NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
... that there are at least two incentives for businesses voluntarily undertaking some sort of ethical reform: 1. Recent business scandals and revelations of the huge rewards executives receive 19 while workers have difficulty making ends meet has caused many Americans to become, quite understandably, upset with the practices of Big Business. Big Businesses currently have an image problem that is hurting them financially. 2. Even if Big Business is able to maintain the status quo in large part because it is able to buy influence in government and, as a result, considerable unethical behavior continues to be tolerated, others in the world may not be so accepting of its behavior. There will be and perhaps already has been 20 retaliations, which certainly is not in Big Business interest.
I think the time is right for Big Businesses to voluntarily reform their companies questionable practices. I would like to see executives initiating discussions of the ethical dimensions of their businesses, bringing in ethicist's to ask the sorts of questions that those within the businesses might not think to ask. The goal should be to create a document of ethical principles the company will agree to abide by. These principles which should cover the companys obligations to shareholders, employees, those one does business with (including suppliers and customers) and society as a whole should be publicized.
Of course, it will undoubtedly cost companies something to abide by these ethical principles. It will, most likely, eat into the profits. The prices of products may have to go up, raising concerns about whether the company can compete with other companies who offer products at a cheaper price, perhaps because of unethical practices. I would like to think, though, that enough consumers, once educated about the issues involved, would prefer to do business with ethical companies and would be willing to pay a bit more for their products. One place where costs could be cut that some would argue is in line with ethical reform is the remuneration huge salaries and other perks given to executives. In response to the concern that few top executives would want to run a company that pays them less than others, I would argue that a company shouldnt want an executive who wants the job only, or even primarily, because of the money involved.
This attitude has been shown to lead to improper behavior. The sort of ethical reform I am proposing involves a change of thinking on the part of business executives. Instead of being driven solely by the profit motive how much money can be made business executives should be concerned with making a profit in an honorable way. Business executives should see themselves as human beings, having certain obligations to others because of that fact, who happen to have a job in business, which gives them other responsibilities as well. These job related responsibilities should never trump the more fundamental ones we each have as human beings. Business executives and everyone else in society should be able to give an affirmative answer when they ask themselves questions like the following: Do I feel good about the way I have lived my life?
Have I treated other human beings with whom I interact, or who are dependent upon me, with respect? Do I feel good about the product I help produce or the service I offer others? Philosophers, too, have an important role to play in changing the ethical climate in the United States. The field of Ethics properly belongs within Philosophy.
The social sciences may talk about the values people have, but their work is descriptive, rather than prescriptive. Philosophers doing ethics, on the other hand, are concerned with the values people ought to have. Others, most notably religious leaders, may also talk about the values people ought to have, but only philosophers are prepared to question everything as they continually examine and revise the value judgments they make. With their objectivity and their insistence that good arguments be given for the positions we hold even ethical principles philosophers should lead the way in the quest for ultimate values. Many philosophers are reluctant to place their value judgments in the public domain, but the consequence for not doing so is that less rational persons will determine what society's values will be. Philosophers should remember the example set by Socrates who saw himself as a gadfly sent to his city, which he likened to a horse, to sting the horse, that is, to question its beliefs and practices: It seems to me that God has attached me to this city to perform the office of such a fly, and all day long I never cease to settle here, there, and everywhere, rousing, persuading, reproving every one of you. 21 Just as Socrates did, ethicist's should be speaking out more, questioning the values people seem to hold and offering up for discussion, and possible implementation, their best attempts to state what our values should be.
To conclude, I have argued that several features of Big Business in the United States, and its influence on our society, have caused far too many Americans to stop thinking about what is morally right as they choose their actions. An ethical vacuum has been created that Big Business has been only too glad to fill with questionable values that Americans have absorbed without consciously embracing. The time is right, and the stakes have never been higher, for us to reflect on our values and change our thinking and behavior. Big Business and Philosophy each have important roles to play one because of the power it now has and the other because of the power it ought to have if we are to improve the moral climate in this country.
Susan Anderson University of Connecticut Notes 1. Susan Leigh Anderson, We Are Our Values, in Daniel Kodak, editor, Questioning Matters, Mayfield Publishing Company, 2000, pp. 599 - 609. 2. William H. Shaw and Vincent Barry, Moral Issues in Business, Eighth Edition, Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2001, p. 147. 3. Murray N.
Rothbard, Property, Exchange, and Libertarianism, in Francis J. Beckwith, editor, Do the Right Thing, A Philosophical Dialogue on the Moral Issues of Our Time, Jones and Bartlett, Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1996, p. 398. 4. Ibid. , p. 394. 5. Ibid. , p. 395. 6. Ibid. , p. 399. 7. Eric Mack, Personal Integrity, Practical Recognition, and Rights, Monist, Vol. 76, 1993, p. 101. 8.
Alan Malachowski, Corporate Crises: A Philosophical Challenge, Philosophy Now, Issue 39, Dec. 2002 /January 2003, p. 7. 9. Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers, 5 th edition, Simon & Schuster, 1980, pp. 22 - 3. He says that the profit motive was foreign to the lower and middle classes of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and medieval cultures, only scattered throughout the Renaissance times, and largely absent in most Eastern civilizations. He points out that it was also anathema to our Pilgrim forefathers. 10. Richard M. Ryan, in the Foreword to Tim Kassers The High Price of Materialism, The MIT Press, 2002, pp.
ix-x. 11. Ibid. , p. x. 12. Frederick Bruce Bird, The Muted Conscience: Moral Silence and the Practice of Ethics in Business, Quorum Books, 1996, p. 181. 13. Ibid. , p. 182. 14. Business Week, December 16, 2002, p. 108. 15.
I am indebted to James Roper for pointing this out to me. 16. Alan Malachowski, Op. Cit. , p. 7. 17. Ibid. 18. An AP article, Probe reveals Enron's schemes to avoid taxes, in the Danbury, Ct. News-Times, February 14, 2003, p.
B 8. 19. When the former Chairman of General Electric, Jack Welch, recently went through a divorce, it was revealed that he had assets of $ 456 million and received, even in retirement, a monthly income of $ 1, 414, 528. He listed among his expenses: $ 51, 531 a month to maintain six homes, $ 8, 982 a month on food and drink, $ 1, 903 on clothes and $ 52, 000 a month on gifts. 20. Consider that the Sept. 11, 2001 attack in New York City was on the financial center of the United States. 21. Apology, in The Collected Dialogues of Plato, edited by E. Hamilton and H.
Cairns, Princeton University Press, 1971, p. 17.
Free research essays on topics related to: moral issues, value judgments, human beings, profit motive, ethical principles
Research essay sample on Ethical Principles Profit Motive
