GMS 723 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Business Ethics, The Roots, Kantian Ethics

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Global Management Studies
• Course: GMS 723
• Professor: Franklin Ramsoomair

Document Summary

The intense competitiveness of the international business environment puts pressure on companies to squeeze out every advantage they have and to cut costs in the most extreme way. The pressure to produce and sell products at cheaper and cheaper prices can encourage people to avoid thoroughly thinking the prices can encourage people to avoid thoroughly thinking the ethical consequences of business decisions. The third cause of unethical behaviour in businesses - an organizational culture that deemphasizes business ethics, reducing all decisions to the purely economic. Basic position: the only social responsibility of business is to increase profits, so long as the company stays within the rule of law: cultural relativism. Is the belief that ethics are culturally determined and that firms should adopt the ethics of the cultures in which they operate: the righteous moralist. Claims that a multinational"s home country standards of ethics are the appropriate ones to follow in foreign countries: the native immoralist.