Difference between moral rights and utilitarianism.???

Moral rights expresses the requirements of morality from the point of the individual whereas utilitarianism expresses the requirements of morality from the point of the society as a whole. Moral standards concerned with rights promotes the individual welfare and protect the individual choices but Utilitarian promotes societys aggregate utility and they are indifferent to individual welfare except they affect social aggregate. Rights limits the validity of appeals to social benefits and to numbers. Rights generally override utilitarian standards, they are not immune from all utilitarian considerations.

Ethical principles in business:-Justice and Fairness Justice for matters that are specially serious but concept of fairness is more fundamental. Standard of justice holds are generally taken to be more important that utilitarian considerations. Types of Justice Distributive Justice: fair distribution of society of societys benefits and burdens. Retributive justice: Just imposition of penalties and punishments on those who does wrong. Compensatory justice: Restoring to the person what the person lost when he or she was wrongly by someone.

Justice as Equality-Egalitarianism

 Egalitarianism holds that there are no relevant differences between among people that can justify unequal treatment. Equality has been proposed as a principle of justice not only for entire societies but also within smaller groups or organizations.

Criticism of Justice as Equality-Egalitarianism No quality that all human beings possess in precisely the same degree. They differ in their abilities, talents, knowledge, desires, needs etc.

Ignores some characteristics that should be taken into account in distributing goods both in society and in smaller groups : need, ability and efforts Two types of Equality

Political equality: Equal participation in and treatment by , the political system. Economic equality: Equality of income, wealth and opportunity Ethics of Care

An ethics that emphasizes caring for the concrete well being of those near to us.

Claims ethics needs to be impartial. Not all the relationships have value and so on not all would generate duties of care. It emphasize two more demands: We each exists in a web of relationships and should preserve and nurture those concrete and valuable relationships We each should exercise special care for those with whom we are concretely related by attending to their needs, values, desires and concrete well being.

 A communitarian ethics is an ethics that sees concrete communities and communal relationships as having a fundamental value that should be preserved and maintained. Criticism of Ethics of care

Charge: Degenerate into favoritism Response: Conflicting moral demands are an inherent characteristics of moral choices Charge: Ethics of care can lead to burnout Response: Adequate understanding of ethics of care will address the need to care for the caregiver.

Chapter.The Market and Business

Introduction,

Globalization- The process by which the economic and social systems of nations are connected together so that goods, services, capital and knowledge move freely between nations. Economic systems- The system a society uses to provide the goods and services it needs to survive and flourish. Tradition-Based societies- Societies that rely on traditional communal roles and customs to carry out basic economic tasks. Command Economy- An economic system based primarily on a government authority(a person or a group) making the economic decisions about what is to be produced, who will produce it and who will produce and who will produce it and who will get it. Market Economy: An economic system based primarily on private individuals making the main decisions about what they will produce and who will get it.

 Free Markets: Markets in which individual is able to voluntarily exchange goods with others and to decide what will be done with what he or she owns without interference from the government.

Free Markets and Rights: John Locke Free markets are the unregulated market and the human enjoys natural rights. The two natural rights are: Right to freedom and Right to private property. Each individual is free to exchange their goods without coercive power of the government. Each individual is free to decide what will be done with what he or she owns without interference form the government. All are free and equal Each person own his labor and whatever he mixes his labor into. People agree to form a government to protect their right to freedom and property.

Lockean Rights: Right to freedom, property and life.

Criticism of Lockean Rights Assumptions that the individual have the natural rights Locke claim they have. Conflicts between the negative rights and the positive rights. Conflicts between the Lockean rights and principles of justice. The individualistic assumptions Locke makes and their conflict with demand of caring Free Market and Utility: Adam Smith

 In the system of free market and private property, buyers will seek to purchase what they want for themselves at lowest prices. To keep their prices down, private businesses will try to cut down on the cost of production Invisible hand: Acc to Adam Smith, the market competition that derives self interested individuals to act in ways that serve society. A system allocates resources efficiently among the various industries of the societies. Government interference in markets does not advance the public welfare. Criticism of Adam Smith Rests on various unrealistic assumptions Impersonal forces of supply and demand will force prices down to their lowest levels because seller of the products are so numerous and each enterprise is so small that no one seller can control the price of a product. False assumptions that all relevant cost are paid by the manufacturers. False assumption that human being are solely motivated by self interested desire of profit. Some degree of economic planning is possible and desirable. Free Trade and Utility: David Ricardo It is in favor of free trade between nations. Never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy. Absolute Advantage: A situation where the production costs of making a commodity are lower for one country than for another. Ricardo made assumption based on 2 countries.

Example:

100 Barrels of Soda Cost in Man-Years England: 120 Portugal: 80

100 rolls of Cloth Cost in Man-Years 100 90

England has only 220 labors; Portugal has 170 Labor and high cost of production to produce Soda Criticism of Ricardo Simplifying assumption- Considering 2 countries. Easy movements of capital by companies. False assumption that a countrys production costs are constant. Influence of international rule settlers. Workers can easily and costlessly move from industry to another industry. Mark and Justice: Criticizing Markets and Free trade Wrenching and exploitative effects that industrialization had on the labor. Exploitative working hours, Diseases, premature deaths, child labor, working continuously without breaks. There is inequality that capitalism produces. Capitalistic systems produces only 2 sources of income; Sale of owns labor and ownership of the means of production. Because workers cannot produces anything without access to the means of production, they are force to sell their labor in return for a wage. The owner does not pay workers the full value. Difference(surplus) between the value of their labor and subsistence wages is retained by the owner-source of owner profits.

 Allienation: Not allowing the lower working classes to develop their productive potential, satisfy their real human needs or form satisfying human relationships. Chapter ..4..Ethics in the marketplace Introduction Competition is part of the free enterprise system. Competition tends to produce efficiency in the market and benefits the general consumer by resulting in a variety of goods at the best prices. We shall examine just a few of the areas where the temptations to act immorally are significant, and where some practices are morally questionable. PERFECT COMPETITION In a perfectly free competitive market no buyer or seller has the power to significantly affect the price of a good. Such markets are characterized by seven features: There are numerous buyers and sellers All buyers and sellers can freely and immediately enter or leave. All have full and perfect knowledge of what every other buyer and seller is doing. The good are similar such that no one cares from whom each buys or sells The costs and benefits of producing or using goods are borne entirely by the buyer or seller. Everyone tries to get as much as possible for as little as possible. No external force regulates the price, quantity, or quality of the goods. In such markets, prices rise when supply falls, inducing greater production. Thus, prices and quantities move towards the equilibrium point, where the amount produced exactly equals the amount buyers want to purchase. Thus,

perfectly free markets satisfy three of the moral criteria justice, utility, and rights. MONOPOLY COMPETITION Monopoly competition

In a monopoly, two of the seven conditions are absent: there is only one seller, and other sellers cannot enter the market. Monopolistic markets and their high prices and profits violate capitalist justice because the seller charges more than the goods are worth. Thus, the prices the buyer must pay are unjust. In addition, the monopoly market results in a decline in the efficiency of the system. Shortages of things that consumers want will result, and with these shortages come higher than normal prices. Since no other seller can enter the market, the shortage will continue-along with the abnormally high profits.

One seller High entry barriers Quantity below equilibrium Price above equilibrium Can extract monopoply profit Oligopolistic competition & oligopolies and Public policy Most industries are not entirely monopolistic. Most are dominated by a few large firms. These markets lie somewhere in between the monopoly and the perfectly competitive free market; the most important type of these imperfectly competitive markets is the oligopoly.
1.

In an oligopoly, two of the seven conditions are not present. Instead of many sellers, there are only a few significant ones. Second, as with the monopoly, other sellers are not free to enter the market. Markets like this which are dominated by four to eight firms are highly concentrated markets.

2.

Oligopolies can set high prices through explicit agreements to restrain competition. The more highly concentrated the oligopoly, the easier it is to collude against the interests of society, economic freedom, and justice. The following list identifies practices that are clearly unethical

Price Fixing when companies agree to set prices artificially high. Manipulation of Supply when companies agree to limit production. Exclusive Dealing Arrangements-when a company sells to a retailer only on condition that the retailer will not purchase products from other companies and/or will not sell outside a certain geographical area. Tying Arrangements-when a company sells to a retailer only on condition that they agree to charge the same set retail prices. Price Discrimination-when a company charges different prices to different buyers for the same goods or services. It is difficult to legislate against many common oligopolistic price setting practices, however, because they are accomplished by tacit agreement. Firms may, without ever discussing it explicitly, realize that competition is not in their collective best interests. Therefore, they may recognize one firm as the price leader, raising their prices in reaction when the leader decides to do so. No matter how prices are set, however, clearly social utility declines when prices are artificially raised. CHAPTER 5 Business and its External Exchanges: Ethics and the Environment Dimension of Pollution and Resource Depletion Pollution: The undesirable and unintended contamination of the manufacture or use of commodites. Resource Depletion: The consumption of finite and scare resources. Air Pollution: Global Warming

Ozone Depletion Acid Rain Airborne Toxics Air Quality Photochemical Smog: A complex mixture of gases and particles manufactured by sunlight out of the raw materials- Nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons-discahrged chiefly by the automobile. Water Pollution: Organic waste Land Pollution: Solid Waste, Toxic waste- Silver and 2,4,5-T are two widely used herbicides which affected local women and defects in animals; Nuclear waste Ethics of Pollution Control

Ignore their impact on the natural environment. Treat air and water as free goods. For example: DuPoint in West Virginia has been dumping 10,000 tons of chemicals wastes in each month into gulf of Mexico. Pollution is not only from business practices but also result form the use that consumers make of that product or from the human waste products. Ecological Ethics :The view that nonhumans parts of the environment deserve to be preserved for their own sake, regardless of whether this benefit human beings. Plants , animals, non human have intrinsic value and they hold substantial costs. The pain of animals and nonhumans should be considered same as the pain of human being. Because of these Intrinsic value they have some moral rights and these rights should be treated with respect. For example In June 1990, for example U. barS fish and wildlife service the timber industry from logging potentially old-growth forests of California to save the habitat of the spotted owl. William T. Blackstone, economist argued that every human beings have rights but these rights imposes correlative duties. Duties of not interfering in our exercise of that right.

The Ethics of consumer production and Marketing: Contract view of firms duties Relationship between a business firm and its customers is essentially a contractual relationship. Firm moral duties to the customer are those created by this contractual relationship. When a consumer buys a product, the consumer enters into a sales contract with the business firm. By entering into a contract , the firm has a duty to provide a product with those characteristics and the consumer has a correlative right to get a product with those characteristics.

Due care theory & advertising ethics Due care theory of manufacturers duties to consumers is based on the idea that consumers and sellers do not meet as equal and the consumers interests are being harmed by the manufacturer who has a knowledge and expertise the consumers lacks. Because manufacturer are in advantaged position, they have a duty to take special care to ensure that consumers interests are not harmed by the product that they offer them. Caveat Vendor rather that caveat buyer. Areas of Producer Responsibility According to Due care Theory Design- Whether the design of an article conceal any dangers, whether it incorporates all safety devices, whether it uses materials that are adequate for the purposes the product is indented to serve. Production: Controlling the manufacturing processes so as to eliminate any defective items, weaknesses. Information- Fix labels, notices or instructions on the product that will warn the user to guard against harm or injury. Problems with Due care No clear understanding for determining when one has exercised enough due care.

 Wrong assumption that manufacturer can discover the risk before the consumers buys and uses it. Appears to be paternalistic Advertising Ethics Commercial Advertising- Communication between a seller and the potential buyers that is publicly addressed to a mass audience and is intended to induce members of this audience to buy the sellers product. Social Effects of Advertising Psychological Effects of Advertising Advertising and Waste(Selling Cost) Advertising and Market Power Advertising and Creation of consumer desires CHAPTER.Business and its Internal Constituencies :Ethics of job discrimination.. Types of discrimination Racism On the basis of Gender On the basis of Age On the basis of Religion On the basis of disability On the basis of National origin This discrimination basically arises because those who have the power to enforce decisions are un accountable for their prejudices.

There is no countervailing power to prevent this abuse of power. The larger civil society remains a mute spectator to this malaise To treat one particular group of people less favourably than others because of their race, colour, nationality, or ethnic or national origin.

Discrimination: Its Extent

DISCRIMINATION: ITS EXTENT Three kinds of comparisons can provide evidence for such a distribution: (a) Comparisons of the average benefits the institution bestow on the discriminated group with the average benefits the institutions bestow on other groups (b) Comparisons of the proportion of the discriminated group found in the lowest levels of the institutions with the proportions of other groups found at those levels, and (c) Comparisons of the proportions of that group that holds the more advantageous positions with the proportions of other groups that hold those same positions. Discrimination: Utility, Rights, and Justice The arguments mustered against discrimination generally fall into three groups: (a) utilitarian arguments, which claim that discrimination leads to an inefficient use of human resources; (b) rights arguments, which claim that discrimination violates basic human rights; and (c) justice arguments, which claim that discrimination results in an unjust distribution of societys benefits and burdens. Principle of equality is individuals who are equal in all respects relevant to the kind of treatment in question should be treated equally even if they are dissimilar in other, nonrelevant respects. Arguments against discrimination: Utility: discrimination leads to inefficient use of human resources Rights: discrimination violates basic human rights Justice: discrimination results in unjust distributions of benefits and burdens AFFIRMATIVE ACTION To rectify the effects of past discrimination, many employers have instituted affirmative action programs designed to achieve a more representative distribution of minorities and women within the firm by giving preference to women and minorities. Affirmative action programs, in fact, are now legally required of all firms that hold a government contract. The heart of an affirmative action program is a detailed study (a utilization analysis) of all the major job classifications in the firm. The purpose of the study is to determine whether there are fewer minorities or women in a particular job classification than could be reasonably expected by their availability in the area from which the firm recruits. Affirmative Action as Compensation Compensation argument for affirmative action: Claims affirmative action compensates groups for past discrimination

 Criticized as unfair because those who benefit were not harmed and those who pay did not injure Affirmative Action as an Instrument for Achieving Utilitarian Goals and Equal Justice Utilitarian argument for affirmative action: Claims affirmative action reduces need and so increases utility Criticized on grounds that costs outweigh benefits and that other ways of reducing need will produce greater utility Equal justice argument for affirmative action: Claims affirmative action will secure equal opportunity Claims affirmative action is a morally legitimate means Arguments made against equal justice argument for affirmative action: Affirmative action programs discriminate against White men Preferential treatment violates the principle of equality Affirmative action programs harm women and minorities The Individual in the organisation:-Firm's duties to the employee, F I RM S DUT I E S T O THE E MP L O YE E Today, we will discuss the employers duties towards the employee. Points to be covered in this lesson: Employee compensation Working conditions I will try to list down some of the duties of the employers now: 1. Compensation or Wages 2. Job satisfaction 3. Working environment 4. Job profile 5. Health and Safety 6. Growth prospects 7. Job Rotation The basic moral obligation that the employer has toward employees, accord-ing to the rational view of the firm, is top rovide them with the compensation they have freely and knowingly agreed to receive in exchange for their ser-vices. There are two main issues related to this obligation:

 The fairness of employee working conditions.Both wages and working conditions are aspects of the compen-sation employees receive from their services, and both are relatedto the question of whether or not the em-ployee contracted totake a job freely and knowingly. If an employee was forced toaccept a job with inadequate wages or inad- equate working condi-tions, then the work contract would be unfair. Wages From the employees point of view, wages are the principal(perhaps the only) means for satisfying the basic economicneeds of the worker and the workers family. From theemployers point of view, wages are a cost of production thatmust be kept down lest the product be priced out of the mar-ket. Every employer, therefore, faces the dilemma of setting fair wages: How can a fair balance be struck between the employersinterests in minimizing costs and the workers interest inproviding a decent living for themselves and their families? There is, unfortunately, no simple formula for determining afair wage. The fairness of wages depends in part on the publicsupports that society pro-vides the worker (social security,Medicare, unemployment compensation, public education, welfare, etc.), on the freedom of labor markets, on the con-tribution of the worker, on the needs of the worker, and on thecompetitive po-sition of the firm. Although there is no way of determining fair salaries with mathematical exactitude, we can at least identify a number of factors that should be taken into account in determining wages and salaries: 1 . The g o i ng wa ge i n t he i ndust ry and t he area A l t h o u gh labor markets in an in-dustry or an area may be manipulated or distorted (by job shortages, for exam-ple), they generally provide at least rough indicators of fair wages if they are competitive and if we assume competitive markets are just.In addition, the cost of living in the area must be taken into account if employees are to be provided with an income adequate to their families needs. 2 . The f i rm s c ap a b i l i t i e s In general, the higher the firms profits, the more it can and should pay its workers, while the smaller its profits, the less it can afford. Taking advantage of cheap labor in captive markets when a company is perfectly capable of paying higher wages is exploitation. 3 . The na t ure of t he j ob

The fairness of wages and

Jobs that involve greater health risks,that offer less security, that require more training or experience, that impose heavier physical or emotional burdens,or that take greater effort should carry higher levels of compensation. 4 . Mi ni mum wa g e l aws The minimum wages required by law set a floor for wages.In most circumstances, wages that fall beneath this floor are unfair. 5 . Re la t i o n to ot he r sa l a ri es If the salary structure within an organization is to be fair, workers who do roughly similar work should receive roughly similar salaries What is Politics ?

Employees who do not believe in working hard depend on nasty politics to make their position secure at the workplace. Employees play politics simply to come in the limelight and gain undue attention and appreciation from the seniors. Politics refers to irrational behavior of the individuals at the workplace to obtain advantages which are beyond their control. No body has ever gained anything out of politics; instead it leads to a negative ambience at the workplace

Effects of politics on organization and employees:

Decrease in overall productivity

Affects Concentration

Politics lowers the output of an individual and eventually affects the productivity of the organization. Common observation says that individuals who play politics at the workplace pay less attention to their work. They are more interested in leg pulling and back biting. They spend most of their times criticizing their fellow workers. As a result of politics at the workplace, employees fail to achieve targets within the stipulated time frame. Work gets delayed in such an organization. Individuals find it difficult to concentrate on their work. They are more interested in spoiling the other persons image in front of the superiors. An individual involved in politics is bound to make more mistakes as his focus is somewhere else. Politics leads to a negative environment at the workplace.

Spoils the Ambience

It spoils the relationships amongst individuals. An individual playing politics at the organization is disliked by all. Politics changes the attitude of the employees. Even the serious employees lose interest in work and attend office just for the sake of it. Internal politics do not allow employees to give their hundred percent at work. No matter how much hard work an employee puts in, it goes unnoticed in a politically driven organization. A non performer can be the apple of his bosss eye simply due to politics, thus demotivating the performers. Discussions are essential at the workplace to extract the best out of employees. Evaluating the pros and cons of an idea always helps in the long run. Employees playing politics always look for an opportunity to tarnish the image of the fellow workers. Employees feel demotivated when they are not rewarded suitably or someone who has not worked hard gets the benefits due to mere politics. It is rightly said that problems evaporate if discussed. Individuals find it difficult to confide in any of their fellow workers due to the fear of secrets getting leaked. Politics increases the stress level of the employees. Individuals are not machines who can work continuously for 8-9 hours without talking to others. It is important to have friends at the workplace who help you when needed. Individuals fail to trust each other. Employees indulged in politics manipulate information and it is never passed on in its desired form. Superiors get a wrong picture of what is actually happening in the organization. A wrong person walks away with the credit in an organization where employees are indulged in politics.

Changes the Attitude of employees

Demotivated employees

Increases Stress

Wrong Information