Understanding Business ethics

• Rathbone's book "Understanding Business Ethics" discusses the importance of reflecting on the ethics interpretation of business, highlighting that business is a holistic network of relationships (stakeholders) that function within a specific context requiring an interpretive approach
• Understanding existence focuses on 'meaning creation', where individuals construct a framework of understanding experiences that provide purpose and direction to life
• Existentialism, freedom, authenticity, bad faith, facticity, and responsibility are core aspects of existential philosophy relevant for business ethics
• Existentialism is a school of thought focusing on individual freedom, the creation of meaning, and purpose in life, associated with philosophers like Søren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Martin Heidegger
• Freedom in capitalism involves economic freedom, individual freedom, morality development through engagement with others, and the need for laws, regulations, and codes to ensure justice
• Authenticity refers to the ability to exist in good faith according to one's meaning creations, not dictated by circumstances or society, with examples from Heidegger and Neoliberalism
• Bad Faith occurs when individuals fail to function according to their personal purpose and meaning creation in life, eroding happiness, freedom, and identity
• Facticity involves external factors impacting existence, emphasizing the responsibility to deal with circumstances authentically to make the most of life
• Responsibility includes personal and social responsibilities, with examples like legal compliance, financial management, ethical behavior, and philanthropic investment
• Accountability in business ethics requires an account from the agents of action to all stakeholders involved in a situation, emphasizing the interconnected nature of reality
• Types of accountability include mandatory compliance with laws and regulations and voluntary accountability recognizing the implications of actions and aiming for long-term sustainability
• KPMG has faced a struggle for survival due to an exodus of clients, revelations about its association with Gupta companies, involvement in a discredited report, and allegations of corruption at VBS that it audited
• KPMG will pay back R23 million received from SARS and donate R40 million earned in fees from Gupta-related entities to education and anti-corruption NGOs
• Attachment is a strong reciprocal emotional bond between an infant and a primary caregiver
• Schaffer and Emerson's 1964 study on attachment aimed to identify stages of attachment and find a pattern in the development of attachment between infants and parents
• Participants in the study were 60 babies from Glasgow, and the findings showed that babies of parents with 'sensitive responsiveness' were more likely to have formed an attachment
• Recognition in society should be inclusive, recognizing all citizens and not excluding or marginalizing others through silencing
• Recognition is important for a healthy identity and harmony in society
• Dialogue is an open and inclusive understanding of meaning creation, involving listening, understanding, and negotiating, which is crucial in business ethics
• Listening is a form of recognition of one another and is essential for understanding one another, building trust, creativity, and innovation
• Humility, as a virtue, requires self-love and avoiding pride, allowing for active listening and understanding of others in dialogue
• Fairness is the principle that advances free and equal meaning creation by all members of society without coercion and/or harm
• Dimensions of fairness include various perspectives like Plato's Utopian understanding, Aristotle's legal approach, Mill & Bentham's happiness principle, Marx's revolution, and Rawls' justice as fairness
• Justice in business involves maintaining social harmony, constructive dialogue leading to change, and ensuring fair punishment and distributive justice
• Pick n Pay, a leading South African retail chain, promotes human rights and social justice, being named the most ethical retailer in South Africa in 2019
• Pick n Pay demonstrates being an administrator of rights by securing social, civil, and political rights, including social rights/positive rights, civil rights/negative rights, and political rights