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Lecturer: Dr Theodora Issa
Welcome to
Business Ethics 300 (BE300)
Lecture 2
What is Business For?
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Welcome back to the second lecture of
BE300
Any
questions?
Any queries?
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BE300 Lecture 2
What are we going to
discuss in this second
Module of BE300?
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First
What did we
do last week
in the lecture
and built
upon in the
workshops?
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Who are these and which concepts might
come to your mind when you see those
images?
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In this unit and in order to understand the
S.T.A.R. framework we will FOCUS ON
The following four
perspectives on ethics
which will be done
using the work of
Sandel (2009):
Utilitarianism, Libertarianism,
Deontology
and
Virtue.
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This is where an understanding of business
ethics will help.
In this approach there are
FOUR stages:
the first is to SEE
the ethical
dimensions,
the second is to
TALK about the
various decision that
could be made and
take an ethical
position,
the third is to ACT
and
the fourth is to
REVIEW your
decision to see if you
could do better next
time.
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STAR.

See,
Talk,
Act,
Review
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LAST WEEK WE STARTED TO LOOK AT
the S (SEE) of the STAR
Seeing
the ethical
dimension
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According to Grace and Cohen (2013)
Ethics can be explained through a variety of
theories.
We shared with you some of the theories that
commonly inform ethical arguments, and you
should be able to recognise their use in a business
context.
You should also now be able to recognise when a
case for business advantage hides behind an
ethical disguise, and, most especially, that ethics
and self-interest do not always go hand in hand.
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Todays lecture
Today we will concentrate on the following:

Telos,
Teleopathy,
consequentialism and
non-consequentialism
and how these connect to the four main ethical
theories.
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Lectures objectives
Understand the argument (and
its flaws) that business is
immune to ethics.
Be able to explain a situation
that allows for dirty hands.
Appreciate that, as awkward
as they are, dirty hands
situations must be dealt with.
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Limits, or boundaries, of deception and
gamesmanship in business?

There is a view that business is
something separate from
(normal) interpersonal ethics;
and that the rules of (ethical)
behaviour in business are
substantially different.
Some things that would
otherwise be ethically suspect
or unacceptable in personal life
and ethically acceptable (and
maybe even common practice)
in business.
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McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e
2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
Is business amoral?
An argument commonly made
(see Carr, pp. 40-41) is that
business cannot be ethical in
the way private individuals are.
Things have to be done in
business that would be
improper in private life lies,
deception, actions
unconstrained by ethics.
Albert Carr, Is business bluffing ethical? Harvard Business Review, January/February 1968
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McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e
2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
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According to Carr
Most executives from
time to time are almost
compelled, in the
interests of their
companies or
themselves, to practice
some form of deception
(p.41)
Albert Carr, Is business bluffing ethical? Harvard Business Review, January/February 1968
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McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e
2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
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What counts for business?
Is not ethics but law? The
question is not whether a
business practice is
unethical but whether it is
illegal.
Why? Because business is
a game, regulated like other
games by rules the rules
we call the law.
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McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e
2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
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Carr is mistaken
Using misleading and
deceptive tactics is not
smart: it is destructive of trust
and licences business people
to abandon the best internal
controls legal sanction have
to do all the restraining.
It is costly and difficult to
conduct business without
trust.
(Grace and Cohen, 2013 p. 43)
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McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e
2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
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This is not dirty hands
Exempting business
organisations from
ethics means that
the problem of dirty
hands does not
arise.
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Public and Private Morality
Dirty hands: a situation in which, even when you have done the morally
right thing, there is still a moral cost there is still something untoward
for which you are responsible, which does not evaporate in virtue of the
overall rightness of your act. (Grace and Cohen, 2013, p. 48)
Not all situations involving ethics can be resolved without an ethical cost.
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McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e
2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
Dirty hands
It does not mean that
business is amoral.
It means the opposite
that conflicting ethical
obligations can produce
an objectionable moral
remainder in the pursuit of
the right course of action.
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McShane-Olekalns-Travaglione OB Pacific Rim 3e
2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
Good ethics is good business
There are strong prudential (i.e., non-moral)
reasons for businesses to behave ethically at
least in a number of areas of their operation.
The market itself will take care of some things
Legislation will take care of some things.
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Good ethics is good business

But that will not be all there is to ethics; and simply
thinking about what is good for business (the bottom
line) will not get one thinking about all there is to
ethical behaviour of business.
As much as they might try, neither the market by
itself nor legislation by itself (nor both together) can
take care of all that, ethically, should be taken
care of all that, ethically, should be thought
about.
The market and/or legislation cannot produce all
the reasons that should figure in the ethical mix,
and cannot stipulate all the types of ethical
behaviour that are legitimately required.
Grace and Cohen, 2013
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Teleopathy
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Teleopathy, n., the unbalanced pursuit of purpose in either
individuals or organizations. This mindset or condition is a
key stimulus to which ethics is a practical response. The
principal symptoms of teleopathy are fixation, rationalization
and detachment.
Goodpaster (2004)
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The Principle Symptoms of Teleopathy
Fixation focussed solely on
specific goals to the exclusion of
other considerations.
Rationalisation unknowingly
imposing a particular perspective
that creates blind spots.
Detachment focussing only on
ones own interests.
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(Goodpaster, 2004)
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Avoiding the hazard Goodpaster
(2004)
From Fixation to Perspective how do we avoid fixation
without suppressing the virtues with which it can be
confused (e.g. courage, determination and perseverance)
(we can be frank, being strong, resilient-physically,
mentally, emotionally and spiritually you will perform
better with more passion and for longer also we can
have authentic leadership.

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Avoiding the hazard Goodpaster
(2004)
From Rationalisation to Frankness avoiding
rationalization takes practice-practice in telling the truth
when exaggeration or deniel appear attractive.

From Detachment to Engagement keeping the head
and the heart in healthy communication with one another.


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Examples
Enron
Nasa
The parable of the Sadu
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Teleopathy
Relationship with Whistle-blowing
Relationship with loyalty
Relationship with dirty hands
Relationship with market ethics .
And so on
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Therefore,
Whenever we make a decision in
business we have to face up to the fact
no matter how careful we are there will
usually be some morally poor side-
effect we will get DIRTY HANDS.
How then do we cope with this?
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Well..
We can take a LIBERTARIAN approach which says that being fair is about
looking after your own self-interest
or
We can take DEONTOLOGY perspective and do our duty or
We simply add up the costs and benefits and if the benefits outweigh the costs
than that is ok (UTILITARIANISM)
or
We focus on contributing to the COMMON GOOD (virtue). This last one
makes us think about what business is for (the TELOS of business).
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In conclusion
Thinking about ethics requires
thinking about ethics!
(Grace and Cohen, 2013)
What we have been talking
about is summarised in the
following Concept Map
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Thus
It then becomes clear that focussing on one thing
(eg PROFIT) only there are problems in the long
run (TELEOPATHY) so we must have many
reasons for doing business.
This means we must have PRIORITIES. How
then do we prioritise? The best way is to reach
some agreement about VALUES.
We can then have a good guide to decision
making because then we will be confident that the
side effects (DIRTY HANDS) are ethically
acceptable.
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In preparation for this weeks workshop
Listen to the news and see which of the perspectives
you can apply to what is going on in the business world
or the world!
Take, and upload a photo to the Bb discussion board for
Seminar 2 of something that you think is a business ethics
problem add a one sentence explanation of what the issue
is. These will form the basis of a discussion next seminar.
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In preparation for this weeks workshops
Become familiar with the assessment. We will begin to
work on the assessment in class this week. Working on
assessment in class = a good grade! We will be grading
your assignments on the assumption that you have had a
lot of help and guidance in class.
Read and bring with you the article by Goodpaster (2004)
available on Bb Module 2 Unit Resources.
Bring your A3 drawing pad etc. to the workshop


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Acknowledgements
These slides were derived from material provided by the
previous unit coordinator, the publishers of the Grace and
Cohen book, the material on the blackboard, and other
sources derived from the web, including some images
relevant to the concepts under discussion.
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Thank you!
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