Business Ethics

(BSET)
Prof Richa Saxena

What are ethics?

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 A code of behavior considered correct (as per

Chambers Dictionary)

A conception of right and wrong behavior, defining

for us when our actions are moral and when they
are immoral

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Business Ethics
It is the art and discipline of applying ethical
principles to examine and solve complex moral
dilemmas

What business ethics is not?

Ethics is different from religion

Ethics is not synonymous with law
Ethical standards are different from cultural traits
Ethics is different from feelings
Ethics is not a science in the strictest sense of the
term
Ethics is not just a collection of values

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Heinz Dilemma
A woman was near death from a special kind of
cancer. There was one drug that the doctors
thought might save her. It was a form of radium that
a druggist in the same town had recently
discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but
the druggist was charging ten times what the drug
cost him to produce. He paid $200 for the radium
and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug.

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Heinz Dilemma
The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to
everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he
could only get together about $1,000 which is half
of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was
dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him
pay later. But the druggist said: No, I discovered
the drug and I'm going to make money from it. So
Heinz got desperate and broke in to the man's store
to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have
broken into the laboratory to steal the drug for his
wife? Why or why not?
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Kohlbergs Model of Moral Development

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Moral Stages
Pre-conventional level
Stage 1: The punishment-and-obedience
orientation
o The physical consequence of action determines its goodness or badness,
regardless of the human meaning or value of these consequences

Stage 2: The instrumental-relativist orientation

o Right action consists of that which instrumentally satisfies ones own needs
and occasionally the needs of others

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Moral Stages
Conventional level
Stage 3: The interpersonal concordance or good
boy-nice girl orientation
o Good behavior is that which pleases or helps others and is approved by
them

Stage 4: The law and order orientation

o There is orientation toward authority, fixed rules, and the maintenance of
the social order

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Moral Stages
Post-conventional level
Stage 5: The social-contract, legalistic orientation
o Right actions tends to be defined in terms of general individual rights and
standards which have been critically examined and agreed upon by the
whole society

Stage 6: The universal-ethical-principle orientation

o Right is defined by the decision of conscience in accord with self-chosen
ethical principles appealing to logical comprehensiveness, universality,
and consistency

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Carol Gilligan: A different

voice
Kohlbergs studies done on samples that included
male subjects
Not all people are men
Womens responses are usually divergent as
compared to male responses
Men focus on law and justice, while women focus
more on care and compassion
Under ethics of justice, men judge themselves guilty
if they do something wrong
Under ethics of care, women who allow others to
feel pain hold themselves responsible for not doing
something to prevent / alleviate the hurt
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Orientation of Care
Orientation to individual survival (Pre-conventional
morality)
Goodness as self-sacrifice (Conventional morality)
Responsibility for consequences of choice (Postconventional morality)

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Sophies Choice

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Unintentional unethical
decision making
Illusion of objectivity
Reasons:
o
o
o
o

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Implicit forms of prejudice

Bias that favours ones own group
Conflict of interest
Tendency to over claim credit

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