...Discussion Questions for Smith vs. Marx (October 8, 2013 pp. 134-165) An Essay on the Background of Business Ethics: Ethics, Economics, Law and the Corporation 1. What is philosophy? A conversation. 2. What is "philosophical ethics"? A conversation about conduct, the doing of good, and the avoiding of evil. 3. What is "business ethics"? A conversation about right and wrong conduct in the business world. 4. Business ethics was once known as “the world’s most famous oxymoron” until about thirty years ago. What happened to change that view? Newspaper headlines of foreign bribes, Wall Street scandals, exploding cars, whistleblower conflicts and civil rights in the workplace allowed the view that value questions are never absent from business decisions to come into play and that moral responsibility is the first requirement of a manager in any business. From then on, it has become the general consensus that a thorough grounding in ethical reasoning is essential preparation for a career in business. 5. How was the “ruling class” defined in the seventeenth century according to Karl Marx? The ruling class in every age is the group that owns the means of production of the age’s product. In the 17th century, the product was almost exclusively agricultural and the means of production was almost exclusively agricultural land; landowners were the aristocrats and rulers. With the coming of commerce and industry, the owners of the factories joined the ruling class...
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...The most essential characteristic of an organisation is the focus on ethical behavior. By ‘doing the right thing’ internally and externally the business can create a good working environment, whereas at the same time the surroundings and the society takes advantage. Difficult is that ethical matters are based on individual principles and ideals. Resultantly, ethical matters are not easy to put into effect and easy to overlook. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is rapidly becoming one of the principles on which modern business is built (Hancock, 2004). Areas can be identified were improvements should be made, and use it for strategies in future business plans. CSR refers to the economic, legal, ethical and discretionary responsibilities (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2000; Swanson, 1995). The organisations are furthermore faced up to social demands for which they are likely to show responsibility for. Following the organisation can respond in different ways. The different types of responding to the social demand are obstructive, defensive, accommodative or proactive (Carroll & Gatewood, 1981). Within this essay it will be examined how these CSR principles were / are utilized in the service business McDonald’s. For evaluating the social performance of McDonald’s there will be a closer look at the ethical & discretionary responsibilities and the responses proactive & accommodative. Finally it will be examined how to improve the social responsibility of McDonald’s by using the tools code...
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...of distribution. To be able to capture a better marker share globalization is put in place so that new marketing shares can open up new ventures for sales. Domestic and global marketing The organization that I am most familiar with that conducts domestic and global marketing is the Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota is the world's largest automaker (The Associated Press, 2013). Toyota is one of the top-selling brands in America and we are committed to continuous improvement in everything we do, along with breakthrough products for the future (Toyota Motor North America, Inc., 2013) The factors that impact on the marketing strategies of Toyota Motor Corporation are trade practices, demographics and physical infrastructure, cultural differences, social responsibilities and ethics, political systems and technology. These factors are challenges that effect the normal functioning of business organizations. Global economic interdependence and trade agreements Due to the influence of global economic interdependence Toyota has had to purchase parts and materials from other countries which have resulted in maximizing revenues to increase market shares in other regions to conduct business. Importing and exporting of goods and services highly contribute to global interdependence (BusinessDictionary.com, 2013). A trade agreement is a contract/agreement/ between two or more nations that outlines how they will work together to...
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...responsibility? In 1970 Milton Friedman wrote that "there is one and only one social responsibility of business--to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud." That's the orthodox view among free market economists: that the only social responsibility a law-abiding business has is to maximize profits for the shareholders. Friedman’s article also contains a much less discussed point that deserves more attention. In particular, I believe it should be taken more seriously by people ideologically opposed to the values associated with Friedman. The simple point is how Friedman argues that acceptance of CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility) “involves the acceptance of the socialist view”. For Friedman, the logical step from CSR to socialism means that companies should not engage in CSR. For me, it means that now that the companies are making CSR claims all over the place, socialists might want to point out the ideological dilemmas of this practice. As the power of big corporations has become increasingly evident, their legitimacy may erode if they stop making claims about their social responsibility. The dilemma is that if and when they continue making these claims, they implicitly accept that capitalist corporation is no longer immune to social and moral claims by others. 5) Explain the safety concerns in the...
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...Globalization is conducted in an effort to capture greater market share and open up new avenues for sales. Domestic and global marketing The organization that I am most familiar with that conducts domestic and global marketing is the Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota is the world's largest automaker (The Associated Press, 2013). It runs its operations both at domestic and international levels and thus targets both domestic and international markets. Toyota is one of the top-selling brands in America and we are committed to continuous improvement in everything we do, along with breakthrough products for the future (Toyota Motor North America, Inc., 2013) The factors that impact on the marketing strategies of Toyota Motor Corporation are trade practices, demographics and physical infrastructure, cultural differences, social responsibilities and ethics, political systems and technology. These factors are challenges that effect the normal functioning of business organizations. Global economic interdependence and trade agreements Due to the influence of global economic interdependence Toyota has had to purchase parts and materials from other countries which have resulted in maximizing revenues to increase market shares in other regions to conduct business. Importing and exporting of goods and services highly contribute to global interdependence (BusinessDictionary.com,...
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... | | | | | | | | Abstract Contained within are various aspects and strategies pertaining to ethics in business and the various roles and responsibilities key individuals involved must initiate to ensure that the assignment, task or project is accomplished not only within the determined timeframe and budgetary constraints but more important, the actions and interactions of all parties are not compromised nor violate any prescribed regulations. Furthermore, discussion is rendered pertaining to social responsibility within the business sector and its significance in determining growth and awareness of one’s business or company. Social Responsibility and Business Ethics Introduction In today’s society, people are constantly in a mad race to either develop and implement the next product or service that becomes the flagship item that everybody seeks possess or become that individual who possesses the latest technological advancements or branded items assisting in their daily ebb and flow operations. Such responsibilities - objectives and tasks - must be accomplished in a respectable manner whereupon the integrity...
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...Ethics game simulation A principle exists as a feature or quality believed to be ethically outstanding and therefore is appreciated as a base of ethics and good start for a decent living being. Personal qualities are features cherished as promoting personal and communal comfort. G-BioSport is a business that supplies sports nourishment and supplements to its consumers. The company adheres to the modern Foodstuffs and Drug Administration (FDA) principles with their commodities. Nevertheless, new lab tests disclose traces of contagion in the total of the GBS-Fibranafren tests carries out. The liability is present in the Quality Control (QC) executive to recognize the problem and put the solution into practice. These recreations lay out the QC executive with numerous states of affairs and resolutions to two primary problems. Each recreation presents confronts in cooperation with the ethical and honest aspects involved. The first recreation displays the QC executive with lab results exemplify 100% pollution of the products investigated. A number of these tests are acquired from the commodities themselves in the market and under the ownership of the consumers. With such information, the matter shifts from whether or not to caution and what knowledge to offer to customers concerning the control of the contaminated commodities. What decision-making steps did you take to ethically address these issues? Considering the fact that business ethics exists as an outline of functional...
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...CHAPTER 2: MANAGING INTERDEPENDENCE Social Responsibility and Ethics 1. The Social Responsibility of MNCs • MNCs: Multinational corporations ( corporate social responsibility • Issues of social responsibility: the poverty, the lack of equal opportunity, the environment, consumer concerns, employee safety and welfare. • A domestic firm should demonstrate range from one extreme to another extreme ( produce goods and services, serve its shareholders’ interest – anticipate and try to solve problems in society. • Exhibit 2-1: managers are faced with not only considering stakeholders in the host country but also with weighing their rights against the rights of their domestic stakeholders. 2. Ethics in global management The term ‘international business ethics’ refers to the business conduct or morals of MNCs in their relationships with individuals and entities. Ethics is based on largely on the cultural value system and ways of doing business in each country or society. 3. Bribery MNCs are often caught between being placed at a disadvantage by refusing to go along with a country’s accepted practices, such as bribery, or being subject to criticism at home for using “unethical” tactics to get the job done. A specific ethical issue for managers in the international arena is that of questionable payments which are business payments that raise significant questions of appropriate moral behavior either in the host nation or in other nations ( Questionable payments: ...
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...Human Resource Management Ethical Dilemma: The Padding That Hurt Introduction: Ethics is basically the branch of the philosophy that deals with making a difference among right and wrong. In the business world the ethics have taken a essential place in this modern time and every successful corporation have a complete code of ethics that have to be followed by the management, workers and other stakeholders of the company. Ethical behavior in the workplace make it a perfect place for the people working there without any discrimination and this ethical behavior is the main cause of the successful running of the businesses in all parts of the world. In the workplace the ethics includes the integrity, team work, sense of responsibility, commitment, behavior etc that are considered essential for the work. The ethics no doubt is the crucial part of the workplace but at the same time the business corporations facing various kinds of the ethical issues like the harassment of different kinds, frauds, lack of commitment and sense of responsibility, discrimination and many other forms of the unethical behavior seen in the work place in the modern time. The current case is also linked to the unethical behaviors that need to be fixed on time to save the company from the huge financial expenses. The unethical behaviors that are identified in the current scenario are the financial frauds, lack of sense of responsibility and discrimination that results in a lot of expenses from the very trusted...
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...Topic 3: Does CSR represent a genuine desire by corporations to do well towards society? Introduction The dominant model of business activity in the past merely concentrated on the benefit of the shareholders, which is maximizing profit from the firms’ activities. Any other benefits or harms created in the process of the activity were considered secondary. Issues such as ethics and creating values for customers and stakeholders were thus ignored and rarely paid attention to. Unfortunately with the business world ever-changing, the culture that was embedded in the past is no longer workable in this 21st century as it was resistant to changes, inconsistent with the laws and ignores the ethical side (Freeman 2008). The issue of Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR has been the subject of debate among researchers for the past twenty years (Chen & Winai, 2011). There have been many arguments if businesses should engage CSR initiatives in their operations. CSR or corporate citizenship is defined as the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large (Moir 2001). The essay will discuss on the literature review of the different perspectives of CSR, arguments against it and the analysis if CSR represent corporations’ genuine desire to contribute towards the society. Literature Review Arguments for CSR ...
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...Challenges in the Global Business Environment Student’s Name Professor’s name Course title Institution Date The Coca Cola Company The nature, structure, types of products This is a beverage business, which was founded by Pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton. It is among the largest manufacturer, supplier, and seller of the non-alcoholic drink concentrates and syrups. The company is well known for the production of over 500 brands in more than 200 states and serves about 1.7 billion servings every day. The company is mainly based in Atlanta, USA. The Coca Cola Company manufactures and sells numerous types of carbonated soft drinks including the very common brands like Coca Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, Fanta. Other drinks comprise Oasis, Powerade and Schweppes Abbey water. The company also owns the Schweppes types of products, Energy drinks plus the glacial Vitamin water types. The corporation has established well structure links with various other companies, such as the bottling associates. The company sells its concentrates and syrups to the bottling partners, which are legally permitted to manufacture, distribute and market branded products. The trade scheme that consists of the coke company along with the bottling associates is known as the Coca Cola system. The company collaborates with its bottlers globally to make certain that the concentrates and syrups are made into finished beverages that are manufactured and sold to customers globally. Code of ethical conduct...
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...[pic] |A History of Business Ethics | |By Richard T. De George | |The term 'business ethics' is used in a lot of different ways, and the history of business ethics will vary depending on | |how one conceives of the object under discussion. The history will also vary somewhat on the historian—how he or she sees | |the subject, what facts he or she seeks to discover or has at hand, and the relative importance the historian gives to | |those facts. Hence the story I'm going to tell will be somewhat different from the story someone else might tell in various| |particulars, and I hope that instead of being a dull recitation of facts it might in fact prompt some discussion at the end| |by those who would tell a somewhat different story. | |The story I will tell has three strands, because I believe the term business ethics is used in at least three different, | |although related, senses. Which sense one chooses therefore gives priority to nature of the history of the topic. The | |primary sense of the term refers to recent developments and to the period, since roughly the early 1970s, when the term | |'business ethics' came into common use in the United States. Its origin in this sense is found...
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...Case Assignment #1 1 Build the management-research question hierarchy. 1 Management Dilemma: Is Penton Media using a outdated method of marketing to gather advertising revenue. If so, will Penton Media see lower then usual advertising revenue if more efficient methods of inquiring advertisement are not adopted instead of the reader service cards. - Yes, The study conducted by Penton media proves that due to information technology methods that were virtually non-existent in 1992 the e reader cards have displayed a lack of efficiency in recent years. The study backs this up by estimating that within the next 5 years newer methods of communication will hold a majority share of the market with at least 72.2 percent of people expected to visit an advertising website. 2 Management Question: Are the reader service cards still an efficient method for generating advertisement revenues, or have they been replaced by more efficient information technology platforms? -Yes, The reader cards remain an efficient method of generating revenue, while they seem to be slowly losing ground to more information technology platforms like the Internet, email, or fax on demand, they remain producing revenue for the company by generating some advertisement profit. 3 Research Question: Is Penton media reader card service generating enough advertising revenue to remain competitive? Could information technology friendly methods be used to enhance Penton Medias advertising...
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...Identify the stakeholders in the case and the impact of the operations/ethical issues on the stakeholders. Business ethics, issues, and conflicts revolve around relationships. Customers, investors and shareholders, employees, suppliers, government agencies, communities, and many others who have a stake, or claim, in some aspect of a company’s product, operations, markets, industry, and outcomes are known as stakeholders. They are both influenced by and have the ability to affect businesses. Stakeholders provide both, tangible and intangible recourses that are more or less critical to a firm’s long term success. The key stakeholders in this scenario are a) The customers who are mainly US male teenagers between 13 -19 years of age that would be exposed to nudity through a video game that with increased levels of intensity revealing nudity of a female game character. b) The Broadway Corporation is a stakeholder that is affected if the “Lucky” game development and introduction would be stalled or entirely taken off the market. Since “Broadway” is a corporation, the outcome of this scenario will affect the company as a whole. The consequences could be that the company would lay off employees due to the lack of revenue. The shareholders would start selling their shares if dissatisfied which would eventually cause the company’s stock price to fall. Suppliers that build the arcade equipment would be affected as well as the entire surrounding infrastructure since Broadway is one...
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...ETHICAL PRINCIPLES IN BUSINESS 3.1 Ethics Ethics has been defined as concerned with the development of moral standards by which actions, situations and behaviour can be judged. (Boyd et al) Oelgeschlager. et al gave the simplest definition of ethics as standards conduct. Ethics is the discipline that examines one’s moral standards or the moral standards of a society. It asks how these standards apply to our lives and whether these standards are reasonable or unreasonable, that is, whether they are supported by good reasons or poor ones. Therefore, a person starts to do ethics when he or she takes the moral standards absorbed from the family, church and friends and asks: “What do these standards imply for the situations in which I find myself? Do these standards really make sense? What are the reasons for or against these standards? Why should I continue to believe in them? What can be said in their favour and what can be said against them? Are they really reasonable for me to hold? Are their implications in this or that particular situation reasonable?” Ethics is the study of moral standards, the process of examining the moral standards of a person or society to determine whether these standards are reasonable or unreasonable in order to apply them to concrete situations and issues. The ultimate aim of ethics is to develop a body of moral standards that we feel are reasonable to hold standards that we have thought about carefully and have decided are justified standards for us...
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