Businesses Are Completely Incompatible With Virtue Ethics...

Businesses are completely incompatible with virtue ethics. Discuss. Business ethics is concerned with how well a business treats its stakeholders and whether a business’s actions are seen as ethical. Within business ethics there are three approaches which could be adopted. The first approach is that a business’s main goal could be to maximise profits and nothing more, where the ethics of the business wouldn’t necessarily be important. This view is supported by Milton Friedman. Secondly, some ethicists believe that businesses have moral responsibility to their stakeholders whether that is the employees, consumers or the local community. Finally, the last approach is the social contract theory that is based on the ideas of John Rawls. This†¦show more content†¦Kant says ‘In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.’ This means that even if a person thinks of doing bad towards another person they are seen as being unethical and therefore not following through with the virtues. Another reason as to why businesses are seen as compatible with virtue ethics is because out of all the ethical theories, virtue ethics is the most modern. This means that with the modern world of business virtue ethics is most parallel, this is because it is adapted to the modern day. Also, as the virtues are present in modern times as well as in the past, employers will know what traits to have when dealing with their employees. Virtue ethics is also concerned about reaching eudemonia (the supreme good) is very important for an individual but also for the community, but it’s more important for a community to achieve eudaimonia rather than an individual. This could mean that businesses are seen as compatible with virtue ethics because if a firm seeks to achieve eudaimonia within a community then the maximum amount of good is created within a community, which means it also then links in with utilitarianism that seeks the greatest good for the greatest number. There are many areas of concern within business ethics, whether it is whistleblowing, globalisation or the relationship between employers and employees. In the case of whistleblowing, theShow MoreRelatedCustomer Perception on Buying House5873 Words   |  24 PagesReasoning Adapted from Business Ethics, Concepts and Cases: Manuel Velasquez (2006) Prentice Hall Utilitarianism Utilitarianism is a general term for any view that holds that actions and policies should be evaluated on the basis of the benefits and costs they will impose on society. In any situation, the â€Å"right† action or policy is the one that will produce the greatest net benefits or the lowest net costs (when all alternatives have only net costs). Many businesses rely on such utilitarian cost-benefitRead MoreThe Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection15551 Words   |  63 PagesBusiness Leader†, came to light. The volume is intended to be an educational aid that speaks of the â€Å"vocation† of the business men and women who act in broad and diverse business institutions: cooperatives, multinational corporations, family businesses, social businesses, for-proï ¬ t/non-proï ¬ t collaborations etc.; and of the challenges and opportunities which the business world offers them in the context of intense technological communications, short-term ï ¬ nancial practices, and profound cultural changesRead MoreProfessional Ethics10396 Words   |  42 PagesJournal of Accounting, Ethics Public Policy  Ã‚   Volume 3, Number 1 (Winter 2003), pp. 1†26 Ayn Rand and Contemporary Business Ethics   Ã‚   Stephen R. C. Hicks Introduction: business and the free society Advocates of the free society think of business as an integral part of the dynamic, progressive society they advocate. In the West, the rise of a culture hospitable to business has unleashed incalculable productive energies. Business professionals have taken the products of science and revolutionizedRead MoreFaithful Citizenship10006 Words   |  41 Pagesdifficult pregnancies, feeding the hungry, welcoming immigrants and refugees, reaching out in global solidarity, and pursuing peace. Who in the Church Should Participate in Political Life? 13. In the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation. This obligation is rooted in our baptismal commitment to follow Jesus Christ and to bear Christian witness in all we do.†¨As the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, â€Å"It is necessaryRead MoreCsr Theories13535 Words   |  55 PagesSpain. She has taught Business Ethics at the University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, for the International Education of Students (IES), a consortium comprised of more than 120 leading US colleges and universities. Her current research focuses on the concept and implementation of Corporate Social Responsibilities. She also has interest in organizational learning, entrepreneurship and innovation. `  ´ Domenec Mele is Professor and Director of the Department of Business Ethics at IESE Business School, UniversityRead MoreSales and Marketing for Financial Institutions80443 Words   |  322 PagesTopic 5 Topic 6 Topic 7 Topic 8 Topic 9 Introduction to marketing Introduction to sales The financial services customer Marketing and sales strategy Acquiring customers Making the most of channels Managing customer relationships Legal compliance and ethics in marketing and sales The bottom line — measuring the effectiveness of marketing and sales Introduction Subject aims In a competitive, demand-driven financial services environment, an understanding of sales and marketing is crucial to successRead MoreHbr When Your Core Business Is Dying74686 Words   |  299 PagesGary Carini (gary_carini@baylor.edu) is a professor of strategic management and the Why should multinationals doing RD in China be pleased that a Chinese ï ¬ rm recently sued an American company for patent theft? Because it suggests that Chinese businesses are gradually acknowledging the importance of intellectual property rights. China is attractive as an RD site because of its increasing supply of top talent and the low cost of doing research. By the end of 2004, there were more than 600 RD centersRead MoreTorts study notes Essay17110 Words   |  69 Pagesliability rule, even when that rule is primarily justified in deterrence terms. Granted, the prophylactic quality of the rule prevents the rule from securing the active endorsement of corrective justice, but it does not follow that the rule is incompatible with corrective justice. After all, the rule’s concern for the employer’s possible failure to adopt reasonable safety measures171 gives the rule something of a corrective justice dimension.172 Given that dimension, and given also the advance n oticeRead MoreLibrary Management204752 Words   |  820 Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 Developing Leadership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340 15—Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346 Ethics in Modern Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 Ethics—A Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 Contents xiii The Importance of Ethics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 The Ethical Information Professional . . . . . . . . . . . . Read MoreCase Study148348 Words   |  594 Pagesrevenues. The levels of strategy: MySpace is of course concerned with business-level strategy, how to compete against Facebook and the like. News Corporation’s issues however are corporatelevel: how should it manage its whole portfolio of different businesses, including MySpace? The Exploring Strategy Model: As indicated later in the Chapter, there are issues here that relate to all three circles of the Exploring Strategy Model. For example, environmental change relates to Positioning; how to compete