Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility 2018 (Student Details:) 15 May-18 Case Study 1 - Ethics Theories and Commissioning of Student Essays

Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility 3 Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility 2018 (Student Details: ) 15-May-18 Case Study 1 – Ethical theories and Commissioning of Student Essays 3 Question 1 3 Case Study 2 – CSR and Online Gambling 6 Question 2 6 Carroll’s model 6 Reidenbach and Robin's model 7 References 10 Appendices 1: Carroll’s model 13 Appendices 2: Reidenbach and Robin's model 14 Case Study 1 – Ethical theories and Commissioning of Student Essays Question

Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

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Table of Contents
Case Study 1 – Ethical theories and Commissioning of Student Essays.........................................3
Question 1....................................................................................................................................3
Case Study 2 – CSR Theories and Online Gambling......................................................................6
Question 2....................................................................................................................................6
Carroll’s model........................................................................................................................6
Reidenbach and Robin's model................................................................................................7
References......................................................................................................................................10
Appendices 1: Carroll’s model......................................................................................................13
Appendices 2: Reidenbach and Robin's model..............................................................................14

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Case Study 1 – Ethical theories and Commissioning of Student Essays
Question 1
Yorke (2017) has highlighted that there are over 20,000 students who purchase professionally
written essays each year. As per the research conducted in this context, the leading experts of UK
in essay cheating have shown that there are tens of thousands of students who purchase
customized essays through the online websites. This allows the students to get their assignments
made online, get good grades and pass the course. The question on ethical background is raised
due to the quality of people graduating by using such services. Do such people really are capable
to be given the degree course? This is the focus of this discussion, where the attempt is made to
argue for both in favour and against the essay writing services use by students. In doing so, the
utilitarian viewpoint and the Kantian view would be adopted.
Utilitarianism is a leading ethical theory which provides that the morality of actions is to be
judged on the basis of consequences of such acts. Such acts are deemed as ethical in this case
where the utility of the action is maximized, and the majority become happy (Albee, 2014). If the
essay services are looked at, they provide a majority of people the assistance and help which is
required for them to fulfil their dreams. It is often said that marks are not everything and the
scores you get in school or college do not define a person. So, where the person takes assistance
of such services, just to pass an exam, it cannot be deemed as unethical. It is known that cheating
happens in college but to deem all the essay writing services as unethical is harsh and unjust
(Hughes, 2016). Particularly in context of students using these services for plagiarism free work
and properly written work, which is free of grammar, it cannot be deemed as entirely unethical.
This is particularly favourable in case of people coming from different cultural backgrounds,

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who are not in fluent English (Coughlan, 2008). One cannot forget the pressure in which the
students are while they manage their jobs and studies. So, where essentially the majority student
becomes happy by taking assistance of these services, deeming this work as unethical is harsh.
Even though the points contended above do present a favourable viewpoint towards the students,
the utilitarian view begs to focus on the majority. By making use of such services, the students
do become happy as their work is done for them and they pass with flying grades. However, one
cannot overlook the happiness of such students who really work hard in getting good grades, and
have to lose their top position as a result of some expert writing the assignment for another
student. Apart from this, the teachers test the knowledge of the students by opting for such
services. By using these services, the utility of the teachers is minimized. Furthermore, where
these services are used for passing professional examinations, the quality which a professional
needs to have and the qualifications which they need to have, are actually bought ones. So, when
the broad picture is looked at, these services prove to be unethical.
Kantian view was given by Immanuel Kant, who provides that one must treat others as they want
to be treated. Kant brought in deontological ethics where the act is deemed as moral or immoral
based on the course of actions adopted to undertake the particular task (Ferrell, Fraedrich and
Ferrell, 2016). In order to thus judge any matter as ethical or unethical, the steps which an
individual took in fulfilling the activity have to be analysed. In context of the essay writing
services, the providers of such services clearly provide that these services are provided for
learning purposes and as a help for students. This is deemed as a learning help for the students
and the students, as per such websites, are not given the solutions to be directly submitted online.
If the cost angle is seen here, a simple dissertation can be provided cheaply (Bartlett, 2009). This

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means that the student is assisted in a cost effective manner by these websites which justifies the
course of action taken by these service providers.
Even though the aforementioned points could justify the acts of essay writing service providers,
it does not entirely make these actions ethical. The course of action adopted in becoming
competent persons, by getting the work done from another person, can be best put as cheating.
Cheating, in no way, can be justified as ethical (Hosny and Fatima, 2014). If the theme given by
Kant is followed here, if every person starts cheating, the world will become an unbearable
place. Just become something is becoming popular, it does not mean it is ethical. Technically
such acts, as per the university guidelines, do come under plagiarism and undertaking such
services is a clear breach of such plagiarism policies of the universities (Rogerson, 2014). Where
the course adopted in reaching the goals by student is one involving cheating, plagiarism, and
dishonesty, it cannot be deemed as ethical under the Kantian view.
Thus, in the previous segments, the analysis and applicability of the utilitarian and Kantian view
on the essay writing services provided to the students shows that these acts are unethical. Even
though there are certain points under both the theories which can be used to justify these actions,
the bottom-line continues to be the same, which provides that such acts are unethical.

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Case Study 2 – CSR Theories and Online Gambling
Question 2
Even though it is hard to clearly state a figure regarding the overall size of the present day online
gambling industry, attempts were made by Economy Watch (2010) to present estimates of the
same. As per these estimates, the online gambling industry ranges between $20billion and $50
billion per year in terms of revenue and there were estimated 30,000 websites which had active
users. From Milton Friedman’s viewpoint, the focus on making profits means that the obligations
towards the stockholders are met. This is because Friedman supported that the focus has to be on
increasing profits (Omnex, 2014). So, the CSR from this stance is fulfilled. However, there are
other views which prove to be contradictory. This discussion is focused on elucidating the CSR
development of online gambling industry through the use of Carroll’s model and Reidenbach and
Robin's model and to show that online gambling industry is quite far away from meeting its CSR
requirements.
Carroll’s model
There are certain famous models under the CSR development, which are often made use of, to
argue the manner and the reasons why the organizations are required to meet their social
obligations. One of these models is Carroll’s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility. The
different levels of pyramid under this model have been covered in the appendix.
As per this model, the companies have to maximise sales, minimize costs and have to make the
sensible strategic decisions, and these form the base of the economic responsibilities (Carroll,
2016). When the gambling companies are taken into perspective, there aim is to get maximize

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people involved and to increase the online gambling instances. They want growth of their sector
and to further earn profits by being indulged in this business form (Economy Watch, 2010). The
next layer under this model covers the legal responsibilities, which requires the businesses to
follow the spirit and words of the law. There are certain laws which make online gambling
illegal, particularly in US, due to the anti-gambling legislations (Economy Watch, 2010).
However, with the US Supreme Court recently giving out the ruling that the legislation banning
betting in sports was not compliant with Constitution of the nation, the sport betting is legalized
(Pilling, 2018). In UK, online gambling is licensed and regulated (Gambling Commission, 2018).
So, this is a grey area for the online gambling industry.
The next requirement is of ethical responsibilities. The figures showing growth of online
gambling industry point towards the addiction levels of online gambling (The Oaks at La Paloma
Treatment Center, 2018). The figures are enough to show the involvement of people in gambling
(PBS, 2018). Where people are getting addicted because of something which is regulated strictly
under offline mode, it does show that the ethical responsibilities are not being properly fulfilled.
The health statistics presented by Sedghi (2013) further provide evidence of menace which
online betting is placing on society; thus breaching the ethical norms. By offering counselling
services to the addicts, the ethical responsibilities cannot be said to have been fulfilled. The last
stage is of philanthropic responsibilities. There are online gambling portals which indulge in
charity work (Tropicana, 2018; Cohen, 2013).
Reidenbach and Robin's model
One of the other famous models in this context is the Reidenbach and Robin's model. The
different stages which are covered under this model have been provided in the appendix.

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The first stage of this model denotes amoral levels, where such an approach is adopted by the
parties where they want to win at any cost and have no set of values save for greed (Dedeke,
2015). In context of the online gambling industry, it cannot be said to be true. This is despite the
fact that the online gambling industry is resulting in addictions to people, which require
treatments. The reason for not saying that the online gambling industry is immoral stems from
the contributions made by them to economy, when industry earns huge profits. More
importantly, they do contribute towards philanthropic activities, which show that their focus is
not just on profits and is towards the wellbeing of society as well.
The next stage is legalistic, where the entities are required to follow or obey the law (Dedeke,
2015). In the Carroll’s model applied in the previous segment, it was clarified that online
gambling currently operates under grey areas of law, where some aspects of it have been
permitted, but other areas continue to be unlawful in certain parts. The next stage is
responsiveness where the gain from ethical behaviour is to be seen. In this context, if the
philanthropic aspect of the online gambling industry is analysed, it can be deemed as responsive,
as they do pretend to care. The next stage is emerging ethical, where it has to be shown that the
online gambling industry wants to do the right thing. Here, the addiction aspect fails to deem this
industry as emerging to be ethical. This is the reason why the industry fails in ethical
considerations, as this industry does not have a total ethical profile.
Overall, it does prove that the online gambling industry is not fulfilling the responsibilities
presented under the concept of CSR. This is particularly in context of the grey area under the
legal aspect and the completely nil area under the ethical aspect of the Carroll’s model and the
Reidenbach and Robin's model. Both these models proved to be interrelated and highlighted that
the online gambling industries are on path of CSR development. However, they are still to reach

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the final paths of these models and have not achieved the theme presented through these models
in entirety.

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References
Albee, E. (2014) A history of English utilitarianism. Oxon: Routledge.
Bartlett, T. (2009) Cheating goes global as essay mills multiply. The Chronicle of Higher
Education, 55(28), A1.
Carroll, A. B. (2016) Carroll’s pyramid of CSR: taking another look. International journal of
corporate social responsibility, 1(1), p. 3.
Chong Kun Dang. (2016) What is Ethical Management? [online] Available from:
http://www.ckdpharm.com/eng/csm/ethical/intro.ckd [Accessed 15/05/18]
Cohen, R. (2013) Betting on Casinos to Provide Charitable Donations. [online] Available from:
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2013/12/13/betting-on-casinos-to-provide-charitable-donations/
[Accessed 15/05/18]
Coughlan, S. (2008) Overseas students 'buying essays'. [online] Available from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7275452.stm [Accessed 15/05/18]
Dedeke, A. (2015) A cognitive–intuitionist model of moral judgment. Journal of Business
Ethics, 126(3), pp. 437-457.
Economy Watch. (2010) Online Gambling industry. [online] Available from:
http://www.economywatch.com/world-industries/casino/online-gambling-industry.html
[Accessed 15/05/18]
Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J., and Ferrell, L. (2016) Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making &
Cases. 11th ed. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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Gambling Commission. (2018) Business plan for 2018 – 2019. [online] Available from:
http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/home.aspx [Accessed 15/05/18]
Hosny, M., and Fatima, S. (2014) Attitude of students towards cheating and plagiarism:
University case study. Journal of Applied Sciences, 14(8), pp. 748-757.
Hughes, B. (2016) Tough Topics: Are Essay Writing Companies Ethical? [online] Available
from: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-hughes/tough-topics-are-essay-wr_b_9128910.html
[Accessed 15/05/18]
iMeeta. (2012) Carroll’s Model of Corporate Social Performance (CSP). [online] Available
from: https://imeeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/carrollsmodel/ [Accessed 15/05/18]
Omnex. (2014) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). [online] Available from:
http://www.omnex.com/sustainability/csr.html [Accessed 15/05/18]
PBS. (2018) Gambling Facts & Stats. [online] Available from:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gamble/etc/facts.html [Accessed 15/05/18]
Pilling, L. (2018) Gambling shares rise on PASPA ruling. [online] Available from:
https://www.gbgc.com/news/gambling-shares-rise-on-paspa-ruling [Accessed 15/05/18]
Rogerson, A.M. (2014) Detecting the work of essay mills and file swapping sites: some clues
they leave behind. [online] Available from: http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1441&context=gsbpapers [Accessed 15/05/18]
Sedghi, A. (2013) Gambling: key statistics from the Health Survey for England. [online]
Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/dec/19/gambling-health-
survey-england-key-statistics [Accessed 15/05/18]

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The Oaks at La Paloma Treatment Center. (2018) Gambling Addiction Statistics. [online]
Available from: https://theoakstreatment.com/gambling-addiction/gambling-addiction-statistics/
[Accessed 15/05/18]
Tropicana. (2018) Tropicana Continues Holiday Tradition Of Charitable Giving. [online]
Available from: https://tropicana.net/press/tropicana-continues-holiday-tradition-charitable-
giving/ [Accessed 15/05/18]
Yorke, H. (2017) More than 20,000 university students buying essays and dissertations as Lords
call for ban on 'contract cheating'. [online] Available from:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/01/13/20000-university-students-buying-essays-
dissertations-lords/ [Accessed 15/05/18]

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Appendices 1: Carroll’s model
(Source: iMeeta, 2012)

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Appendices 2: Reidenbach and Robin's model
(Source: Chong Kun Dang, 2016)