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Emerging Business Ethics Issues: Ethical Decision

This chapter discusses emerging business ethics issues such as abusive behavior, lying, conflicts of interest, bribery, corporate intelligence, discrimination, sexual harassment, environmental issues, fraud, intellectual property rights, and privacy. It defines ethical issues as situations requiring thought to make ethical decisions. Fairness and integrity are also discussed. The challenges in determining ethical issues in business are examined.

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205 views23 pages

Emerging Business Ethics Issues: Ethical Decision

This chapter discusses emerging business ethics issues such as abusive behavior, lying, conflicts of interest, bribery, corporate intelligence, discrimination, sexual harassment, environmental issues, fraud, intellectual property rights, and privacy. It defines ethical issues as situations requiring thought to make ethical decisions. Fairness and integrity are also discussed. The challenges in determining ethical issues in business are examined.

Uploaded by

Black Unicorn
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Ethical Decision Making for Business 8e Fraedrich/ Ferrell/Ferrell

CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 3

Emerging Business Ethics


Issues
Chapter Objectives

• To define ethical issues in the context of organizational


ethics
• To examine ethical issues as they relate to the basic
values of honesty, fairness, and integrity
• To delineate abusive and intimidating behavior, lying,
conflicts of interest, bribery, corporate intelligence,
discrimination, sexual harassment, environmental issues,
fraud, insider trading, intellectual property rights, and
privacy as business ethics issues
• To examine the challenge of determining an ethical issue
in business
Chapter Outline

• Recognizing an Ethical Issue


• Ethical Issues and Dilemmas in Business
• The Challenge of Determining an Ethical Issue in
Business
Recognizing an Ethical Issue

• An ethical issue is a situation or a problem that


requires thought, discussion, or investigation to
make a decision
• Failure to do so puts corporations at great risk
Honesty

• Honesty: Truthfulness or trustworthiness


• Dishonesty: A lack of integrity, incomplete
disclosure, or an unwillingness to tell the truth
Fairness and Integrity

• Fairness: The quality of being just, equitable, and


impartial
– Equality
– Reciprocity
– Optimization
• Integrity: One of the most important terms regarding
virtue. It means uncompromising adherence to ethical
values
Ethical Issues and Dilemmas in
Business

• An ethical issue is a problem or opportunity that requires


an individual or group to choose among actions that are
evaluated as ethical or unethical
• An ethical dilemma is a problem, situation, or opportunity
that requires an individual or group to choose among
several wrong or unethical actions
Abusive or Intimidating Behavior

• One of the most common ethical problems


• Can mean anything from physical threats, false
accusations, profanity, insults, harshness, ignoring
someone, or even unreasonableness
• Bullying is a growing legal problem in the workplace
Abusive or Intimidating Behavior
• Bullying is a growing legal problem in the workplace
• Turn workplace into a hostile environment
• Can cause psychological damage, health
endangering consequences, fatigue, increase sick
days, stomach problems, and etc.
• Bullying can be verbal, non verbal, manipulative
threatening expression can damage org. productivity
• Steps employers should take to stop bullying
 Policies in place
 Handbook
 Reporting system
 Training
 Org culture ; shared values
Lying

Three types of lies:


1. Joking without malice
2. Commission lying ; create perception or belief by
words to deceive the receiver of the message
(confuse-complex forms- buffering in DS)
3. Omission lying ; intentionally not informing other
of any difference, problems, safety warnings, or
negative issues related to the product/srvs
Conflicts of Interest

• Exist when an individual must choose whether to


advance his or her own personal interests, those
of the organization, or some other group
• Usually relates to hiring friends or relatives
• Dual relationship; may interfere with his or her
ability to perform professional roles.
Bribery
• Bribery is the practice of offering something in order
to gain an illicit advantage
• Different types of bribery
– Active bribery; promises to pay
– Passive bribery; Official
• Facilitation payment ; paid to obtain and /or retain
business or improve advantage in most developing
countries- facilitation fees are illegal.
Corporate Intelligence

• Corporate intelligence is the collection and analysis


of information on:
– Markets
– Technologies
– Customers and competitors
– Socioeconomic and external political trends
Corporate Intelligence
• Illegal techniques of Corporate intelligence
1. Hacking
2. Social engineering
3. Dumpster diving
4. Whacking
5. Phone eavesdropping
Discrimination
• On the basis of color, race, religion, sex, marital
status, sexual orientation, public assistance status,
disability, age, national origin, veteran status is illegal

• A company in the U.S. can be sued for discrimination


if it:
– Refuses to hire an individual for discriminatory
reasons
– Unreasonably excludes an individual from
employment
– Unreasonably discharges an individual
– Discriminates against an individual with respect to
hiring, employment terms, promotion, or privileges
Discrimination

• EEOC ; Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

• Age Discrimination in employment Act

• Affirmative action program; to help build workforce


that reflect their customer base t build more diverse
workplace
Sexual Harassment

• A repeated, unwanted behavior of a sexual nature


perpetrated upon one individual by another
• Hostile Work Environment
– The conduct was unwelcome
– The conduct was severe, pervasive, and regarded
by the claimant as so hostile or offensive as to
alter his or her conditions of employment
– The conduct was such that a reasonable person
would find it hostile or offensive
Sexual Harassment
To avoid sexual harassment at work:
•Establish policy naming someone in the org.
responsible for preventing harassment
•Establish definition of sexual harassment
•Protection policy for complaints
•Establish procedures for protection
•Encourage victims to report
•Establish reporting procedure and complying with
time.
Environmental Issues

• The environment is a significant and growing issue in


business
• The Kyoto Protocol: An international treaty on
climate change that commits nations to reducing
greenhouse gas emissions
• Water pollution: Results from dumping sewage and
toxic chemicals in places where they can filter into
water supplies
• Green energy sources are perceived to have lower
emissions or waste than traditional ones
Fraud
• Any purposeful communication that deceives,
manipulates, or conceals facts in order to create a
false impression is fraud
• Accounting fraud
– Misrepresentation of company’s financial reports
– Sarbanes-Oxley Act sought to improve this
– 2008-2009 Wall Street financial meltdown and
recession revealed continuing problems
• Marketing fraud; dishonesty creating, distributing,
promoting, and pricing products/srvs
• Consumer fraud; when consumers attempt to deceive
business for their own gain. (collusion-duplicity-guile)
Financial Misconduct

• The failure to understand manage ethical risks played


a key part in the financial meltdown and recession of
2008-2009
Intellectual Property Rights and
Privacy
• Intellectual Property Rights involve the legal
protection of intellectual properties, such as music,
books, and movies
• Many privacy issues in the business world
– Employee use of technology
– Consumer privacy
– It can be a challenge for businesses today to meet
the needs of consumers while protecting their
privacy
The Challenge of Determining Ethical
Issues in Business
• Most ethical issues will become visible through
stakeholder concerns about an event, activity, or the
results of a business decision
• Determining ethical issues is a challenge
• The ethical decision making process starts when
ethical issue awareness occurs and individuals begin
discussion

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