It was quite accidental that I was assigned the course on Business ethics. The year was 2002. I was tying up some loose ends in the family after tremendous dilemma as to the means. Since the ends were anyway better, there was no option as to the means.... the consequences otherwise would have been far more pathetic.
I was doing my readings on culture and Prof. James Thomas Kunnanat intuitively linked the same to ethics and suggested my name for handling the course. And here I was except for some reaidng skills.. and a book 'The story of Philosophy' by Will Durant adventuring on to the world of ethics.
The rest of it followed... and in late 2007 I posted a summary of the discussions for the benefit of the students.....
End of course module wise briefing
The syllabus of Business ethics and brief comments from me are as follows:-
Module 1.
The syllabus of Business ethics and brief comments from me are as follows:-
Module 1.
Introduction to ethics as part of philosophy . Teleological and deontological theories. Justice, ethics, morality, ethics, and law.
Ethics is a branch of philosophy along with politics, logic, metaphysics, aesthetics. Politics in the philosophical meaning is the art of right social organization, Logic is the science of correct thinking, aesthetics is the science of beauty and harmony, metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals with higher order questions such as the existence of God and final meanings of life. Ethics deals with higher values especially rightness and wrongness of behaviour.
Teleological is the same as consequentialist which determines the ethics of an act on the basis of the consequences of the act.
Deontological theories on the other hand postulate that the act itself is either right or wrong irrespective of the consequences.
The most important deontological theory is the categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant. The other examples would be the golden rule , " Do to others as you would want them to do to you" and the ten commandments in the Judeo Christian tradition.
Also please recollect our discussion on various related terms such as morality, norms, law, culture and ethics. All of them have in common the question of right vs wrong.
Law has the backing of the legislature and is often written down. Norms are the practices followed in a community the breaking of which causes disdain. For example, greetings and participating in social events such as marriage, funeral etc would not be considered as crimes but would invite scorn and non cooperation from the community.
Morality usually has the backing of the religion and also may have some local and temporal standing as when we call the Victorian morals.
Culture also implies right vs wrong as when someone deviating from a culture is called a deviant and eccentric ( Away from the centre)
Ethics is usually of a particular domain such as business ethics and medical ethics.
We also talk about the protestant ethic a set of behaviors subscribed by the protestants which with its ideal of hard work, thrift, frugality and investment paved the way to the industrial revolution / capitalism.
Module 2
Business ethics - Ethical dilemmas - Ethical displacement- Ethical leadership - Ethical issues in leadership - Corruption- Discrimination- Whistle blowing- competition- Privacy - trade secrets
Business ethics deals with the questions of correctness of behavior in the domain of business. Ethical dilemmas include personal conflicts. Recollect the case of the defective bolts where Mr. Malhotra had to take a decision. Also recollect that we tried to find answers to the dilemma on the basis of the various moral philosophies such as utilitarianism ( "greatest good of the greatest number" , "cost- benefit analysis") , egoism ( behaviour on the basis of what is good for oneself) and enlightened egoism ( behavior on the basis of expectations of future benefits to oneself/ the company).
Also other philosophies include deontological such as categorical imperative ( it is inherently wrong not to disclose if there are defects in the product). One philosophy “relativism” may be particularly interesting to business ethics because it postulates to look at industry practices in similar circumstances.
Corruption was discussed around the corruption perception index prepared by Transparency international (TI) which does compile corruption data on the basis of a survey. Among the most corrupt is Nigeria. India is around the bottom 3 on a scale of 10. Least corrupt are the Scandinavian countries.
There may also be an inverse correlation between corruption and economic growth of a country. Arguments for the economic growth of least corrupt countries include the attraction of foreign investments to a less corrupt country. This is however on the assumption of the goodness of capital investment which is one of the tenets of capitalistic thinking.
There were also some arguments justifying corruption which however are morally unacceptable. These include that corruption smoothens the otherwise slow bureaucracy, that the salaries of bureaucrats are kept low in anticipation that anyway they will be bribed and most importantly that corruption is a cultural issue and not a moral one.
Discrimination in matters of employment and promotion was discussed from two angles. One in terms of conscious efforts from the nations to provide avenues to the historically deprived which in US is called affirmative action and in our own as reservation.
At the corporate and individual level discrimination may include conscious efforts to eliminate bias for which it may be a good idea to be aware of possible perceptual biases particularly halo effect, horn effect, recency effect , stereotyping etc.
Whistle blowing refers to employees raising and bringing out unacceptable practices by people and corporate. It earns significance from the point of view that often whistle blowers are at risk of losing jobs. Many countries have enacted laws protecting whistle blowers in the larger interests of the society
Competition is discussed at the larger level of capitalism itself as posing certain ethical issues. Capitalism is accused as a system that runs on the selfishness of the players and one that hinges on Spencer’s survival of the fittest. The unacceptability of applying an observation from natural world applied to higher order existence such as that of human beings with a civilization and culture is questioned. Besides taken to extreme survival of the fittest would mean leaving the sick and the aged to themselves and to their own peril. A system that runs on selfishness it is argued does not promote any higher ideals that distinguishes human existence.
Privacy is discussed at the level of corporate houses resorting to ethically unacceptable practices that monitors the behavior of employees especially using technology such as CCTV and telephone eavesdropping. At the consumer level this may mean infringement on personal time by say direct / telemarketers.
Trade secrets do pose two issues, one that of intellectual property being pilfered which is unacceptable ethically since a person or a corporate entity is rightfully entitled to enjoy the fruits of his intellectual labour. The second issue is that of life saving inventions being too closely held in the name of intellectual property. From both angles there are ethical issues.
Leadership issues of ethics are attached as ppt file.
Moduel 3.
Ethics is a branch of philosophy along with politics, logic, metaphysics, aesthetics. Politics in the philosophical meaning is the art of right social organization, Logic is the science of correct thinking, aesthetics is the science of beauty and harmony, metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals with higher order questions such as the existence of God and final meanings of life. Ethics deals with higher values especially rightness and wrongness of behaviour.
Teleological is the same as consequentialist which determines the ethics of an act on the basis of the consequences of the act.
Deontological theories on the other hand postulate that the act itself is either right or wrong irrespective of the consequences.
The most important deontological theory is the categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant. The other examples would be the golden rule , " Do to others as you would want them to do to you" and the ten commandments in the Judeo Christian tradition.
Also please recollect our discussion on various related terms such as morality, norms, law, culture and ethics. All of them have in common the question of right vs wrong.
Law has the backing of the legislature and is often written down. Norms are the practices followed in a community the breaking of which causes disdain. For example, greetings and participating in social events such as marriage, funeral etc would not be considered as crimes but would invite scorn and non cooperation from the community.
Morality usually has the backing of the religion and also may have some local and temporal standing as when we call the Victorian morals.
Culture also implies right vs wrong as when someone deviating from a culture is called a deviant and eccentric ( Away from the centre)
Ethics is usually of a particular domain such as business ethics and medical ethics.
We also talk about the protestant ethic a set of behaviors subscribed by the protestants which with its ideal of hard work, thrift, frugality and investment paved the way to the industrial revolution / capitalism.
Module 2
Business ethics - Ethical dilemmas - Ethical displacement- Ethical leadership - Ethical issues in leadership - Corruption- Discrimination- Whistle blowing- competition- Privacy - trade secrets
Business ethics deals with the questions of correctness of behavior in the domain of business. Ethical dilemmas include personal conflicts. Recollect the case of the defective bolts where Mr. Malhotra had to take a decision. Also recollect that we tried to find answers to the dilemma on the basis of the various moral philosophies such as utilitarianism ( "greatest good of the greatest number" , "cost- benefit analysis") , egoism ( behaviour on the basis of what is good for oneself) and enlightened egoism ( behavior on the basis of expectations of future benefits to oneself/ the company).
Also other philosophies include deontological such as categorical imperative ( it is inherently wrong not to disclose if there are defects in the product). One philosophy “relativism” may be particularly interesting to business ethics because it postulates to look at industry practices in similar circumstances.
Corruption was discussed around the corruption perception index prepared by Transparency international (TI) which does compile corruption data on the basis of a survey. Among the most corrupt is Nigeria. India is around the bottom 3 on a scale of 10. Least corrupt are the Scandinavian countries.
There may also be an inverse correlation between corruption and economic growth of a country. Arguments for the economic growth of least corrupt countries include the attraction of foreign investments to a less corrupt country. This is however on the assumption of the goodness of capital investment which is one of the tenets of capitalistic thinking.
There were also some arguments justifying corruption which however are morally unacceptable. These include that corruption smoothens the otherwise slow bureaucracy, that the salaries of bureaucrats are kept low in anticipation that anyway they will be bribed and most importantly that corruption is a cultural issue and not a moral one.
Discrimination in matters of employment and promotion was discussed from two angles. One in terms of conscious efforts from the nations to provide avenues to the historically deprived which in US is called affirmative action and in our own as reservation.
At the corporate and individual level discrimination may include conscious efforts to eliminate bias for which it may be a good idea to be aware of possible perceptual biases particularly halo effect, horn effect, recency effect , stereotyping etc.
Whistle blowing refers to employees raising and bringing out unacceptable practices by people and corporate. It earns significance from the point of view that often whistle blowers are at risk of losing jobs. Many countries have enacted laws protecting whistle blowers in the larger interests of the society
Competition is discussed at the larger level of capitalism itself as posing certain ethical issues. Capitalism is accused as a system that runs on the selfishness of the players and one that hinges on Spencer’s survival of the fittest. The unacceptability of applying an observation from natural world applied to higher order existence such as that of human beings with a civilization and culture is questioned. Besides taken to extreme survival of the fittest would mean leaving the sick and the aged to themselves and to their own peril. A system that runs on selfishness it is argued does not promote any higher ideals that distinguishes human existence.
Privacy is discussed at the level of corporate houses resorting to ethically unacceptable practices that monitors the behavior of employees especially using technology such as CCTV and telephone eavesdropping. At the consumer level this may mean infringement on personal time by say direct / telemarketers.
Trade secrets do pose two issues, one that of intellectual property being pilfered which is unacceptable ethically since a person or a corporate entity is rightfully entitled to enjoy the fruits of his intellectual labour. The second issue is that of life saving inventions being too closely held in the name of intellectual property. From both angles there are ethical issues.
Leadership issues of ethics are attached as ppt file.
Moduel 3.
Ethical issues in marketing, finance, HRM , IT and business strategy
Marketing and HRM ppts are attached. For finance please do a research on the Enron issue. I am doubtful whether anything more can be said about IT and strategy other that already said in the functional areas. Suffice it to say that the war metaphors used in strategy such as competition, overkill, market share, targeting etc. do influence business bahaviour in cut throat terms which in strict ethical terms does not promote any higher ideals.
Module 4.
Marketing and HRM ppts are attached. For finance please do a research on the Enron issue. I am doubtful whether anything more can be said about IT and strategy other that already said in the functional areas. Suffice it to say that the war metaphors used in strategy such as competition, overkill, market share, targeting etc. do influence business bahaviour in cut throat terms which in strict ethical terms does not promote any higher ideals.
Module 4.
Corporate governance, Social audit and government, CSR, Ethics in different nations.
Corporate governance ppt is attached. Others may please be referred in the light of the discussions. Briefly social audit would entail the impact of business upon society especially the negative ones. Ethics in different nations please see transparency international website and discussions on Corruption perception index.
Module 5.
Recent Corporate initiatives abroad and in India
Please refer to the Sarbanes Oxley Act and the SEBI guidelines
I am sure you will appreciate that we have covered much more than the syllabus and also the perspectives developed by the class sessions would let you read on further keeping in mind the university syllabus to fill gaps if any....
All the best
SHELLY JOSE
Corporate governance ppt is attached. Others may please be referred in the light of the discussions. Briefly social audit would entail the impact of business upon society especially the negative ones. Ethics in different nations please see transparency international website and discussions on Corruption perception index.
Module 5.
Recent Corporate initiatives abroad and in India
Please refer to the Sarbanes Oxley Act and the SEBI guidelines
I am sure you will appreciate that we have covered much more than the syllabus and also the perspectives developed by the class sessions would let you read on further keeping in mind the university syllabus to fill gaps if any....
All the best
SHELLY JOSE
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