Write an Assignment.

Title "It's Good Business" .

Use this picture to write this. read this and answer all the question in assignment . first page is starting from the end first. I don't find a link for this book so I uploaded pictures.

• Do you agree with Solomon? Why? Why not
• require specific concise writing.answer at least in 3pages. defend your argument in brief detail with concisely using evidence.
• also provide references at the end

READING 1. 1 It's Good Business ROBERT C. SOLOMON Robert C. Solomon argues for the immediate, practical relevance of ethics for our business lives. He debunks the idea that business is fundamentally amoral or immoral. Business is not a blind scramble for profits and survival but rather an established practice with firmly fixed rules and expectations, and people in business are professionals. Although unethical business, like crime, sometimes pays, there is no conflict between ethical business behavior and success, Solomon concludes with eight crucial rules for ethical thinking in business. Why Ethics? keep his of her job and may not even find out that he or she has Seminars in business ethics . . . almost always bear with and been found out-may never even realize the unethical nature of are periodically brought back around to such practical questions his of her behavior. A career will just go nowhere. Responsibilities as "What does this have to do with my job?" or "Will under- will remain routine, promotions elusive. standing ethics help me do my job better?" What makes such career calamities so pathetic is that they Such questions deserve and demand three immediate, prac are not the product of greed or immorality or wickedness. They tical answers. are the result of ethical naivete. 1. Ethical errors end careers more quickly and more They happen because an employee unthinkingly "did what he was told to do"-and became the scapegoat as well, definitively than any other mistake in judgment or accounting. To air is human, perhaps, but to be caught lying, They happen because a casual public comment was III- cheating, stealing, or reneging on contracts is not easily forgotten considered and had clearly unethical implications-though or forgiven in the business world. And for good reason: Such nothing of the kind may have been intended. actions undermine the ethical foundation on which the business They happen because a middle manager, pressed from world thrives: Almost everyone can have compassion for some- above for results, tragically believed the adolescent cliches one caught in an ethical dilemma, No one can excuse immorality. that pervade the mid-regions of the business world, such as For every glaring case of known unethical conduct that goes "In business, you do whatever you have to do to survive." unpunished, a dozen once-promising careers silently hit a dead (it is both revealing and Instructive that although we often hear such sentiments expressed in seminars for middle end of quietly go down the tubes. On relatively rare occasions, an managers, we virtually never hear them in similar seminars unhappy executive or employee is singled out and forced to pay for upper level executives.) public penance for conduct that everyone knows-he or she and the attorney will loudly protest-"goes on all the time." But They happen because upper management wasn't clear about standards, priorities, and limits, or wasn't reasonable uch more often, unethical behavior, though unearthed, will go in its expectations, or wasn't available for appeal at the mannounced; indeed, the executive or employee in question will critical moment. sprinted by permission from The New World of Business by Robert C. They happen because an anonymous employee of middle Solomon. Copyright @ 1994 by howman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. manager hidden in the complexity of a large organization34 PART ONE MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND BUSINESS foolishly believed that such safe anonymity would continue, insurance racket") can hurt every company, and distrust of an whatever his or her behavior. individual company can quickly drive it to bankruptcy, They happen, most of all, because a person in business is typically trained and pressured to "think business," without The Myth of Amoral Business regard for the larger context in which business decisions are Business people have not always been their own best friends. John made and legitimized. D. Rockefeller once boasted that he was quite willing to pay a man Unethical thinking isn't just "bad business"; it is an invitation an annual salary of a million dollars, If the man had certain qualities: to disaster in business, however rarely (it might sometimes (He] must know how to glide over every moral restraint with seem) unethical behavior is actually found out and punished. . .. almost childlike disregard . . . [and have], besides other posi- tive qualities, no scruples whatsoever, and foe] ready to kill off 2. Ethics provides the broader framework within thousands of victims-without a murmur. which business life must be understood. There may be a few ROBERT WARSHOW, JAY GOULD (1928) people for whom business is all of life, for whom family and friendship are irrelevant, for whom money means only more Such talk is unusually ruthless, but it exemplifies horribly a investment potential and has nothing to do with respect or status myth that has often clouded business thinking-what University or enjoying the good life. But most successful executives under- of Kansas business ethicist Richard De George calls the * myth of stand that business is part of life, Corporations are part of a soci- amoral business." According to the myth, business and ethics ety that consists of something more than a market. Executives don't mix. People in business are concerned with profits, with and employees do not disappear into their jobs as if into a well, producing goods and services, with buying and selling. They may only to reappear in "real life" at the end of the business day. not be immoral, but they are amoral-that is, not concerned with Successful managers, we now all know, stay close to their morals. Moralizing is out of place in business. Indeed, even good subordinates-and not just as subordinates. The best corpora- acts are to be praised not in moral terms but only in the cost/ tions in their *search for excellence" begin and remain close to benefit language of *good business." their customers, and not just in their narrowest role as consum- The myth of amoral business has a macho, mock-heroic ers. Money may be a scorecard, a measure of status and corollary that makes ethical paralysis almost inevitable. It is the accomplishment, but it is not the ultimate end. Business suc- dog-eat-dog rhetoric of the Darwinian jungle-"survival of the cess, like happiness, often comes most readily to those who do fittest." In fact, almost everybody and most companies manage not aim at it directly. to survive without being the "fittest." The anxiety of switching Executives are most effective and successful when they jobs, of not getting promotions, of losing an Investment, or of retain their "real life" view of themselves, their position, and the going bankrupt, however upsetting, is rarely a "matter of life and human world outside as well as inside the corporation, Business death." In The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe sympathetically quotes the ethics, ultimately, is just business in its larger human context. . .. wife of one of the Air Force test pilots. She mentions a friend's complaint about her husband's dog-eat-dog existence on 3. Nothing is more dangerous to a business- or to Madison Avenue and reflects. "What it her husband went Into a business in general-than a tarnished public image. meeting with a one-in-four chance of survival?" A few years ago, Business and Society Review reported the If the myth of amoral business and its Darwinian corollary were results of a Harris Poll-one among many-that showed that nothing but a way of talking on the way to the office, It would not be public confidence in the executives running major corporations worth attention of criticism. But the fact is that it does enter Into had declined "drastically" . .. ; 87% of the respondents in a par- business thinking, and often at exactly the critical moment when allel poll agreed that most businessmen were more interested In an ethical decision is to be made. Worse, the amoral rhetoric of profits than in the public interest, Whether or not such suspicions business quickly feeds public suspicion of business and easily seriously affect sales, they indisputably hurt the bottom line in a becomes part of the condemnation of business, A handful of scan dozen other ways-not least among them the pressure for gov dals and accidents that might otherwise be viewed as the unfortu ernment regulation. The fact is that a tarnished image has direct nate byproducts of any enterprise become "proof" of what the consequences, for sales, for profits. for morale, for the day-to businessmen themselves have been saying all along-that there day running of the business, Distrust of an industry ("big oil,"" the is no interest in ethics in business, only the pursuit of profits.CHAPTER ONE THE NATURE OF MORALITY Business people who do not talk about ethics often com- Business ethics is nothing less than the full awareness of plain a great deal about "regulation" without realizing that the what one is doing, it's consequences and complications. Thinking how are intimately connected. Legal regulation is the natural about ethics in business is no more than acknowledging that one response of both society and government to the practice of has taken these into account and is willing to be responsible for amorality, however nobly that practice is couched in the rhetoric them, It is being aware of of "free enterprise." If a business scandal or tragedy is quickly and convincingly chastised by business people, there is neither 1. the need for compliance with the rules, including the laws time nor pressure for regulation. But when scandal and tragedy of the land, the principles of morality, the customs and are at the same time surrounded by ethical neglect or silence or, expectations of the community, the policies of the company, worse, yet another appeal to "the market" as the long-term cor- and such general concerns as fairness; rective, government regulation becomes inevitable. In case any- 2. the contributions business can make to society, through one still wants to ask why ethics should be relevant to the the value and quality of one's products or services, by way bottom line, one might simply reply that regulation is the price of the jobs one provides for workers and managers, through business pays for bad ethical strategy.... the prosperity and usefulness of one's activities to the sur- rounding community; The Three Cs of Business Ethics 3. the consequences of business activity, both inside and out- -. Business ethics is not an attack on business but rather side the company, both intended and unintended, including its first line of defense. Adam Smith knew this well enough the reputation of one's own company and industry.... Business has prospered because business has dramatically proved the quality of life for all of us. Moreover, the Part of the problem for business ethics is the image of emphasis on freedom and individuality in a brisiness society business as "big" business, as a world of impersonal corpora- has done more than any conceivable socialist revolution to tions in which the individual is submerged and ethics is inevi- break down traditional inequities in power and wealth, even tably sacrificed to bureaucratic objectives. To set the image inevitably creates some inequities of its own. Business straight, therefore, let us remind ourselves of a single vital ethics begins with consumer demand and productivity, with statistic: Half of American business is family business, 50% of e freedom to engage in business as one wishes, and with the GNP; 50% of the employees. Some of these family busi- hope-inconceivable in most parts of the world-that nesses are among the Fortune 500, Others are Mom and Pop can better one's life considerably through one's own groceries and Sally and Lou's Restaurant, But it is essential to id work and intelligence. These are the values of business remember that however much our focus may be on corpora- cs, and the whole point of business ethics is to define and tions and corporate life, business in America is not a mono- end the basic goals of prosperity, freedom, fairness, and lithic, inhuman enterprise. . .Business is ultimately about endual dignity. relationships between people-our compliance with the rules Many critics of business are trained in the rhetoric of ethics, we all form together, our contributions to the well-being of oth- most business people are not. Those in business naturally ers as well as to our own, the consequences of our activities er to stick with what they know and sidestep the ethical for good and otherwise. There is nothing amoral or unethical res which is ruinous, It is one thing to know that product Z about it . .. . $0.14 to make and retails for $1.59, that raising the price $1.79 would increase profits and not dampen demand, that Business Scum aper materials or foreign labor could lower the cost of manu- The most powerful argument for ethics in business is success. during to $0.09, although sales would eventually diminish as Ethical businesses are successful businesses, excellence is also sumer expectations went unsatisfied, But it is something ethical. But ethics is no guarantee of success. To say so on our are to think about the quality of product Z, the contribution it part would be-unethical. The fact is that there are, as we all es to American life (even if only by way of amusement or know, business scum-- those shifty, snatch-a-buck operations ly). Not incidentally, these ethical virtues may be essential that give business a bad name. And some of them, ethics be the bottom line as well. damned, are profitable.PART ONE MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND BUSINESS Brake Breakers, Inc., Is a small franchise In the Midwest that is the nature of the business that people who need brake repairs peciatizes in brake, suspension, and wheel repairs. Company need them fast and do not know what has to be done or how olicy includes hiring men with little education and working them much it should cost. They are ripe for the taking, and they are ing hours at a single semiskilled job, Wages are accordingly taken. The price is still low enough and the job near enough minimal, and employee turnover is more often a matter of burn- adequate that no one sues. The "lifetime guarantee" isn't worth ut than of leaving for another job. (This saves a lot on fringe the paper It's printed on, but it is a fact about brake jobs that renefits and pensions; no one has ever collected on them.) there is only so much that can go wrong, and a disgruntled cus- Foremost among the employees' skills, however, is the delivery tomer usually doesn't bother coming back anyway. It's a perfect a prepackaged sermon designed to convince all but the most setup. At least half of the profits, even on a modest system of autlous customer that the $149.25 brake-rebuilding special is objective ethical accounting, are obtained by cheating the cus- ar preferable to the mere replacement of the brake shoes, which tomer and the employees. all that is usually required (and often all that is actually done). How does Brake Breakers, Inc., stack up according to our Managers are rewarded on the basis of the success of these three Cs of business ethics? Not very well: Ittle speeches by their employees. Their job is first and foremost to make sure that the minimum is never enough-not hard Compliance: Minimal: just enough to avoid legal given the level of mechanical know-how of most of the custom- penalties and major lawsuits but far below the level of ers. But even with the $149.25 special, extra costs are almost concern for ethics that we all expect of every business always included, sometimes for some other (unnecessary) part but more often than not because of the "unexpected difficulty" of Contributions: Well, they do fix brakes, even if some this particular repair. When a customer insists on the minimum of them aren't broken. But a dozen more dependable repair, it is up to the manager to see to it that more absolutely businesses-both national franchises and local service necessary work is "discovered" in the middle of the job. (This is stations-would do a better job with less flimflam. To provide called the "step method.") Few customers are in a position to do a service is not in itself a contribution. We also want to know more than complain and curse for the moment, but no one ever if it is a service that would otherwise be performed as well expects them to come back anyway. and as cheaply by other firms. Managers are expected to keep actual costs down. Used Consequences: Disgruntled customers, hesitation parts are sold in place of new parts. (Sometimes, the car's origi- nal part is cleaned or polished and simply reinstalled.) A few among motorists to have their brakes checked when they ought to, occasional accidents, a notoriously bad reputation miles down the road, who can tell? Within the company, employees are reminded daily, "There for car-repair shops in general (hurting those that do good, are fifty people waiting for your job." Everyone is hired with the honest work), and an exemplary case of unethical business to turn consumers and congressional investigators against promise "Within three years, you can work up to a managerial position." In fact, managers are always hired from outside- business in general. typically friends of the boss, (it is understood that they will sup- It is too often supposed that the business of business ethics plement their salaries by skimming within the shop.) Managerial s to prove to the management of such unethical enterprises as turnover, accordingly, is low. Brake Breakers is not the sort of Brake Breakers, Inc., that crime does not pay, That is too much to company that can afford to have a disgruntled manager quit in ask for. disgust, although any charges he might bring against the com- pany could dependably be turned against him as well. Show them, perhaps, that they are setting themselves up Brake Breakers, Inc., is everyone's stereotypical image of for lawsuits. unethical business In action, Its people sell a shoddy product to In fact, It just hasn't happened. customers who don't need it, and they don't always sell what they say they are selling. Employees are treated like serfs, and .Show them, then, that they are losing customers accounting procedures at every level of the company are, to put In fact, It is a business with a regular supply of customers, no polbely, suspect. The customer is virtually never satisfied, but it repeat customers in any case and little dependence on word ofCHAPTER ONE THE NATURE OF MORALITY mouth. (In fact, they depend on the absence of word of mouth, are carefully controlled. The use of Information is restricted, but since people are often too ashamed at having been "taken" to tell traders trade information as well as securities. The rules of the Their friends about it.) Exchange, contrary to superficial appearances, are uncompro- mising. Break them and you're off the floor for good. Right there Show them how well Midas and Meineke have been doing because of their reputation for dependability. at the busy heart of capitalism, there is no question that business is a practice, and people in business are professionals, But, the manager at Brake Breakers tells us with a laugh, In business ethics, it is often profitable to compare business "We ain't Midas." with a game. Games are also practices. Baseball, for instance, is Argue, then, that unethical business practices cannot pos- a practice, It has its own language, its own gestures with their sibly pay off in the long run. own meanings, its own way of giving significance to activities that, apart from the game, might very well mean nothing at all. . .. The "In the long run," the amused manager tells us, unknowingly practice is defined by certain sorts of behavior-"pitching" the echoing the economist John Maynard Keynes, "we're all dead.' ball in a certain way (if, that is, the practice designates you as the The fact-sad, perhaps-is that unethical business, like "pitcher"), trying to hit the ball with a certain well-defined imple- crime, sometimes pays. In any system based on trust, a few ment (the "bat"), running a certain sequence of "bases" in a cer- deceivers will prosper. There is no guarantee that ethics is good tain order subject to certain complex restrictions (one of which is for the bottom line. There is no guarantee that those who do that one not be "tagged" by another person holding the ball. wrong will get caught or feel guilty. There is no guarantee-in Anyone who has tried to explain what is happening in a baseball business or elsewhere-that the wicked will suffer and the virtu- game to a visitor from another country with a different "national ous will be rewarded (at least, not in this life). But, that said, we pastime" can attest to the complexity of these rules and defini- can nonetheless insist without apology that good Lics is good tions, though most Americans feel quite familiar with them and business. Where immorality Is so easily identified, we can be can focus their attention-as players or as spectators-on such sure that morality is the general rule, not merely an accessory or simple-sounding concerns as "Who's up?" and "Who's on first?" an exception. The point of doing business is to do well by provid- Business is like baseball in that it is a practice. A day at the ing the best service or product at a reasonable cost. Those busi- stock exchange makes it quite clear just how many rituals, rules, esses that exploit the possibility of getting away with less are and restrictions are involved in every buy-and-sell transaction. .. merely parasitic on the overwhelming number of businesses that The business world is far more open to extra "players" and to are doing what they are supposed to. alternative courses of action than is baseball, but within the Insti- tutions that make up the practice of business, roles and alterna- tives are clearly specified-as "jobs" and "positions," as Practices Make Perfect: A Better Way to obligations and options. Strategic ethics begins by emphasizing Look at Business business as a practice with strict rules and expectations that -. . Business is not a scramble for profits and survival. It is a acceptable players honor implicitly-or they are out of the way of life, an established and proven practice whose prosper- game. To throw out players who cheat is as important to a ity and survival depend on the participation of its practitioners. healthy enterprise as is the inevitable exit of players who can't Business ethics is not ethics applied to business. It is the foun- play well Bad business is much more damaging to business dation of business. Business life thrives on competition, but it than are badly run businesses. survives on the basis of its ethics. Business, like baseball, is defined by its rules. Some of these Business is first of all a cooperative enterprise with firmly have to do with the nature of contracts. Many have to do with wed rules and expectations . A view from a visitors' gallery down fairness in dealing with employees, customers, and government the floor of the New York Stock Exchange may not look very agents (hence the existence of such policing bodies as the IRS, much like a cooperative enterprise with fixed rules and expecta- the SEC, the FDA, etc.). Indeed, the notion of falmess in ions, but beneath the apparent chaos is a carefully orchestrated exchanges is more central to business than to any other set of agreements and rituals without which the Exchange could practice-whether in terms of work and salary, price and prod- not operate at all. There can be no bogus orders, and bid ranges uct, or public services and subsidies. Without fairness as theeepr9208@gmail.com - central expectation, there are few people who would enter into if-as in any such practice-a few unscrupulous partici- the market at all. (Consider the chill on the market following dra- pants can take advantage of that trust and betray that con- matic "insider trading" cases.) Without the recognition of fair cem for fairness. play, the phrase "free enterprise" would be something of a joke. The rules of business, accordingly, have mainly to do with fair- 2. Brake Breakers, Inc., can continue to prosper in their ness. Some of these rules ensure that the market will remain scummy ways only so long as they remain relatively insignifi- open to everyone. Some of the rules protect those who are not cant, with a small enough market share not to bring down the players in the practice but whose health, jobs, or careers are wrath of major competitors and sufficiently little publicity not affected by it. Some of the rules have to do with serving the to Inspire a class-action sult. Unethical behavior may bring profits, but only limited profits. needs or wishes of the community (the law of supply and demand can be interpreted not only as an economic mechanism 3. It is clearly in the interest of business In general and other but as an ethical imperative). Some have to do with "impact"- firms in that particular industry to warn consumers about the effects of a business on its surrounding communities and Brake Breakers, even to put them out of business. The suc- environment. If business had no effects on the surrounding com- cess and strength of a profession and its independence from munity but was rather a self-enclosed game, there would be no externally imposed regulations depends on the internal more public cry for business ethics than for "hopscotch ethics" "policing" of unethical behavior. Doctors have never doubted (which is not to say that there is no ethics to hopscotch). this; lawyers are learning. But so long as business thinks of It is within this description of a practice that we can also itself as unregulated competition where "anything goes" define the terms "virtue" and "vice" in business ethics. Some rather than as a profession to be protected from abuse, this virtues and vices go far beyond the bounds of business, of vital policing for survival will go unattended, or it will be course; they are matters of morality (honesty, for instance). But in attended to by the government. business ethics there are virtues and vices that are phaicular to business and to certain business roles. Close accounting and 4. The practice of business is a small world. Fly-by-Night "watching every penny" are virtues in a shipping clerk but not in Enterprises Lid. and Brake Breakers, inc., may succeed for a someone who is entertaining a client, Keeping a polite distance while, but, in general, people catch on-fast. Irate customers is a virtue in a stockholder but not in a general manager. tell their friends-and their lawyers. They also get even. They sue, for triple damages. They write the newspapers, or "60 Tenaciousness may be a virtue in a salesman but not in a con- sultant. Outspokenness may be a virtue in a board member but Minutes. " They drop a note to the IRS, or they call the Better not in the assistant to the president, Being tough-minded is a Business Bureau. The banker's kid who was cheated on the job complains to his father the month before the lease has to virtue in some managerial roles but not in others. In general, we can say this: A virtue sustains and improves a be renewed. Or the victim happens to be a litigious lawyer practice. A virtue in business is an ethical trait that makes busi- with time on his hands. But the effects of unethical business ness in general possible, and this necessarily includes such vir- practices are not always so obvious as a dip in the bottom tues as respect for contracts as well as concern for product line or a subpoena waiting at the office, They are often slow quality, consumer satisfaction, and the bottom line, A vice, on the and insidious, the bottom of a career eaten out from under, or other hand, degrades and undermines the practice. Shady deal- a company that is doing "OK" but could and should be doing ing and reneging on contracts are vices and unethical not much better. There are no guarantees that unethical behavior because of an absolute moral law but because they undermine will be punished, but the odds are pretty impressive. the very practice that makes doing business possible, 5. In any profession, It's hard to get clean again. Suppliers Thinking about business as a practice and business people tighten their terms; priority status disappears. The hard- as professionals gives us a set of persuasive responses to the headed businessman is supposed to say "Who cares?" But it Brake Breakers case: so, there are few hardheaded businessmen, only a small number of bottom-line-minded sociopaths. Character 's who 1. Business in general depends on the acceptance of rules and you are, the thing you are trying to prove by making money in expectations, on mutual trust and a sense of falmess, even the first place. One of the classic movie lines is "My money'sas good as anyone else's." Perhaps. But are you as good? selling decent products at a reasonable price are not only to That Isn't just a matter of money. one's own advantage, they are necessary for the very existence Why should Brake Breakers, Inc., get ethical? Let's ask of the business community. another question: How would you feel about yourself If you spent Rule No. 3: Obey, but do not depend solely on, the your working days as a manager of Brake Breakers? What would Law. It goes without saying, as a matter of prudence If not of you tell your kids?... morality, that businesses and business people ought to obey the law-the most obvious meaning of compliance. But what needs Thinking Ethics: The Rules of the Game to be added is that ethical thinking is not limited to legal obedi- Ethics is, first of all, a way of thinking. ence. There is much unethical behavior that is not illegal, and the Being ethical is also-of course-doing the right thing, but question of what is right is not always defined by the law. The what one does is hardly separable from how one thinks. Most fact is that many things that are not immoral or illegal are reput- people in business who do wrong do so not because they are sive, disgusting, unfair, and unethical-belching aloud in eleva- wicked but because they think they are trapped and do not even tors, throwing a disappointing dish at one's host at dinner, paying consider the ethical significance or implications of their actions debts only after the "final notice" and the threat of a lawsuit What is thinking ethically? It is thinking in terms of compli- arrives, fleecing the feebleminded, taking advantage of trust and ance with the rules, implicit as well as explicit, thinking in terms good faith, selling faulty if not dangerous merchandise under the of the contributions one can make as well as one's own possible rubric "Buyer beware." Check the law-but don't stop there. gains, thinking in terms of avoiding harmful consequences to Rule No. 4: Think of yourself-and your company- others as well as to oneself. Accordingly. there are] eight crucial as part of society. Business people and businesses are citizens rules for ethical thinking in business. in society. They share the fabric of feelings that make up society Rule No. 1: Consider other people's well-being, include and, in fact, contribute much of that feeling themselves. Business ing the well-being of nonparticipants. In virtually every is not a closed community. It exists and thrives because it serves major religion this is the golden rule: "Do unto others as you and does not harm society. It is sometimes suggested that busi- ould have them do unto you"; or, negatively, "Do not do unto oth- ness has its own ethical rules and that they are decidedly differ- ers as you would not have them do unto you." Ideally, this might ent from those of the larger society. Several years ago business mean that one should try to maximize everyone's interests, but writer Albert Can raised a major storm in the Harvard Business this is unreasonable. First of all, no one really expects that a busi- Review by arguing that business, like poker, had its own rules nessman (or anyone else) would or should sacrifice his own and that these were not to be confused with the moral rules of interests for everyone else's. Second, it is impossible to take eve- the larger society. The comparison with poker has its own prob- nyone into account, Indeed, for any major transaction, the number lems, but, leaving those aside for now, we can see how such a of people who will be affected-some unpredictably-may run view not only invites but demands the most rigorous regulation of into the tens of hundreds of thousands. But we can readily accept business. Business is subject to the same ethical rules as every- a minimum version of this rule, which is to make a contribution one else because businessmen do not think of themselves as Where it is reasonable to do so and to avoid consequences that separate from society, A few years ago, the then chairman of the Te harmful to others. There is nothing in the golden rule that Ford Foundation put it bluntly: "Either we have a social fabric that demands that one deny one's own interests of make sacrifices to embraces us all, or we're in real trouble. " So too with ethics. the public good. It says only that one must take Into account Rule No. 5: Obey moral rules. This is the most obvious human effects beyond one's own bottom line and weigh one's and unavoidable rule of ethical thinking and the most important own gain against the losses of others. single sense of compliance. There may be room for debate about Rule No. 2: Think as a member of the business com- whether a moral rule applies. There may be questions of interpre unity and not as an isolated individual. Business has its tation. But there can be no excuse of ignorance ("On, I didn't know crown rules of propriety and fairness, These are not just matters of that one isn't supposed to lie and cheat"), and there can be no courtesy and protocol; they are the conditions that make busi- unexcused exceptions ("Well, It would be all right to steal in this mess possible. Respect for contracts, paying one's debts, and case"). The German philosopher Immanuel Kant called moral rulesnbox (3,661) - deepr9208@gmail.co 0 PART ONE MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND BUSINESS "categorical imperatives," meaning that they are absolute and Ethical thinking is ultimately no more than considering one- unqualified commands for everyone, in every walk of life, without self and one's company as citizens of the business community exception, not even for harried executives. This is, perhaps, too and of the larger society, with some concern for the well-being of extreme to be practical, but moral rules are the heart of ethics, and others and-the mirror Image of this- respect for oneself and there can be no ethics-and no business-without them. one's character. Nothing in ethics excludes financially sound Rule No. 6: Think objectively. Ethics is not a science, but thinking, and there is nothing about ethics that requires sacrific- it does have one feature in common with science: The rules ing the bottom line. In both the long and the short run, ethical apply equally to everyone, and being able to be "disinterested"- thinking Is essential to strategic planning, There is nothing that is, to think for a moment from other people's perspectives- unethical about making money, but money is not the currency of is essential. Whether an action is right is a matter quite distinct ethical thinking in business. from whether or not it is in your interest. For that matter, it is quite independent of your personal opinions as well. REVIEW AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Rule No. 7: Ask the question "What sort of person would do such a thing?" Our word "ethics" comes from the 1. Solomon contends that ethical errors damage people's Greek word ethos, meaning "character." Accordingly, ethics is careers. How and why does this happen? not just obedience to rules so much as it is the concern for your 2. Solomon describes the view that business and ethics personal (and company) character-your reputation J "good don't mix as the "myth of amoral business." Why does he name"-and, more important, how you feel about yourself. think it Is a myth? Do you agree? Peter Drucker summarizes the whole of business ethics as 3. Solomon suggests several times that unethical conduct "being able to look at your face in the mirror in the morning." hurts business as whole. Why does he think this? Do you agree with him? Rule No. 8: Respect the customs of others, but not at the expense of your own ethics. The most difficult kind of 4. Do most businesspeople respect the "Three Cs"? In your ethical thinking that people in business have to do concerns not experience, how much unethical behavior is there in business today? What happens to companies like Brake a conflict between ethics and profits but rather the conflict Breakers? Can they be successful? between two ethical systems. In general, It is an apt rule of thumb that one should follow the customs and ethics of the com- 5. Does the existence of "business scum" undermine munity. But suppose there is a conflict not only of mores but of Solomon's claim that businesspeople are professionals and that business is a practice with definite rules? morals, as in the [former] apartheld policies of South Africa, Then the rule to obey (and support) one's own moral principles takes 6. Of Solomon's eight rules for ethical thinking in business. priority. What is even more difficult is what one should do when which ones concern compliance, which ones concern contributions, and which concern consequences? Which the moral Issue is not clear and moral categories vary from cul- rules do not fall into these three categories? In your view, ture to culture. A much debated example is the question of giving which of the eight rules are the most important? Are money to expedite a transaction in many third-world countries. It there rules that could be dropped from, or rules that is "bribery" in our system, "supporting public servants" In theirs. should be added to, Solomon's list? Bribery is illegal and unethical here because it contradicts our 7. Assess Solomon's claim that "there is nothing about notion of a free and open market. But does the same apply in the ethics that requires sacrificing the bottom line" (p. 43) third world, where business (and social life) have very different Is It compatible with his statement that "there is no presuppositions?.... guarantee that ethics is good for the bottom line" (p. 40)