Read the following article by Jay Feldman and answer the
questions that follow:
There was a time in the not so distant past when many, if
not most, publicly held corporations, including the one for which I worked,
embraced in their mission statements, codes of conduct and similar
pronouncements a responsibility to serve multiple stakeholders: their
stockholders, of course, but also their employees as well as customers,
suppliers and the community in which they operated. Today, all too many
companies, in deed and often in word, articulate a single-minded obligation to
serve only their investors by focusing exclusively on profitability.
As a result, we have witnessed corporate downsizings and
outsourcing of jobs; restructuring of pension plans or their complete
termination; reductions in health care benefits; and wage stagnation in spite
of increased productivity. Domestic suppliers have been squeezed or, more
often, replaced by cheap foreign sources. Customers seeking service are
confronted with automated answering machines and foreign call centers.
Environmental concerns are viewed as obstacles to profitability.
At the same time, the senior managers of these enterprises
have seen their compensation grow exponentially as a reward for their perceived
contributions to the bottom line.
Sadly, what these corporations fail to appreciate is how
their obsession with the bottom line is shrinking their markets, both domestic
and foreign. The large number of people unemployed, underemployed, afraid of
losing their jobs or without the means to pay all their bills perpetuates the
present worldwide economic crisis.
Add to this the unwillingness of businesses to pay their
fair share of taxes to support education, health care and the infrastructure
that is critical to their success. In the end, these self-serving practices
endanger the very profitability their practitioners seek to enhance.
We need to return to the earlier model of the corporation as
a good citizen. Doing so can help ensure the long-term viability of our free
enterprise system.
JAY N. FELDMAN
Port Washington, N.Y., Aug. 27, 2012
The writer is a retired corporate lawyer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/opinion/sunday/sunday-dialogue-how-corporations-behave.html?ref=ethics
Considering the passage above, write a paper of 3–4 pages
that addresses the following:
1. Discuss Alfred North Whitehead’s statement:
“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.” Consider the
following questions as guide:
a. Businesses can have ethical standards, but
Businesses are not moral agents. Do you agree or disagree?
b. Is it true that the “bottom line” of
business is profit and profit alone?
c. In business, are there other less tangible
goals that are intrinsic to and just as important as making money?
d. Why should we be moral as individuals?
e. Why should a corporation or organization
be moral?
2. How
would you apply the first formulation of Kant’s categorical imperative to a
Business environment?
Consider deontological ethics, teleological ethics, moral
objectivism, and ethical relativism in your argument. Provide at least 3 valid
reasons to support your argument. Also, be sure to include the following in
your paper:
Identify your argument—or thesis statement—within the
introduction of your paper.
Include definitions of utilitarianism, Categorical
Imperatives, Process Philosophy, moral relativism, moral absolutism, ethical
relativism, moral objectivism, deontological ethics, and teleological ethics.
Consider morality and ethics from the perspective of Alfred
North Whitehead’s process philosophy, and Immanuel Kant’s universal categorical
imperative. Could you argue that Businesses can have ethical standards, despite
the fact that Businesses are not moral agents? Why or why not? Please explain.
Distinguish between descriptive and normative definitions of
morality
Use proper
grammar, spelling and punctuation.
You may find that
you change your mind on the issue as you are writing your paper. That is fine,
but be sure to present your ultimate decision at the beginning of the paper,
and stick to it consistently throughout. This may require that you go back and
change the first few paragraphs that contain your thesis statement.
The provide a best knowledge to new information in our daily life to grow and start up a new business..drjayfeldman
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