Exam #1 Study Guide – Business Ethics

The difference between morality and ethics

Define consequentialism, deontology, utilitarianism, ethical egoism, Kant’s ethics, and virtue ethics.

Kant – The difference between hypothetical and categorical imperatives, the universal law and end in itself formulations of the categorical imperative, objection to Kant – lying to save an innocent person’s life.

Utilitarianism – Intellectual and bodily pleasures, objection to utilitarianism – it doesn’t respect individual rights

Virtue Ethics – Importance of habit, education, and environment; the morality of one’s tendency to act rather than the morality of an individual act; example of individual virtues. How is virtue ethics holistic? What role does context and judgment play in its moral determinations?

Carr and Gillespie – Is there a special ethics in business? What do business and poker have in common? According to Gillespie, what are the two criteria for determining whether it is one’s duty to do what is right? Even if it isn’t one’s duty, is there still something wrong with the situation?

Bird and Waters – The causes and harms of management muteness

Bok – What are the potential harms and benefits of whistleblowing? What criteria should we use to determine whether whistleblowing is morally justified?

Crisp – Why does he think that persuasive advertising is wrong in all forms? What does it mean to undermine one’s autonomy and rationality? What cases of informative advertising does he criticize?

Essay Questions:

1. Do you think that lying is ever justified in business? Explain your reasons. Consider the cases of lying in negotiations, lying in advertising, and lying to employees. How can we distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable forms of lying in each of these cases?

2. Define whistleblowing, discuss its potential harms and benefits, and provide criteria for determining when one should blow the whistle, illustrating them with one case in which one should and one case in which one shouldn’t.

3. In addition to deception, are there other marketing techniques that are morally unjustified? Give examples and explain what makes these cases immoral, and formulate this into clear criteria that will distinguish moral and immoral cases of marketing.