Ethical Systems in Business

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the ethical system in business. It defines utilitarianism and libertarianism and discusses their failure as systems within business. The paper discusses this failure through the case of Ford Pinto in the 1960s. It also discusses the Tylenol cyanide scare to explain Kantian rule-based ethics which is in contrast to utilitarianism.

Table of Contents:
The Failure of Utilitarianism and Libertarianism: The Case of the Ford Pinto
Kantian Rule-Based Ethics and Entitlement and Virtue Ethics: The Tylenol Cyanide Scare
Egalitarianism
The Difference between Ethics and Business Ethics
The Application of Cost-Benefit Analysis

From the Paper:

"Unlike conventional approaches to ethics, business ethics must, to some degree, take economic considerations into its calculus. To 'do good' for a for-profit business, which is the recipient of venture capital, which has stock that people depend upon for profits, and which must keep workers employed as productive members of the workforce so they can feed their families, all means that sometimes a company must put money ahead of, for example, simply feeding the hungry and healing the sick. But the case study of Tylenol shows how sometimes doing or being good can pay off for an enterprise. By showing concern for consumer health, Tylenol was able to come back as a brand, and Proctor & Gamble were able to remain solvent as a company."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Approaches to Ethical Decision-Making." Poznak Law Firm. 29 Mar 2008. http://www.poznaklaw.com/articles/bizethics.htm
• "Big brother." The Economist (U.S. Edition). August 1991. 29 Mar 2008 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5037/is_199108/ai_n18310803
• Boatright, John R. Ethics and the Conduct of Business. 5th Edition. Prentice Hall, 2006.
• Hursthouse, Rosalind. "Virtue Ethics." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 29 Mar 2008. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/#3
• Susi, Reyna. "Tylenol Crisis, 1982".Crisis Management, 2002. 19 Mar 2008. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall02/Susi/tylenol.htm

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