Business Ethics Report: Ethical Framework for Facebook's Leadership

This report delves into the realm of business ethics, focusing on the leadership challenges faced by Facebook. It begins by defining business ethics and its importance in guiding business behavior, emphasizing the distinction between right and wrong. The report then introduces Facebook as a case study, highlighting allegations of online misinformation and inadequate responses to hate speech and abuse, which have raised ethical concerns. It proceeds to explore ethical frameworks, including components like legality, fairness, and the impact on people, to guide business decision-making. The application of these frameworks to Facebook's leadership issues is discussed, suggesting that Facebook can leverage ethical frameworks to overcome its leadership challenges. The report emphasizes the importance of ethical leadership, setting a compelling vision, and addressing the spread of online misinformation. It also touches on issues such as data privacy breaches and the common good approach, concluding that the company should prioritize the broader interests of the people. The report is a valuable resource for students studying business ethics, offering insights into real-world challenges and potential solutions.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS
Business Ethics
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1BUSINESS ETHICS
Introduction
Business ethics refers to the moral principles that helps in guiding the behaviour of a
business. A business has to distinguish between the “right” and the “wrong” and thereafter
make the right choice. Business ethics is indicative of study of the business policies along
with the practices in relation to the subjects like the corporate governance, bribery and the
discrimination (Crane et al., 2019). The ethics stems from the individuals, organizational
statements along with the legal system. Law plays an important role in guiding the business
ethics and business ethics provides the guideline that helps the business in gaining the
approval of the public. Face Book refers to a social networking service which is based within
California. The service of Face Book can be accessed by the people with the help of internet
connectivity. There have been allegations of the online misinformation on account of the
failure of leadership in the company. The senior management in the company fails to respond
in an adequate manner to the incidents of the hate speech and the abuse that has raised the
ethical issues. This report throws light on the ethical framework that can help a business in
making the decisions. This report discusses about how the usage of the ethical framework can
help the company in solving the business issue.
The ethical framework
Ethical framework refers to the set of the codes which can be used by an individual
for guiding his behaviour. It helps in recognizing the standard of the conduct along with the
behaviour in a profession. A business necessitates that the individual members in the business
should carry out work in an ethical manner that can help the business in attaining success.
Trust and the respect can be said to be important components of a business that can help in
the growth of a business (Trevino & Nelson, 2016). The codes of the conduct can help in
setting the important principles that can help in guiding the performance of the individuals.

2BUSINESS ETHICS
Accountability is an important element of the ethical framework and the people should work
together as a team that can help in taking a just course of the action. Ethical leadership can be
said to be dependent on the fundamental understanding in relation to legal boundaries and the
norm of behaviour of the stakeholder.
There are various components in relation to the ethical framework- legality, fairness
and its repercussions on the people. The manner of functioning of a business should be in
compliance with the government laws along with the internal regulations of a company. The
decisions that are taken in a business should be honourable and the parties who are involved
in a business should be treated with a lot of consideration (Chell et al., 2016). A business
should consider all the stakeholders in the event of carrying out a business. The effect that the
decisions of the business have on the people can be said to be a crucial component pertaining
to the ethical framework.
The recognizing of an issue is of integral importance in the formation of an ethical
framework. A business should get all the relevant facts that can help them in finding the
solution to an ethical problem. The alternative actions should be evaluated in the event of
making a business decision. The decision can be made after consideration of all the sources
that can help in arriving at a decision. The moral intensity can take into account various
components: magnitude of the consequences, probability of the effect along with the social
consensus (Werhane, 2019). The decisions can be formed on the basis of the four steps-
recognizing of the issue, making the judgement, establishing the moral intent and engaging in
the behaviour. The dimensions of the moral intensity should be considered within the process
along with the organizational influence on the decision making (Schwartz, 2016). The
decision makers should be capable of recognizing the bias in the event of gauging the moral
intensity.

3BUSINESS ETHICS
The important components should be brought together into a structure that can help in
guiding the process of taking the crucial decisions. It can help in guiding the process of the
information that can help in making a just decision. The decision that is taken should protect
the human rights along with the moral dignity of the people. An individual should act in a
virtuous manner in various kinds of situations and the role models can play an important role
that can help a person in engaging in the ethical deliberation. Ethical action should take place
on account of the duty of a person and it should be the obligation of a person of carrying out
the action. The ethical obligations are generally same for the rational creatures and the reason
cam play an important role in making the right decisions (Davies, 2016). The people should
be treated as an end and not simply a means to the other ends. There should be the fairness
approach that can help in meting out equal treatment to all the individuals. It can help in
providing a procedure in relation to fair action and does not deal with the consequences of the
actions. There should be a standard of the fairness that can help in guiding an event. There
should be compassion along with the honesty in the event of making a decision. The actions
should be able to promote the public life. It can help in advocating for the laws along with the
public services that can cater to the well-being of the individuals in the society. The ethical
action that is taken should provide greatest amount of the good for a large number of people.
The needs of the majority of the people should outweigh needs of a small number of people.
The actions of the individuals brings out the good and the bad that is inherent within the
human beings. Ethical environmental action helps in the production of the greatest good and
does not cause harm to government, community along with the environment. It can help in
the formation of the best society which is guided by “general will” of people. The approach
to the ethics helps in underscoring networked aspects of the society and it emphasizes the
element of respect along with the compassion for the other people.
Leadership Issue in Face Book

4BUSINESS ETHICS
The senior management of Face Book is not interested in the existential crisis which
have caused great amount of harm to Face Book in the last few years. The social network had
to face various kinds of allegations in relation to the online misinformation that has harmed
its reputation in front of the people. The company has evoked the wrath of the people as it has
responded in an inadequate manner to the hate speech along with the incidents of the
sustained abuse. Mark Zuckerberg has not taken any kind of firm decisions that can help in
finding the potential solution to the problem. The company had to face various kinds of mini-
scandals that has greatly caused damage to the prestige of the company. He likes to focus on
the technology issues within the company and does not concern himself with the broader
issues that are being faced by the company.
Facebook users are no more secure on the popular platform. This can be attributed to
Facebook’s inefficiency in leadership and management to protect the privacy of the users.
The trust people have on, the greatest social networking site-Facebook has started
disappearing after the company is alleged of sharing the private information of its users with
third parties (Hinck, 2015). The incident of information leak is brought to the limelight, by
several print as well as electronic media when Facebook offered its users, specially the
youngsters, to receive the details of their web-browsing history along with the estimation of
how frequently they use Facebook a day. Even, the Facebook authority also invited teen-
agers to avail this facility and form an idea of their own location history, web-search history,
and personal messages, e-mails, photos as well as videos. This was the part of a project
undertaken by Facebook. The participants were offered $20 in every month, for their
participation in this project. It is astonishing that, the research work for this project was
conducted by a third party. The intervention of third party in the projects undertaken by
Facebook paved the ways for the leakage of private information of Facebook users to the
third party. Again, critics often reckon at the process of account deactivation as one of the

5BUSINESS ETHICS
unscrupulous procedures adopted by Facebook to keep a track of the data of the users without
their consent (Kosinski et al., 2015).
A recent research has revealed that, the company has engaged contractors, for the
purpose of creating as well as obtaining the transcripts of the users. These transcripts are
obtained without the consent of the users, which Facebook utilizes to conduct a minute
analysis of the political views of the users to generate political messages (Rothstein, 2015).
Another issue that evidenced Facebook’s intentional mismanagement of user data is
disclosed, when a number of apps connected to Facebook are accused of sending the health
related information of the users including their blood pressure, ovulation status, to the
Facebook authority in disguise. Further critics also pointed out that Facebook have also
committed infringement or unethical breaching by storing unencrypted passwords of millions
of people. These unencrypted passwords are stored on multiple internal workstations, which
are accessible only to the computer engineers employed by Facebook (Bartsch & Dienlin,
2016). Facebook authority termed it a ‘mistake’. The affected users are assured that they will
receive notification and apology from Facebook, along with the assurance that their personal
data are secured, but, retaining the trusts of the users after a plenty of infringement activities,
has become difficult for Facebook.
Application of Ethical Framework to Face Book
Face Book can take recourse to the ethical frameworks that can help the company in
rising above the leadership challenges in the company. The leaders in Face Book should set a
compelling vision for the employees that can help the company in working along the ethical
grounds. This can help the senior management of the company in winning the trust of the
employees that can help the organization in working in the right direction. The leadership in
the company should track the activities of the employees that can come to be of use for the

6BUSINESS ETHICS
company. The issue of the spread of the online misinformation should be considered
seriously by the management of the company that can help it in serving the good for a large
number of people. The hackers stole the personal information of the people that caused
inconvenience to the people. Half of the 30 million accounts were affected owing to the
security breach of the company. The company had to face the accusations that were filed by
various software firms. The company have rejected the various kinds of claims and it has
made the motions that can help in getting the case dismissed (Hinck, 2015). The actions of
the company are threatening the privacy in the lives of the people and it is causing harm to
the general society. The concern of the company should be on the broader interests of the
people and the common goods approach should be taken recourse to that can help in the
growth of the company in that of the long term.
The company involved itself in taking the advantage of its ability of accessing the
information of the common people and it has thus violated its duty of working for the benefit
of the people. The staff of the company had sold access to the user data to the advertisers that
violated the duty on the part of employees of the company. Face Book wanted to make the
business profits that made it to sell the relevant information of the people. The company has
been involved in collecting the text messages and recording the phone calls by taking
recourse to the smartphone apps without getting the consent of the people. The right of the
privacy is entitled to all the human beings and the company should have been careful in
handling the data of the customers (O'sullivan et al., 2019). Face Book should have involved
itself in some kind of fact-check that could have helped the company in understanding its
loop holes that can serve the benefits of the people.
Face Book has involved itself in monitoring the actions of the minors and made the
potential attacks on the privileged communications that went against the duty of a company.
The company should have asked for the permission from the users for enabling the feature

7BUSINESS ETHICS
that can give access to the people of calling the logs. The company should have stopped
giving the third party developers of the app the right of using the data. Zuckerberg has turned
a blind eye to the failings of the company that have caused loss for the company. The lack of
attention on the part of the management of the company have threatened the privacy of the
users (Bbc.com., 2019). The company should have prevented the harvesting of the data that
was carried out by the other companies that have severely harmed the reputation of the
company. The company has harvested the personal information of the people with the help of
apps that helped in building a “psychographic” profile of the users (Harrison, Freeman &
Abreu, 2015). On the basis of the ethical framework, it can be stated that the company
should have been concerned with the sense of the justice and involved itself in actions that
did not violate the rights of the people. The ethical answer can be found in the event of the
company thinking of the common good along with the rights of the people that could have
helped the company in taking the right decisions. Face Book had involved itself in violating
terms of the settlement that has made the company unpopular among people.
Face Book provided Zuckerberg along with the high ranking executives with the
power of controlling the personal information of the people that should have been handled by
him in a careful manner. Zuckerberg is not accountable to anyone and the bad corporate
governance has hit very badly the fortunes of the company (Nbcnews.com., 2019). It has
created the uncertainty along with the confusion among the people who are concerned about
their privacy. The governance mechanism in the company has failed owing to the ineffective
leadership that has been demonstrated by Mark Zuckerberg in the company.
Face Book had hired a PR firm that has divulged the fact that they have been
responsible for the data leaks and Face book should have hired in a more responsible manner
that could have helped them in spreading the wrong message among the people. The top
management of the company is treating the shareholders along with the regulators with a lot

8BUSINESS ETHICS
of contempt that have been instrumental in the creation of a bad image in front of the people
(Nbcnews.com., 2019). The company had maintained the data-sharing partnerships with that
of the mobile device manufacturers that has a bad impression on the fate of the company. The
device manufacturers obtained the data that was misused that should have been carefully
thought of by the leadership of the company. The company acted in a slow manner in relation
to the privacy protections owing to the lack of the leadership qualities in Zuckerberg.
Conclusion
Business ethics are indicative of the moral principles that is instrumental in guiding
behaviour of business. A business has to make the right decision that can help it in winning
the trust of the people. Ethical framework can prove to be useful in guiding the behaviour of
the individuals in the society. A business should carry out the work in the ethical manner
which can help in the attainment of success of a business. A business should work along the
ethical grounds and in the fair manner that can help it in becoming popular among the people.
A business should obey the laws of the government and it should work on the basis of the
internal regulations. The inefficiency in the leadership and the management of the company
has made it unable of protecting privacy of consumers. People have started losing the trust in
the company owing to sharing of information to that of third parties. The company has made
use of the contractors for getting transcript of users. The company has recorded phone calls
with the help of the apps and they did not get the permission of the people. The company has
violated the rights of the people by involving itself in the fraudulent acts that has created a
negative impression among the people.

9BUSINESS ETHICS
References
Bartsch, M., & Dienlin, T. (2016). Control your Facebook: An analysis of online privacy
literacy. Computers in Human Behavior, 56, 147-154.
Bbc.com. (2019). Facebook to pay $5bn to settle privacy concerns. Retrieved 26 August
2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49099364
Chell, E., Spence, L. J., Perrini, F., & Harris, J. D. (2016). Social entrepreneurship and
business ethics: Does social equal ethical?. Journal of business ethics, 133(4), 619-
625.
Crane, A., Matten, D., Glozer, S., & Spence, L. (2019). Business ethics: Managing corporate
citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Davies, P. W. (2016). Current issues in business ethics. Routledge.
Harrison, J. S., Freeman, R. E., & Abreu, M. C. S. D. (2015). Stakeholder theory as an ethical
approach to effective management: Applying the theory to multiple contexts. Revista
brasileira de gestão de negócios, 17(55), 858-869.
Hinck, A. (2015). Ethical frameworks and ethical modalities: Theorizing communication and
citizenship in a fluid world. Communication Theory, 26(1), 1-20.
Kosinski, M., Matz, S. C., Gosling, S. D., Popov, V., & Stillwell, D. (2015). Facebook as a
research tool for the social sciences: Opportunities, challenges, ethical considerations,
and practical guidelines. American Psychologist, 70(6), 543.
Nbcnews.com. (2019). A timeline of Facebook’s privacy issues — and its responses.
Retrieved 26 August 2019, from
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/timeline-facebook-s-privacy-issues-its-
responses-n859651

10BUSINESS ETHICS
O'sullivan, S., Nevejans, N., Allen, C., Blyth, A., Leonard, S., Pagallo, U., ... & Ashrafian, H.
(2019). Legal, regulatory, and ethical frameworks for development of standards in
artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous robotic surgery. The International Journal
of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, 15(1), e1968.
Rothstein, M. A. (2015). Ethical issues in big data health research: currents in contemporary
bioethics. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 43(2), 425-429.
Schwartz, M. S. (2016). Ethical decision-making theory: An integrated approach. Journal of
Business Ethics, 139(4), 755-776.
Theguardian.com. (2019). Facebook's privacy problems: a roundup. Retrieved 26 August
2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/14/facebook-privacy-
problems-roundup
Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how
to do it right. John Wiley & Sons.
Werhane, P. H. (2019). The normative/descriptive distinction in methodologies of business
ethics. In Systems Thinking and Moral Imagination (pp. 21-25). Springer, Cham.