Business Ethics / Professional Ethics and CSR (MBA notes, assignments, case studies)
Ethics are moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity. An ethical issue is a problem or a situation that requires a person or an organization to choose between two alternatives that must be evaluated as ethical) or unethical.
Modern Slavery exists in various forms. Modern Slavery such as Human Trafficking exists in all continents and in all economies. It still remains a problem although it remains unseen and is often denied. Most countries are affected either by being a source, transit and destination.
Kinds of Modern Slavery: Sex Trafficking. Forced Labor (all types of enslavement that involves coercion against ones will, even used by Govt machinery in state prison). Bonded Labor or Debt Bondage (forced to work to repay a debt, mostly targets migrant workers. Domestic Servitude ( consists of live in workers). Forced Child Labor. Unlawful Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers. Forced early marriage.
Business Ethics Cases
Rana Plaza Case Study
Rana Plaza, an eight-story commercial building located in the outskirts of Dhaka in Bangladesh, collapsed on April 24, 2013 resulting in the deaths of over 1,100 people and injuring around 2,500 others. The building housed five garment factories. There were unauthorized floor additions to the building and substandard materials were used. When cracks in the building were identified, evacuation notices were ignored, and factory owners insisted that workers return to work.
The Rana Plaza disaster exposed serious ethical failures, especially in developing countries where regulations and enforcement are weak. The case study reminds us that global companies cannot shun the ethical impact of their sourcing strategies, especially when operating in developing regions. The case draws attention to the “fast fashion” industry and its cheap labor model. The quest for lower-priced goods by consumers in developed countries has indirectly exacerbated the plight of workers in developing countries.
This case highlights the responsibility of multinational companies in protecting workers’ rights and safety within their supply chains. Business ethics here means valuing human lives and pushing for fair labor conditions and dignity of workers across the supply chain.
Ford Pinto Case
The Ford Pinto is one of the most infamous cars in automotive history. The car had a design flaw that made the fuel tank vulnerable to fires and explosion in rear-end collisions. Despite being aware of the design flaw, Ford prioritized cost savings over safety (fixing the issue), leading to numerous accidents and fatalities. The company faced lawsuits which cost the company significant money as well as reputation.
Although the company was aware that the fuel tank was a hazard, Ford chose not to improve it due to financial considerations. Ford intentionally did not communicate critical safety risks to stakeholders, breaching Stakeholder Theory and resulting in extensive consumer distrust and lawsuits. Ford and the automotive industry actively delayed necessary safety regulations, breaching principles of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Having an ethical mind-set within organizations is crucial. Companies should not merely react to regulations but actively prioritize safety and moral considerations in their decision-making processes. Managers and employees must adhere to ethical decision-making despite pressure, and regulation needs to be strengthened. A shift in corporate culture can help prevent tragedies like the Pinto case and ensure long-term trust and sustainability.
Slavery at Sea: Thai Fishing Industry
Serious human rights violations have been observed in the Thai fishing industry. Many workers (especially migrant workers) are forcibly kept onto boats, and made to work in terrible conditions. They lose their freedom and have no way to escape.
Thai fisheries supply chain requires effective regulation. Governments, companies, and consumers all have a part to play to eradicate modern slavery. It is necessary for all countries to work together. Real change requires listening to demands of workers, improving regulatory mechanism, and making countries follow human rights standards through international pressure.
Nike Sexual Harassment Case
Sexual harassment and gender discrimination at the work place went unaddressed for a long time, marginalizing female employees and hindered their career advancement.
Research shows that there was failure to address grievances and to protect workers. Complaints of employees were consistently ignored by leadership and HR. An employee-driven anonymous survey eventually drew attention to the issue, leading to resignation of several top male executives, and ultimately forcing Nike to revise procedures for greater inclusion.
Early intervention could have prevented reputational harm. Executives quitting overnight shows power topples fast when voices unite. Firms must listen to employee concerns related to harassment and bullying, ensuring effective accountability mechanisms, and establishing a corporate culture that truly values inclusivity and respect for all genders.
Banks reviewing exposure to fossil fuel assets
More banks are reviewing their exposure to fossil fuel assets which signals a shift toward responsible finance. This also shows that there is increasing pressure on these banks from stakeholders to align with climate goals. By reassessing their investments in industries with high carbon emissions, these banks demonstrate increasing awareness of climate-related financial risks. This trend shows how financial institutions are behaving responsibly and in addressing environmental impacts within their core strategies.
Australian E-Waste
Australia generates a large amount of electronic waste every year and this waste is illegally shipped to landfills in Ghana, Africa. While companies like Westpac claim to take environmental friendly measures, this is a case of lack of corporate responsibility.
Inefficient regulatory enforcement, illegal exports, lack of transparency in the supply chain, companies and government shunning their environmental responsibilities are some of the reasons for this issue. Australian recyclers often receive illegal offers to export hazardous waste highlighting the need for international collaboration on law enforcement.
There is a need for joint action from individuals, companies and governments to ensure effective waste disposal. Consumers need to reflect on excessive consumption and support sustainable recycling methods.
Black women and student debt
Black women have slightly higher student debt compared to than Black men and have significantly higher debt burdens compared to white women. This reflects deep systemic inequalities. Despite having higher education, black women get comparatively lower wages and struggle to replay their student loans. Addressing this issue is important to achieve inclusive economic growth for all.
Also check:
Too Much Intelligence: Case
The Too Much Intelligence case revolves around the ethical dilemmas faced by employees of a leading tech company. The case highlights how the actions of one employee can significantly impact the ethical culture of the organization. This paper analyzes the case based on the main questions at the end of the case, along with sub-questions.
How has Ken Bodine shaped the sales culture at Pace Technologies (InPace Solutions)? Do you consider Ken Bodine’s level of moral development to be at a preconventional, conventional, or postconventional level? Does it differ from that of Cody Rudisell? Assess Ken’s ethics approach and his level of CSR responsibility. Spotlight Ali’s ethical dilemma. How might Cody Rudisell’s decision differ if he based it on the utilitarian approach vs. the individualism approach vs. the practical approach to ethical decision making? Which approach does he appear to be using?
George Mackee business challenge: Ethics case study
George Mackee thought of himself as bright, energetic, and [having] lots of potential. So why was this happening to me, he thought. George, his two children, and his wife, Mary, had moved to Hondo, Texas, from El Paso four years ago. He was now the manager of Ardnak Plastic Inc., a small plant that manufactured plastic parts for industrial equipment. The plant employed several hundred workers, which was a substantial portion of the population of Hondo. Ardnak Plastics Inc. had several small plants in neighboring areas. George had a good relationship with his boss, Bill, who was in another city.
One of the problems George’s plant had was that the smokestack emissions were consistently above EPA guidelines. Several months ago George got a call from Bill, stating that the EPA had contacted him about the problem and fines would be levied. George admitted the situation was a continual problem, but because headquarters would not invest in new smoke stack-scrubbers, he didn’t know what to do.
Bill replied by saying that margins were at their limits and there was no money for new scrubbers. Besides, Bill commented, other plants were in worse shape than his and they were passing EPA standards. George ended the conversation by assuring Bill that he would look into the matter.
He immediately started calling his contemporaries at other Ardnak plants. He found they were scheduling their heavy emissions work at night so that during the day when the EPA took their sporadic readings they were within standards. George contemplated this option even though it would result in increasing air contamination levels.
A month went by, and George still had not found a solution. The phone rang; it was Bill.
Bill expressed his displeasure with the new fines for the month and reminded George that there were very few jobs out in the industry. That’s when Bill dropped the whole thing into George’s lap.
Bill had been speaking to the Mexican government and had received assurances that no such clean air restrictions would be imposed on Ardnak if they relocated 15 miles south of Hondo in Mexico. However, Ardnak must hire Mexican workers. Bill explained that the reason for relocating would be to eliminate the EPA problems.
Bill told George he had one week to decide whether to eliminate the fines by correcting the current problems or by relocating. George knew that relocating the plant on the Mexican side would devastate the infrastructure of the city of Hondo and would continue to put contaminants into the air on the U.S. side. After mentioning the possibility to Mary, other concerns were reinforced. She did not want him to be responsible for the loss of jobs for their friends and extended families. What should George do?
Questions: What are the relevant facts? What is the business issue? What are the ethical issues? (include ethical theory). Who are the primary stakeholders? What are the possible alternatives, with advantages and disadvantages? What alternative would you choose if you were George?
Academic Questions on Professional / Business Ethics
Academic Questions on Professional / Business Ethics (MBA notes, assignments, case studies)
Question: Child labor is rampant in India despite laws having banned it. Many homes, Dhabas, shops etc. have employed children and make them work in quite inhuman conditions. Who is responsible for this? The employer? Police for not enforcing the law? The neighbors and people like us who notice but do not report to law? All of them. Defend your answer.
Question: Naomi Campbell is being held responsible by US law of having received Conflict Diamonds as gifts. Conflict diamonds are those which are mined by children forced by rebels and proceeds are used for financing wars. 20000 humans have had their limbs chopped off until the mines were handed over to rebels. Is it morally wrong for a customer to buy diamonds as it is not possible for them to determine if diamonds they are purchasing are conflict diamonds? Give reasons for your stand.
Question: The current consumption rate of humanity seems to be unsustainable. All stakeholders need to work together to find a solution and see that future generations are not disadvantaged against. But one set of experts argue that future generations have no rights and the only future generation that we need to worry about is the one that will immediately succeed us. Give your views and provide arguments to support them.
Question: In your judgment, should the major decisions on pollution control be made by government experts? By scientific experts? By Corporate entities? Provide arguments to support your answer.
Question: Ethics and CSR Project
In this project, you are going to set up a fictitious business of your own in any province of Canada and take the perspective of the Chief Executive Officer to reflect on the dimensions of business ethics/corporate social responsibility (CSR) of your company. More specifically, you will: Briefly describe your company (your industry, your main product and/or services, the scope and size of your operations).
Discuss the range of ethical/CSR issues and unique challenges that your company faces. Identify your company’s stakeholders and their varying interests. Discuss how your company goes about managing ethical issues, CSR activities, and stakeholder interests in practice.
Please provide examples for each to illustrate your points. Create a short position statement for the management of your company outlining your overall CSR strategy. What types of activities fall within your CSR strategy and what types of activities are excluded? Why? Discuss the potential implications (positive or negative) of your approach.
The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of the material that is covered in the course. This can best be accomplished by making use of concrete, specific examples to illustrate your understanding of how to apply the concepts.
Expected Structure: Cover Page, Table of Content, Introduction, Company’s Profile/Product/Scope of operations, Ethical Issues/Challenges (refer to your research about current issues), Stakeholders/Interests (refer to the course concepts), Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy (refer to the course concepts), Conclusion, References. Refer textbooks, various sources (Academic, Governmental, Industry related, Media). APA referencing.
Q. a. You are Business Head of Ben & Jerry ice cream in Sri Lanka. One day you discover that the most senior officer of your company’s venture in Sri Lanka has been ‘borrowing’ equipment from the company and using it in his other business venture. When you confront him, the Sri Lankan partner defends his action. After all, as part owner of both the companies, isn’t he entitled to share in the equipment. How will you deal with such cross cultural gray areas and what tools will guide your decision making process?
Q. b. ‘Professionals such as accountants and lawyers have duties and obligations that other people do not.’ Why is that so? Discuss your point of view and its supporting arguments. (two points of view with explanation is good enough)
Q) Analyse the Satyam Scam (Satyam Computers Services Ltd). Present your views on, “Scams influence and change the corporate governance landscape” and substantiate them using insights from the Satyam case.
Q) You have studied Business Ethics as a structured subject for the first time. One of its objective is, ethical literacy- making the students aware of ethical dilemmas and provide tools and frameworks for future and current managers to deal with some of these ethical dilemmas they face. How has it helped you? Give 3 clear points to showcase that it has helped you become a better manager.
Q) TOPIC OPTION 1 – ETHICS
Part A: Describe the characteristics and behaviours of someone you believe to be an ethical person. How could the types of decisions and actions this person engages in be encouraged in a workplace? Refer to theoretical models of ethics in your answer. (Approximately 1700 words).
Utilitarian ethics, Deontology ethics, Consequentialism in ethics, Feminist theory ethics, Virtue in ethics
SOLUTION
Abstract
Ethics refer to principles, moral, beliefs, duty, conduct and code. In any workplace, ethics is an essential feature of leadership. An ethical person should treat people and environment with respect and. an ethical behaviour will always contribute a team with success. In this paper we have discussed characteristics and behaviours of an ethical person. The paper also describes us about the different types of decisions and actions a person engages that are encouraged in a workplace. A development of teamwork requires relationships, respect and sharing. In different professional organizations they set different components in regards to honesty, transparency, accountability, objective, confidentiality, respect and law. He or she should also act in a socially responsible manner and possess social responsibilities.
Question: Ethics and CSR work. Submit a 3000-3500 words (APA Format) paper for this project. References from required textbooks, various sources (Academic, Governmental, Industry related, Media).
Expected Structure: Cover Page, Table of Content, Introduction, Company’s Profile/Product/Scope of operations, Ethical Issues/Challenges (refer to your research about current issues), Stakeholders/Interests (refer to the course concepts), Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy (refer to the course concepts), Conclusion, References.
In this project, you are going to set up a fictitious business of your own in any province of Canada and take the perspective of the Chief Executive Officer to reflect on the dimensions of business ethics/corporate social responsibility (CSR) of your company. More specifically, you will: Briefly describe your company (your industry, your main product and/or services, the scope and size of your operations). Discuss the range of ethical/CSR issues and unique challenges that your company faces. Identify your company’s stakeholders and their varying interests. Discuss how your company goes about managing ethical issues, CSR activities, and stakeholder interests in practice. Please provide examples for each to illustrate your points. Create a short position statement for the management of your company outlining your overall CSR strategy. What types of activities fall within your CSR strategy and what types of activities are excluded? Why? Discuss the potential implications (positive or negative) of your approach. The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of the material that is covered in the course. This can best be accomplished by making use of concrete, specific examples to illustrate your understanding of how to apply the concepts.
Q. “India is one market where sales of so called ‘Fairness Cream’ does booming business”. Identify all the inherent ethical issues. Argue and present the pros and cons of advertising fairness cream in India.
ICSE Essay on Ethical Marketing.
Q: “Facts are irrelevant. What matters is what the consumer believes.‟ In the light of this statement, discuss the impact of advertisements on the consumers.
References
Skin-whitening creams reveal the dark side of the beauty industry
Fairness Creams Under Fire, But Indians Continue to Seek Pale Skin
Skin lightening: India’s obsession that is becoming a medical problem
Neither fair, nor lovely: Two Indian firms are fighting over a fairness cream ad
Ethical Issues in Technology
If you were made the chief ethics office of NitiAyog and you were to design 15 rules for businesses to follow so that they avoid the ethical concerns which you have mentioned in the essay what would those be?
Rules to be followed:
- Promote importance of Transparency and Trustworthiness
- Establish Chains of Ethical Responsibility and Accountability
- Document as much as possible
- Design and Plan for Privacy and Security
- Not sharing passwords with others, following best practices for changing passwords
- Not putting pictures of children on the internet, ask for age before using certain software/app
- Practice disaster planning, take regular backups of work
- Setup Goals, benchmark processes
- Measure performances regularly
- Hire good people with relevant skills
- Train / retrain staff as and when needed
- Don’t keep customers waiting, share as much information as possible
- Provide FAQs and help online (self service)
- Use software to track and manage things
- Be realistic, avoid hype and myths around technology
Society as Stakeholder of Business
Can a business be a financial success and also be valuable to society? Is it ethical to outsource production to low-wage countries where working conditions are vastly inferior to those in the US?
There are many examples of companies that do both – “doing well” (financially) and “doing good” (for society and stakeholders), that meet demanding ethical standards and add immense value for all stakeholders, including the society.
Companies benefit society by:
Supplying goods and services that customer cannot, or do not want to, produce themselves
Creating jobs for customers, suppliers, distributors and coworkers.
These people make money to support themselves and their families, pay taxes and use their wages to buy goods and services
Continually developing new goods, services and processes
Investing in new technologies and in the skills of employees
Building up and spreading international standards, e.g. for environmental practices
Spreading “good practice” in different areas, such as the environment and workplace safety
“Society is one of the critical stakeholders of business”.
a. How does business impact local community positively as well as negatively?
b. With the help of a live example from any company, Indian or Multinational, elaborate how businesses are finding innovative ways to bring benefits to themselves as well as to the local communities in which they operate.
Sustainable Business
Business sustainability (or corporate sustainability) is the management of environmental, social and financial factors to ensure ethical and ongoing success.
Top advantages of being a sustainable business:
Improved brand image and competitive advantage.
Increase productivity and reduce costs.
Increase business ability to comply with regulation.
Attract employees and investors.
Reduce waste.
Make shareholders happy.
MBA case study/assignment question on business sustainability:
Sustainability is the current focus of business community globally and businesses worldwide are including sustainability considerations in their strategic business decisions as well as long term plans. Choose any one current and live company, Indian or Multinational and explain how it is implementing any three sustainability actions to reduce their negative environmental footprints and why (refer to the sustainability report of the chosen company).
Sustainable business is an approach for managing the business in such a way that it generates economic benefits but its negative impacts on the environment, community, and society is reduced. Sustainable businesses have environmentally and socially conscious policies that focus on meeting triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit.
Question: The assessment requires you to choose ANY ONE of the following themes from the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and write a 3000-word report. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals can be accessed here.
- Theme 1: Affordable and Clean Energy (Goal 7)
- Theme 2: Decent Work and Economic Growth (Goal 8)
- Theme 3: Sustainable Cities and Communities (Goal 11)
- Theme 4: Responsible Consumption and Production (Goal 12)
- Theme 5: Climate Action (Goal 13)
- Theme 6: Life Below Water (Goal 14)
The report should include the following:
Executive summary – This is not included in the word count. For the executive summary, you will provide a brief snapshot of the entire report. This should include: A brief introduction of the chosen theme. A brief introduction of the chosen organisation, it’s sustainability vision and mission. Sustainability theories used.
Introduction to Sustainability theme – For this section, you will provide an overview of the chosen sustainability theme. This should include: – Brief description of the theme. Key issues associated with the theme and its impact across the globe.
Organisation – For this section, you will choose any one for-profit organisation and provide detailed information of your chosen organisations’ sustainability practice(s) in relation to the selected theme. This should include: – Sustainability actions/practices that the organisation adopts to resolve the issues you identified for the chosen theme. How the noted sustainability practices(s) impact the social(people), environmental(planet) and economic(profit) performance. What sustainability reporting standards does the organisation adhere to?
Exploration of theory – For this section, you will select at least two models (in relation to the business functions) that can support your chosen organisation and resolve issues you identified as part of the chosen theme. This should include: – A brief description of selected model E.g., sustainable marketing or sustainable HR or sustainable finance or sustainable supply chain management. Clear justification of how the research gathered can add further value in supporting the organisation to resolve issues in relation to chosen theme. Recommendation. Based on your findings from theory, provide recommendations on how your chosen organisation can improve or develop their sustainability practices.
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