IP: Business Ethics

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IP Business Ethics

• Organising Principles for an Ethical Framework

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What is Ethics? Some classic answers

• Ethics is the way things are done around here.
• Aristotle
• Ethics is treating other people as you would be
  treated.
• Confucius, St Paul, Kant
• Ethics is doing whatever brings the best results.
• Bentham, Mill, Singer
• Ethics is becoming the right kind of person -
  acquiring the virtues.
• Aristotle, MacIntyre

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Objections to business ethics

• Ethics is subjective/relative.
• If its legal, its ethical - at least for
  corporations.
• Ethics is about following rules. If you know the
  rules, thats all you need to know.
• I dont give a damn about ethics.

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Is Ethics subjective and relative?

• Everyone disagrees about ethics. Who is to say
  what is right?
• Ethics is relative to your culture, so it is
  offensive to impose your values on to someone
  else.
• Clearly we do differ, but do we not also share
  values?

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A thought experiment

• Think of someone who is an ethical example to
  you and of the core ethical values they embody.
• One word only (no hyphens)
• Serious (not punctual or polite)
• Non-religious (not pious or prayerful)
• Non-legal (not law-abiding)

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Our guess about your answers

• Honesty
• Integrity
• Fairness
• Compassion

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Although history has long forgotten them, Lambini
Sons are generally credited with the Sistine
Chapel floor.
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Law and ethics a model

• Law is the floor, ethics the ceiling.
• Ethics is a higher standard, but without law is
  unlikely to be effective.
• Ethics and law are complementary they cannot
  substitute for each other.

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Isnt ethics just about following rules?

• Rules are essential because they allow for
  predictability, the definition of roles and
  responsibilities, and the definition of
  boundaries.
• But
• Human conduct cannot be reduced to rules
  rules are derived from conduct.
• Rules date.
• Rules cannot cover all contingencies.
• Rules must be tempered by judgment there can
  be many ways to get things wrong and more than
  one way to get them right.

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Rules and standards

• Rules are one way of proclaiming standards.
• Standards are important for consistency, but they
  are a minimum.
• Businesses and managers must have standards, but
  only as a minimum they should aim higher, like
  an archer.

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Ethical defeat

• Almost no one accepts that there is nothing
  ethical to be said for them, even if they have
  committed horrible offences.
• Tale of a New York drug dealer.
• Stephen Cohen has called this resistance to
  ethical defeat.

12
Ethics are trumps

• Consider these reasons for accepting a bribe.
• You would just be doing your job - only more
  quickly.
• You wouldnt be hurting anyone - you would be
  helping someone.
• You and your family would be better off.
• If you didnt do it someone else would.
• You deserve better pay anyway.
• And this reason for rejecting a bribe.
• Its unethical.

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Ethics presents the most serious kinds of reason

• That is why we are reluctant to impose our
  views on others and vice-versa. People become
  heated about ethical issues because they are
  serious.
• We cant impose our views, but we can argue hard
  and seriously for them. Why wouldnt we if they
  are truly important?

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An ethical opinion

• Is not just self-interested
• Has regard for others
• Could apply to anybody - is reversible
• Takes account of context
• Overrides other considerations
• Has to be lived with.

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What is involved in ethical justification?

• Being accountable in terms of
• the law
• professional codes
• employers values statements
• common morality
• informed ethical judgment (conscience)

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Trust

• Basic to humanity - we need to trust and be
  trusted. Trust builds trust.
• Basic to relationships - friendships of pleasure,
  utility and affinity.
• Allows confidence and predictability.
• Reduces stress.
• Lowers transaction costs and increases
  productivity.
• Encourages risk-taking discourages risk-aversion.

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Underwriting trust the Ring of Gyges

• Gyges was a shepherd in Lydia who discovered a
  magic ring which made him invisible.
• With this ring, he was able to seduce the queen,
  murder the king and take his kingdom.
• Who would not do forbidden things if one could
  get away with them? (Plato, Republic)

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What the bagel man found out

• Payment rates were higher when he was the known
  provider. Care or surveillance?
• An open basket is a temptation. A money box is
  safer.
• People who steal bagels dont steal the money
  boxes - dont perceive taking bagels as theft?
• Law firms and telecoms have notable failings and
  executives seem to be the worst offenders!
• Firms with high morale seem to be more honest.
• Smaller firms are more trustworthy - the shame
  factor?

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Bagel behaviour

• An office with low paying staff rarely becomes an
  honest payer, and vice versa. Hence Paul F.
  believes that honest people remain honest, and
  cheaters will cheat regardless of the
  circumstance.
• Against Glaucon (Platos brother) who tells the
  tale of Gyges, Paul F. knows that people are
  honest 89 of the time. The bagels prove it.

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A simple framework

• Do no evil. Pursue goods reasonably.
• Prevent evil. Dont be an innocent by-stander.
• Remove evil.
• Do good. Be excellent.
• William Frankena

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What is ethics?

• The liberal might answer
• Ethics is the responsible use of freedom.
• Surely this is correct. Is not misconduct the
  irresponsible use of freedom, say, to damage
  others and look after ourselves?
• But this definition is too limited it does not
  commit us to anything in particular. What goods
  matter to us ethically?

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Can we name these goods?

• John Finnis has nominated the following
• Life - health, security
• Friendship - friends, community
• Freedom - personal, political, economic
• Knowledge - many forms
• Aesthetics - art, nature
• Play - spontaneous, organised
• Belief systems - like religion
• Trust

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Ethics and impartiality

• The house next door is on fire.
• Your children are in the house. You rush into
  the fire to rescue them. Other children are in
  the house too.
• Does ethics require you to rescue the children
  impartially, i.e. without special regard for
  saving your own children?

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Do we not properly favour those whom we recognise?

• Peter Singer argued that favouring kin was a
  survival device of evolutionary biology that
  fairness and justice should now supercede.
• But what of loyalty, love, affection and
  intimate knowledge of the good in those we know?
• These values relate less to favouring than to
  the ethics of care.

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What principles should steer ethical judgment?

• Four accounts
• 1. Acts are intrinsically right or wrong. Ethical
  requirements are expressed in duties deontology
  (Kant)
• 2. Right and wrong means producing a surplus of
  good over evil consequences - consequentialism,
  e.g. utilitarianism (Mill)
• 3. The ethics of care.
• 4. Virtue and character. Human endowments can be
  improved by the acquisition of virtues that can
  be learned.

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Intentions are basic to responsibility

• Think of Bratmans examples.
• If we intend to kill, it doesnt matter if we
  actively kill or passively let die.
• Intention changes the nature of acts.
• Intention introduces responsibility

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Results are integral to ethics

• Ethics is about consequences even if it is not
  only about consequences.
• If there were no significance to consequences,
  ethics would matter little. It is because ethics
  guides conduct that it matters.
• It is also because of this that ethics links with
  economics.

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Intentions and Causality

• Can we blow up a cave to save ourselves at the
  expense of another?
• Bratman says that a principled view would forbid
  this.
• But the death of the person is not the means to
  our deliverance. It is a foreseen but unintended
  consequence.

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A business example

• Can a firm take over a smaller company knowing
  that this will cause people to lose their jobs
  and possibly never work again?
• Can one corporation take over another in order to
  make money from its assets?
• Is this analogous to killing and letting die?
• Is a corporation obliged to do more than avoiding
  evil?

30
Management Ethics

• Management excellence requires human virtues.
• All social virtues built on friendship, but
  professional virtues include
• High practice standards
• Trustworthiness and honesty
• Integrity
• Compassion

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Abbreviated Laura nash on Ethical decision
making. Cf. Kidder

• Note the presence of principle, outcomes and
  care.
• Define the problem.Would it look this way if you
  stood on the other side of the fence?
• To whom and to what do you give your loyalty?
• What is your intention in making this decision?
• How does this intention compare with the probable
  results? Who could be injured? Are you confident
  that your will look good in the long term?
• Can you discuss the problem with the affected
  parties before you make your decision?
• Could you disclose without qualm your decision or
  action to your boss, your CEO, your family,
  society as a whole?