Business ethics

What would a kantian/utilitarian say about business ethics:

ADAM SMITH:

• Invented capitalism. Lived in the hay day of mercantilism.
• Saw how this created concentrations of wealth, in the rich whilst the poor became poorer and poorer. Her argued, in ‘the theory of moral sentiments’ that the virtues of sympathy and reciprocal could tame greed.
• Encouraged countries to look internally (at where they could create money themselves with labour (hiring their own people etc)) rather than taking it from externally (suppressing the working class and enslaving others). Would encourage work in the labour class, they would become richer and the whole country would become richer and overall benefit. 

• John Maynard Keynes (misattributed): “capitalism is the astounding belief that the wickedest of men will do the wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone” but this is wrong. This plays in to the smith= laisssez-faire trap, ignoring then safeguards he proposed against human corruption. 

Smith=  greed is not good. for smith, markets have no intrinsic value, they are only tools or the betterment of life for all

Kant:

• duty to helping others, benefits everyone. 

However, u should do it bc its good, not to help yourself.

Util:

• Country wide economic growth benefits the people. 

Good, bc it makes the majority happy.

CSR:

Stakeholder theory:

• Organisations that manage their stakeholder relationships effectively will survive longer and perform better Ethan’s those who neglect the aspect. (Keeping both consumer and employee happy at the same time as shareholders etc) 

Shareholder theory:

• (Friedman) the sole responsibility of business is to increase profits. Seen as an outdated way of doing business. 

Invisible hand theory:

• (Smith) businesses often have little control of what happens in the marketplace and are “led by an invisible hand”

Bishop butler:

• Argued that perusing the public good was the best way of advancing ones own good as they were identical/the same thing.

Cardinal Nicholls:

Cardinal Nicholls uses both kantian and util ideas/ideology in his article. Main views being: Take responsibility and no instrumentalist. Human dignity is a categorical imperative

Kant:

• Duty to others/employees as a business. 
• HOWEVER, this is instrumentalism, you need to do it bc its good intrinsically, not bc it benefits you.

• Uses people instrumentally. Also you have a duty to do goodwill and be good/moral

Don’t use people instrumentally, not the goodwill- motivated by greed

Util:

• Makes majority happy. 
• Benefits all in the business.

- Bentham- makes majority (ceo/consumers) happy 

- mill- no, quality of employees unhappiness probably outweighs the fleeting happiness of the consumer and the few at the top.

 benefits everyone, everyone is happy

Whistleblowing:

Examples:

• wiki leaks, Edward snowden, lockdown party.

Whistleblowing compensation: 

People often face negative consequences after whistleblowing (despite thew fact out is outwardly viewed as the “right thing” and “encouraged”) . E.g. Rosalind rand was found to have been unfairly sacked from her job after whistle blowing

…