Ethical Theories and Comparative Business Ethics

Running Head: ETHICAL THEORIES 0
COMPARATIVE
BUSINESS ETHICS
AND CSR
Student name
5/18/2019

ETHICAL THEORIES
1
Business ethics are the blueprint of ethical standards, which is followed by an
organization while performing business activities. They are those principles, which direct
the actions of an individual to attain the objectives of the business. To be more
productive, every company strives hard to perform in an ethical way as it helps them in
understanding the difference between what is right and wrong. In the industry,
performing ethically means working and developing relationships with coworkers and
providing value creation to the customer and shareholders on the foundation of honesty
and sincerity (Adda et al., 2016). They are followed while fulfilling the role of corporate
governance. In Companies, they are many stakeholders who are not involved in the
functions of the management. Moreover, the economic performance of the companies is
interlinked with the financial position of the world. Therefore, while managing the
companies, leaders have to maintain their liability and transparency more than before.
However, from the last past 10 years, ethical misconduct (dishonest behavior, duplicity,
and deception) in the workplace has become one of the biggest challenges for the
organization (Francesca, 2015). According to the researchers, human beings are more
capable of conducting their activities in an unethical way without even realizing its
negative consequences.
Recently it was published in “The Sydney Herald” that one of the renowned and
experienced pharmacists Michael Dominicus Zuderwyk was arrested while conducting
his duties in an unethical way. He was convicted for advising the wrong medications like
restricted antibiotics to the customers without any doctor’s prescription for curing the
minor illness. He did this fraud during 2015-2016. Due to the wrong medicines, the
health of patients suffered. Michael also manipulated records of his inventory of stock.
The consequences of this unethical behavior were that all the medical records were
filled with the name of one medical practitioner, the tribunal shut down the pharmacy
and Michael lost everything, which earned through his wrongdoings. However, in the
given article, to earn more money Michael chose the wrong path in which he misused
his knowledge and deceived his customers.
Therefore, the focus of the essay will be on what are the various personal and
professional ethical issues of Michael is addressed in the article, what according to
Michael was right and wrong and with the help of different ethical theories explain
whether he did the right thing or not (Garcia, 2019).
A. In the present society, the news about exploitation, fraud, money laundering is
bombarding everywhere. The main reason behind such a scandal is the unethical
behavior of the industry towards society. Moreover, the unbelievable fact is that the
people who value ethics conduct this unethical attitude. To be more successful and to
earn more money, they start working in an unethical way whenever they perceive the
opportunity to deceive others. It not only affects the owner but also other stakeholders
like a customer and other competitors. A Similar issue happened in the case of Mr.
Michael Dominicus Zuderwyk.
According to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal judge, Michael was a
well-known chemist with an experience of 20 years in the pharmacy. He possessed the
knowledge of preparing drugs with the help of which, Michael cheated his clients by
prescribing restricted drugs without the permission of the medical practitioners. He did
this because of his lazy attitude. He created fake dispensary records on the name of a

ETHICAL THEORIES
2
common medical doctor. Due to his ignorant behavior, the doctor was also got involved
in this scandal. He intentionally conducted this crime to gain his own personal desire to
earn more money. Due to his dishonest behavior, he breached the moral values of
normative ethics in which the rules which were the responsibility of Michael to follow.
The courts disapprove the activities of the pharmacist. The consequences of this
scandal were that Mr. Michael suffered huge financial losses, the market value of his
pharmacy got down of his, his reputation was jeopardized and due to the malpractices,
he lost all his customers. This whole situation created a stressful impact on Michael.
Michael who lacked both personal and professional ethics fell into the psychological trap
of desires (Francesca, 2015). He convicted for this unlawful act (Garcia, 2019). Due to
such fraud, other stakeholders got afraid were also stopped their malpractices.
B. Corporate governance and business ethics play an important role in business. Every
company should follow corporate governance as it plays a major role to make
management more efficient and effective way (Adda et al., 2016). However, the actions
took by Michael was ethically wrong. His action not only encouraged other stakeholders
to perform in an unethical way but also created trust issues among his customers. This
adversely affects the stakeholders as they now rethink to go to any medical shops.
Therefore, as per the individual generic view of what can be done in that situation
instead of actually behaving in an unethical way. Keeping the light on this issue, the
statement will be explained according to the two theories that are Deontology theory
and utilitarianism theory.
 In the Greek language, Deontology means duty ethics. It is based on the theory that
ethical values are obtained due to some causes rather than any order or from any
culture. They are the responsibility, which an individual needs to fulfill. According to
Kant, everyone while taking any decision must introspect whether he or she is doing
right or wrong (Ayres, 2019). Moreover, it means treating everyone with the utmost
respect without expecting anything (Misselbrook, 2013). If Michael had worked hard
according to deontology theory and not given the medicines without the doctor’s
prescription, then he must be able to fulfill his duties perfectly. The health of the patients
did not deteriorate and they could have respected and trusted him. The motto behind
the deontology is avoiding the wrong thing and always performing the duties in the right
way.
 However, utilitarianism is opposite to the deontology in which the focus is put on the
result. In this theory, the ethical actions are based on the consequences of the effort
therefore, it is also known as Consequentialism theory. In this, the results of any activity
decide whether the work was ethically right or not. If it brings out the best outcome then
it was morally perfect. The principle of utilitarianism is based on the greatest happiness
(Lazari-Radek & Singer, 2017). If Michael had chosen the right path to success then
definitely, it might have given him satisfaction and pleasure. His clients might get happy
and satisfied and they would come to the medical shop more often than going to other
medical shops.
C. Business ethics are performed with the application of ethical theories Ethical theories
are the structure of a system that provides guidelines to achieve a particular task. They
are very crucial for creating a strong base so the company can face various challenges
easily. An ethical theory involves three ethics normative theory, meta-ethics, and moral
ethics.