...Is it Ethically Right to use Bluffing in the Business World? Luke Erickson As businesses flourish from record sales of new products and, “upgrades,” the path to profit is becoming more and more questioned regarding their ethical standards. While some businesses look to make the most profit without a worry about deception and trickery, others tend to stick with honesty and sincerity. Every day people are centered on ethical practice involving resumes, job interviews, business deals, psychological tests, etc. One of the main issues that raise concerns is if bluffing in business to get ahead is ethically right or wrong. Two different opinions on this issue by Albert Z. Carr and Norman E. Bowie give great insight on this controversial topic, but I shall argue that bluffing in the business world is a completely fair strategy to use to maximize profits. In “Is Business Bluffing Ethical”, Albert Z. Carr argues that the business world is a game. In that game (using bluffing as a technique), if no rules are broken then they have not violated anything and are free to use bluffing. In any game there are rules, if you stay within the rules and win, it is fair, but if you break the rules and win you have therefor put everyone else playing the game at a disadvantage and are most likely disqualified. Likewise with bluffing, this technique is not breaking any rules, nor does it say you cannot use bluffing in the game, so bluffing in legal. The main argument against...
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...The problem to be investigated in this assignment is the ethics of institutions. Are businesses operating in an ethical or unethical manner? Goldman like many other operations use behaviors that were unethical and grossly unfair to clients. Shaded areas are areas to be defined by the individual interpretation itself. Many say money is the root to all evil and as this case dictates, true. Ethics should always be at the forefront of any organization. Operating a business requires adequate consideration to a number of issues outside the traditional scope of making money, of which ethics is mostly certainly one. As a business grows, so does its significance. Businesses impact lives and the environment in which they strive to exist. Jobs, wealth and inspiration of entrepreneurship is created when businesses are birthed. This is why business ethics are important because they not only affect the business itself but its employees as well; individual names and faces are linked to businesses and how they are ran. There are many benefits to operating a business in an ethical way: long-term success, profitability, good client relationship, corporate growth, competitive edge and trustworthiness. The initial intent of Mr. Goldman was to be trustworthy and build his company with good business ethics but mishaps set in. Discussion Question 1: Go back through the case and make a list of each action or practice that could be called a gray area: 1. Goldman’s initial investment strategy...
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...Everyone agrees that business managers must understand finance and marketing. But is it necessary for them to study ethics? Managers who answer in the negative generally base their thinking on one of three rationales. They may simply say that they have no reason to be ethical. They see why they should make a profit, and most agree they should do so legally. But why should they be concerned about ethics, as long as they are making money and staying out of jail? Other managers recognize that they should be ethical but identify their ethical duty with making a legal profit for the firm. They see no need to be ethical in any further sense, and therefore no need for any background beyond business and law. A third group of managers grant that ethical duty goes further than what is required by law. But they still insist that there is no point in studying ethics. Character is formed in childhood, not while reading a college text or sitting in class. These arguments are confused and mistaken on several levels. To see why, it is best to start with the question raised by the first one: why should business people be ethical? Why Should One Be Ethical? There is already something odd about this question. It is like asking, “Why are bachelors unmarried?” They are unmarried by definition. If they were married, they would not be bachelors. It is the same with ethics. To say that one should do something is another way of saying it is ethical. If it is not ethical, then one should...
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...Size Should Not Matter: Being Over a Size Ten Does Not Make One Ugly Is brand image more important than satisfying the most customers possible? In the mind of Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F), yes brand image is more important than satisfying the most customers possible. According to Jeffries, A&F has a very selective target market, which does not include anyone who is overweight or in Jeffries’s mind who is not “good-looking”. In my opinion, even though the company A&F believes it has a certain brand image to maintain, there is no reason why A&F should discriminate against the amount of people that they do. By considering Aristotelian virtue ethics, Mill’s utilitarianism, and Carr’s idea on business bluffing, it is easy to see why the tactics of A&F are unmoral, or in the case of Carr, unjustified. On the other side, Kantian deontology shows that the tactics of A&F can be considered moral, however Kant’s reasons are not stronger than the reasons of Aristotle, Mill, and Carr. Before getting into the analyses from the perspectives from the previously mentioned people, it would be ideal to give some background information on the unethical values of A&F. It was not until 1996 when Jeffries became fully in charge of A&F when the company started to become an unethical store. The main reason the company has become so unethical, was because of the new brand image Jeffries decided to create for the company. Instead of having a brand image that could be marketed towards...
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...The problem to be investigated is looking into shades of gray when it comes to ethical behavior. For years, companies have been operating within the law yet displayed very questionable behavior. Companies like Goldman and Sachs utilizing questionable trading techniques in order to gain a financial profit while leaving behind companies in the dust and eliminating hundreds if not thousands of jobs in the process. Ethics is more than doing what’s right or wrong. It’s a way of life and how we can have an effect on others. Question 1: Go back through the case and make a list of each action or practice that could be called a gray area. The Layering Strategy: This was formulated in the late 1920 as a way to utilize one company’s money to invest in another. In the case of Goldman, he used his own customers to make money. He created an investment company and buys 90% of the shares in that company with its own money. Because the shares have sold so well, the public wants a piece of the company. So, the shares that Goldman initially bought for, say, $100, it is able to turn around and sell to the public for $110. He would then continue the cycle with another company and the price would climb. The Laddering Strategy: In 1990, the birth of the Internet age just started its peak. Goldman found another way to capitalize on this boom. Much like Goldman’s layering strategy, the Laddering strategies end result is also a crash. With the laddering strategy, this was reserved for Goldman’s...
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...| The Role Of Ethics in Business | | | | 1/16/2014 | | In this paper I will discuss the role of business ethics as it relates to business operations and the challenges of starting and maintaining an effective business ethics program. I will begin with Jennings' (2012) definition of ethics in business and its role from his perspective. I will then make comparisons with other authors' opinions for discussion, including Peter Drucker’s (1981) take on business ethics and Carr’s (Jennings, 2012) viewpoint as well. How business ethics' role relates to the notion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and ongoing challenges will also be discussed. I will conclude with my own comments on the relationship between personal and business ethics and my thoughts on how to start and maintain company ethical standards. Business Ethics And Its Role: Definitions and Discussion The concept of being ethical in business is a mercurial topic these days; given the expansive and rapid global reach of today's multimedia, it can take mere hours for a reputable business image to get tarnished because of one ethics-related incident. In his text, Jennings' definition of business ethics is "...not the study of what is legal but of the application of ethics to business decisions. (Jennings, 2012, p.45)" Many business leaders today focus on what is legally allowed--they are aware of the legal parameters within where they can operate, and simply execute their profit-driven...
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...Ethical Issues in Business Thomas Donaldson and Patricia Werhane Some definitions: Ethics – the study of whatever is right and good for humans Business ethics – business actions etc in light of some aspect of human value. - it requires the evaluation of business practices. - Goes beyond facts to include the “ought to” of a situation. The two traditional issues involved with ethics: 1. Ethical Relativism – are there universal values that apply to everyone or is everything relative to individual, country, company etc. a. Relates to cultural relativism. This presumes that different peoples reason about morality varies by culture, education and religious traditions. b. Arguments for ER are: i. Empirical evidence of cultural relativism. ii. There is no viable universal standard that can be applied to everyone. c. Arguments against ER are: i. Just because finding universals is hard – that does not imply that ER is correct. ii. Just because a particular issues is not resolved does not imply that it is, in principle, not ever resolvable. iii. Taking ER to its full extent means that you can’t justify any moral judgements at all. d. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (1977) attempted to legislate that what we say is moral is how we should behave. This Act was driven by the issue that you are being inconsistent with yourself if you say something is immoral yet do it anyway just because you are in a foreign country. 2. Truth telling – can you ever justify...
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...Blanchard/Peale ethical model What are the facts, what information are we missing, assumptions we need to make, who is involved, what are their concerns. • Be prepared for real examples of conflict of interest… o For example: TRUE OR FALSE--- A member of the city council who is employed by a waste management firm would have a conflict of interest in voting on the city’s award of a contract for the handling of the city’s waste. • Know Peter Drucker "Above all, do no harm" • The overview of the Parable of Sadhu case • Know Divine Command/Law Decisions made by the guidance of divine bring. • What theory did Ayn Ryad create? Ethical Egoism • Know utilitarianism Greatest good for the greatest number • Know rights theory Everyone has a set of rights. It's up to the government to protect those rights. Adherent: Robert Nozick • Know ethical egoism Everyhting is based on self-interest. • Who are the creators of utilitarianism theory? Jeremy Benthem and John Stuart Mill • Know moral relativism (very similar to utilitarianism) Time & place ethics. No absolute rules. The situation dictates and justifies the actions taken. Week 3 • Know Carr and Drucker perspectives (numerous questions on them) • Drucker's prospective: A) No distinction between personal & business ethics • B) We can't always promise that we will make people better off, but we can promise that we will not intentionally harm them. • C) Above all, do no harm. • Carr's perspective: A) Business is a special...
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...Examining the Ethicality of Airborne’s Marketing Strategy Patrick Legendre Business Ethics Prof. Martin Wednesday, October 16, 2013 I. Case Overview Dietary Supplement Industry The growing dietary supplement industry, which includes the hundreds of weight loss and immune support supplements on the market, grosses approximately $20 billion annually (Burke). As established by the Dietary Supplement and Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), these supplements are not required to undergo testing or receive approvals from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Instead, companies must notify the FDA of all new products and ensure that they are safe for consumers. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) does not prohibit dietary supplements from claiming health benefits but rather requires thorough clinical trials to support such statements. In 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services investigated 127 supplements and found that 20 percent of them were illegally labeled and lacked the necessary scientific evidence to support the proclaimed health benefits (Ibid). Many of these illegal labels included confirmatory statements on curing or preventing diseases such as diabetes or cancer. The report also revealed that 7 percent of the surveyed supplements did not have the mandatory disclaimer stating that the FDA had not evaluated statements on the label for validity (Ibid). Airborne Case Airborne, a popular vitamin and herbal supplement known for its controversy over preventing...
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...Many Shades of Gray: The Goldman Sachs Standard Are there ethics in big business? Or does big business answer to a different power? This can be a rather gray area. The problem to be investigated is the Goldman Sachs Standard and the ethics (or lack thereof) that exist in the company. The original market strategy was to provide loans for small businesses and then sell these loans as commercial paper. (Jennings, 2012) In the 1920s, this became a tough market in which to make a profit. So, to borrow a phrase, when the going gets tough, the tough change strategies. In the late 1920s, Goldman changed its investment strategy to layered investments. This strategy involves creating a company and then personally purchasing a large amount of the shares. Goldman would generally purchase approximately 90 percent of these shares. The public, unaware of the original purchase, only saw a profitable company so they eagerly purchased not only the remaining initial shares, but also purchased shares sold by Goldman at a higher rate. Goldman would also purchase some of these to artificially inflate the market even further. This enabled Goldman to make money off of the secondary sales. Goldman was lying to its clients because the company it created was not truly as profitable as the inflated share price would indicate. It was fully aware of this and continued to layer additional companies into the strategy that would appear successful only as long as the market continued to grow....
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...LoganD MGT7109-3 The problem to be investigated is did Goldman and Sachs engage in shady trading transactions and were these transactions done in the best interest of their clients? Were Goldman and Sachs guilty of not disclosing the trade strategy to investors through their numerous practices of investment tools which they were using? 1. Go back through the case and make a list of each action or practice that could be called a gray area. - In the 1920’s the layered investment strategy was created by Goldman. He created a company and purchased 90 percent of the company’s shares which would seem to be doing very well to the outside investors, the shares would then sell to the public for an additional 10 percent. This area is gray because Goldman was deceiving the public and driving up the price of the stock. Example l00 per share-Goldman buys 90%: public buys 10 %.( Jennings, 2010, p.73-74) - In 1990 Goldman became the Wall Street giant on taking the Internet companies public: this was done by “selling air” Goldman underwrote 47 companies which some may not have shown any profits. “The standard underwriting practice of requiring that a company show three years of profitability before being taken public was no longer enforced.” (Jennings, 2010, p.75) This makes Goldman’s practice of underwriting companies gray because some of the companies did not have any profits but he continued writing. - According to Jennings Laddering known as the “insider scam by the underwriters”...
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...Ethical Issues in Business Thomas Donaldson and Patricia Werhane Some definitions: Ethics – the study of whatever is right and good for humans Business ethics – business actions etc in light of some aspect of human value. - it requires the evaluation of business practices. - Goes beyond facts to include the “ought to” of a situation. The two traditional issues involved with ethics: 1. Ethical Relativism – are there universal values that apply to everyone or is everything relative to individual, country, company etc. a. Relates to cultural relativism. This presumes that different peoples reason about morality varies by culture, education and religious traditions. b. Arguments for ER are: i. Empirical evidence of cultural relativism. ii. There is no viable universal standard that can be applied to everyone. c. Arguments against ER are: i. Just because finding universals is hard – that does not imply that ER is correct. ii. Just because a particular issues is not resolved does not imply that it is, in principle, not ever resolvable. iii. Taking ER to its full extent means that you can’t justify any moral judgements at all. d. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (1977) attempted to legislate that what we say is moral is how we should behave. This Act was driven by the issue that you are being inconsistent with yourself if you say something is immoral yet do it anyway just because you are in a foreign country. 2. Truth telling – can you ever justify...
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...Strayer University IT Project Management Assessment Payton Ridley CIS 517 October 21, 2012 Morrow Campus Dr. 1. Summarizes how the project manager or team exhibited exceptional and ethical project management practices. Often, the project manager (PM) is faced with an issue that is not easily resolved by theory or the knowledge acquired from formal training. These types of problems are usually not of a technical nature and more often tend to be ethical or human resource issues (Stare, 2011). The satisfactory answer is often debatable and may suit one set of circumstances and yet not another. It is these difficult issues where the PM must draw from their practical experiences, moral and ethical obligations, and sometimes the rule of law. For example, international projects take the PM out of the comfort zone of the local laws and customs that they are used to working at home. In many host countries, doing business results in uncertainty and inconsistencies from the way business is conducted at home. Sometimes a practice that is permissible in the foreign country is not at home (Stare, 2011). Will making a payment to a foreign government official to obtain permits, licenses or police protection be seen as a bribe or just facilitating and expediting to get things done? That is why it is useful to have a set of guidelines. Companies should have a set of best practices or code of conduct to assist them, however, many do not. Here is a list of questions to use...
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...TopicsAcceptance EssaysArtsCustom PapersEnglishForeignHistoryMiscellaneousMoviesMusicNovelsPeoplePoliticsReligionScienceSportsTechnology Business Ethics What is business ethics? According to International Business Ethics Institute, understanding business ethics can be problematic in the sense that, this field is vast, often encompassing many concerns such as corporate governance, social responsibility, reputation management, accurate accounting and audits, fair labor practices and environmental stewardship to name a few. Moreover, it generally addresses the entire scope of responsibilities and obligations that a company has to each of its stakeholders like clients, employees, shareholders, suppliers and the community. To simply define business ethics, it is a form of applied ethics where it inculcates a sense within a company’s employees on how to conduct business responsibly. Business ethics seems easy to understand but when you get to the real one, you could find yourself in a confusing situation. Since the term ethics can pose many definitions in a broad context and it can be difficult to find a common understanding of the term, hence, most companies refer the concept of the term ethics as integrity, business practices or responsible business conduct. After you have known the basic definition of business ethics, you would now begin to know the business ethics of a chosen company. This paper aims to give some views on how Hewlett-Packard, an international company which provides mostly...
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...The Problem with Business Thesis: In many businesses today ethical decisions take a backseat to profit, I believe businesses should follow a set of ethical standards and not focus solely on profit for four reasons: (1) to have respect for human dignity, (2) private lives and business lives cannot be separated, (3) ethical decisions can lead to more profit, and (4) unethical decisions can lead to serious consequences for the people executing them. There are many decisions a business must make on a day-to-day basis. Many of these decisions will affect not only the business itself, but also every stakeholder in that business. Many times business will not take into account the number of people being affected. Businesses should not be so vital that they do not need to follow a set of ethical standards. Profit can be seen as the universal motivator for the majority of businesses today and focusing solely on profit can cause a business to lose its ethical standards. The loss of these standards can cause a trail of destruction caused by a business and cause it to lose a great amount of respect. There are countless examples of destruction caused by businesses like the BP oil spill or IBM supplying technology to Nazi Germany. There are four main reasons why ethical standards for businesses should be instilled. These are (1) to have respect for human dignity, (2) private lives and business lives cannot be separated, (3) ethical decisions can lead to more profit, and (4) unethical decisions...
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