Business ethics

• there is only one social responsibility of business it is…


  to engage in activities that increase profits as long as it stays within the rules of the game
• Capitalism 


  An economic system in which private actors own and control property and supply freely set prices in market
• it is not from the benevolence of the butcher that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest
• capitalist principles


  • privately owned and controlled
  • Legal ownership over labour power
  • class division between capitalists and workers
  • markets are the main mechanisms allocating inputs and outputs
  • aim to increase capital - capital accumulation
• Socialism principles

  • equality
  • democracy
  • individual freedom
  • community
  • self realisation
• Equality of opportunity

  Everyone should have ‘broadly equal access to necessary material and social means to live flourishing lives
• whistle blowing

  when an employee of the business decides to make their belief that a business is unethical public
• whistle blowers are protected by law and are treated as witnesses so their word is taken as truth
• legal protection stops when whistle blowers are discovered to be lying
• Kantian ethics and whistle blowing

  • on one hand we have a duty to tell the truth and to be fair with customers - this is support for whistle blowing
  • we also have a duty of loyalty to shareholders and the company- this is opposition for whistle blowing
  • you must decide which duty outweighs the other
• Utilitarianism and whistle blowing

  • we have to decide if whistle blowing would be likely to produce pleasure
  • act utilitarianism would consider each situation on its own
  • rule utilitarianism would question whether whistle blowing as a rule is a good idea
  • we must decide the long term effects and who it would affect
• Corporate social responsibility

  The idea that a business has a responsibility to do good in society
• Friedman and CSR

  businesses have no moral obligation to help anyone beyond their shareholders and asking them to do so would be bad for business
• the trickle down effect

  the rich get richer and this money trickles down society through spending

  
• globalisation 


  the increasing connectedness and interdependence of the worlds cultures and economies
• problems with globalisation

  • can lead to a violation of human rights
  • environmental impact
  • cultural relativism of ethics
  • small businesses suffer
  • disconnect between the manufacturer and the customers