JANE DIAZ

MR. PAJO

BS-IM

ITETHICS

 

 

BOOKREVIEW #5

HARD LIKE WATER: ETHICS IN BUSINESS

By: Vincent Di Norcia

HF5387

 

 

Chapter VIII – Social Values

“I personally don’t know how the hell anybody can survive running a successful business

in the nineties without caring. I don’t know how they keep their soul intact.”

 

 

Social performance is necessary, because business needs to prove its legitimacy

if it is to be integrated into society. Indeed, as employment levels decrease and

environments are degraded, the social legitimacy of business comes increasingly into

question. So businesses should not shirk their responsibilities as partners in society.

Companies, the previous chapters have shown, are responsible for ethical

performance in their own spheres of ownership, investment, management, employee

and consumer relations, technological change, and environmental protection. The first

ethical duty of business is to do no harm. Companies are responsible for minimizing

stakeholder risks. This is heart of business ethics.

To review this chapter began with an old story of lax government regulation and

too-free enterprise in the PCB warehouse fire at Basil le Grand, Quebec. Concern for the

public was totally lacking, to the point that the owner of the warehouse fled the country,

without paying for any of the damage the fire caused. This demonstrated the need for

improved government. It also showed the need for more proactive, crisis preventing

approach on the part of business.

From this comes a clearer concept of social performance, according to which a

business should solve that social problems caused by cultures, as several have

succeeded in doing with regard to Aboriginal peoples. Finally The Body shop exemplifies

the new, and controversial, social market that social performance implies. This market

extends well beyond national boundaries. Indeed, the subject of the next chapter is the

ethical complexity of international business.

There are two aspects we need to consider beyond the technical ones. The first

is the legality of such a device. Most States in the USA, and the nation itself strictly

regulate gambling. The device would probably be illegal. But suppose that you created it

and licensed it to your home State. The State itself could then sell the devices and

become the other gambling partner in each transaction. Then it would not be illegal. You

could get a commission on the sale of each device, or even better, a commission on

each gambling transaction. Any proceeds that the State earned could be used for some

good purpose, such as is now done with many State lotteries, which are used to fund

education.

Canadian businesses have always had to deal with sensitive issues relating to

the cultural diversity of the country. The two most notable cases are developing

appropriate relations with Canada’s Aboriginal communities and Quebec nationalism. In

both cases the ethical problem for business is less that of relativism that cross cultural

understanding, developing reciprocally beneficial relations, and minimizing socio

economic risks. A special concern in the Quebec case is the delicate matter of dealing

with an open secessionist government. Here, core civil rights values become prominent.

 

 

Chapter IX – International Values

“All these merchants observe the laws of the city, and moreover live and conduct

themselves freely and are of use to the world...”

 

 

This chapter presents four different tales about ethically dubious forms of

international business. First there are two controversial cases foreign direct investment,

in the oilfields of Nigeria and the mines of Cuba. They tell contrasting stories about the

ethics of foreign direct investment in countries with undemocratic regimes where civil

rights are in question. Next there is the problem multinational retail firms are

experiencing with the exploitative child labor practices of distant suppliers. Fourthly, the

growing risk of volatility in international financial flows is shown to be open to an

international solution that, is argued, would be in the interest of business to support.

Reflection on all four cases shows the need for a social trade approach to international

business.

The purpose of this Statement of Ethical Principles to foster the growth of a

worldwide fundraising community dedicated to accountability, transparency and

effectiveness. In this Statement we want to set forth what unites us in the way we

practise our profession. Recognizing that in many countries there already exist codes of

conduct and standards of practice, the intent of this statement is to unify the global

fundraising community behind a single universal declaration of fundamental principles.

Organizations and individuals who endorse this Statement are not necessarily

abandoning existing codes or standards, but are announcing their interest in a global

understanding of these fundamental principles.

There are, in addition, other international initiatives for the regulation of not-forprofits.

The European Commission (EC) has proposed a “Framework for a Code of

Conduct for Non-Profit Organizations to Promote Transparency and Accountability Best

Practices”. The code focuses on fundraising ethics as a key element for regulation.

Interest in fundraising ethics is being expressed by governments as geographically

dispersed as the US, Canada, Mexico, China, Australia, New Zealand, the Ukraine,

Hungary, the UK and the EC. Endorsement of the International Statement could provide

an important tool for the promotion of fundraising ethics; it could also help to

demonstrate that self-regulatory initiatives are both more effective and more flexible in

regulating fundraising activity than direct regulation by governments. Equally, failure to

endorse the Statement will be seen as evidence that this is an issue for regulation rather

than self-regulation.

This chapter has shown that the old tales of foreign firms supporting oppressive

regimes or of powerful home nations imposing their laws on foreign firms and nations do

not represent an ethically appropriate model for foreign direct investment. Nor should

global trade involve child labor or other form of exploitation. The crisis prone instability of

international finance can and should be curbed. In the part two the new and better,

seemingly soft, way social trade were introduced Foreign direct investment can and

should, it was argued, support civil rights and help host nations along their development

path. The social trade path, moreover, as Hernando DeSoto. The Body shop, and

Muhammed Yunus have shown, involves local entrepreneurship and trade rather than

aid. Business ethics, as we have seen are often a matter of ethical values emerging from

within the heart of business itself.

 

 

Chapter X – Foresight Ethics

“Fortune is the arbiter of half our actions, but… it lets us control roughly the other half…

A ruler who trusts entirely to luck comes to grief when his luck runs out.”

 

 

It is not unknown to me how many men have had, and still have, the opinion that

the affairs of the world are in such wise governed by fortune and by God that men with

their wisdom cannot direct them and that no one can even help them; and because of

this they would have us believe that it is not necessary to labor much in affairs, but to let

chance govern them. This opinion has been more credited in our times because of the

great changes in affairs which have been seen, and may still be seen, every day,

beyond all human conjecture. Sometimes pondering over this, I am in some degree

inclined to their opinion. Nevertheless, not to extinguish our free will, I hold it to be true

that Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct

the other half, or perhaps a little less.

Technological change, both present but especially future developments, may

lead to the transformation of many fundamental parameters of the human condition and

even the human organism itself. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to the

normative, technological, and policy questions raised by these prospects. We feel that

there is a lack of opportunity for students to learn about and reflect on the big picture of

the human condition and what may lie in store for our species over the coming decades.

With better technological foresight and a finer appreciation of the complex normative and

strategic challenges ahead, students will be able to participate constructively in current

and future debates about what should be done on an individual and social level to

enhance the prospects that human society will continue to flourish in the times to come.

One lesson Machiavelli and ethics both teach is that primarily aim of foresight

should be minimize the risk of critical damage. Not until you have avoided shipwreck and

reached port will you know whether you have sailed well. Given the current insecurity

and uncertainty, this message is fitting. Indeed, not a few business today, and most of

their employees, feel that survival is a priority