BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS.

Running head: BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS 1
Business and professional ethics
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BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS 2
Question 1
Suppose that an American corporation is conducting business in a developing country in Africa
where it is normal for employees to work 50 hours per week. The American corporation pays its
employees in Africa the same wages that workers in the country receive for similar work, but
doesn’t pay overtime for employees working more than 40 hours per week that American workers
typically receive. According to the guidelines that de George outlines for multinational
corporations, do you think he would judge the American corporation’s actions to be immoral? Why
or why not? Support your answer with direct references to his article. (recommended length: two
paragraphs; 15 points) (text, pp. 553-557)
It is immoral for a country like the America failing to pay the overtime for its employees in
Africa. Failing to pay overtime is immoral because the community has allowed the corporation
to work within specific parameters stated by the society. According to de George on
multinational enterprises, it's the responsibility of business organizations to take care of the needs
of its stakeholders in a reasonably long period. Business ethics has the procedure of
distinguishing the wrong and the good deeds and indicates that it is a moral role in pursuing the
right and good. What is regarded as unacceptable in one country could be acceptable in other
countries. The foreign companies should not harm the host country as per de George guidelines,
and the multinational corporations must benefit the host nation. In the case of the American
corporation, the employees are not treated fairly, other than causing harm to them through the
hard work with less pay.
Respecting the rights of the workers is another guideline provided in multinational organizations.
For example, many developed countries like the America tend to humiliate the less developed
nations by violating their cultures because they are poor and have low job opportunities. They
also tend to overwork them since they lack protection from their local legislation. In this case,
the American company are not respecting the local culture but working against it. Lastly,
multinational corporation requires the companies to pay their employees their fair share of taxes
which is not the case with American company operating in developed nations of Africa.

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Question 2
Velasquez states that, “No one can be morally required to take on major risks of harm to oneself.”
(p. 561) Is this true under each of the three principal moral theories? Provide examples to support
your answer. (two to three paragraphs; 16 points) (text, pp. 557-567)
The statement by Velasquez "no one can be morally required to take on major risks of harm to
oneself." According to deontological moral theory, individuals should stick to their duties and
roles while making decisions. That means a person should follow his or her obligation to society
because adhering to one's purposes is what is ethically right. For example, under this theory, an
individual will keep his word and follow the stipulated law. The deontology has both flaws and
positive aspects. One of the flaws is about the basis of making certain decisions on personal
duties. For example, a person may choose to appear in every meeting on time. The person has,
therefore, the right to make a decision which he or she thinks cannot bring harm. This theory
allows an individual to choose what applies to his or her life.
The utilitarianism theory is the next theory disagree with the Velasquez statement because it
designed with a capability of predicting a consequence. Choices that yield high rewards to the
most significant number of people are the ethically right ones. The rule utilitarianism seems to
benefit persons, but justice and fairness must be made available. Act utilitarianism i focuses on
achieving the maximum good outcome. The excellent result means the right of one individual
can be infringed for the sake of benefiting a higher number of individuals. Utilitarianism is not
mostly concerned with fairness, justice, autonomy or beneficence when the oppression of a
single individual could yield a solution to a more significant part of the organization. For
example, in some cases, the business person might be a CEO who is not expected to get to the
meeting late because that considered an ethically incorrect.

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Lastly, the principle of ethical theory that is based on the right says that the rights set by societies
should be given priorities. The rights are regarded as ethically correct since society as the whole
embraces and respect them. Right principle theory supports the Velasquez statement since it's the
society that determines the kind of right it wants to uphold and give it people. The community
defines the rights of its citizens by looking at its wants in line with priorities of humane and
society's priorities. For example, the American culture has allowed its citizen to make choices of
their religion. Hence, the citizen has the right to make choices that do not harm themselves.
Question 3
Velasquez analyzes and revises two premises that he believes underlie the realist’s position
(pp. 562, 564). If you wanted to undermine these premises, how could you criticize each of
them? (one to two paragraphs; 12 points) (text, pp. 557-567)
The first premise is the ethical that concerns the applicability terms of morals. I have an
objection with this premise since the moral values placed on people in extreme situations is not
the same as the one placed for people in normal circumstances. For instance, in a healthy
condition, an individual has no moral authority unless when attacked. Which means moral ethics
in this premise are not equal. The second premise is about how some apparent empirical agents
behave under a particular condition. The assumption implies that various agents will never act
the same in the presence of party enforcers. I undermine the premise since in reality the behavior
of an agent will always be determined with the cooperation of the enforcer. In most cases, it's the
choice of each party to cooperate or not. Thus, the realist can claim in nature and in some
instances where the pursued individual is obliged to comply with rules of the morality, it's the
right of an individual to choose whether to comply or not (Swanson, & Frederick.,2016).
Question 4

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Donaldson states that, “individuals must not treat others simply as tools; in other words, they must
recognize a person’s value as a human being.” (p. 571). With which moral theory is this most
consistent? Why? (several sentences; 4 points) (text, pp. 567-576)
"Individuals must not treat others simply as tools; in other words, they must recognize a person's
value as a human being." Donaldson is consistency with the ethical theory of utilitarianism
which is constituted by both the rule and act utilitarianism. The rule act utilitarian allows the
decision maker to come up with decisions within his or her ability. The theory mostly enables
other individuals to be used as tools to achieve a certain objective of an organization.
Question 5
Donaldson mentions the case of Saudi Arabia not allowing women to serve as corporate managers
(p. 573). Based on the criteria that he subsequently outlines for evaluating a foreign company’s
ethical obligations where standards conflict, could a U.S. company doing business in Saudi Arabia
morally abide by this practice of not hiring female managers? Why or why not? (one to two
paragraphs; 12 points) (text, pp. 567-576
When we work away from our home countries, the clarity of moral values blur. In case the
companies transfer their operation to other countries, the criteria that define ethical conducts
within such countries must be followed. With regards to cultural relativism, no artistic practice is
good than any other. Hence, nothing like the international ethics rights. Therefore, if the people
of Saudi Arabia do not allow women serving as corporate managers, the practice is acceptable
and should not be enforced (Suryanto, 2017). Therefore, cultural relativism has no issue since
every nation has the right to set up their standards and terms of the contract.
Question 6

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How do Donaldson and Turow respectively claim that bribery is morally wrong? Provide a
quotation from each author’s article to support your answer. (one to two paragraphs; 15 points)
(text, pp. 567-576)
According to Donaldson, many individuals claim the central challenge of multinational business
is the bribery. Nations with corrupt government leaders tend to create the access for international
markets by giving money. Depending on political stability, many leaders might take bribes, and
their citizens continue living in poverty. People living under a corrupt government have both
wealth and political inequality. Two claims exist within the multinational corporation debates on
bribery. The theory of cultural relativism defenders implies that if corruption can be accepted in
foreign countries, it is then acceptable for any business to participate in it. Concerning
Donaldson "No culture's ethics are better than other's" so there are no international rights and
wrongs." This statement looks at the giving of bribes in other countries to conduct businesses as
neither immoral nor moral ethic. Other individuals refute the above argument by application of
imperialism which suggests that some moral truths will apply to various cultures in certain
situations. For example, if bribe violates the fact, it is unacceptable in any culture.
Turow argues that it's unlawful in bribing the federal leaders for example to impact the results of
certain sports. The individuals who take bribes acts like unlawful servants and can never make
any secret of his or her service. For whatever reason, accepting the bribe from the clients cannot
be termed as full analogous since bribing depends on a particular individual. Turow believes that
corrupting any government official for any reason is not moral. "We recognize that the quality of
humans their fundamental dignity as beings, demands that each stand as an equal before the
government they have joined to create" (Turow).
Question 7

BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS 7
Steve Denning criticizes the practice of American corporations outsourcing manufacturing in order
to reduce costs. How would Peter Singer respond to Denning’s criticism? (two to three sentences; 5
points) (article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/08/17/why-amazon-cant-make-a-
kindle-in-the-usa/#7edf315a18d0
The critical use of outsourcing is to disclaim moral and social responsibilities. It is a significant
role in political, economic and legal. Working with subcontractors is a vital device because it can
overshadow the link between the contravening and perpetrator act which makes it difficult in
holding the violators legally. Hiring the workers from other nations is used as an escape for the
responsibility that violates the social and economic right like fit and healthy working conditions.
Question 8
Frost and Burnett provide a case study regarding Apple outsourcing iPod manufacturing to China.
What specific components of the Harris, Parmar, and Wicks business ethics framework that was
assigned in Module 1 (https://ideas.darden.virginia.edu/ethical-business-decisions-the-framework)
could have potentially helped Apple avoid this mess? (three to four paragraphs; 20 points) (article:
Frost & Burnett - The Apple iPod in China.pdf
The first component discussed by Harris, Parmar, and Wicks is the actions. These actions are
essential to business organization to defend their choices when they are made public. The
component will enable business organizations to scrutinize their reasoning, and the tough
question could be avoided. The significant of disclosing things to the public is assisting various
individuals in coming up with more critical reasons and assumptions. This component is helping
an organization like the Apple to respond to various issues being raised concerning their
products. For instance, a mail that allegedly reported their iPods were not made appropriately in
the factories of China. The Apple company could take the first action by responding to the claim

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with an extract of a statement that could be published in all media and their IT websites (Frost, &
Burnett, 2007).
The second component is the agents concerned with deciding on a different scenario. The agents
ensure consistency and use the act of the past in determining for the current instance. For
instance, the second incidence concerning the Apple was how one of the female employee
females fainted while on the line of duty. The story was published in China Business News by
mainland Chinese press on Foxconn and the working conditions. One of the workers had
complained about the absence of seats, and the workers were to stand for many hours while at
work. The agent could help the Apple to contemplate on the mess and come up with a plan on
how such incidence could be dealt with. First, the agents could investigate to ensure every
worker in every part of the globe was treated relatively and legal conditions were being followed
at the workplace. Then the information could be made available on the Apple website and other
media platform where it can be accessed by every individual (Frost, & Burnett, 2007).
The last component mentioned by Harris, Parmar, and Wicks is the consequence. The
consequence could help the management to come up with the fair decision, and that can be
defended in the public domain. A consequence is the best component that could help the Apple
when making the future decisions like advertising jobs for 16-year-old individuals was
something that would raise some global concerns. The story at the end attracted a significant
number of people with the key source of data from the website owned by the Apple company
(Frost, & Burnett, 2007).

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References
Frost, S., & Burnett, M. (2007). Case study: The Apple iPod in China. Corporate Social
Responsibility and Environmental Management, VOL.14(2), 103-113.
SURYANTO, T. (2017). Cultural Ethics and Consequences in Whistle-Blowing Among
Professional Accountants: An Empirical Analysis. Journal of Applied Economic
Sciences, VOL.12(6).
Swanson, D. L., & Frederick, W. C. (2016). Denial and leadership in business ethics education.
Business ethics: New challenges for business schools and corporate leaders, 222-240.