Moral Universalism, Relativism, Absolutism: A Manager's Guide

This report delves into the concept of moral universalism, exploring its core principles and contrasting it with moral relativism and moral absolutism. It examines the application of moral universalism in the context of managerial ethics and social responsibilities within multinational corporations (MNCs). The report analyzes how managers can navigate ethical dilemmas in a globalized world, considering diverse cultural backgrounds and the challenges of maintaining universal ethical standards. It also discusses the social responsibilities of MNC managers, including considerations for organizational values, employee relations, and the creation of a positive work environment. The report highlights the significance of moral universalism in today's interconnected world, emphasizing its impact on recruitment, organizational culture, and overall business practices. Furthermore, it provides insights into the criticisms faced by managers in upholding social responsibilities and explores the practical implications of moral universalism in various business scenarios.

Moral Universalism
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Executive Summary
“Nationality is a good thing to a certain extent, but universality is better. All, that is best in
the great poets of all countries is not what is national in them, but what is universal. Their
roots are in their native soil but their branches wave in the air free from boundaries. It speaks
the same language to all men and their leaves shine with the illimitable light that pervades all
lands. Let us throw all the windows open; let us admit the light and air on all sides; that we
may look towards the four corners of the heavens, and not always in the same direction.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kavanagh
As rightly pointed out by Henry Longfellow, the idea of universalism is acceptance. To allow
a free flow of ideas, inventions, culture, people etc. Also, to not to restrict rather let everyone
participate.
This report is an attempt to discuss the concept of Moral Universalism. It would be also
discussing differences with Moral Relativism and its connection with Moral Absolutism.
Besides, the report shall attempt to examine how in today’s world of globalism, a manager is
supposed to conduct his/her duties while maintaining values of moral universalism as part of
his/her social responsibility. The report would also inspect how in today’s world, a manager
is supposed to conduct their social responsibilities while maintaining managerial ethics.
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Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION 4
2. MORAL UNIVERSALISM, MORAL RELATIVISM AND MORAL ABSOLUTISM 6
2.1 MORAL UNIVERSALISM AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF A MANAGER 7
2.2 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF AN MNC MANAGER 9
2.3 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND ITS CRITICISMS 10
3.0 CONCLUSION 13
4.0 REFERENCES 14
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1. Introduction
Universalism is an idea of the existence of something which cannot be bound by any
boundaries which could be ethnicity, race, religion, gender, location etc. A universalist sees
the universe as one and for everyone in it without any kind of division. The important point to
be noted here is that every individual could be a universalist. This means that each could have
separate ideologies for universalism! Moral Universalism is, however, a philosophical
approach or idea. It says that morally, all people across the universe should follow a set of
ethics or moral code of conduct ignoring their race, religion, culture, sex, nationality or any
factor that could be thought of as a distinguishing factor. (Vauclair et al. 2014, p.58).
Universal ethics could be explained as a valuable system fostering values that apply to
humanity in general transcending personal barriers and cultural paradigms. This was a system
that originated from human thinking but could be attributed to reasons such as universal
causes, existing ethical code/s, necessities of religion etc. There are some criticisms attributed
to this approach which is – who decides the morals in this case and how does one come to
know which ones are the moral codes. To even consider a moral as universal, the foundation
should be an absolute source, understanding or power. All of these, are unquestioning; almost
unreasonable as well as impossible to exist (Renteln, 2013). Also, culturally the world is so
diverse that bringing them universally under one umbrella is a humongous task considering
the huge diversity of all moral opinions within societies in the present age. All of this is quite
difficult to achieve even in today’s modern age.
The report presents moral universalism as a concept and how it affects the nature of social
responsibilities of an MNE manager handling people with diverse ethnic backgrounds at a
workplace. Also, it explains moral universalism as a concept different to the concept of moral
relativism and how it is also connected with moral absolutism. Majorly, it sheds light on
Peter Drucker’s concept of social responsibilities and managerial ethics in the backdrop of
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MNCs. It shall reiterate the social responsibilities of the manager affecting organizational
resources, precautionary measures that could be adopted by the managers in this respect such
as, what are his moral obligations in a diverse work culture? how does his social
responsibilities affect recruitment of efficient and effective workforces in an organization?
how could he contribute to building a good organizational culture or environment? The report
shall also discuss the criticisms a social manager may face while carrying out his social
responsibilities. The significance of the report lies in the fact that with the world becoming
more of a small place and intercultural mixing with encouragement of various immigration
policies adopted by countries, booming education sector and majorly, influence of social
media – how does one hold up the values of a global moral value at a workplace? Also,
application of concepts of moral universalism, its significance and outcomes.
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2. Moral Universalism, Moral Relativism and Moral Absolutism
Political theorist, Noam Chomsky explains universalism as actions which are universally
gauged as right or wrong. If one considers an action right for others then it should also hold
right for him. To be morally universal, one must lift their own standards to the level of
morality they decide for others. This is appropriate because that is the very gist of the concept
of moral universalism – values of morality which are applicable to all humans (Al-Daraweesh
and Snauwaert, 2016). These universal ethics are applicable to all people regardless of race,
culture, gender, geography, nationality, religion etc. and at all point of time (Munch, 2016. p
315). Mostly, the reasons for this idea originate from the need of behaviour, religion,
requirements of universal reason etc. A huge example could be a religion like Christianity.
Their moral standards are set by their deity and are absolute for all people following this
religion. It is considered universal, seamless and unalterable at all-time. Socrates was an
advocate for universal morality. It is that virtuous standpoint which shields the survival of a
collective ethical genuineness about each of the moral disputes (Ross, 2013. p.124).
Moral universalism is opposite in nature to moral relativism. While moral universalism
stands for moral testimonials, which could be concluded from common moral declarations
that affect everybody always and every place, moral relativism could mean that moral
declarations cannot be deduced after or condensed to commonly appropriate declarations. In
its place, moral declarations are comparative, for instance to beings, their beliefs, phases and
places, agreements, or maybe something else. Moral relativism embraces the fact that moral
plans do not mimic any objective or global moral details rather, erect
justifications proportional to collective, ethnic, mention-worthy or singular settings (Chin,
2014). This is also connected to Moral Realism and Moral Absolutism. Moral realism could
be explained as the concept explaining that some actions are demonstrably correct or
incorrect, neutral of any individuals' judgement. Moral absolutism, on the other hand, is a
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belief that there are unconditional criterions against which ethical problems can be adjudged.
Apart from this, there are also existent some activities which could be attributed
as right or wrong, irrespective of the intentions. On a larger scale, it is evident that moral
universalism is a compromise between both i.e. the concepts of moral absolutism and realism.
In the year 1948, the event of declaring Universal Declaration of Human Rights by United
Nations is another example of moral universalism concept. It is by far, one of the greatest
endeavours of a universal body to create a universalist, uniform and conjoint guidelines of
moral justice to all people. It is assumed that the notion of moral universalism is considered
as the foundation of concept of human rights. This Declaration has irrefutably come to be
acknowledged throughout the planet as a foundation of the global arrangement for
safeguarding the human rights.
2.1 Moral Universalism and social responsibilities of a manager
The concept of moral universalism is also applied in workplaces. In any MNC, the HR
department along with top management officials, tend to create organizational values and
ethics that could be universally applied in all its branches. The intention is to be welcoming
to employees irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds (Mache et al., 2014.p. 496). Say for
example, the GE setup of call centers. GE is a classic example of an MNC which has lots of
branches and conducts its operations seamlessly across borders in all countries where it has
spread its wings. It has set up its operations in many parts of Asia. We will take the example
of two of its centers in India and Philippines. Both are the huge base of operations for GE in t
and naturally, the local workforce builds up for most of its employee strength in terms of
numbers. Culturally, however; both these countries, except for some similarities, are mostly
different in their work culture. India is more traditional than the Philippines. Education is
stressed in India and certifications hold importance in a professional field. While some
Philippine families would stress on the same, it is not as popular. Indian culture has had a
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British influence, however, Filipino have Spanish and American influence in their culture.
Indians would overpromise yet under deliver, Filipino would be modest in their commitments
and would not have an exaggerated CV. The Philippines considers English as their second
language and there is hardly any communication barrier. In India, English communication is
not very strong across regions becoming one of the reasons of dissatisfaction of customers.
Customer service is not considered as a department rather an attitude for people of
Philippines. In India, customer service is mostly treated as a job. Due to such differences in
approach of these two nations, it was a challenge for GE is to set up proper procedures,
policies and encourage a healthy working environment with fruitful work practices. The
ultimate responsibility was that of a manager. The manager is supposed to be universal in his
approach when handling people. The manager needs to conduct himself in a way that his
behaviour reflects moral universalism. His approach to his people is required to be impartial
and productive. For an MNC HQ, the test of handling a set of the ethnically diverse
workforce is immense (Crane et al. 2013. The mix match of many countries’ philosophies,
with all their dissimilar upbringings, present itself as potential issue. e.g. types of
management, plans, resolution making processes, communiqué styles etc. Collectively, they
pose as exciting challenge to managing people in a proper ethical manner. Handling people
from various ethnic backgrounds while maintaining uniformity in its administrative
procedures is tough job but is central to policies in the MNC. (Reiche et al. 2016).
Managers nowadays, are typically subtle to topics of social responsibility and ethical
performance because of demands from the community, awareness groups, legal and
administrative authorities and broadcasting industry (Erikson, 2014, p 57). It is less well-
defined where to pull the mark between socially responsible performance and the
organization’s other affairs, or amid the contradictory outlooks of ethical behaviour amongst
people from diverse backgrounds. (Deresky, 2017).
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2.2 Social responsibilities of an MNC manager
In the commercial environment of the MNC, everything is connected and influencing. This
generates difficulties sometimes for transnational managers to take a constructive position on
topics of
 collective accountability and ethical behaviour;
 cost-effective progress in host nations
 environmental safeguard throughout the earth (Mele and Sanchez-Runde, 2013).
Transnational organizations remain to be the midpoint of the dispute concerning the profits
versus damage produced by their setups throughout the world. Considering their scope and
commercial muscle, the MNC will be presumed to foster a greater standard of
implementation. Harmonizing the welfares of the various investors (Lee, 2015) is an essential
concern of top leaders. International firms comprise of an influential existence on the planet
economy and have the further power of leadership and capability to prompt transformation
than many national level administrations. Most people have conflicts in discussion regarding
an MNCs’ basic character in the treatment of international societal and cost-saving policies
with respect to caring for the host state benefits instead. Social responsibility is described as
the duty and obligation of executives to take decisions for defending and cultivating
organizational well-being alongside guarding their own concerns (Homburg et al., 2013. p.
65). The leaders must have the collective charge because of the subsequent causes:
Organizational resources – In terms of people, resources, their competencies and varied
expertise, an organization has lots of resources. These are the elements which are also helpful
when working to help achieve societal purposes (Tatli et al., 2015.p. 1249).
Preventative methods – Prevention is better than cure. Instead of allowing an issue to become
a volcano and burst it is always better to deal with it as an act of preventing it
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Moral requirements – a manager or any person in a power position should accept their
responsibility to give back to society. It is the organizations’ and the manager’s duty to help
address a concern and solve it (Wang, 2016)
Recruitment – An organization which is socially aware of its responsibilities to give back to
society finds recruitments as easy. This is because people are drawn to such workplaces and
are eager to get employment in such places (Morgeson et al. 2013. p. 813).
A healthy environment – By a proper response to help solve issues in society it will only be
creating a better place for it to function. An improved society would mean lesser taxes, low
employee turnover rates, absenteeism, low crime rates etc.
It is safe to conclude that as a good manager, leaders will be dispensing a multifaceted and
quick-changing domain. They require bringing in smartness and passion to their own work.
Along with various strategies for handling people, it is also important to inspire, motivate, be
foresighted, become an implementer while maintaining creativity. Above all, remain ethical
in approach with simplicity when dealing with difficult scenarios. These are the things that
are challenges to a socially responsible manager which would always crop up to test their
mettle. While they may seem inconsistent, they form the gauntlet mostly. For a socially
responsible global manager who is raring to go, the path is exciting. Challenging but
satisfying.
2.3 Corporate Social responsibilities and its criticisms
Morals are the well-defined procedure of distinguishing the correct from the incorrect and
they suggest a moral responsibility to practise the worthy and the right. Occupational morals
are apprehensive with the good or right and the bad or wrong performance in the commercial
setting. Global business ethics relate to the changing commercial moral issues in varied
country values. Social accountability is theoretically associated with business ethics. It infers
that industries should perform more as sensible, outside the unadulterated income or
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monetary reasons. It encircles the investor attitude interests the greater society and
ecosystem. In the wake of moral universalism, even the best efforts of a socially responsible
manager come under criticism. Some of them could be about -
Communal overhead costs – while conducting the responsibilities of a manager and giving
back to society, it is indeed true that the organization does not immediately get to reap the
benefits. Sometimes, these actions lower the productivity of the organization and they also
fall back in competition (Vohs and Bianchi, 2016)
Price to society – The responsibilities carried out and passed onto society are a burden to
them as they need to maintain it (Bianchi and Fredriksson, 2016)
The dearth of skills – Managers who are hired are hired on the basis of their skills and
expertise with the organization and commercial tasks. They may not be competent enough to
carry out the tasks which require social skills (Osagie et al. 2016. p.243)
Maximum profits – An organization opens a business to gain profits and make money and
that is always their first priority. The managers appointed by the organization's top leads also
relay this information. Hence the manager always first works in favour of achieving goals for
the organization, make money for them. Social responsibilities then, take a backseat.
The principles of performance contain ethical conduct. A manager should consequently
display the premier ideals of virtuous behaviour, side-step double principles (for instance,
enduring conduct in one nation and not tolerate in another country), and visibly converse
anticipation with respect to behaviour from the team of personnel provided (Comfort and
Franklin, 2014) — he must always have a clear conversation on this. These activities are,
always, central to exemplifying a good leader, as well as these management obligations, are
liable to develop more rather than less essential in the coming times (Garten, 2015).
It is also important to point out that organizations, especially organizations conduct certain
activities in response to their acknowledgement of responsibility of moral universalism – that
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they need to give back to society (Di Guili and Kostovetsky, 2014). The expectation that
social behaviour of any organization to give back to society is more like an illusion to most
people (Kiker et al., 2015. p.1). Any MNC’s worldwide ethical and social responsibility is a
significant and essential share of its tactical organisation procedure. Morals and social duty is
not a choice, but a crucial obligation for an MNC.
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3.0 Conclusion
Morals concern the situation about social behaviour or actions that are completed
meaningfully - unintentionally or deliberately. Moral values do not apply to any
organizational culture. It is not the organization rather the people working in those
organization who make them. It is the responsibility of those people to ensure and be fully
aware of the repercussions of the business decisions on the society along with themselves. In
today’s world, no organization, no matter the size, is separated from the larger impacts of
globalization. It is hence, the sole responsibility of the international managers across borders
to adopt moral universalism in their actions and face challenges appropriately so that they can
benefit themselves and the organizations they represent in seizing opportunities.
The report has been successful in shedding light on concepts of moral universalism accepted
as a way of life for many religions, organization and people with higher greater cause
worldwide. United Nations has given acceptance to the concept by making it the foundation
for human rights for people across the world.
An international organization's (MNC) moral and communal accountability concerns must be
a central chunk of its tactical management practice. The MNC HQ need to decide on its
staple ethical and social responsibilities, all the principles and priorities. It must also invest its
overseas units to devise their certain plans and policies to react to mutable host countries’
settings. The report has attempted to shed light on moral responsibilities of an International
manager in handling situations involving various cultural backgrounds be it people or places.
The report has emphasised the standing of selecting alternatives good for morale and
communally conscientious issues. Besides, they should be fused into the tactical methods
elected by MNCs.
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4.0 References
Journals
Bianchi, M. and Fredriksson, M., 2016. Opportunities and barriers to CSR: A qualitative case
study of the most important aspects of CSR in medium-sized fashion companies in the
moderate price range.
Chin, J.J., 2014. Moral Relativism vs Universalism. Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics, pp.1-
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Crane, A., Matten, D. and Spence, L.J., 2013. Corporate social responsibility in a global
context.
Di Giuli, A. and Kostovetsky, L., 2014. Are red or blue companies more likely to go green?
Politics and corporate social responsibility. Journal of Financial Economics, 111(1), pp.158-
180.
Eriksen, T.H., 2014. Global citizenship and the challenge from cultural relativism. In Global
Citizen–Challenges and Responsibility in an Interconnected World (pp. 53-60).
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business-to-business markets: how organizational customers account for supplier corporate
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whether an Organization Is Ethical or Not: A Policy Capturing Approach. International
Journal of Business Administration, 6(6), p.1.
Lee, Y.H.A., 2015. The Efficiency Criterion for Securities Regulation: Investor Welfare or
Total Surplus?.
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Mache, S., Vitzthum, K., Wanke, E., David, A., Klapp, B.F. and Danzer, G., 2014. Exploring
the impact of resilience, self-efficacy, optimism and organizational resources on work
engagement. Work, 47(4), pp.491-500.
Münch, R., 2016. Modernity and Irrationality. In Strukturelle Evolution und das
Weltsystem (pp. 309-320). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
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world.
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competencies for corporate social responsibility: A literature and practice
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Ross, G., 2003. Ethical beliefs, work problem-solving strategies and learning styles as
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Tatli, A., Nicolopoulou, K., Özbilgin, M., Karatas-Ozkan, M. and Öztürk, M.B., 2015.
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Vauclair, C.M., Wilson, M. and Fischer, R., 2014. Cultural conceptions of morality:
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Vohs, K. and Bianchi, E., 2016. Social Class and Social Worlds: Income Affects the
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in Teams (Doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University).
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Morgeson, F.P., Aguinis, H., Waldman, D.A. and Siegel, D.S., 2013. Extending corporate
social responsibility research to the human resource management and organizational behavior
domains: A look to the future. Personnel Psychology, 66(4), pp.805-824.
Books
Al-Daraweesh, F. and Snauwaert, D.T., 2016. Human rights education beyond universalism
and relativism: A relational hermeneutic for global justice. Springer.
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negotiating with worldwide colleagues. CRC Press.
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international human resource management. Taylor & Francis.
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