1) Why is it so challenging to determine what is ethical or unethical in the context of
business?
Answer:
It's all about the lack of a clear definition. A major weakness of much of the scholarly
literature on the topic of business ethics is a failure to adequately define the construct of
ethics. In addition, ethics has been defined differently by theorists. Some scholars view
ethics as an inquiry into theories of what is "good and evil" or into what is "right and
wrong." Others have quite simply defined ethics as "the study of morality," the right
standards of behaviour between parties in a situation, and activities that we should or
should not do. All these are very broad views and don't offer us specifics. Ethics is the
study of morality or moral judgments, standards, and rules of conduct. The notion of
business ethics has been considered as comprising the rules, standards, principles, or
codes giving guidelines for morally right behaviour in certain contexts. The challenge is
how to determine those specific sets of rules etc which may vary from country to country,
culture to culture and business to business.
Diff: 3
Type: ES
Page Reference: 356-358
Skill: both
Objective: LO1
2) Imagine you are working for a company and are asked to do some corporate spying on
your competitor in order to assist your company in outperforming the competition. What
might the end-point ethics model potentially offer to you by way of analyzing the ethics
of your decision to spy or not to spy?
Answer:
From this perspective we could not get any universal agreement as to the ethics of such a
practice. Clearly, many countries have no problem with spying. Reconsider the principles
of end-point ethics: Do we achieve the greatest balance of good over harm for all
potential stakeholders? First, who gains from spying? Well, your company could benefit
from getting this and, consequently, you could benefit as well. Who is harmed by such a
transaction? You might consider three potential losers:
1. Does spying compromise your company's ability to do business in the future if
this becomes public-will the perception of your company be negative?
2. Competent competitors who are otherwise deserving of profits may lose because
their ideas were stolen through spying.
3. Spying may create negative damage to the individual should he/she be caught. If
they are not caught does this behavior still take some kind of toll on the person's
"psyche"? If, indeed, these three stakeholders are harmed as a consequence of the
Test Bank for Karakowsky and Guriel, The Context of Business, 1e
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Canada Inc. 1
business?
Answer:
It's all about the lack of a clear definition. A major weakness of much of the scholarly
literature on the topic of business ethics is a failure to adequately define the construct of
ethics. In addition, ethics has been defined differently by theorists. Some scholars view
ethics as an inquiry into theories of what is "good and evil" or into what is "right and
wrong." Others have quite simply defined ethics as "the study of morality," the right
standards of behaviour between parties in a situation, and activities that we should or
should not do. All these are very broad views and don't offer us specifics. Ethics is the
study of morality or moral judgments, standards, and rules of conduct. The notion of
business ethics has been considered as comprising the rules, standards, principles, or
codes giving guidelines for morally right behaviour in certain contexts. The challenge is
how to determine those specific sets of rules etc which may vary from country to country,
culture to culture and business to business.
Diff: 3
Type: ES
Page Reference: 356-358
Skill: both
Objective: LO1
2) Imagine you are working for a company and are asked to do some corporate spying on
your competitor in order to assist your company in outperforming the competition. What
might the end-point ethics model potentially offer to you by way of analyzing the ethics
of your decision to spy or not to spy?
Answer:
From this perspective we could not get any universal agreement as to the ethics of such a
practice. Clearly, many countries have no problem with spying. Reconsider the principles
of end-point ethics: Do we achieve the greatest balance of good over harm for all
potential stakeholders? First, who gains from spying? Well, your company could benefit
from getting this and, consequently, you could benefit as well. Who is harmed by such a
transaction? You might consider three potential losers:
1. Does spying compromise your company's ability to do business in the future if
this becomes public-will the perception of your company be negative?
2. Competent competitors who are otherwise deserving of profits may lose because
their ideas were stolen through spying.
3. Spying may create negative damage to the individual should he/she be caught. If
they are not caught does this behavior still take some kind of toll on the person's
"psyche"? If, indeed, these three stakeholders are harmed as a consequence of the
Test Bank for Karakowsky and Guriel, The Context of Business, 1e
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Canada Inc. 1
