Dr. Michael Bruce - Anderson Univerisity

Dr. Bruce is a market professor at Anderson University.

E-commerce has made business much more impersonal.

Everybody connected to a system have different needs, and values.

• Stakeholder Concept
• A method of looking at ethical relationships by identifying any group or individual who is, or can be, affected by the process under scrutiny
• Employees, members of society, consumers, owners
• Social Responsibility
• An organization’s impact on society
• Organization must be constantly monitoring to understand situation
• Ethics
• A set of moral principles or values
• Big Picture
• Inputs
• Individual
• Key family
• Literature
• Life experiences
• External
• Corporate culture
• Stakeholders
• Governmental entities
• Organizational Relationships
• Coworkers and superiors can create ethical problems
• Corporate Culture – shared values of the organization
• Situations
• Opportunity
• A favorable set of conditions that limit, punish, encourage, or reward ethical/unethical decisions
• Elements within the business environment that help create opportunities include
• Rewards
• Absence of punishment
• Worldview
• How we see the word
• All the inputs put together help to create this worldview
• Humanistic worldview
• Teleological frameworks - the ends justify the means
• Egoism – as long as I come out on top, then nothing else matters
• Utilitarianism – the needs of the many outnumber the needs of the few
• Deontological frameworks
• Existentialism – its not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game that matters
• Contractarianism – what makes life the best for all of us is the best
• Combiniation (Hybrid) – mix and match – end result / process
• Moral development concept
• More aware of ethical issues
• Religious worldview
• In almost all christian religions, there is a golden rule concept
• Nature of Ethical Decisions
• Being socially responsible and ethical is not easy
• Situations are rarely black and white
• Having personal implications
• Extended or long term effects
• Outcomes will be uncertain
• Has positive and negative outcomes
• Ethical Reasoning
• Definition of the ethical problem
• Selection of an ethical standard
• Application of the ethical standard