Ethic in Business Research

8/3/2019 Ethic in Business Research

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Homa MilaniOct.2011

Business Research

Article Review 1: Ethic in Business Research

Business ethics has been define as the examination of the variety ofproblems that

can arise from the businessenvironment, and how employees, management, and the

corporation can deal with them ethically. Problems such as fiduciary responsibility,

corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, shareholder relations, insider

trading, bribery and discrimination are examined in business ethics.[1]

At this article review, three articles related to Teaching the Business Ethics have

been chosen, then the purpose and content of the three articles have been described

briefly and at the final part I have tried to compare and contrast the authors pointof view. I chose these 3 articles because all the 3 authors are educators in 3

different universities and have a good experience of impacts and dilemmas about

teaching ethics in business schools.

Article #1

Strategies for Teaching Research Ethics in Business, Management and

Organizational Studies

Linda Naimi

Organizational Leadership, Purdue University, USA

The author believes that as educators, they are committed to providing students

with the preparation, mentoring and guidance they need to address ethical issues

that arise in their academic, professional and personal lives. She debates that Ethics

is not about answers. It is about asking questions, awareness, understanding,

monitoring and consequences.

She brings up this issue that in a recent poll at a Midwestern university, 55% ofcollege students in management and business studies reported that ethics is

whatever a person thinks is right and that personal ethics is more important than

societys moral values. This finding is troubling. If students view ethics as apersonal and situational contends, how can educators stress the importance of

ethics and reinforce ethical standards in academia?
http://www.investorwords.com/13254/examination.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/problem.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/623/business.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/1696/employee.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/2931/management.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/1140/corporation.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/1299/deal.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/1932/fiduciary.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/responsibility.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/corporate-social-responsibility.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/5483/corporate_governance.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/4527/shareholder.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/2492/insider_trading.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/2492/insider_trading.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/bribery.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/13198/discrimination.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/13250/ethics.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/13250/ethics.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/13198/discrimination.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/bribery.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/2492/insider_trading.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/2492/insider_trading.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/4527/shareholder.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/5483/corporate_governance.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/corporate-social-responsibility.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/responsibility.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/1932/fiduciary.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/1299/deal.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/1140/corporation.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/2931/management.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/1696/employee.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/623/business.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/623/business.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/problem.htmlhttp://www.investorwords.com/13254/examination.html


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Also she mentioned that business students reportedly were far more likely to

engage in unethical conduct than others, based in part on their belief that you have

to do whatever it takes to get ahead. Surprisingly, more than one-third of facultysurveyed said they did not take action against students who cheated in their classes

because it was too widespread. This is of concern, because it not only compromises

academic integrity, it also shapes attitudes and habits students take with them into

the workplace.

She debates that having a code of conduct in and of itself does not appear to be a

sufficient deterrent of unethical behavior. To be more effective we need to

integrate ethical values into daily routines and enforce penalties for non -compliance.

The cognitive and affective domains are particularly important in ethical reasoning.

The six cognitive levels are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis,synthesis and evaluation. The affective domain levels as emotions, attitudes,

appreciation, and values. Disconnects between the affective and cognitive aspects

of the mind can lead to judgment errors and irrational behavior. Thus, an intelligent

person can make bad decisions when there are significant differences between his

thinking and emotions.

There are some basic ethical approaches or theories used today to guide ethical

decision-making such as:

1-Utilitarianism: one seeks to achieve the greatest good and the least harm for the

greatest number of people.

2-Common good: one seeks to establish or maintain conditions that are beneficial

to all members of a given community or society in furtherance of societys goals.3-Kants categorical imperative: A person of good will and strong character will

make an ethical decision, regardless of the outcome.

4-Rights: one seeks to make a decision based upon certain fundamental human,

civil or social rights.

5-Justice: the goal is to determine a fair method for distributing goods or services,

as if we were under a veil of ignorance that prevented us from knowing our social

status6-Virtue: A virtuous person demonstrates prudence and wisdom in all his decisions

and, as a result, lives a wholesome and fruitful life.

Another approach in teaching research ethics is to integrate or embed ethics and

research topics into the curriculum, so students are continually exposed to ethical

issues and research design concepts throughout the program of study. This method


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establishes the relevance of research and ethics in business and management

education, this could be done by: case study, action research.

As a conclusion the author mentioned that to ensure integrity in research, students

and faculty need to understand the ethical and legal ramifications of their work

prior to initiating any research.

Article #2

What Your Mother Never Taught You: How to Teach Business EthicsO.C. Ferrell

University of Wyoming- USA

The author, Dr. Ferrell believes that in business schools four areas regarding the

business ethic courses should be consider: ethical leadership, ethical decision

making, corporate governance, and business and society.

He states that still lots of business student do not agree on learning ethics course,

he states the best opportunity for convincing them would be:

- a foundational ethics course that provides an understanding of stakeholdersthat shape and form ethical issues and evaluations, and a description of how

leadership, corporate and culture , formal ethics programs, and individual

character are important to ethical decision making

- To let them understand how organizations make business ethics decisions.The author refers to stakeholder ethical values and norms which apply to a variety

of business issues such as sales practices, consumer rights, environmental

protection, product safety, and proper information disclosure that do or do not

directly affect to their welfare.

In FIGURE 1 he describes the Interactions between Organizational and

Stakeholder Ethical Values and Norms.

Also he brings up this subject that nowadays Organizations manage their culture

and ethical climate by trying to hire employees whose values match their own.Some firms even measure potential employees values during the hiring processand strive to choose individuals who fit within the ethical climate rather than

those whose beliefs and values differ significantly.

As a final word he states that the goal is to enhance the awareness and thedecision-making skills of the students whom will make business ethics decisions

that contribute to responsible business conduct in future. Figure 2


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Article #3

The Case Against Business Ethics Education: A Study in Bad ArgumentsJohn Hooker

Carnegie Mellon University

Author of this article, John Hooker, debates about several popular arguments

against teaching business ethics and he believes that business ethics is irreducible

to law, profit maximization, financial incentives, legal penalties

The arguments about the teaching business he had criticized in this article are:

- The Milton Friedman argument: The ethical: duty of business people is tomaximize profit within the law.

- The argument from incentives :Business people respond to economic andlegal incentives, not to ethical sentiments

One.

- The gut feeling argument: Cant study ethics in any meaningful senseanyway, because it is a matter of personal preference and is unsusceptible to

rational treatment.

- The moral development argument: moral character is formed in earlychildhood, not while sitting in ethics class.

- The motivational argument: Business students see no motivation to studyethics and will not take it seriously.

The relevant lesson here is that business education can and must assist with the

cognitive development that enables movement toward ethical maturity.

In the end of article the author mention that in ethic teaching course educators

should convince student that ethical conduct is smart business, they can do wellby doing good.

Author presents ethics as a tool for realizing ones aspirations, rather than arulebook of limits and admonitions. It invites students to begin thinking about how

they might really make the world a little better.


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Compare and Contrast of the Articles

I believe business ethics by its own nature is a debatable subjectand we cant find

a universally accepted approach about it also the pressure to succeed at all cost has

created a cheating culture almost in all organization around the world.

In business research, ethical values are often violated in different area, especially

in marketing research in order to obtain plausible and critical information or to

avoid getting into troubles, also when it comes to introduce an innovated products

they forgot the ethic based on this logic: The end justifies The means.

In this article review, I choose 3 articles regarding teaching business ethics in

business school and it was interesting to me to understand why the ethics is getting

separated from business in real world. Authors of all the three articles have beendiscussed about business ethic and how important it is for business student to

understand that besides maximizing the profit, they have social responsibility as

well.

Before comparing the articles, lets have a brief introduction about authors:

- Dr. Naimi, the author of the article #1 is an Assistant Professor ofOrganizational Leadership and a practicing attorney at law.

- Dr. O.C. Ferrell, the author of article #2 is Bill Daniels Professor ofBusiness Ethics, Anderson School of Management, and University of New

Mexico.

- Dr.John Hooke, the author of article #3 is Professor, Tepper School ofBusiness, Carnegie Mellon University and Part-time Visiting Professor of

London School of Economics.

All 3 articles main concept is ethic, however just in one of them there is a

summarized definition of ethic: Dr.Naimi describes the ethic as: asking questions,

awareness, understanding, monitoring and consequences. I believe every author

should first define the meaning and definition of main concepts that he/she is goingto write about it.

Dr. Naimi, In article #1, believes that as educators they should teach ethic not only

for business purpose but for all aspect of students life, which seems she wants to

make a big impact on them by teaching ethics, in article #3, on contrary, Dr.

Hooker debates that ethic teacher should not preach the student as it will make

cause a completely opposite result. He states that with this kind of courses we cant
http://wpweb2.tepper.cmu.edu/http://wpweb2.tepper.cmu.edu/http://www.cmu.edu/http://www.lse.ac.uk/http://www.lse.ac.uk/http://www.cmu.edu/http://wpweb2.tepper.cmu.edu/http://wpweb2.tepper.cmu.edu/


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change who they are but we can change how they behave. He thinks It is enough

to bring up the ethical issue and not expecting to make any changes in student

characters. However it seems he has been prepared himself to have discussion

with his students about why they need to learn about ethics and even argue with

them.

Dr. Ferrell has other approach about how or why student should learn about ethics,

he believes if they as educators in business school describe to student that how

important is to make ethical desision in organization and also how this subject will

affect to their career in future, they will be attracted to this subject. Based on this

approach, he starts his course with defining of stakeholder of an organization and

what they may expect from an ethical culture of organization.

In both article #1 and # 3 the authors mentioned that among the students there is acommon idea about ethic: Ethic is more about personal thinking rather than social

moral concept and this sounds problematic.

In article#1 the author, Dr. Naimi, believes in enforcing penalties for non-

compliance of ethical behavior however in article #3, Dr.Hooker believes in

motivation rather than punishment. In other approach, Dr. Ferrell believes that if

we give the perspective of how ethic will influence on students future jobs, by that

student will fine enough and sufficient motivation for involving in the ethic

courses.

In article #1 the author describes some approaches for ethical decision making

from ancient time till present time; however I, as a reader, could not find relation

between these approach and what the author had been mention later on in her

article.

In both article #1 and #3 the authors believe that ethic is a cognitive concept and

business education can develop cognition that enables movement toward ethical

maturity.

In article#3, Dr.Ferrell, give a clear reason why the student needs to learn about

ethics and how it will impact in their decision making and the future of the

organization they are working for which in the 2 others there is no clear idea about

it.

In my point of view, the article of Dr. Ferrell is very suffiecit and gives a complete

perspective why and how we as a student and future business researcher should


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learn ethics however the other 2 articles provide very great information but they

are not sending clear message to reader about recognizing an issue as an ethical

one, judging it and finally decide ethically and solve the issue in that way.

One of the important subject that none of the authors has mentioned in their article

was: why unethical behavior or action is take place? Is it about the level of social

cognitive development? Or unawareness of involving other people and

consequences? Or maybe just it is because of maximizing the profit?

I believe if the authors debate more about the manifestation of business ethics in

the market and the consequences of unethical decision made by an organizationwill provide more transparent image that how important is this particular subject.


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Reference:

1- http://www.investorwords.com/6431/business_ethics.html

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Ethic in Business Research