ADMS 3660 MIDTERM NOTES
Chapter 1 and Parable of the Sandhu Case * Watched video on Disney and how they treat employees, work is a performance etc. * Ethics is the study of morality * Morality refers to the standards that an individual or group has about what is right/wrong, good/evil. * Business Ethics concentrates on moral standards as they apply to business policies, institutions, and behaviour * Corporate Social Responsibility refers specifically to a description and moral evaluation of the impact than an organization has on society * Ethics can be a business constraint “ethics costs” but also an advantage “ethics pays” 1970 – 1985: Rise of business ethics (academia) 1985 – 1995: Ethics into firms 1995 – 2000: Internationalization 2000 – 2012: Corporate Scandals and government regulation * Ethics Scandal Costs: Fines, lawsuits, prison, investor losses, bankruptcies, unemployment, and increased regulation * Market Morality: Will everyone invest their money as agreed or will greed effect them? * Parable of the Sandhu Ethics vs. the law Unclear over moral responsibility Easier to say what is morally right than to do it * Employees value health and safety ethics
Consumers value product safety
Shareholders want return on investment
Need to look at environment * Macroenvironment: social, economic, political, technological factors * Our society is pluralistic in nature * Pluralism: there is diffusion of power among society’s many groups and organizations Decentralization and diversity of power * Strengths of Pluralism: prevents power concentration; maximizes freedom; diversified loyalties; provides safeguards; disperses individual allegiances. Has a set of built in checks and balances * Weaknesses of Pluralism: pursuit of self-interest; proliferates organizations with similar