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MGX5020: Business ethics in a global environment

Week 12: Revision

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Exam

• Worth 50%

• Ten Questions, you must answer 3

• 3 hour closed book

• You need to use examples, but not the one you wrote your assignment on

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Exam

• Roughly 50-55 minutes a question

• So you have time to go over your answer

• Each essay will be marked out of 100

• Your mark will be the average of the 3 essays

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Exam

• Set it out clearly.

• Double space your work

• We are looking for clear understanding

• The easier it is for me to read, the easier it is for me to find you marks

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Exam

• You need to have – Introduction– Analysis of the question– Needs to link back to the theories in class– Conclusion

• I need to see– Definition of the theories– Examples – Clear analysis of the question

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Exam

Now the bit you have all been

waiting for

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Week 2 - Kohlberg’s Moral Stages

• Pre-conventional– Punishment and Obedience

> Avoiding punishment

– Instrumental-relativist orientation> What do I get in return?

• Conventional– Interpersonal concordance

> Behaving to gain acceptance

– Law and order> What is right based on law

• Post-conventional– Social-Contract

> Upholding individual rights

– Universal-ethical > These are my beliefs even if people or the law say otherwise

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Week 3 – Consequences

• Consequentialism – Utilitarianism

> If the outcomes of a certain action are desirable, then the action is morally right

> If the outcomes of a certain action are not desirable, then the action is morally wrong.

> considers the consequences for all effected by the action. – Egoism

> considers only the consequences for the individual (the actor/ agent).

Enron, Pinto,

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Week 4

• Deontology– If the principle is good, then the action is morally right– If the principle is bad, then the action is morally bad– Knowledge of wrong from sacred or human reason

• Kant– Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same

time will that it should become a universal law. (consistency) – Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in

that of another, always as an end and never as a means only. (human dignity)

– Act only so that the will through its maxims could regard itself at the same time as universally lawgiving. (universality, not subjectively)

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Week 4 continued

• Shareholder – Ethics of self interest (the business case)– Duties to shareholders?

• Stakeholder – Utilitarianism or– Duties to the stakeholders?

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Week 5

• Rawlsian JusticeDistribution chosen reasonably by rational people to produce a social order under the veil of ignorance

1. Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive scheme of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for others

2. Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that: a) they are to be of the greatest benefit to the least-advantaged

members of society (the difference principle); and

b) offices and positions must be open to everyone under conditions of fair equality of opportunity.

• Libertarianism (Nozick)– Strong emphasis on individual rights– Minimal government – Distribution by the market

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Week 5

• We compared the two

• Looked at the privatisation debate

• Spoke on the economic aspect

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Week 6

• Amoral leadership theories• Values-based leadership theories• Ethical leadership theories

– Gardner (1990)– Burns (2003)

• Aspects of leadership– Leader’s personality– Followers– Situation– Processes (and skills)– Outcomes

• Virtue Ethics

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Week 7

• Human Rights– UNDHR 1948– Human Rights in Islam (1990)– Asian Values Critique

• Universalism– Moral rights everywhere everybody

• Relativism – Determined by culture, subjective to situation

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Week 8

• Environmental Responsibility– Agriculture; Water; Air; Climate Change; and Nuclear Energy

• Who should pay the costs?– Regulation

> Firms are required by law to meet prescribed environmental standards– Incentives

> Government provides firms with a tax break for purchasing and using pollution-control equipment

– Pricing Mechanisms> Programs designed to charge firms for the amount of pollution they produce

– Pollution Permits> Specific number of permits that businesses could buy and sell (market)

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Week 8

• Lifeboat Ethics

• Cost Benefit Analysis

• Free-rider problem

• Externalities

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Week 9

Commodification of the Market

1. Intrinsically, i.e. we value them because we think they have characteristics or significance that is particular to them and cannot be substituted by another similar thing?

2. Instrumentally, i.e. we value them as far as they are useful/ instrumental to our lives?

3. In exchange, i.e. we value them to the extent that they may be exchanged with other things?

Distinction between 1 and 2: Objectification

Distinction between 2 and 3: Commodification

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Week 9

• What things do you consider acceptable to buy and sell?

• What are items have intrinsic value, value-in-use and value-in-exchange?

• Is there anything that you think should not be bought or sold? – What is the reason you feel that these should not be

bought or sold

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Week 10 – 11 Confucianism

• Humanity/benevolence• Righteousness• Propriety• Wisdom• Trustworthiness

• Reciprocity • Collective Enhancement

• Influence on businesses ethics

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Week 10-11 Christianity

• Reciprocity• Distribution of wealth • Serving others

• Protestant Work Ethic– Hard Working– Thriftiness

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Week 10-11 Islam

• UNITY (TAWHID)– With God (Allah), with each other and with all aspects of life– Preserves the idea of a common good in an economic system

• JUSTICE (ADALAH) – opposes inequality, exploitation, oppression – wealth should be properly acquired (via productive means) – an individual should work unless unable, in which case they should be supported

by the community• PURIFICATION (ZAKAH)

– the rich are trustees (not owners) of their wealth – economic necessity and spiritual salvation (re. ‘good works’)

• TRUSTEESHIP (KHILAFAH) – economic and spiritual goals are compatible – wealth accumulation is not the overwhelming goal – waste is to be avoided – resources should be used for everyone’s wellbeing

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Practice Question

What level/s or stage/s of Kohlberg’s Cognitive Moral Development model would correspond with the organisation models of Organisational Totalitarianism and Patrimonial Bureaucracy? What kind of moral reasoning would they promote? What do you see as the potential advantages and disadvantages of each?

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Week 2 - Kohlberg’s Moral Stages

• Pre-conventional– Punishment and Obedience

> Avoiding punishment

– Instrumental-relativist orientation> What do I get in return?

• Conventional– Interpersonal concordance

> Behaving to gain acceptance

– Law and order> What is right based on law

• Post-conventional– Social-Contract

> Upholding individual rights

– Universal-ethical > These are my beliefs even if people or the law say otherwise

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Practice Question

• Introduction

• Define the Stages of Moral Development

• Define Organisational Totalitarianism and Patrimonial Bureaucracy

• The link between the two

• The moral reasoning that both would promote

• Advantages for the organisation?

• Disadvantages for the organisation? And Ethics in general?

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Exam

• Main thing: Don’t get too cocky

• Go in and smash it

• and……

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SETU

• Student Evaluation of Teaching and Unit• Telling Monash what is good and bad• 1-7 scale (but check – 6 used to be I haven’t been to class

and 7 was not assessable)

• More importantly you can say how much you love me• Or not love me if that is the case….

• Helps me improve • Helps me get jobs =)

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Exam

GO WIN