BUS 2090 - Business Ethics and Social Responsibility Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of business ethics and social responsibility, addressing various ethical issues in contemporary society. The report examines ethical dilemmas related to marketing, advertising, and pharmaceutical practices, specifically focusing on the 'Orgasm, Inc' documentary. It explores the roles of stakeholders, government regulation, and the ethical implications of product marketing. Furthermore, the report delves into ethical theories such as deontological and utilitarian ethics, applying them to real-world case studies involving child labor, workplace diversity, and sustainability. The analysis extends to corporate social responsibility in the mining industry and ethical considerations in advertising, offering a multifaceted perspective on the complexities of business ethics. The report also discusses the impact of diversity in the workplace and the importance of ethical decision-making in global business practices. Finally, it touches upon sustainability and the ethical implications of environmental practices.

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Student’s name
Professor’s name
Course
Date

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Comparative business ethics and social responsibility
Introduction
The term paper presented entails various ethical issues within our society and some sort of
social responsibility by most of the business or nonprofit organizations operating in the
community. From the video transcript provided based on the ethical issues and social
responsibility within the community has aided in responding to the following question.
Assignment part 1
From the documentary provided, the ethical issue portrayed is based on the morality among
the youths and adult members of the society. This is evidenced in the part where most of the
women believe that they are exploited for pharmaceutical purposes which is unethical according
to the community norms on gender issues. The company rush in an attempt to find a cure for
various diseases affecting members of the society which has led them to use electronic
instruments is considered unethical since most of the electronic instruments are predisposing
factors for other infections like cancer as they trigger the development of cancerous cells in the
body (Berry, pg. 32).
The stakeholders to be considered in the issue in the documentary are the medical
practitioners since they have enough skills and knowledge in dealing with such health issues. In
the issue of Viagra administration, medical practitioners have to be consulted first in order to
avoid some of the medical complications which may arise due to overdose cases.
From the documentary, advertisement and marketing of the Viagra products by the
manufacturing company is very unethical since their marketing strategies has negatively
influenced young people due to open advertisement irrespective of their audience. Viagra adverts

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should be done late in the night when kids or youths are already asleep so as to limit the audience
and to only focus on the adults who are unable to function without the drug (Bertrand, pg. 78).
The behavior portrayed by the Berman sisters in the documentary is unethical thus following
their act of exposing most of their body parts to the members of the public by putting on the
short dress in public. The action is unethical since it shows little respect to the members of the
community. The short dresses also lure young people immorality like rape cases within the
community (Grayson, pg. 239).
The government should have a role in control the type of advertisement and marketing of the
company products to the public through various channels like social platforms like television or
public places where both the young and mature members of the community are targeted. The role
of the government in constraining marketing and advertisement of some of the sexual content
materials through putting restriction to the social channels on time in which they should air such
advertisement to the public (Christians, pg. 89).
Assignment part 2
From the case study provided about the businessman, the presence of unethical issue is
witnessed in his business due to the price he is charging the members of the public who has
visited his business since they lack a bank account. The price on the face value is very expensive
to the less fortunate members of the community as most of them are unemployed therefore the
price charged on the face value is not fair. Customer’s exploitation in terms of high pricing of the
services offered is considered unethical by the government and human rights activists as
consumers will be a force to pay heavily for certain services and products offered in the market
(Couldry, pg. 789).

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The business earns huge profit per year which he should be involved in some of the social
responsibility so as to help the less fortunate members of the society who are his customers. It is
unethical to abscond social responsibility despite such huge profit made by the businessman
within a year.
Assignment part 3
From the Doris case study, it was morally unaccepted to take advantage of the shopkeeper
due to his ignorance on the price values of the painting since according to the society morals,
beliefs and values, taking advantage over someone’s ignorance it’s like stealing from that
particular person without his knowledge. The decision made by Doris over the shopkeeper’s
ignorance should be discouraged with the strongest terms possible so as not to be adopted by the
young generation within the community (Dierksmeier, pg. 232).
Assignment part 4
Deontological ethics implies that one judges his actions whether right or wrong based on the
moral codes within the community. Therefore, child labor according to the deontologist is
morally wrong since such children have not attained the age to be employed rather they need to
be in schools not laboring within the community. The utilitarian ethics states that course of
action should be taken by considering the most positive outcome thus in child labor issue, the
most positive outcome is hiring the working force at a cheaper cost. Therefore the utilitarian
justifies the issues of child labor due to its positive outcome of cheap labor (Hopkins, pg. 781).

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Assignment part 5
The influence of diversity in the workplace can either be felt positively or negatively
depending on the organization’s setup. The negative influence of diversity in the workplace
includes miscommunication within the staff members which will negatively impact the
production volume of the staff, creation of barriers within the workplace can also be identified as
the negative result of diversity within the organization. Positivity in diversity within the
workplace can be witnessed through an increase in production, an improvement on performance
and it also boosts the organization’s brand reputation (Edel, pg. 782).
Assignment part 6
The ethical concern to apply after the ban of the product is to clearly highlight the effects of
your products both positive and negative to your prospect customers from another country which
still use your product so as to keep them updated on the impacts of that particular product to
them.
The decision will negatively impact the product and the company since most of its customers
will be lost or reduced hence reduction in sales volumes of the product thus low income. Increase
in operation cost will be as a result of the write-down since the company has to identify new
customers in the foreign country and also increase in taxation for the imported goods (Frost, pg.
1122).

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Assignment part 7
Sustainability can be defined as the focus to meet the current needs without compromising
the ability of the future generation to meet their needs. The concept of sustainability can be
categorized into three categories that are economic diversity, social and environmental diversity.
It is believed that social sustainability depends on economic sustainability and the vice versa but
both strongly depend on environmental sustainability (Jacquette, pg. 555).
Assignment part 8
From the case study on the careless mining and timber harvesting in tropical forests, it is
unethical practice by the mining and lumbering company to harvest down the tropical rain forest
trees since trees provided shelter to most of the wild animals living in tropical regions and also
the source of food to the residents of the tropical region (Liu, pg. 333).
From the ethical view of the case study, there is no ethics associated with the cutting of trees
since maintenance of the environment is considered ethical by most of the communities therefore
mining and harvesting of trees is not ethical (Yakovleva, pg. 221).
Assignment part 9
From Stalin killings of innocent people, it is an immoral activity thus according to the
society’s ethics and morals and it’s the right of the remaining people in the forced labor camps to
resist their culture and moral values against degradation by one person despite his powers.

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Works Cited
Berry, David. Journalism, ethics and society. Routledge, 2016.
Bertrand, Claude-Jean. Media ethics and accountability systems. Routledge, 2018.
Christians, Clifford G., et al. Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning, CourseSmart
eTextbook. Routledge, 2015.
Couldry, Nick. Listening beyond the echoes: Media, ethics, and agency in an uncertain world.
Routledge, 2015.
Dierksmeier, Claus, et al., eds. Humanistic ethics in the age of globality. Springer, 2016.
Edel, Abraham. Anthropology and ethics. Routledge, 2017.
Frost, Chris. Journalism ethics and regulation. Routledge, 2015.
Grayson, David, and Adrian Hodges. Corporate social opportunity!: Seven steps to make
corporate social responsibility work for your business. Routledge, 2017.
Hopkins, Michael. The planetary bargain: corporate social responsibility comes of age.
Springer, 2016.
Jacquette, Dale. Journalistic ethics: Moral responsibility in the media. Routledge, 2016.
Liu, JeeLoo. Neo-Confucianism: Metaphysics, mind, and morality. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.
Yakovleva, Natalia. Corporate social responsibility in the mining industries. Routledge, 2017.