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Chapter 3 - Emerging Business Ethics Issues

Chapter 3 discusses emerging business ethics issues, defining ethical dilemmas and the foundational values of integrity, honesty, and fairness. It outlines various ethical challenges such as abusive behavior, lying, conflicts of interest, bribery, discrimination, and environmental concerns. The chapter emphasizes the importance of recognizing ethical issues and the complexities involved in ethical decision-making within organizations.

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Nguyễn Hưng Lê
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17 views8 pages

Chapter 3 - Emerging Business Ethics Issues

Chapter 3 discusses emerging business ethics issues, defining ethical dilemmas and the foundational values of integrity, honesty, and fairness. It outlines various ethical challenges such as abusive behavior, lying, conflicts of interest, bribery, discrimination, and environmental concerns. The chapter emphasizes the importance of recognizing ethical issues and the complexities involved in ethical decision-making within organizations.

Uploaded by

Nguyễn Hưng Lê
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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10/8/2014

C HAPT E R 3

Emerging Business Ethics Issues

Chapter Objectives

• To define ethical issues in the context of


organizational ethics
• To examine ethical issues as they relate to the basic
values of honesty, fairness, and integrity
• To delineate abusive and intimidating behavior, lying,
conflicts of interest, bribery, corporate intelligence,
discrimination, sexual harassment, environmental
issues, fraud, insider trading, intellectual property
rights, and privacy as business ethics issues
• To examine the challenge of determining an ethical
issue in business

Chapter Outline

I. Recognizing an Ethical Issue


II. Foundational Values for Identifying Business Ethics
Issues
III. Ethical Issues and Dilemmas in Business
IV. The Challenge of Determining an Ethical Issue in
Business

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Recognizing an Ethical Issue

• An ethical issue is a situation or a problem that


requires thought, discussion, or investigation to
make a decision.
– Awareness arises because of conflicts among individuals’
personal moral philosophies and values, the values and
culture of the organizations in which they work, and those of
the society in which they live.

• Failure to do so puts corporations at great risk

Foundational Values for Identifying


Business Ethics Issues

• Integrity
• Honesty
• Fairness
– Equality
– Reciprocity
– Optimization

Integrity and Honesty


• Integrity refers to being whole, sound, and in an
unimpaired condition. In an organization, it means
uncompromising adherence to ethical values.
• Honesty refers to truthfulness or trustworthiness.
Issues related to honesty also arise because
business is sometimes regarded as a “game,”
governed by its own rules rather than by those of
society.
– Dishonesty is a lack of integrity, incomplete disclosure, and
an unwillingness to tell the truth. Lying, cheating, and
stealing are actions usually associated with dishonest
conduct.

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Fairness and Integrity

• Fairness: The quality of being just, equitable, and


impartial
– Equality
– Reciprocity
– Optimization

Ethical Issues and Dilemmas in


Business

• An ethical issue is a problem or opportunity that requires


an individual or group to choose among actions that are
evaluated as ethical or unethical
• An ethical dilemma is a problem, situation, or opportunity
that requires an individual or group to choose among
several wrong or unethical actions

Misuse of company time and


resources
• Using company computer software and Internet
services for personal business is one of the most
common ways employees misuse company
resources.
• Many companies, like Boeing, have implemented
official policies delineating acceptable use of
company resources.

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Abusive or Intimidating Behavior

• One of the most common ethical problems


• Can mean anything from physical threats, false
accusations, profanity, insults, harshness, ignoring
someone, or even unreasonableness
• Bullying is a growing legal problem in the workplace

Lying

Three types of lies:


1. Joking without malice
2. Commission lying
3. Omission lying

Conflicts of Interest

• Exist when an individual must choose whether to


advance his or her own personal interests, those
of the organization, or some other group

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Bribery

• Bribery is the practice of offering something in order


to gain an illicit advantage
• Different types of bribery
– Active bribery
– Passive bribery
– Facilitation payments

Corporate Intelligence

• Corporate intelligence is the collection and analysis


of information on markets, technologies, customers
and competitors, as well as on socioeconomic and
external political trends
– Hacking
– Social Engineering
– Dumpster diving
– Whacking
– Phone Eavesdropping

Discrimination

• A company in the U.S. can be sued for discrimination


if it:
– Refuses to hire an individual for discriminatory
reasons
– Unreasonably excludes an individual from
employment
– Unreasonably discharges an individual
– Discriminates against an individual with respect to
hiring, employment terms, promotion, or privileges

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Sexual Harassment

• A repeated, unwanted behavior of a sexual nature


perpetrated upon one individual by another
• Hostile Work Environment
– The conduct was unwelcome
– The conduct was severe, pervasive, and regarded
by the claimant as so hostile or offensive as to
alter his or her conditions of employment
– The conduct was such that a reasonable person
would find it hostile or offensive

Environmental Issues

• The environment is a significant and growing issue in


business
• The Kyoto Protocol: An international treaty on
climate change that commits nations to reducing
greenhouse gas emissions
• Water pollution: Results from dumping sewage and
toxic chemicals in places where they can filter into
water supplies
• Green energy sources are perceived to have lower
emissions or waste than traditional ones

Fraud

• Any purposeful communication that deceives,


manipulates, or conceals facts in order to create a
false impression is fraud
• Accounting fraud
– Misrepresentation of company’s financial reports
– Sarbanes-Oxley Act sought to improve this
– 2008-2009 Wall Street financial meltdown and
recession revealed continuing problems
• Marketing fraud
• Consumer fraud

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Financial Misconduct

• The failure to understand manage ethical risks played


a key part in the financial meltdown and recession of
2008-2009

Insider Trading
• An insider is any officer, director, or owner of
ten percent or more of a class of a company’s
securities.
– Illegal insider trading is the buying or selling of
stocks by insiders who possess information that is
not yet public.
– Legal insider trading involves legally buying and
selling stock in an insider’s company, but not all of
the time. Insiders are required to report their
trades within two days of the transaction.

Intellectual Property Rights and


Privacy
• Intellectual Property Rights involve the legal
protection of intellectual properties, such as music,
books, and movies
• Many privacy issues in the business world
– Employee use of technology
– Consumer privacy
– It can be a challenge for businesses today to meet
the needs of consumers while protecting their
privacy

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The Challenge of Determining Ethical


Issues in Business
• Most ethical issues will become visible through
stakeholder concerns about an event, activity, or the
results of a business decision
• Determining ethical issues is a challenge
• The ethical decision making process starts when
ethical issue awareness occurs and individuals begin
discussion

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