...responsibilities of the plaintiff and defendant * The role of ethical theories including Kant and Nozick’s in this case * Propose specific, common sense business practices that may have resolved the conflict Let’s begin with a definition of common law which is applied to all corporations. “Common law is made and applied by judges as they decide cases not governed by statutes or other types of law. Although common law exists only at the state level, both state courts and federal courts become involved in applying it. … Over time, judges began to follow the decisions of other judges in similar cases, called precedents. This practice became formalized in the doctrine of stare decisis” (Mallor, et all, 2010). There were several facts that brought the parties into the courtroom. The litigation began with the conflict between Hooper and Yoder who both started their business in the dairy products field as partners. Surprisingly, there was no formal written agreement for the partnership form of business between them. They created, accepted the rights and shared the duties, assumed business and financial risks, and shared the work load and the profits equally. They both worked hard to build the business. After discussing with lawyers in both Colorado and California, Hooper and Yoder decided to incorporate their business and named it Beautiful Daydreams, Inc. Hooper was named president and treasurer while Yoder became vice-president and secretary....
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...Chapter 1 Today’s Business Environment: Law and Ethics 1. Which of these issues may impact a company’s operations? a. international issues b. political issues c. ethical issues d. legal issues e. all of these issues can impact operations ANSWER: e (page 3-4) National: AACSB Analytic; Diversity; AICPA BB-Legal 2. Which area of law is most likely to impact directly the finance and accounting departments of a company? a. products liability b. employment discrimination c. credit regulation d. environmental law e. all of these are likely to impact about the same ANSWER: c (page 3) National: AACSB Analytic; AICPA BB-Legal 3. Which is generally recognized as the best (most correct) definition of law? a. a body of rules of action or conduct prescribed by controlling authority, and having binding legal force b. that which must be obeyed and followed by members of a society subject to sanctions or legal consequences c. the circumstances in which the public force is brought to bear through the courts d. a rule of conduct that justifies a prediction that it likely will be enforced by the courts if its authority is challenged e. all of the other choices are correct; there is no one agreed upon...
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...‘The environment suffers because business has no ethics’ discuss Business Ethics can be defined as the critical and structured examination of how people & institutions should behave in the commerce world. Furthermore, it particularises the involvement of examining appropriate limitations upon the pursuit of complete self-interest; however, this may also apply for firm profits when the actions of each individual or firm affects others in some form. If the business really has no ethics, it can be concluded that the environment will suffer since the intention of business growth is far greater than environmental responsibility. Straight on, business has a predicament either to maximise profits for shareholders or to have a moral responsibility to society as a whole. Firms with low-polluting production methods and responsible waste disposable will reduce the chance of breaking laws designed by governments to protect the environment. One great example is the Body Shop where their aim is reducing the impact on the environment by reducing the energy they consume and generating less waste. Taking fully moral responsibility for the way they run their business. Then, potential employees would rather work for a firm such as the Body Shop, and that they can take pride in and which adopts policies which reflect their own personal views and standards. This increases the quality and standard of employees wishing to apply to that business and therefore provides an incentive to work on....
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...Ethics in business have been closely associated with corporate governance. Corporate governance is more of a social relationships rather than process orientated structure. Business process should also focus on other critical factors such as legislation, culture and institutional contexts. Corporate governance is constantly changing and evolving and changes are driven by both internal and external environmental dynamics. An effective and good corporate governance cannot be explained by one theory but it is best to combine a variation of theories, addressing not only the social relationships but also emphasize on the rules and legislation and stricter enforcement surrounding good governance practice and going beyond the norms of a mechanical approach towards corporate governance. Corporate governance theories emphasizes on empathy, healthy social relationship, loving care for each other and the avoidance of harm. In an organization, to care for one another is a social concern and not merely a profit centred motive. Ethics has also to be seen in the light of the environment in which it is exercised. This is important as an organization is a network of actions, hence influencing trans communal levels and interactions (Casey, 2006). Resource Dependency Theory is one the corporate governance theories that would be discussed below. Resource Dependency theory was originated in the 1970s with the publication of The External Control of Organisations: A Resource Dependence Perspective by...
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...Practice of the International Business Ethics Gabriela Dubcová* ABSTRACT The ethics triangle: national law, culture and political economic system. Key factors of current ethics issues in an international environment. The most visible changes in environment dimensions. Principles of international business ethics. Current ethics challenges in international environment. Common issues of the international business ethics. Comparison of ethical standards in different cultures. Accelerating development of globalization and assimilation between Europe and the USA. Differences between Europe, the United States and Asia in the business ethics perspective. Development processes of global business ethics. Levels of global business ethic level. Principle of normative guidelines for business conduct of multinational corporations. Current functioning of institution engaged in the international business ethics. Key words: The ethics triangle; Current ethics issues; International business ethics; Ethical standards; Global business ethics; Institution engaged in the International Business Ethics. JEL classification: K2, M1 Introduction The present economic situation in the globalized world generates very efficient processes in international companies with large profits for managers but with a relevant risk in economic and noneconomic ambit to eliminate any negative impacts of the crisis from one country to another. In this case, it is necessary to enact and apply ethics principles in international...
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...10 Business Ethics/Social Responsibility/Environmental Sustainability 1) Many people consider it unethical for a firm to be socially irresponsible. Answer: TRUE Diff: 1 Page Ref: 310 AACSB: Ethical Understanding and Reasoning Abilities Objective: 10.01 Explain why good ethics is good business in strategic management. Learning Outcome: Discuss the roles of ethics and social responsibility in strategic management 2) Social responsibility refers to actions an organization takes that are legally required to protect or enhance the well-being of living things. Answer: FALSE Diff: 2 Page Ref: 310 AACSB: Ethical Understanding and Reasoning Abilities Objective: 10.01 Explain why good ethics is good business in strategic management. Learning Outcome: Discuss the roles of ethics and social responsibility in strategic management 3) Sustainability refers to the extent that an organization's operations and actions protect, mend, and preserve rather than harm or destroy the natural environment. Answer: TRUE Diff: 1 Page Ref: 310 Objective: 10.05 Discuss specific ways that firms can be good stewards of the natural environment. Learning Outcome: Discuss the roles of ethics and social responsibility in strategic management 4) Good ethics is not a prerequisite for good strategic management. Answer: FALSE Diff: 2 Page Ref: 311 AACSB: Ethical Understanding and Reasoning Abilities Objective: 10.01 Explain why good ethics is good business in strategic...
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...Objectives 4.1 Differentiate between types of employment relationships and associated the legal considerations. 4.2 Differentiate between types of discriminatory issues and the associated legal considerations. 4.3 Determine methods for managing legal risk arising from regulatory compliance issues. Readings Read Ch. 31 of Business Law: Legal Environment, Online Commerce, Business Ethics, and International. Readings Read Ch. 32 of Business Law: Legal Environment, Online Commerce, Business Ethics, and International. Readings Read Ch. 33 of Business Law: Legal Environment, Online Commerce, Business Ethics, and International. Readings Read Ch. 43 of Business Law: Legal Environment, Online Commerce, Business Ethics, and International. Readings Read Ch. 44 of Business Law: Legal Environment, Online Commerce, Business Ethics, and International. Readings Read Ch. 45 of Business Law: Legal Environment, Online Commerce, Business Ethics, and International. Readings Read Ch. 46 of Business Law: Legal Environment, Online Commerce, Business Ethics, and International. Readings Read this week’s Electronic Reserve Readings. Participation Participate in class discussion. 2 Discussion Questions Respond to weekly discussion questions. DQ 1 due Day 3 and DQ 2 Due Day 5 2 Nongraded Activities and Preparation Podcast Listen to the Week Four podcast. Learning Team Reflection Check out the local and national news sources and find a current event that reflects what we...
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...Moral Issues in Business Barbara Douglass MGT/216 February 5, 2011 Brigitte Culberson-Austin Ethical and Moral Issues in Business Ethical and moral issues have been an issue since the dawn of civilization. It has never been more important than how business deals with these issues. Ethics and moral behavior is essential to any successful business and its environment. Morals and ethics are two separate entities, but depend on each other for successful decision making. Sometimes the line between morals and ethics can become blurred and making the right decision can be difficult and not as clear-cut as one would think. Understanding the differences between ethics and morals and moral and ethical behavior is relevant to decision making. Differences between Ethics and Morals Understanding the differences between ethics and morals may be difficult for some. At times they can be confused for one another. Morals values are standards of right and wrong. Morals are taught over our years of growing up. These could consist of right and wrong behavior when we are children or right and wrong sexual issues as teens and young adults. These are generally instilled on us by our parents or our religious beliefs. Ethics is applying our moral standards to our environment. Our decision to do something that we consider immoral may not be unethical and our decision to do something unethical is not necessarily immoral. Personal Ethics versus Business Ethics Within...
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...“What is Business Ethics?” Essay Posted on July 5, 2012 1 Introduction Dated back to Code of Hammurabi some 4,000 years ago, business ethics is a social science, whose main aim is to define and examine the responsibilities of businesses and their agents as a part of the general moral environment of a given society. The products of this field of research are sets of rules and codes of conducts, which serve as a means of protection from the possible infringements of moral codes as a result from the general activities and responsibilities of a firm to its stakeholders (e.g. generating profits for shareholders and taxes to the government). This paper will briefly explain the foundations and the growing importance of business ethics in today’s economy. Finally, it will describe several contemporary issues of research and practice. 2 The Rationale behind Business Ethics In its simplest sense, the field of business ethics represents the meeting point between ethics and business, where business decisions and their implementation are evaluated in terms of the “right” (moral) and “wrong” (immoral). However, ethical decision-making is far from being simple, as is involves much greater complexity and debate (Trevino & Brown, 2004) than other ethical fields, even complicated ones such as bioethics. The main reason for this confusion is not only the themes of business ethics, but the difficulty to recognize the relevance of ethics to the business decision in question. For example,...
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...Ethics during Change Ethics, according to dictionary.com is a system of moral principles (the ethics of a culture), the rules of conduct recognized in respect to human actions of a particular group or culture (medical ethics, law enforcement ethics), or the moral principles of an individual. Further definition says that ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the values related to human conduct in respect to the rights and wrongs of certain behavior (Dictionary.com, 2014). Ethics in the workplace is something that is a system of moral principles, or how a workplace culture views what is acceptable and what is not. In this article, we will discuss ethics and their effects during a change implementation, most importantly, how they change with the ever-changing business environment. Despite the hundreds of pages in an organizations code of conduct manuals, ethics, and the ethical culture is something that is often over looked during a change implementation. With everything that is changing in the business environment, often ethics and morals is the last thing management and upper echelon management tends to overlook. When the business changes, everything changes, including the culture of the environment. In the event of an environmental culture change, workplace ethics will have to change along with it. Ethics and Change During the initial stages of change, there is always resistance to change. One perceived reason of resistance to change is the perceived clash with...
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...BUSINESS ETHICS Name Institution of Affiliation Introduction The business environment is changing to embrace ethical conduct in the performance of duties and activities of individuals in professional setting. Nowadays, companies are exposed to public scrutiny where their corporate social responsibility and social accountability are assessed. A shift towards rethinking the various functions of a business entity to encompass ethics into their daily management activities has been undertaken as entities seek to be market leaders. Business ethics encompasses the relationship the company has with the employees, customers, shareholders and the community. Business ethics is the analysis of business activities and situations where issues pertaining what constitute a right or wrong act are dealt with through institutional processes (Jennings, 2011). Consequently, ethics involves ascertaining good practices from bad practices based on the context of morals. On the other hand, moral conduct is the behaviour exhibited by human beings that can either be right or wrong depending on the context whereas business ethics. Business ethics can be viewed from two distinct perspectives; descriptive ethics and normative ethics. Normative ethics ascribes to the justification of moral systems whereas descriptive ethics depicts what ethical practices are. Ideally, the paper will delve into more details concerning what business ethics entails and the importance of business ethics...
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...Purchasing Ethics and how it Changes the Global Marketplace Assignment 3.4 Mike Wooddell ERAU LGMT 536 – Purchasing for Logistics and Supply Chain Management June 17, 2015 Abstract As organizations increase their global footprint, the need for reliable, ethical, and sustainable suppliers also increases. Understanding this need, more businesses are engaging suppliers that are the most cost effective and not necessarily the most ethical. This brings me to the research of purchasing ethics. Specifically how do ethics change the landscape of today’s global market? This paper will look at several factors that include the cross cultural understanding of ethics, the personal and professional responsibility, and several ethical challenges such as environmental responsibility and human rights and the impact it has on the global market. Key Words: business ethics, global market, cultural factors, professional responsibility, ethical challenges I. WHAT IS ETHICS – DEFINITION AND UNDERSTANDING Clearly define what ethics mean in the global market and the domestic market and how it is interpreted in each. II. CULTURAL FACTORS IN GLOBAL MARKETS Identify how cultural factors such as religion, sexual orientation, and accepted standard practices influence or hinder international and domestic business. III. PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO BUSINESSES Identify the responsibility and moral obligation when ethical dilemmas occur, your personal...
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...Should Social Responsibility and Business Ethics serve a role in Corporations? NorthCentral University Abstract When you turn on the television, surf the internet or browse the Wall Street Journal the terms – business ethics and social responsibility are discussed. Recently, the Gulf coast oil spill has questioned the social responsibility of British Petroleum. However, can the terms business ethics and social responsibility apply to corporations? A review of two articles - “What is business ethics?” by P. Drucker and “The social responsibility of business to increase its profits written” by M. Friedman evaluates the two ethical terms. These articles suggest both business ethics and social responsibility should not apply to corporations. The focus of this paper will compare and contrast two approaches to business ethics. The conflicting objectives between the two parties will be analyzed. Lastly, my view and definition of business ethics and social responsibility will be conversed. Research for this paper consists primarily of peer reviewed articles and published articles. Should Social Responsibility and Business Ethics serve a role in Corporations? During the twenty- first century, businesses are confronted with many different responsibilities. Each responsibility must be address while ensuring obligations to stakeholders, special interest groups, employees and the environment. Businesses are expected to have very strong ethics, but often this is not the case...
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...Running Head: ETHICS ISSUES Samantha Curry-Woods Organizational Ethics and Social Responsibility Professor Cynthia Joseph University of Phoenix June 9, 2010 Ethics Issues The word ethics originates in the home, schools, and communities. Ethics may circulate around the workplace but, sometimes that is all it will remain: a word. The ethical situation at hand can bring “the word” to life. Managers and employees deal with ethical issues daily in the workplace. Institutions of higher learning offer courses in ethics for undergraduates studying in Business because companies and employees need additional guidance for ethical issues that arise. Ethical behavior in business, according to Trevino and Nelson (2006), is known as “behavior that is consistent with the principles, norms, and standards of business practice that have been agreed upon by society” (p. 16, para. 1). Community and work environments share ethical issues. Sometimes a person’s actions or thoughts from his or her personal time will reveal itself within the workplace and cause harm. Some people call it “keeping it real” and others just call it unethical behavior. Discrimination, conflicts of interest, and use of corporate resources are three ethical issues that affect the business environment (Trevino & Nelson, 2006). The following paragraphs will show examination of the three ethical issues affecting some business environments today. The concept of ethics is different for this generation in...
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...and employee ethics and how it influences Business Ethics. Context In this business memo I will first be discussing how age and employee ethics influences business ethics. Secondly, I will be discussing how age plays a part in employee ethics. Business ethics is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arises in a business environment. It applies to all business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations. Employee ethics is our actions when at our work place. Our actions at our work place are defined and directed by a set of rules called employee ethics, also commonly known as a code of conduct. Assertion #1 Age and employee ethics play a role in business ethics. Both play a role in business ethics because within a business or corporation, the environment may be filled with employees of diverse ages and people who act ethical in different ways. Although a business or corporation may have employees of many different ages, it is a moral responsibility of all the employees to maintain a healthy work environment by maintaining their ethical standards and procedures to the utmost precision. However, because there may be a diverse age group of employees within a business, you may find in a business that younger employees may have problems with acting responsible and with high diligence. You may find this an issue with the younger employees of a business because younger...
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