Applied Business Research and Ethics

Introduction

Ethical dilemma is one of the most important issues faced by corporate houses in the current year (Rescher 2014). Corporate social responsibility is one of the most critical and the most strategic aspects that companies have to observe and follow. It is an important duty and responsibility for a company that is assesses the impact of its operations on the environment and the social community. Various legislations and corporate rules make it necessary for the company to work in an ethical manner. Companies have to be careful and aware of the fact it casts minimal amount of negative impact on the environment and the social community. Ethical dilemma refers to a complex situation that involves a major conflict between moral obligations and material interests. It involves conflicting thoughts and emotions (Tännsjö 2013). 

Situation

One of the ethical dilemmas that were recently encountered was at Philipp’s Cigarette Company. Philipp’s Cigarette Company is a famous Australian company that has branches all over the world. One of the branches of the company is located in Doha, Qatar. The company enjoys high profitability value and market share globally. As an executor officer, one of the Key Performance Index of the company is the ability to increase the sales of the product and consequently boost the profitability of the company. It is important that the product is advertised and marketed in an effective way so that the product is accessible to the masses and more people are aware of the product. Therefore, as the executive office of Philipp’s Cigarette Company it is important that the cigarettes sales are increased. One of the key performance indicators is the ability of to increase the sales of the cigarettes of the company. Profit maximization and sales maximization are one of the primary objectives and goals of the company. However, the strategies adopted to fulfil these objectives are

During the General Meeting of the company that took place in Doha on 16^th January 2016, certain goals and objectives of the company were discussed. The CEO of the company, Martin Guptil, product manager of the company Jesse Ryder, and the research analyst of the company, Babar Zardan were the key members that were involved in the meeting. The company decided to increase the sales of the company by 20% with a 15% increase in the profit index of the company. The company decided on introducing a menthol flavour of the cigarette of the company in the market. It was depicted that according to surveys, consumption of tobacco had increased by 35% in Doha. This reflected on the bright chances of the success of the product. During the discussion in the meeting, one of the key roles assigned as an executive officer was the increase in the sales of the company. This was a major cause of the concern since it involved adverse and detrimental effect on the social community.

Corporate Social Responsibility is one of the major responsibilities of a company. According to accounting standards and corporate rules, it is very important that companies operate in an ethical way and observe all the rules and regulations that reduce the negative impacts on the society and the environment. With the rise in ethical consumerism, it is important that companies fulfil their roles and duties in an ethical way. They need to produce goods that does not cause harm to the society and also promotes sustainable development. It is important that companies promote principles of sustainability ad environment preservation and conservation. However, the financial goals and objectives of the company directly contradicted corporate social responsibilities and ethical and social values. It was exposing the generation to mass destruction and encouraged the addiction of tobacco among the masses.

The feelings and emotions were in severe tussle. The mental faculties experienced conflicting thoughts and emotions where moral values were transgressing the economic and financial interests. Professional duties and responsibilities were in direct contravention with the moral code of conduct. The target was to fulfil duties in an ethical way. However, this was not an easy task since the company was a cigarette company and the products in moral sense, were unethical. Therefore, obtaining a solution to overcome this ethical dilemma was not an easy task.

One solution attained to overcome the moral dilemma was the printing of statutory warning on the cigarette packets in a more effective and pictorial way to make the masses aware of the adverse of consumption of tobacco. This could be one way, where the company could strike a balance between achieving corporate social responsibility goals and financial goals of the company.

On a scale of 10, the decision would be 7 out of 10. The rationale behind such rating was that, despite the satisfaction of overcoming the ethical dilemma by providing statutory warning, promoting and advertising cigarettes and the sale of cigarettes was unethical in a great way.

Analysis of Ethical Dilemma 

Ethical theories would shed critical light on the ethical dilemma and would help to analyze the ethical dilemma more effectively and efficiently. The area of ethics is systematized and describes the right and the wrong behaviour to individuals. These are ethical theories. The use of normative ethical theories will help to shed critical light on the topic.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a normative, empirical ethical theory, which throws light on the concept of right and wrong. The principle of Utilitarianism is based on the fact that the “right action” and the value of the action would depend on the overall benefit it provides to the larger group of people. Therefore, the principle is based on the overall effect an action has to the majority of the community (Hursthouse 2013). The principle outlines the fact that the greater happiness is estimated for greater people. According to this principle, it has to review its strategies and approach so that it produces positive results and reduces the adverse effects it has on the environment (Frederiksen and Nielsen 2013).

According to the ethical dilemma, Philipp’s Cigarette Company wants to maximize the benefit for the company by maximizing the profit and sales of the company. However, the strategy and the underlying actions that are required for attaining the objectives of the company is considered to be unethical and immoral. Some of the major features of the principles of Utilitarianism is that it considered happiness as well as unhappiness. Therefore, from this viewpoint, it is seen that the happiness of the company in achieving the profit is attained by causing unhappiness to the environment and social community (Attfield, 2014). The increased pollution level is the root cause for health issues and abnormal environmental conditions. The health hazards caused by consumption of cigarettes do cause distress and grief to the social community. The utilitarianism concept does shed critical light n the fact that the grounds of moral conduct and ethical practice does differ from person to person. The concept of acceptability of moral conduct does depend on contexts. A moral conduct might depend on the situation. This ethical theory does provide critical information on the fact that it does provide a flexible and a simple solution to arrive at decision within an organization. There are certain criticisms that are made against this ethical theory. One of the criticisms that are made against this theory is that it is very subjective in nature and depends from person to person (Finlay 2014). As such, it can be seen that though the sale of cigarettes to public may be immoral and unethical from the viewpoint of the public. However, from the viewpoint of the public it can be seen that such act is a commercial activity and is a part of the strategy of the company to increase its profitability and stress heavily in the growth and expansion of the company. Therefore, one can see the contraventions between the viewpoint of the public and the viewpoint of the company. There is lack of conclusive standpoint on which a decision can be made. The strategy of the company cannot be abolished and treated with abominations since the principle of utilitarianism is an out and out subjective concept. There are no strong grounds on which the strategies and approaches of the company can be treated as illegal.

Egoism

The concept of egoism deals with interest of a subject and it might include the interest of others if it facilitates the fulfilment of the needs and desires of a subject. Egoism is a normative ethical theory that highlights that a person is considered to commit a moral act if the act is done to promote and encourage the self interest of a person(Dion 2012). It is an important concept that outlines the principles of ethics and how a person reacts to situations and makes a conscious effort to follow moral conducts. The criticism of this theory is that it ignores and only pays stress on the individual rights and interests of a person. It does not consider wrong doing or immoral conduct. This ethical concept deals with the interest and desires of an individual and the maximization of the interest of an individual. According to this theory, a person is an actor with limitations in objective and knowledge. As per the given situation, the self interest of the cigarette company will overhaul the interest of the social community. It can be seen that the cigarette company will stress on the interests of the company and the scope of growth and profitability of the company in the longer run. It can be viewed that while implementing strategies and methods, the company will majorly stress on the goals and objectives that it wants to achieve in the longer run (Melden 2013). It will ignore the interest and the harmful impact it causes to the health of the public and the environment. It will overlook the principles of sustainability and morality since it will contravene and contradict with the interest and goals of the objectives (Gotthelf and Lennox 2014). It will only imply on implementing those strategies where the social community and the company will have a common goal. The company has limited objective and knowledge and will act on those points where it affects the company. The theory highlights a very self centred approach that the company adopts. The only objective and goal of the company is the maximization of its interest and goals that will have a significant in the increased profitability and growth of the company in the longer run. If it is analyzed from the viewpoint of the company, then the action is morally correct and proper since it promotes the interest of company in the long run. At the same time, the company does not compel people to buy the product and it only attracts people from its advertisement. As such, the company is not making any deliberate and conscious effort to harm the interest of others.

Theory of Rights and Duties

Theory of rights and duties is an important normative ethical theory that stress on the importance of safeguarding and highlighting the importance of rights and duties of human beings. It is important that specific attention is given to the rights and duties of people (Reidenbach and Robin 2014). According to this theory, the rights and duties of people are important. The inherent quality of a person is dignity and therefore it is important that a person is treated with dignity and respect and in the process there should be major implication given to the fact that humans should be treated as the end and not the means to achieve the end (Cugueró-Escofet and Fortin 2014). As such, the rights and duties should be given paramount importance and it has to be realised that the social community is an external stakeholder and ethical practices involve giving value to the social community. Taking the case of Philipps Cigarette Company, it has to be assessed that the company treats human to meet its end and adopts unethical strategies to accomplish the goals and objectives of the company. It does not follow the universal law that a person should act in such a way that it wants others to do. The company would never want the interests and goals of the company to be adversely affected. However, it does not follow the same ideals and tries to maximize its profit based on the downfall of the social community. It does not safeguard and uphold the rights and freedom of people.

Reflection

According to the ethical theories discussed in the earlier sections, I was moderately happy with the decision I made. The reason why I was happy was because, I was able to give some attention to the rights and duties of the people and was able safeguard and uphold the interest of the people. According to theory of Utilitarianism and egoism my decision to create awareness to the people could somewhat uphold interests of the people and in the process I was able to ignore that notion that human were not the means to achieve the ends. Sufficient attention was given to the people regarding their interests and benefits. My decision was correct in the light that there was considerable value given to the benefits of the people.

According to theory of egoism, I was not very happy since I felt that despite all the safety measures taken to avoid the harmful and detrimental impact on the people, it was not sufficient to treat the people with dignity. It was not sufficient to uphold the rights and duties of the people. The adverse impact of consumption of cigarettes and tobacco would still have a harmful impact on the people and in the process it will abuse the rights and duties of people and thereby cause major hassle to people. I felt that people were being used as the means to meet the ends of the company. The interest of the people would be met at the cost of the well being of the people.

If such circumstances occurred in future, I would never repeat the decision again since I feel it is an unethical practice and a wrong approach to meet the interest of the people. I would make sure that such dire straits do not arise in future. My rationale for this statement would be circulating around the fact that human is an indispensable element and they should be valued and the interests of the people should be safeguarded. The interest of the company and interest of the social community should go hand in hand.

Conclusion

It can be seen that ethical practice is a must for any company in this current age. Ethical dilemma is a major issue that needs to be evaluated and assessed and therefore, there has to be special attention that needs to be given to the promotion of ethical practice. the application of ethical theories is important as it guides the decision making of individuals working ain an organization.

Reference List 

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Dion, M., 2012. Are ethical theories relevant for ethical leadership?.Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 33(1), pp.4-24.

Dion, M., 2012. Are ethical theories relevant for ethical leadership?.Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 33(1), pp.4-24.

Finlay, S., 2014. Confusion of tongues: A theory of normative language. Oxford University Press.

Frederiksen, C.S. and Nielsen, M.E.J., 2013. Ethical Theories. InEncyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility (pp. 1071-1078). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Gotthelf, A. and Lennox, J.G., 2014. Metaethics, Egoism, and Virtue: Studies in Ayn Rand's Normative Theory.

Honneth, A., 2014. Disrespect: the normative foundations of critical theory. John Wiley & Sons.

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LaFollette, H. and Persson, I. eds., 2013. The Blackwell guide to ethical theory. John Wiley & Sons.

Melden, A., 2013. Ethical theories. Read Books Ltd.

Reidenbach, R.E. and Robin, D.P., 2013. Toward the development of a multidimensional scale for improving evaluations of business ethics. InCitation Classics from the Journal of Business Ethics (pp. 45-67). Springer Netherlands.

Rescher, N., 2014. A System of Pragmatic Idealism, Volume II: The Validity of Values, A Normative Theory of Evaluative Rationality (Vol. 2). Princeton University Press.

Tännsjö, T., 2013. Understanding ethics. Edinburgh University Press

Tännsjö, T., 2013. Understanding ethics. Edinburgh University Press