the
control" accepting public interest as the objective of the corporation. Further research on the
topics outlined in this paper may increase our understanding of corporate behavior and the role
of these corporations in society. Key concepts include:

The role of the corporation in society can be a function of the broader economic, social, and
political context and as a result evolves over time.

Corporations are not a homogeneous group as it is assumed by profit maximization theories.

Not all corporations have the same role in society.

Increasing corporate engagement on environmental and social goals has redefined the relation
between business and society. It remains to be seen whether this trend will continue.

he role of governments in business and society (B&S) research remains underexplored. The
generally accepted principle of voluntarism, which frames responsible business conduct as an
unregulated subject under managerial discretion, accounts for this gap. Paradoxically, there are
sufficient acknowledgments in academia and practice on different roles of governments. The
present article identifies three broad topics for research, addressing (a) the paradox between
the principle of voluntarism and the role of This study indicates that the principle of
voluntarism remains, despite the broad variety of research related to the role of government in
B&S. In addition, the identified content provides deeper insight into the mechanisms of
government intervention and on the boundaries of governments in the B&S discourse. This
article then provides a summary of the other three research articles included in this special
research forum, with a contribution oriented toward the latter two research avenues posited.
4. Discuss the rights and duties of an employee of a corporation.

Employee rights Issues involved

Right to freedom from Equal opportunities, Affirmative action, Reverse
discrimination discrimination, Sexual and racial harassment
Right to privacy
The term ‘human resource management’ Healthandand
its drug testing,have
implications Work-life
been balance,
a subject of intense
Presenteeism, Electronic privacy and data protection
debate in business
Right ethics
to due process Promotion, Firing, Disciplinary proceedings
Right to participation Organization of workers in works councils and trade
Humans treated as
and association important and costly resource
unions, Participation in the company’s decisions
Right to healthy and Working conditions, Occupational health and safety
Consequently,
safe workingemployees are subject to a strict managerial rationale of minimising costs and
conditions
Right to
maximising thefair wages of the ‘resource
efficiency Pay, Industrial action, New forms of work
Right to freedom of Whistleblowing
conscience and speech
Right to work Fair treatment in the interview, Non-discriminatory
rules for recruitment
Discrimination in the business context occurs when employees receive preferential (or less
preferential) treatment on grounds that are not directly related to their qualifications and
performance in the job

Managing diversity prominent feature of contemporary business

Extensive legislation

Institutional discrimination: discrimination deeply embedded in business

Issues of diversity might be exploited to inflict physical, verbal, or emotional harassment

Regulation reluctant

Blurred line between harassment on one hand and ‘joking’ on the other

Influenced by contextual factors such as character, personality, and national culture

Companies increasingly introduced codes of practice and diversity programmes

How should organizations respond to problems of discrimination?

Equal opportunity programme

Generally targeted at ensuring procedural justice is promoted

Affirmative action (AA) programmes: deliberately attempt to target those who might be
currently under-represented in the workforce

Recruitment policies

Fair job criteria

Training programmes for discriminated minorities

Promotion to senior positions

Recognition that employees might be more than just human ‘resources’ but should also have a
certain degree of influence on their tasks, job environments, and company goals – right to
participation

Financial participation – allows employee share in the ownership or income of the corporation

Operational participation can include a number of dimensions:

Delegation

Information

Consultation

Codetermination

Highly contested issue

Three main issues

Potential to do harm

Causes of employee’s performance

Level of performance

Despite these criticisms, such tests have increasingly come common in the US

Four different types of privacy we may want to protect (Simms 1994)

Physical privacy

Social privacy

Informational privacy

Psychological privacy

In some cases, people suffer reverse discrimination because AA policies prefer certain
minorities

Justification for reverse discrimination

Retributive justice: past injustices have to be ‘paid for’

Distributive justice: rewards such as job and pay should be allocated fairly among all groups
(Beauchamp 1997)

Stronger forms of reverse discrimination tend to be illegal in many European countries

Increasingly relevant as technology advances and electronic ‘life’ becomes more important

Computer as a work tool enables new forms of surveillance

Time and pace of work

Usage of employee time for private reasons

E-mail and internet

Issue of privacy in situations where data is saved and processed electronically

Data protection

Ethical considerations in the process of downsizing

Right to know well ahead of the actual point of the redundancy that their job is on the line

Compensation packages employees receive when laid off

Another way of saying that management can do what it wants? (Legge, 1998)

‘Non-standard’ work relationships

Part-time work, temporary work, self-employment and teleworking (Stanworth 2000)

Less secure legal status for periphery workers

Potential for:

Poorer working conditions

Increased insecurity

Lower pay

Exclusion from training and other employment benefits

 5. What are the ethical issues related to marketing and consumers? Explain

Area of marketing Some common ethical Main rights involved

problems
Product policy Product safety Right to safe and efficacious products
Fitness for purpose

Marketing Deception Right to honest and fair

communications Misleading claims communications
Intrusiveness
Promotion of materialism Right to privacy
Creation of artificial wants
Marketing Perpetuating dissatisfaction
management Reinforcing stereotypes

Pricing Excessive pricing Right to fair prices

Price fixing
Predatory pricing
Deceptive pricing

Distribution Buyer-seller relationships Right to engage in markets

Gifts and bribes
Slotting fees Right to make a free choice

Marketing strategy Targeting vulnerable Right to be free from discrimination

consumers Right to basic freedoms and amenities
Consumer exclusion

Market research Privacy issues Right to privacy

At the most basic level, consumers have a right to products and services which are safe,
efficacious, and fit for the purpose for which they are intended

Manufacturers ought to exercise due care in establishing that all reasonable steps are taken to
ensure that their products are free from defects and safe to use (Boatright, 2009: 295)

Consumers’ right to a safe product is not an unlimited right

Safety also a function of the consumer and their actions and precautions

Criticisms of advertising broken down into two levels

Individual

Concerned with misleading or deceptive practices that seek to create false beliefs about
specific products or companies in the individual’s consumers’ mind

Social

Concerned with the aggregate social and cultural impacts, such as promoting materialism

Misleading and deceptive practices

Marketing communications aimed to:

Inform consumers about goods and services

Persuade consumers to purchase

“Deception occurs when a marketing communication either creates, or takes advantage of, a
false belief that substantially interferes with the ability of people to make rational consumer
choices” (Boatright, 2009: 285)
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority says ads should be “legal, decent, honest and
truthful”

Social and cultural impact on society

Objections that marketing communications:

Are intrusive and unavoidable

Create artificial wants

Reinforce consumerism and materialism

Create insecurity and perpetual dissatisfaction

Perpetuate social stereotypes

Such criticisms have been common for at least the last 30 years

Pricing issues are central to the notion of a fair exchange between the two parties, and the
right to a fair price - key rights of consumers as stakeholders

4 types of pricing practices where ethical problems may arise:

Excessive pricing

Price fixing

Predatory pricing

Deceptive pricing

Concerned with relations between manufacturers and firms, and firms and market

Primary concern is product supply chain

Example: retailers demanding ‘slotting fees’ from manufacturers in order to stock their
products
Dealt with in detail next chapter

Criticisms when there is a perceived violation of the consumers right to be treated fairly (duty
of care):

Targeting vulnerable consumers

Consumers may be vulnerable because;

Lack sufficient education or information

Easily confused or manipulated due to old age and senility

Are in exceptional physical or emotional need

Lack the necessary income

Too young

Perceived harmfulness of the product

Examples: cigarettes and alcohol

Here, the focus shifts from rights/duties to consequences

Criticisms when there is a perceived violation of the consumers right to be treated fairly (duty
of care):

Targeting vulnerable consumers

Consumers may be vulnerable because;

Lack sufficient education or information

Easily confused or manipulated due to old age and senility

Are in exceptional physical or emotional need

Lack the necessary income

Too young
Perceived harmfulness of the product

Examples: cigarettes and alcohol

Here, the focus shifts from rights/duties to consequences