English 102: Danziger

Business Ethics

English 102/H: Business Ethics

Over the next 3-4 weeks, put together a research handbook and creative presentation on a specific company in terms of its ethical and social values.

You will be asking the following kinds of questions about the company:

  • How does the company behave in terms of the general ethical categories of utilitarianism, rights and justice?
  • How does the company treat its employees?
  • Is the company truthful in its advertising?
  • How does the company treat the environment or animals?
  • How does the company treat women, minorities and foreign workers?
  • Does the company live up to the ethical standards you would expect?
  • Does the company show any loyalty or responsibility towards the community in which it is located?

Your task:

  • Decide on a company
  • Research the company in terms of your research questions (be ready to modify). Your research may include visiting the company, interviewing people who work for the company, and using the library and the Internet.
  • Develop an ethical model or acronym that captures the company’s ethics
  • Present your research and evaluation of the company to the rest of the class in a handbook and in the form of a creative oral presentation

Possible Companies to Research:

Skin care/cosmetics, oil, zoos, tourism/eco-tourism, clothing, land development, national parks, fishing/hunting, logging, police departments and other government agencies, theme parks, food/drinks/restaurants, pharmaceutical companies, water/gas/electricity companies

Hints For an Effective Research Group:

  • Select a group leader who will be a conflict manager/time-keeper. Unless there are strong extenuating circumstances, your grade will drop each time you miss an in-class meeting – group leaders must tell me if someone is not doing their part
  • Exchange phone/email
  • Before each meeting ends, identify goals to be accomplished by the next time, set up next meeting
  • Identify who will be responsible for specific research tasks

Business Ethics Presentation Guidelines

Oral Presentation – approximately 20 minutes

Ethical Acronym (3-5 minutes)

  • Explain the acronym and its relevance to the ethical evaluation of your company

Case Study and Ethical Argument (10-15 minutes)

  • Each member must participate by taking responsibility for a particular aspect of the presentation
  • Be sure to use visual/creativity to enhance your information – dress up, use charts, video clips, slides, photographs, sample products, overheads, powerpoint
  • Make sure your presentation follows the guidelines of a structured argument
  • Provide relevant background information on the company so we understand its size, business strength, relevance as a case study
  • Make a clear claim regarding the company’s ethical behavior, in terms of the ethical frameworks we are using and by reference to philosophers we have studied
  • Provide good research support for your claim
  • Take into account opposing views

Overall Evaluation (5 minutes)

  • This section functions like a concluding section to your research. What is the group’s overall evaluation of the company’s ethics? You may have differing opinions here –you do not have to agree, just indicate each person’s separate viewpoint.
  • You must always tie in references to utilitarianism, theory of rights, theory of justice – whatever applies to your evaluation

GradingPoints

  • Evidence of Individual Research25
  • Each group member must submit a half-page, typed paragraph

on each of 5 different research sources, with full bibliographic

citation on time (later collated for the annotated bibliography)

  • Presentation – informative, creative, entertaining, organized, team-work20
  • HandbookEthics Acronym10

Research 7-10 pages40

Evaluation (one-two pages)20

Annotated Bibliography (10 best sources)10

Individual and Group Evaluation10

135

Group Rules

  1. Late more than 10 minutes or miss a meeting and you lose 10 points
  2. Miss more than one meeting and you are dropped from the group
  3. Keep a close record of what you do – for the self – and group evaluation at the end
  4. Keep close touch with one another via email and/or phone to make sure everyone is prepared for each meeting

Business Ethics Evaluation

Danziger English 102

Business Project Title:

Group Members:

Group Grades/Comments

Presentation/20

Content…clear information/visuals/skits/speakers

Organization…teamwork, fluidity, coherence

Delivery…positive, animated, varied, audience appeal

Ethics Acronym/10

Attention Getting

Compliments/reinforces content/ethical orientation

Summary Information/40

Well-organized, thorough research of the company, e.g. business practices, success, relations with customers, employees, advertising

Evaluation/20

According to ethical frameworks: utilitarianism, justice, rights

Takes into account opposing views

Annotated Bibliography/10

Brief paragraph summarizing ten best sources

Individual Grades:

Group Self-Evaluation:/10

(Attendance at group meetings/research contribution/writing/graphics)

Evidence of 5 individual sources:/25

(1/2 page summary of each source with citations)

Total Grade:/135

Overall Comments

Business Ethics

Utilitarianism

  • Businessmen feel most at home with this model: justifies profit maximization
  • Adam Smith (father of economics), Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
  • Evaluates behavior in terms of consequences
  • That action which results in the greatest good for the greatest number of people is moral
  • Cost benefit analysis applied to moral behavior
  • Can advocate abridging a person’s right to a job or even life for the sake of the greater good of a larger number of people
  • Costs and benefits usually calculated in dollar terms

Theory of Rights

  • A person’s entitlement to something (Immanuel Kant and John Locke)
  • Rights express morality from the standpoint of the individual
  • Rights protect the individual from the encroachment and demands of society or the state
  • Compared to utilitarianism, the latter promotes the benefits of the larger society and is relatively insensitive to the rights of the individual
  • Rights include the following:
  • Right to life and safety
  • Right to truthfulness
  • Right to privacy
  • Right to freedom of conscience
  • Right to free speech
  • Right to private property
  • Relevant where individual’s property and personal rights are in question, or with job tenure, or work dangerous to a person’s health

Theory of Justice

  • Requires all persons, including managers to be guided by fairness, equity, and impartiality – esp. minorities, poor, handicapped
  • Requires even-handed treatment of groups and individuals
  • Compared to utilitarianism: standards of justice more important than utilitarianist consequence e.g. unjust systems must be condemned even if they bring about greater productivity or wealth for the country
  • Compared to theory of rights: very similar in terms of individual moral rights, may abridge property rights
  • Sometimes difficult to determine fair distribution of society’s benefits and burdens
  • Salaries, living standards, distribution of rewards and punishment