[Answered] Business Ethics
Assignment Description
The final paper is an exercise to test (1) your general knowledge of the three different ethical theories, (2) your critical thinking in evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, and (3) your ability to demonstrate all of the above in critically applying one of the theories to analyzing a well-researched case study.
The final paper must be at least 6 pages, but not to exceed 8 pages. Part of the exercise is to test your ability to grasp complex concepts and issues in a precise way and to articulate them in a concise way. The following is a suggestion for its structure:
- For the first part of the main body of the essay compare and contrast all three ethical frameworks by identifying the core elements of their normative content. Be sure to show a good grasp of what each presupposes about being human and what each holds as to the means and the ultimate aims of ethical action. You will then need to conclude with a judgment as to which framework you think best grasps what it means to be human, providing substantive reasons why rather than a mere assertion of feelings. Cite the primary sources and texts that were assigned. Any extra sources cited from outside the assigned readings are always welcomed.
- For the second half of the main body, you will demonstrate the strength of the theory by critically applying it to a case study of your choosing. The business case you choose must be a new case not previously discussed in class (whether in group discussions or group presentations). It must be well-researched, citing multiple sources in order to present all the relevant facts and data needed to understand the core issues involved. Your analysis must be your own application of the ethical framework you chose, leading to an explanation of the problem with a reasoned moral judgment, rather than a mere assertion of rightness or wrongness. Think of this concrete analysis of a case as offering proof as to why you think the ethical framework is superior in its explanatory power. Show how the framework insightfully analyzes the case from its unique angle as well as offers creative proposals for a way forward.
Company: Sinar Mas Group
Focus on why this company is ethically wrong specifically on deforestation of rainforest and poor labor management.
Also connect the issue to the essence of capitalism.
Lecture notes are just for references.
A Snapshot of the Forms of Ethical Reasoning:
Virtue Ethics: Practical reason is about the transformation of desires and needs toward higher ends chosen for their own sake according to the discovered common good within our collective work of community building. Practical reason is then emancipatory social praxis because it is oriented to that end of making a community of mutual flourishing in which everyone can become an active participant in ruling together.
Utilitarianism: No practical reason as emancipatory social praxis, but only instrumental reason for calculating the most efficient means to privately meet biological necessities and private appetites. We are primarily pleasure seeking machines, and calculating efficient means for meeting arbitrarily programed and predetermined goals set by biological impulses, the market, or majority rules is the sole function of reason.
Deontology: Instead of instrumental rationality, practical reason is upheld like virtue ethics. But it is only the formal cognitive structure of practical reason: not as the social praxis of transforming our nature into its higher social form, but the cognitive ability, in privately meeting necessities, to also adhere to an abstract rule of law universally and equally applicable.
A Brief Summary of all Three Ethical Theories on Justice
Utilitarianism:
Justice is about maximizing utility for pleasure amongst the greatest amount of people, while minimizing pain.
This makes justice a matter of abstract calculation determined by whatever consumer trends happen to dominate, rather than determined by principles, so that the imperative to maximize for majority rule can easily step over individuals and minorities as well as fail to meet real human needs even for the majority.
Deontology:
Justice is about respecting the free will according to a principle of fairness and equality, and thus about making sure majority power doesn’t encroach on the individual right to make one’s own rational decision.
On this basis, and thus against utilitarianism, it grounds justice and rights on a principle of human dignity rather than calculation – individual rights are worthy of respect regardless of what the majority finds desirable.
Deontology’s principle of justice as fairness, however, also remains abstract, often reducing equality to a flat homogeneity that cannot account for different historical inequities and thus differing needs.
Virtue:
Justice is according to need: it is not about simply applying abstract fairness and equality, but about cultivating the wisdom of how to concretely distribute and allocate goods so as to meet the varying levels of need amongst differently situated groups, not only for basic goods, but for developing the social virtues that empower toward distinctive human excellence.
Justice according to need rather than fairness demands the harder work of determining not only the higher needs we all have to become distinctively human but how those needs are to be uniquely addressed in differing historical situations—how to build real equity rather than flatten to abstract equality requires accounting for our diverse social and historical contexts.
Solution
Globalization, technological advancement, and deregulation have resulted in the expansion of numerous companies to every facet of the world’s sector and corner. However, over the past, there has been lingering difficulty in the field of business ethics that need business organization not to focus on profit-making but rather on the general public. Numerous companies have embraced capitalism to reduce poverty, improve health status, and make humans happy, with some engaging in unethical behaviors………… Purchase the link to access the full answer @ $18
