Ethics and Morality Essay

Tags: triple bottom line corporate social responsibility ethical relativism ethics business morality plato duty stakeholders god markets investors framework

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Introduction

Is it true that the "bottom line" of a business is profit and profit alone?  Perhaps it is for some companies, but the idea of the “triple bottom line” has been around for quite some time—and it refers not just to profits but also to people and planet. The triple bottom line has received renewed interest since the rise of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) which refers to a company’s advocacy of and support for the values important to the “social, environmental and economic environment in which” the company operates (Castka, Bamber & Sharp, 2005, p. vii). When companies fail to consider the triple bottom line—the impact of their business operations on people and the planet as well as on profits—then they fall into that group of companies condemned by Feldman (2012) in his Sunday Review letter: such corporations fail to appreciate “how their obsession with the bottom line is shrinking their markets, both domestic and foreign.” In other words, companies have a moral obligation to multiple stakeholders—consumers, suppliers, community members and not just stockholders, as Sir James Goldsmith has argued (Rose, 1994). However, Whitehead’s statement calls into question the legitimacy of the moral argument, insisting that ethics is a purely subjective paradigm and is whatever the majority of people want it to be at any given time: "What is morality in any given time and place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like and immorality is what they dislike" (BrainyQuote, 2018). This paper will show why morality and ethics matter and why they must be objectively defined and fixed for the good of all—rather than, as Whitehead says, a loose concept that can be altered to justify one’s immoral and unethical course. It will use deontological ethics, teleological ethics, moral objectivism, and ethical relativism to explain why this is so.

Reason One

In deontological ethics, morality is defined by a set of rules rather than by the outcome of the behavior. In other words, the rules are determined by the duty that is expected of one as dictated by the ethical code of conduct.

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The rules are generally universal in character and are connected with traditional moral norms, such as lying is wrong, stealing is wrong, and so on. As Goldsmith points out, companies are duty-bound by the rules of conventional ethics to…

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…exists; it offshores jobs and destroys the market that it needs to exist. The company, like man, is not an end in itself as it cannot sustain itself of its own essence. Its essence is to be part of a relationship with investors, consumers, communities, and the planet. To ignore the totality of this relationship and to focus wholly on investors—and, moreover, to imagine that this would be ethically sound—is to adopt the position of ethical relativism. It is akin to building one’s ethical framework on sand—there is no solid foundation under it, and in time the sands of relativism show as much. Numerous examples abound: Enron, Bear Stearns, AIG, and so on.

Conclusion

Whitehead’s process philosophy—i.e., the belief that change and “becoming” serve as the foundation for reality and thus for ethics—can be sharply contrasted with Kant’s categorical imperative—i.e., the belief that universals exist and can be objectively known. Whitehead is rooted in relativism, while Kant is rooted in classical objectivism. Businesses can and must have ethical standards, despite the fact that businesses are not moral agents, because they are governed by moral agents—human beings—who must consider their duty to all stakeholders, the ends of….....

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References

BrainyQuote. (2018). Alfred North Whitehead quotes. Retrieved from
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/alfred_north_whitehead_133258

Castka, P., Bamber, C. & Sharp, J. (2005). Implementing Effective Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance: A Framework. UK: British Standards Institution.

Feldman, J. (2012). Sunday Review: How Corporations Behave. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/opinion/sunday/sunday-dialogue-how-corporations-behave.html

Plato. (2010). The Dialouges, vol. 1. Online Library of Liberty. Retrieved from http://lf-oll.s3.amazonaws.com/titles/111/Plato_0131-01_EBk_v6.0.pdf

Rose, C. (1994). Interview with Sir James Goldsmith. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PQrz8F0dBI
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thinking about ethics and morality. As Goodman (2010) points out, relativism is not even necessarily the right way to think about conflicts in how we view the morality of actions. Context is actually more appropriate, and putting things into the right context can help people to better understand if one is being contradictory or rather if one is being discriminating. For example, Goodman (2010) states that “murder is wrong because it destroys a human subject. Warfare is not always wrong; it may be necessary to protect such subjects” (p. 88). This type… Continue Reading...

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