business ethics

• Businesses need money to make more ethical and eco-friendly decisions as it is expensive
• Difficulties faced by whistle-blowers

  • Danger of job loss
  • Being looked down upon
  • Lack of trust later on
• Whistle-blowing is encouraged by the government as it serves the public interest, but there are ethical issues to be considered by the whistle-blower due to their responsibilities to their employer
• Transfigura faced allegations concerning the dumping of contaminated gasoline mixed with caustic soda around Abidjan
• Reasons why businesses take on social responsibilities

  • Improve image with customers, employees, and investors
  • Fear of being viewed negatively by customers or employees who may go somewhere else
  • Avoid stricter regulations from the government
• Whistle-blowers are protected by law in the UK
• Transfigura faced a group action for compensation by 31,000 Africans, resulting in an award of £130m
• Purpose of business: make surplus for Shareholders
• Corporate Social Responsibility actions

  • Refusing sponsorship from companies involved in fossil fuel extraction despite it being lucrative
  • Using materials from sustainable sources despite costs
  • Paying higher wages than rivals or making staff shareholders in the business
  • Refusing to test products on animals even though it may lead to more expensive research costs
  • Investing in local youth teams even though the money could be used to boost shareholder profits
• Transfigura: Set up in 1996 to trade oil and petroleum products around the world
• Transfigura planned to add caustic soda to absorb sulfur contaminants, despite this compound being banned in the West
• Milton Friedman argued that it was unethical for a business to do anything else other than increase profits as social responsibility would mean 'stealing money from shareholders'
• Milton Friedman's view on the purpose of business

  1. Increasing profits is the social responsibility of business

  2. Improving lives by focusing on making more profit and everything else will follow
• Whistle-blowing: when an employee discloses wrongdoing to the employer or to the public
• Whistle-blowing encourages businesses to take their corporate social responsibility seriously
• Whistle-blowing is encouraged by the government as it serves the public interest
• david kelly found dead after being named for exposing the cover-up in the Iraq war - there were no WMDs
• Eric Neumayer put forward 5 indicators of how a business can assess sustainability: National accounts, Aggregate welfare, Natural capital benefits, Ecosystem health, Human-environment interaction
• 'Primo facie' means from first impression, a duty of loyalty to one's employer. Is it more ethical to try and solve the issue first before whistle-blowing?
• No Sweat movement fights against sweatshop exploitation
• The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesizes a relationship between environmental quality and economic development
• There are ethical issues to be considered by the whistle-blower due to their responsibilities to their employer
• In a typical developing nation, if you're able to work for an American multinational, you make 8x the average wage. That's why people are striving to get those jobs - John Nor
• Public Interest Disclosure Act does not cover accusations made for a particular reason or by individuals in the armed or intelligence services due to security risks
• The choice isn't always a free one - no alternative, limited individual autonomy, better than nothing defence