Ethics in a Global Context

FRIEDMAN ARGUES "ETHICS IS POSSIBLE AS LONG AS PROFITS ARE FINE"

KANT ARGUES THAT "ALAWAY ACT IN A WAY THAT THE BASIS OF YOUR DECISSION COULD BE THE FOUNDATION OF LEGISLATION"

Why do we talk about Business Ethics

• Basically now different between business and society as business is part of society and earning money with society

• Business ethics became also fashionable

• Increasing awareness of the public, change in values

• Business ethics importance is increasing as we have an increasing diversity of value systems enforced by globalization, so people start to look for ethical approaches in business.

Question:

SHOULD YOU DO LIKE THE ROMANS DO IN ROM AND AS THE CHINESE WHEN YOU ARE IN CHINA?

• As there is no universal standard you could apply this is a difficult question. But in my opinion the answer is no! As the "Romans do" argument is not a valid explanation for ethical behavior.

Why business ethics in brief:

• Ethics applied in business has other mechanism

• We have no real binding ethical system any longer, therefore we expect companies "to act right". Companies are seen to fill this gap

• There is a trend towards that every individual has its own value system, therefore business became more important

• Often companies force us to act upon their value system

• Companies are more surveillance, people are more aware

QUESTION: IS IT RIGHT TO KILL A DICTATOR?

• YOU MIGHT ASK YOURSELF, IF YOU DO THE RIGHT THING, BUT ALSO THE QUESTION ARISES IF YOU DO THE THING RIGHT? (KILLING MIGHT NOT BE THE RIGHT MEASURE)

Ethics:

Ethics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the question what is right or wrong. Or more appropriate (good or bad)

What we mean with ethical or unethical, is more appropriate to be phrase as being moral, or immoral

THE GREECE AS STARTING POINT FOR ETHICS

Greek philosophy is the bases for today's philosophy approaches and ethics

• There are two main streams

o Plato (the approach of the non-real world, desire and wished)

o Aristotle (the real world)

o And some sub-categories

• Derived