When laying off loyal workers to save the business, is it better to be an egoist, utilitarianist, or altruist as the CEO? Explain your answer. (200-300 words) Uploaded textboo

Chapter 15 The Domination Office: The Star System and Labor Unions

Chapter 15 The Domination Office: The Star System and Labor Unions

Chapter 15 The Domination Office: The Star System and Labor Unions

Business Ethics

v. 1.0

This is the book Business Ethics (v. 1.0).

This book is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 3.0/) license. See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the same terms.

This book was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz (http://lardbucket.org) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book.

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Table of Contents

About the Author …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2

Dedication………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Preface……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4

Chapter 1: What Is Business Ethics? ……………………………………………………………………… 6

What Is Business Ethics? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7 The Place of Business Ethics ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..14

Is Business Ethics Necessary? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………24

Facebook and the Unavoidability of Business Ethics …………………………………………………………………….29

Overview of The Business Ethics Workshop …………………………………………………………………………………33

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 35

Chapter 2: Theories of Duties and Rights: Traditional Tools for Making Decisions

in Business When the Means Justify the Ends …………………………………………………….. 50

The Means Justify the Ends versus the Ends Justify the Means ……………………………………………………..51 Perennial Duties…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 53

Immanuel Kant: The Duties of the Categorical Imperative……………………………………………………………64 Rights…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 70

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 83

Chapter 3: Theories of Consequence Ethics: Traditional Tools for Making

Decisions in Business when the Ends Justify the Means …………………………………… 102

What Is Consequentialism?……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 103

Utilitarianism: The Greater Good……………………………………………………………………………………………….105

Altruism: Everyone Else ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 120

Egoism: Just Me ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 127

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 137

Chapter 4: Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism ……….. 153

What Is Cultural Relativism? …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 154

Nietzsche’s Eternal Return of the Same ……………………………………………………………………………………..157

Cultural Ethics………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 163

Virtue Theory…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 170

Discourse Ethics ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 176

Ethics of Care……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 180

The Cheat Sheet: Rules of Thumb in Applied Ethics ……………………………………………………………………185

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 189

Chapter 5: Employee’s Ethics: What’s the Right Job for Me?…………………………….. 207

Finding Jobs to Want…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 208

Working for Ethically Complicated Organizations………………………………………………………………………228

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 236

Chapter 6: Employee’s Ethics: Getting a Job, Getting a Promotion, Leaving…….. 254

The Résumé Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 255

What Am I Worth? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 263

Plotting a Promotion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 269

Looking for a Better Job Outside the Company……………………………………………………………………………273

Take This Job and……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 287

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 290

Chapter 7: Employee’s Ethics: Making the Best of the Job You Have as You Get

from 9 to 5 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 311

Taking Advantage of the Advantages: Gifts, Bribes, and Kickbacks……………………………………………..312

Third-Party Obligations: Tattling, Reporting, and Whistle-Blowing ……………………………………………324 Company Loyalty………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 335

Stress, Sex, Status, and Slacking: What Are the Ethics of Making It through the Typical

Workday?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 340

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 346

Chapter 8: Manager’s Ethics: Getting, Promoting, and Firing Workers …………… 368

Hiring ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 369

Wages ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 389

Promoting Employees……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 392

Firing……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 398

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 406

Chapter 9: Manager’s Ethics: Deciding on a Corporate Culture and Making It

Work……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 425

What Is Corporate Culture? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 426 The Relation between Organizational Culture and Knowing the Right Thing to Do……………………..436

Two Ethically Knotted Scenes of Corporate Culture: Clothes and Grooming………………………………..443

What Culture Should a Leader Choose to Instill? ………………………………………………………………………..447

Styles and Values of Management ……………………………………………………………………………………………..454

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 460

Chapter 10: The Tense Office: Discrimination, Victimization, and Affirmative

Action………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 479

Racial Discrimination ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 480

Gender Discrimination and Occupational Segregation………………………………………………………………..492

Discrimination: Inferiority versus Aptness…………………………………………………………………………………493

The Diversity of Discrimination and Victimization …………………………………………………………………….502

The Prevention and Rectification of Discrimination: Affirmative Action …………………………………….510 Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 520

Chapter 11: The Aroused Office: Sex and Drugs at Work………………………………….. 537

Is There Anything Special about Sex?…………………………………………………………………………………………538

Bad Sex: Harassment ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 548

Drugged……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 556

The Organization Wants You to Use Drugs? ……………………………………………………………………………….567

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 572

Chapter 12: The Selling Office: Advertising and Consumer Protection ……………. 593

Two Kinds of Advertising………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 594

Do Ads Need to Tell the Truth?…………………………………………………………………………………………………..598

We Buy, Therefore We Are: Consumerism and Advertising…………………………………………………………606

Consumers and Their Protections………………………………………………………………………………………………615

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 629

Chapter 13: The Responsible Office: Corporations and Social Responsibility….. 650

What Kind of Business Organizations Are There?……………………………………………………………………….651

Three Theories of Corporate Social Responsibility……………………………………………………………………..658

Should Corporations Have Social Responsibilities? The Arguments in Favor ………………………………671

Should Corporations Have Social Responsibilities? The Arguments Against………………………………..676

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 683

Chapter 14: The Green Office: Economics and the Environment………………………. 705

The Environment ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 706

Ethical Approaches to Environmental Protection……………………………………………………………………….714

Three Models of Environmental Protection for Businesses …………………………………………………………726 Animal Rights …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 735

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 741

Chapter 15: The Domination Office: The Star System and Labor Unions …………. 761

What Is the Star System?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 762

Questions Provoked by the Star System……………………………………………………………………………………..768

Ethics: Justifying and Criticizing the Star System……………………………………………………………………….778

Unions ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 786

Union Strikes……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 795

Case Studies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 802

ii

vii

About the Author

James Brusseau (PhD, Philosophy) has taught ethics at the Mexican National University, California State University, and the Pennsylvania State University. He is author of Decadence of the French Nietzsche and Isolated Experiences: Gilles Deleuze and the Solitudes of Reversed Platonism. Currently, he teaches at Pace University near his home in New York City.

Acknowledgements

The Business Ethics Workshop was composed from the efforts, contributions, and tolerance of many individuals.

The advisory board provided insightful and invaluable feedback for which I am grateful:

· Thomas Atchison, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minnesota

· Ian Barnard, California State University, Northridge

· Matthew Brophy, High Point University

· Scott Davidson, Oklahoma City University

· Kruti Dholakia, The University of Texas at Dallas

· John T. Fielding, Mount Wachusett Community College

· Christine M. Fletcher, Benedictine University

· Andra Gumbus, John F. Welch College of Business, Sacred Heart University

· D. W. Haslett, University of Delaware

· A. Pablo Iannone, Central Connecticut State University, Mount Wachusett Community College

· Daryl Koehn, University of St. Thomas, Opus College of Business

· Krishna Mallick, Salem State University

· Chris Metivier, University of North Carolina Greensboro

· Ali Mir, William, College of Business, Paterson University

· L. Ara Norwood, College of the Canyons

· Harvey Slentz, Florida State College at Jacksonville

· Julie Stein, Las Positas College

At Unnamed Publisher , Michael Boezi, Pam Hersperger, and Sharon Koch worked directly with me on the project; I am indebted to them and to those working with them at the publisher.

Many colleagues influenced this work, and support of all kinds came from many quarters, for which I am thankful.

Dedication

To Rocio, Santiago, and Emilia

Preface

Ethics is about determining value; it’s deciding what’s worth doing and what doesn’t matter so much. Business ethics is the way we decide what kind of career to pursue, what choices we make on the job, which companies we want to work with, and what kind of economic world we want to live in and then leave behind for those coming after. There are no perfect answers to these questions, but there’s a difference between thinking them through and winging it. The Business Ethics Workshop provides a framework for identifying, analyzing, and resolving ethical dilemmas encountered through working life.

This text’s principles:

· It’s your call. Some of the book’s case studies ask for defenses of ethical positions that few agree with (for example, the claim that a drug dealer’s job is better than a police officer’s). Exercises like this align with the textbook’s aim: provoking reasoning freed from customary divisions between right and wrong. In the end, no one completely resists their own habits of thinking or society’s broad pressures, but testing the limits sharpens the tools of ethical analysis. These tools can be relied on later on when you face decisions that you alone have to make. The aim of this book is to help make those decisions with coherent, defensible reasoning.

· Keep it mostly real. Ethics is an everyday activity. It’s not mysterious, head-in-the-clouds ruminating but determining the worth of things around us: Working at an advertising agency is exciting—actors, lights, cameras, and TV commercials—but do I really want to hock sugary breakfast cereals to children? Should I risk my reputation by hiring my college roommate, the one whose habits of showing up late and erratically to class have carried over to working life? These are the immediate questions of business ethics, and while any textbook on the subject must address broad, impersonal questions including the responsibilities of massive corporations in modern societies, this book’s focus stays as often as possible on ordinary people in normal but difficult circumstances.

· Be current. The rules of ethical thinking don’t change much, but the world is a constant revolution. The textbook and its cases follow along as closely as possible, citing from blog posts and recent news stories. As a note here, to facilitate reading some of these citations have been slightly and silently modified.

Preface

· Let’s talk about our problem. Case studies are the most important components of this text because it was written for a discussionintensive class. Ethics isn’t something we know; it’s something we do, and trying out our reasoning is the best way to confirm that it’s actually working.

· Options. Unnamed Publisher ’s unique publishing model makes it easy for instructors to customize The Business Ethics Workshop to suit their courses’ particular needs. This textbook is composed of stand-alone chapters that may be compiled in any sequence. It should be noted, however, that the standard arrangement of applied ethics textbooks is followed in the core text: Specific ethical theories from the history of philosophy are developed in the initial chapters. Subsequent chapters unite the theories with questions in the economic world.

Chapter 1

What Is Business Ethics?

Chapter Overview

Chapter 1 "What Is Business Ethics?" defines business ethics and sketches how debates within the field happen. The history of the discipline is also considered, along with the overlap between business and personal ethics.

1

4

5

1.1 What Is Business Ethics?

	LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1.	Define the components of business ethics.
2.	Outline how business ethics works.

Captive Customers

Ann Marie Wagoner studies at the University of Alabama (UA). She pays $1,200 a year for books, which is exasperating, but what really ticks her off is the text for her composition class. Called A Writer’s Reference (Custom Publication for the University of Alabama), it’s the same Writer’s Reference sold everywhere else, with slight modifications: there are thirty-two extra pages describing the school’s particular writing program, the Alabama A is emblazoned on the front cover, there’s an extra $6 on the price tag (compared with the price of the standard version when purchased new), and there’s an added sentence on the back: “This book may not be bought or sold used.” The modifications are a collective budget wrecker. Because she’s forced to buy a new copy of the customized Alabama text, she ends up paying about twice what she’d pay for a used copy of the standard, not-customized book that’s available at Chegg.com and similar used-book dealers.

For the extra money, Wagoner doesn’t get much—a few additional text pages and a school spirit cover. Worse, those extra pages are posted free on the English department’s website, so the cover’s the only unambiguous benefit. Even there, though, it’d be cheaper to just buy a UA bumper sticker and paste it across the front. It’s hard to see, finally, any good reason for the University of Alabama English Department to snare its own students with a textbook costing so much.

Things clear up when you look closely at the six-dollar difference between the standard new book cost and the customized UA version. Only half that money stays with the publisher to cover specialized printing costs. The other part kicks back to the university’s writing program, the one requiring the book in the first place. It turns out there’s a quiet moneymaking scheme at work here: the English department gets some straight revenue, and most students, busy with their lives, don’t notice the royalty details. They get their books, roll their eyes at the cash register, and get on with things.

Chapter 1 What Is Business Ethics?

Chapter 1 What Is Business Ethics?

Chapter 1 What Is Business Ethics?

6

1.1 What Is Business Ethics? 12

1.1 What Is Business Ethics? 11

1. Providing reasons for how things ought to be in the economic world.

2. In business ethics, the

priorities selected to guide decisions.

Wagoner noticed, though. According to an extensive article in the Wall Street Journal, she calls the cost of new custom books “ridiculous.” She’s also more than a little suspicious about why students aren’t more openly informed about the royalty arrangement: “They’re hiding it so there isn’t a huge uproar.”John Hechinger, “As Textbooks Go ‘Custom,’ Students Pay: Colleges Receive Royalties for School-Specific Editions; Barrier to Secondhand Sales,” Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2008, accessed May 11, 2011, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121565135185141235.html .

While it may be true that the Tuscaloosa university is hiding what’s going on, they’re definitely not doing a very good job since the story ended up splattered across the Wall Street Journal. One reason the story reached one of the United States’ largest circulation dailies is that a lot of universities are starting to get in on the cash. Printing textbooks within the kickback model is, according to the article, the fastest growing slice of the $3.5 billion college textbook market.

The money’s there, but not everyone is eager to grab it. James Koch, an economist and former president of Old Dominion University and the University of Montana, advises schools to think carefully before tapping into custo

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