Mgt211 Business Ethics A Global Assessment Answers
2 Pages / 370 Words
Read the following mini case and the imaginary you response to that case. Write an evaluation of the response, answering the question: How effectively does the response apply act utilitarianism to the mini case? You will need to identify items that are missing from the application of act utilitarianism as well as items that should not have been included and provide reasons for the items that you have identified.
Mini case
Stephen is having trouble deciding what to do. He runs a grazing operation on the family farm with help from a day labourer, Ralph, who works on average three days a week for him. When Stephen doesn’t need Ralph on the farm, he works for some other farmers in the district. Sometimes the other farmers have no work to give Ralph and thus he is without payment for those days. Ralph has always enjoyed this flexibility; he has never wanted to be tied down as a permanent employee.
Stephen has in the past received government grants to fence off waters, put in tree lines and subdivide paddocks to improve the quality of water running into the river and the sustainability of the pasture. Undertaking this work has resulted in ½ of the farm now surviving droughts more effectively and producing more grass with fewer weeds. Stephen would like to continue this over the rest of the farm to improve sustainability and productivity, but due to government cutbacks, the funding is no longer available. Stephen does not want to get further into debt to fund the development as he had to take a significant loan to buy the farm from his father. He can afford to purchase the material for the development if he does not have to pay Ralph. Stephen’s father, who is retired and living on the farm, is happy to help build the fences for no pay. Stephen is worried about Ralph, a man in his fifties who has worked on and off the farm for over 20 years but who would not get any work on Stephen’s farm for at least six months.
Required
Use act utilitarianism to develop an answer for Stephen. Ensure that you cover all the essential aspects of this act utilitarianism.
Answer
Introduction:
It has been evident from the case study that Stephen has been facing certain ethical dilemma related to hiring Ralph, a man in his fifties, who has been working for Stephen for over 20 years. The problem had aroused when Stephen faced monetary issue in continuing the sustainability approach of producing more grass with fewer seeds but could not do because of lack of fund from government. He does not want to take help from his father either, while his father is happy to do the necessary things without charging anything to Stephen. Therefore, there are two outcomes in the situation. If Ralph focuses on building his farm, he would get a better farm that would be beneficial for him and he would be able to give work to many farmers in future and on the other hand, if he does not employ Ralph, the later might have to suffer due to no-pay. Thus, the ethical dilemma continues. The aim of this study is to evaluate the ethical dilemma persisting in the complete situation and derive at a proper conclusion.
Outline of the ethical theories in western moral philosophy:
In this situation, the act of utilitarianism can be applied and the situation can be resembled. The utilitarianism ethical theory states that one’s best actions are those that maximize the utility. Here, utility has been defined accordingly. Utility is usually defined in terms of the well beings and other sentiments of humans related to a particular work or situation (Ryan, 2015). The act that Stephen has been considering on improving the condition of the field is the right thing because it shall be the responsibility of every person to think about sustainability in their work. Therefore, if Stephen does not take necessary steps for sustainability he would have been doing something unethical. However, utilitarianism also states that the act of utility would be valid if it does not lead to the suffering of a person (Alon & Lehrer, 2017). In this respect, it can be said that Stephen is worried about the suffering of Ralph but it should be noted that Ralph does not want to be a permanent laborer and he has to opportunity of working in others’ farm as well. Therefore, there are many ways open for him and that Stephen would not have to think so much about him. Utilitarianism also talks about the consequence of the action. In this case, it can be easily said the sustainability approach that has been undertaken would definitely bring better result and prosperity in the overall business development (Hayry, 2013). It shall also open up better options for other farmers who would want to work for Stephen in future. Therefore, there is no doubt that Stephen should continue with the sustainability of the land by stopping the work.
Hofstede cultural dimension also existed in this ethical dilemma. According to this theory, individualism for the societies and the ties between them is loose. The power distance is the way of showing the extent to which the members of a particular culture feel threatened by certain unknown situations (Bakir et al., 2015). The relationship between Ralph and Stephen has diversity in terms of its social culture. The cultural competence has a set of ethics and principles that demonstrate the behavior and attitude of the people and a particular competence structure that creates various levels in the cross cultural situation. In this respect, it can be said that there was a difference in the societal condition and this might be a reason that created ethical dilemma between Stephen and Ralph (Russell, 2014).
Critical reflection on the climate change, ecology and environment in the global business context:
If the context of climate change is taken into consideration, it has to be said that the global climate change has put significant impact on the business around the world. Businesses related to the impact of the climate or not, it has become a point of consideration. Therefore, sustainability has been the major concerns among the organizations. In case of the activities related to farming that is directly related to the climate change, sustainability approach becomes the most significant driver of change (Howard-Grenville et al., 2014). The farmers should be responsible for undertaking the sustainability approach and perform the best to save the environment where they work and live. Therefore, the approach undertaken by Stephen is accurate and he shall be encouraged to do such activities and think of future consequences rather than settling for the needs of the farmer like Ralph, who do not even works as a permanent worker for Stephen. It can be said that Stephen has lesser responsibility towards Ralph in terms of thinking about the job or his employment.
The world is facing environment pressure due to the increasing dependency of human on the natural resources. The changes have been felt much closer and the impact of the same is resulting in the global and environmental changes like the melting of the glacier or the increasing drought condition (King & van den Bergh, 2017). Therefore, it should be the primary responsibility of the professionals to understand the impact of the change and work on the same to combat against the changes. If this situation is related to the condition of Stephen, it can be easily ascertain that the sustainability approach undertaken by him is completely justified and he should focus on the same to improve the situation. There is no question of ethical dilemma that might be haunting Stephen for the approach undertaken by him (Shine, 2014). Maintenance of the farm shall be the primary concern of Stephen because it is only when the farm shall be able to make sustainable approach towards its activities, it shall be able to help others as well. Therefore, there is long term benefit of the activity undertaken by Stephen and so he shall be focusing on the same without any dilemma.
Conclusion:
With the analysis of the various ethical theories, it can be concluded that Stephen should consider the sustainability of his farm and shall make the necessary approaches to improve the condition of the farm. This is important keeping the recent condition of environment into consideration. For instance, if he does not keep a check on the sustainability of the farm, the condition would get worse and later, Stephen would have spend more for doing the same thing. If the condition of Ralph is considered, it should be kept in mind that he never wants to become a permanent labor and he only used get job three days a week from Stephen. Therefore, there is no such that Stephen would have to think about Ralph because Ralph could easily get jobs in other fields. On the other hand, it is just a matter of six months that can be easily considered. If Stephen fell short of money, there is no problem of taking help from his father because his father is also willing to help Stephen. In other words, it can also be said that Stephen would rather take the necessary help from his father and would return the money once he get stabilized in the farm activity. This is the probable suggestion for the case study.
References:
Alon, S., & Lehrer, E. (2017). Subjective Utilitarianism: Decisions in a social conte
Bakir, A., Blodgett, J. G., Vitell, S. J., & Rose, G. M. (2015). A preliminary investigation of the reliability and validity of Hofstede’s cross cultural dimensions. In Proceedings of the 2000 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 226-232). Springer International Publishing.
Hayry, M. (2013). Liberal utilitarianism and applied ethics. Routledge.
Hofstede, G. (2014). nd, Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions: Understanding Workplace Values Around the World. Mind Tools Ltd, viewed, 5.
Howard-Grenville, J., Buckle, S. J., Hoskins, B. J., & George, G. (2014). Climate change and management. Academy of Management Journal, 57(3), 615-623.
King, L. C., & van den Bergh, J. C. (2017). Worktime Reduction as a Solution to Climate Change: Five Scenarios Compared for the UK. Ecological Economics, 132, 124-134.
Mulgan, T. (2014). Understanding utilitarianism. Routledge.
Russell, D. C. (2014). What virtue ethics can learn from utilitarianism. The Cambridge companion to utilitarianism, 258-279.
Ryan, A. (2015). 16. Utilitarianism and Bureaucracy: The Views of JS Mill.
Shine, K. P. (2014). Climate change.
