BU288 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Corporate Social Responsibility, Space Shuttle Challenger, Insider Trading
Document Summary
Ethics: systematic thinking about the moral consequences of decisions. Stakeholders: people inside or outside of an organization who have the potential to be affected by organizational decisions. Show concern for employee health and safety. The anticipation of healthy reinforcement for following an unethical course of action, especially if no punishment is expected, should promote unethical decisions. Ex. insider trading, compensation systems designed around very high bonuses: role conflict. Many ethical dilemmas are actually forms of role conflict that get resolved unethically. Ex. engineers who in their professional role opposed the fatal launch of the space shuttle challenger due to cold weather were pressured to put on their bureaucratic hats and agree to the launch: competition. Stiff competition for scarce resources can stimulate unethical behaviour. However if no competition occurs, there is a strong temptation for unethical decisions to be made: personality.
