mgt3044 Business Ethics

 Question 1    COMPULSORY

 “At the end of January of this year, Airbus reached an agreement with prosecutors from France, Britain and the United States to pay $4 billion in order to settle the bribery case against it. This settlement agreement launched several investigations around the world into wrongdoing by airline executives. One of the high-profile investigations involved AirAsia founder and CEO Tony Fernandes and the airline’s executive chairman Kamarudin Meranun, who stepped aside during an investigation.” (Source: Forbes, 6 April 2020, EasyJet’s Squabble with Founder Over Airbus $5.5B Order Intensifies, with Insinuations of Bribery, by Marisa Gracia.) According to Robert Frederick (2013), “…multinational corporations sometimes claim that in certain developing countries business can only be done by offering bribes. Since the corporate imperative is to maximize profit, and since there is profit to be made in developing countries, they claim that they are justified in paying bribes.”

To what extent do you agree that bribery is an acceptable moral practice. Demonstrate the ethical arguments of both sides and critically justify your own position in this debate with relevant normative ethical theories.           

SECTION B: ANSWER ONE (1) OUT OF THREE (3) QUESTIONS

Question 2 

“The controversial RM1,200 minimum wage has been gazetted and will officially encompass 56 city and municipal council areas from Feb 1. The gazette was released by the Human Resources Ministry on Jan 10 under the Minimum Wages Order 2020.It states that the minimum wage rate payable to an employee who works within the 16 city councils and 40 municipal councils will be RM5.77 an hour or RM1,200 monthly. … Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Samsudin Baradan lamented that the cost of doing business would likely rise with employers having to bear the increase.“The present economic situation is hardly the time to increase the cost of doing business. “Malaysia is affected by the sluggish global economy and this is reflected by the high number of retrenchments,” he said yesterday.” (Source: The Star, 14 January 2020, New minimum wage gazetted, by Ashley)

Some argue that it is good ethics to raise the minimum wage, others assert that minimum wages do not accomplish what they set out to do and instead create more problems than they set out to solve. Answer the following questions with relevant normative theories, concepts, examples, and models:

?Critically discuss the contrasting view of Kantianism and classical liberalism on minimum wage as a moral necessity. 

?Justify with relevant normative theories which side you will support if you are a business manager.

Question 3

“Malaysia said a total of a total of 3,737 metric tonnes of unwanted waste had been sent back to 13 countries, including 43 containers to France, 42 to the UK, 17 to the United States, and 11 to Canada. The authorities hope to send back another 110 containers by the middle of 2020 - with 60 of those going to the US. … Many wealthy countries send their recyclable waste overseas because it is cheap, helps meet recycling targets and reduces domestic landfill. The European Union is the largest exporter of plastic waste, with the US leading as the top exporter for a single country. A growing number of countries across South East Asia, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, have returned unwanted waste over the last 12 months.” (Source: BBC News, 20 January 2020, Malaysia returns 42 containers of ‘illegal’ plastic waste to UK)

However, former chief economist of the World Bank, Lawrence Summers, has suggested in a memo that, “The economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable”.

?Critically evaluate how Summers justifies his claims.

?Critically discuss the extent you agree that exporting plastic waste from wealthy countries to Malaysia is ethical permissible. In your discussion, you should consider whether you would import plastic waste from wealthy countries if you own a plastic recycling plant and justify why.

Question 4                                       

Ethical violations in the workplace is common. According to a report in Harvard Business Review, “Most commonly, people encountered experiences that could be described as rule violations (29%), followed by lying (27%) and unhealthy work environment (also 27%). Although less frequent, we find it concerning that sacrificing safety (9%), discrimination (3%), stealing (3%), and bullying (2%) were all mentioned as examples of unethical behavior in the workplace” (Ivcevic, Menges, & Miller, 2020). Studies have shown that both external factors (circumstances) and internal factors (psychological) contribute to the corrupting effects of power on managers ascending the corporate hierarchy. It has been claimed that ethical violations by top managers are the by-product of their success.

Critically discuss some of these factors identified by Ludwig and Longnecker (1993). What steps can be taken to ensure ethical violations can be detected or prevented? In the discussion, student should consider which normative theories are most consistent with moral leadership in the workplace.Ethics