Analyzing Business Ethics In The Context Of Moral Philosophy: An Essay.

Choose a recent news/media article that has been published within the last 3 months that concerns a business ethics issue/s and answer the following questions using an essay style format:

1. Provide a short introduction and conclusion
2. Outline and summarize the arguments made in the article including relevant background/history and consider any legal or sanction implications.
3. Discuss the key ethical issue/s/concerns raised in the article (thiscan include: corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, leadership etc.
4. In your opinion has/have the most appropriate ethical decisions been made? If so why? If not why not?

Provide examples of other ethical cases to support your answer. (If a legal and or sanction imposed, was this (in own opinion) reasonable? Why/Why not?

5. Outline your ethical decisionmaking processes aligning your opinion/decision by identifying the most relevant of the seven moral philosophies outlined in the class text book
6. Writing (spelling and grammar), formatting, referencing
7. You must include a copy of the article as an Appendix. If this is not attached you will lose.

Introduction and conclusion

• Your introduction should be a short summary of the article and your plan for answering the questions.
• Your conclusion should be a concise statement that is consistent with your introduction

2. The outline and summary should show that you understand issues raised from an ethical Perspective Outline/summary of arguments demonstrates clear understanding of relevance to ethics not just personal ethics and legal ramifications (if applicable)
3. Demonstrate own decision making/judgement processes in relation to the ethical issue demonstrating of how individual ethical judgements are made and how they may vary.
4. Provide an outline of relevant ethical moral philosophies demonstrates an understanding of the ethical moral philosophies discussed in class and can apply philosophy to actions/consequences.
5. Use of academic writing and referencing including attention to spelling, grammar andpunctuation. Adherence to the Harvard style guide as listed in the Holmes academic course guide must be used (both in text and reference list).

The concept of moral philosophy is the rational study of the justification and the meaning of the claims regarding the morale(Medeiros et al. 2017).It is basically the evaluation of the rightness and the wrongness regarding the moral claim. Apart from all other moral philosophies this particular study focuses on the application of the application of moral philosophy towards the study of business ethics (Teulon 2014). The study of the moral philosophy includes the study of the value and the moral judgments or the value on the process of the decision. The application of the moral philosophy to the ethics of the business in the scenario of the global market place is certain difficult to comprehend. The essay focuses on the ethical issues portrayed in ‘Over 1,400 Googlers signed a letter to the top execs demanding a say on ethical issues - read the letter here.’, the article related to a business organization.

The concept of moral philosophy includes multiple perspectives regarding the notion of goodness. According to the perception of Aristotle and his arguments, happiness is an intrinsically good end and the goodness of the happiness is natural and universal in nature without the concept of any relativity (Rawwas et al. 2018). The philosopher Immanuel Kant argued that the concept of good will that is seriously applicable towards the accomplishments is the one particular thing that is good in itself. The concept of the instrumental and the intrinsic goodness is one of a thing which is included in the context of the moral philosophy.Some of the noted factors that is used in the business decisions includes the concept of teleology, the egoism , the utilitarianism, the deontology, the relativist, the virtue ethics and the concept of justice (Ferrell and Fraedrich 2015).The assignment highlights the ethical issues in the business arising in the eminent organization, Google regarding the views and the perception of the employees working on it. The article explains how the organization uses the strategy of signing of the forms or the letters by the employees demanding their says over their concept or their experience of the organizational or the ethical issue related to the business.The article highlights how Google planned to build a search engine that censored the information without the concern of its employees in the previous state. The organization planned on developing the search engine in compliance with the government of china and for the improvement and expansion of their system of operation there.

The concept of moral philosophy and its application to business ethics

Background

Teleology refers to the concept of the moral philosophies where the act is considered to be morally acceptable in case of desired results like pleasure, carrier growth, knowledge, realization of self interests, wealthy, utility and fame. The philosophies of the teleology tend to assess the moral worth of thee behavior by identifying the consequences. The theories by the concept of teleology are generally termed as the consequentialism.Furthermore, the concept of egoism defines the correct or the acceptable behavior for the individual (Alfano, Loeb and Plakias 2018). According to the insight of the egoistsdecisions should be made for the maximization of the self interest. Just like the theory of egoism, the theory of utilitarianism is generally included with some of the consequences. The theory seeks the greatest good for the major number of people.

In the scenario of the moral philosophies related to the business ethics, the notion of the legal implications includes the Justice. Justice is basically the fair treatment in accordance and justification with the legal and the ethical standards in case of the business platform. This furthermore includes the disposition of the deal together with the perceived injustice with the others in the business market (Medeiros et al. 2017). The three basic types of justice that is applicable for the development of the framework for the evaluation of the multiple situations arising in the business platform are the Distributive justice; which is dependable on the evaluation of the outcomes of the business leadership. The procedural justice; which is based on the activities and the procedures producing the results and the interactional Justice that is based on the relationships and the treatments of other. In the chosen article, the legal issues and the ethical issues arising among the organization Google encircles around the development of a new search engine by the company on the request of the Chinese government. This is one of the legal issues since the organization is not taking permission from the government of the other countries before activating the features of the censoring of the information and the search tracks of the public. According a close source, Google has asked only a handful number of employees for signing the letter previously which challenges the ethical dilemma of the employees of the other organization.

The concept of the virtue ethics argues the ethical behavior including the conventional standards of the moral together with the judgment and the analysis of the character of individual towards the decision making in the appropriate situation. The virtue ethics summed up with the approach to the business platform can be furthermore summarized as follows. These includes good corporate ethics programs that encourages the virtue and the integrity of the individual, acquiring the virtues from a good person, clearing the fact and the purpose of the individual for serving the demand of the society and the public good for the reward of his career. The key ethical issues concerning the organization, Google is the need for more transparency and the commitment towards clear and open procedure. The decision towards the introduction of the new search engine together with the censorship of the data has without the permission and the concern of the other national governments and the employees form the other countries has been one of the major ethical issues highlighted in the article chosen. The Chinese government found certain of the data objectionable and the decision of the company to act according to the Chinese government just to initiate the expansion of their business in china, is a major ethical issue.

Examples of ethical dilemmas in the business world

In the chosen media article for analysis regarding the signing of the letters of the google employees  to the top excess demands on the issues relating to ethics, this letter which is circulating among the employees is a vivid example of the ethical structure and review including the representation of the workers according to their ranks (SANDOVAL 2018). In my personal opinion, I believe this in one of the best ethical practices by the organization. The structure of the letter which needs to be duly signed by each and every employees of google as per the rules of the organization provides enough transparency for enabling the worker towards the determination of the projects and the works they have contributed in the organization are synced with the terms and standards of the corporate ethics of the business or not. The letter furthermore offered a code yellow for reporting any of the serious situations which bears rapid attention.

Individuals tend to use multiple categories of moral philosophies that depends on the personal decisions or the decision is related to the work. Some of the basic personal opinion towards the critical review of the article includes explanation of the behavior towards the moral philosophies in the context of the ethical behaviors in the platform of business. In some of the arena of the business, the pressures and the goals for the success tends to differ a lot from the personal goals and the targets (Carroll and Buchholtz 2014). The various multiple factors contributing to the moral philosophy of a person tends to weight differently in the business situation.Furthermore, the very reason the individuals or the people changes their moral philosophies is due to the corporate culture they work in.The concept of the moral philosophy is inexact. According to the psychologist Kohlberg there lies a six stage model of cognitive development in the context of the implication of moral philosophy in the business ethical platform (Orlitzky 2017). Thus according to my personal opinion, I feel each and every employees of the Google has the right to know regrading the development of the search engine and the organization must take the acknowledgement of all of the employees before their operation.

Conclusion

The study of the moral philosophy includes the study of the value and the moral judgments or the value on the process of the decision. The application of the moral philosophy to the ethics of the business in the scenario of the global market place is certain difficult to comprehend. In some of the arena of the business, the pressures and the goals for the success tends to differ a lot from the personal goals and the targets. It can be concluded that in some of the scenarios, the company tends to make questionable decisions from the perspective of the values and the moral philosophies of the individual customers. It is the core values of the organization that determines the decision-makingprocedure in which the concept of the moral philosophies is in major conflict. Most of the business forms in the current era thus have developed the mission and the corporate culture for the effective expression how they can relate their ethical decisions to the customers, the employers and the existing stakeholders.

References

Alfano, M., Loeb, D. and Plakias, A., 2018. Experimental moral philosophy.

Carroll, A. and Buchholtz, A., 2014. Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education.

Demuijnck, G., 2015. Universal values and virtues in management versus cross-cultural moral relativism: An educational strategy to clear the ground for business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(4), pp.817-835.

Ferrell, O.C. and Fraedrich, J., 2015. Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson Education.

Medeiros, K.E., Watts, L.L., Mulhearn, T.J., Steele, L.M., Mumford, M.D. and Connelly, S., 2017. What is working, what is not, and what we need to know: A meta-analytic review of business ethics instruction. Journal of Academic Ethics, 15(3), pp.245-275.

Orlitzky, M., 2017. How cognitive neuroscience informs a subjectivist-evolutionary explanation of business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 144(4), pp.717-732.

Rawwas, M.Y., Wang, Y., Zhao, B. and Javed, B., 2018. A comparison between North and South business ethics: the concepts of Renzhi and Fazhi in China. Asia Pacific Business Review, 24(5), pp.585-601.

SANDOVAL, G. (2018). Over 1,400 Googlers signed a letter to the top execs demanding a say on ethical issues - read the letter here. [online] Business Insider. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.in/Over-1400-Googlers-signed-a-letter-to-the-top-execs-demanding-a-say-on-ethical-issues-read-the-letter-here/articleshow/65432113.cms [Accessed 29 Sep. 2018].

Shaw, W.H. and Barry, V., 2015. Moral issues in business. Cengage Learning.

Teulon, F., 2014. Ethics, moral philosophy and Economics. Financial Economics, pp.28-8.

Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2016. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley & Sons.

Vitell, S.J., King, R.A., Howie, K., Toti, J.F., Albert, L., Hidalgo, E.R. and Yacout, O., 2016. Spirituality, moral identity, and consumer ethics: A multi-cultural study. Journal of business ethics, 139(1), pp.147-160.