Ethics and the Future of Business
Summary By Beaudine van den Berg
2021-2022
,Session 1: Morals & Ethics 4
Ethics 4
Business Ethics 4
Normative ethical Theories 6
Perspective 1: Ethical Egoism 6
Perspective 2: Utilitarianism 6
Perspective 3: Ethics of Duties 7
Perspective 4: Rights & Justice 8
Alternative views on ethics 8
Overview Ethical Theories 9
Business Pragmatism and Philosophy 10
Articles Session 1: 11
Session 2: Behaviors & Actions 12
Descriptive ethical theories 12
Economic decision making 12
Ethical decision-making process 12
Ethical challenges: 12
Individual factors in ethics 13
National and cultural characteristics 13
Intra-cultural divides 14
Situational factors in ethics 14
Nature of the moral question 14
Cognitive biases 15
Unintentional unethical decision making 15
Ethics in Action 16
Articles Session 2: 17
Session 3: Strategies and stakeholders 19
Mission and value statements 19
Codes of ethics 19
Whistleblowing: Effective tool to combat misbehavior? 19
Stakeholder management 20
Changing Behavior 20
Social Entrepreneurship:Profit +Social Value 21
Corporate responsibility, sustainability and shared value 23
Corporate responsibility 23
Corporate sustainability 23
Corporate Responsibility/ sustainability 24
Does it pay to be green? 24
,Shared value 25
Stakeholder Thinking 25
Stakeholder engagement 25
Stakeholder identification 26
Stakeholder Analysis 26
A stakeholder Map 27
An example of a stakeholder map 27
Stakeholder mapping 28
Stakeholder engagement 28
, Session 1: Morals & Ethics
Morality: Humans’ ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
Ethics: The systematic study of morality.
Ethical theories: Principles and rules that determine right and wrong in different situations.
Normative ethics: the study of how we ought to behave.
Ethics
● An on‐going discussion about morality with a very long history.
● Ethics typically examines right and wrong from the perspective of a human being
(anthropocentric), instead of, for instance, nature.
● Key questions include:
○ What kind of moral principles should guide our actions?
○ What kind of aims should we have?
● Ethics is not just theorization of morals, but the aim is also to affect practice.
● Ethical theories can give contradictory solutions to the same problem.
Business Ethics
The study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of right and wrong are
addressed.
Challenges:
● Comprehensive: Addresses challenging questions at individual, organizational and
societal levels.
● Cross‐disciplinary: Philosophy, management, economics, political science, earth
system sciences...
● Abstract nature: It can be difficult to recognize the practical implications of ethical
theories.
● Critical thinking: You should not take the theories and related practices as given.
● Experience: Experience in business can be helpful.
Do we need ethics when we have the law?
● In society, morality is the foundation of the law.
● Law and ethics are partly overlapping. → Abortion law is different in different places
● Nonetheless:
○ The law does not cover all ethical issues (e.g. cheating on your partner).
Summary By Beaudine van den Berg
2021-2022
,Session 1: Morals & Ethics 4
Ethics 4
Business Ethics 4
Normative ethical Theories 6
Perspective 1: Ethical Egoism 6
Perspective 2: Utilitarianism 6
Perspective 3: Ethics of Duties 7
Perspective 4: Rights & Justice 8
Alternative views on ethics 8
Overview Ethical Theories 9
Business Pragmatism and Philosophy 10
Articles Session 1: 11
Session 2: Behaviors & Actions 12
Descriptive ethical theories 12
Economic decision making 12
Ethical decision-making process 12
Ethical challenges: 12
Individual factors in ethics 13
National and cultural characteristics 13
Intra-cultural divides 14
Situational factors in ethics 14
Nature of the moral question 14
Cognitive biases 15
Unintentional unethical decision making 15
Ethics in Action 16
Articles Session 2: 17
Session 3: Strategies and stakeholders 19
Mission and value statements 19
Codes of ethics 19
Whistleblowing: Effective tool to combat misbehavior? 19
Stakeholder management 20
Changing Behavior 20
Social Entrepreneurship:Profit +Social Value 21
Corporate responsibility, sustainability and shared value 23
Corporate responsibility 23
Corporate sustainability 23
Corporate Responsibility/ sustainability 24
Does it pay to be green? 24
,Shared value 25
Stakeholder Thinking 25
Stakeholder engagement 25
Stakeholder identification 26
Stakeholder Analysis 26
A stakeholder Map 27
An example of a stakeholder map 27
Stakeholder mapping 28
Stakeholder engagement 28
, Session 1: Morals & Ethics
Morality: Humans’ ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
Ethics: The systematic study of morality.
Ethical theories: Principles and rules that determine right and wrong in different situations.
Normative ethics: the study of how we ought to behave.
Ethics
● An on‐going discussion about morality with a very long history.
● Ethics typically examines right and wrong from the perspective of a human being
(anthropocentric), instead of, for instance, nature.
● Key questions include:
○ What kind of moral principles should guide our actions?
○ What kind of aims should we have?
● Ethics is not just theorization of morals, but the aim is also to affect practice.
● Ethical theories can give contradictory solutions to the same problem.
Business Ethics
The study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of right and wrong are
addressed.
Challenges:
● Comprehensive: Addresses challenging questions at individual, organizational and
societal levels.
● Cross‐disciplinary: Philosophy, management, economics, political science, earth
system sciences...
● Abstract nature: It can be difficult to recognize the practical implications of ethical
theories.
● Critical thinking: You should not take the theories and related practices as given.
● Experience: Experience in business can be helpful.
Do we need ethics when we have the law?
● In society, morality is the foundation of the law.
● Law and ethics are partly overlapping. → Abortion law is different in different places
● Nonetheless:
○ The law does not cover all ethical issues (e.g. cheating on your partner).
