Teaching Business Ethics

Using Obama's College Scorecard Database to Choose a College

2020-09-06T00:10:00.010-04:00

This topic is not directly related to TEACHING business ethics, but it is related to the ethical practices of a certain VERY large business in the United States: Colleges and Universities. Unfortunately, the industry (and it is correct to call it that) has reached what Zuboff identified as a sign of decline and corruption in business: organizational narcissism. This stage of a business is characterized by an "inward focus on structure and profits to the exclusion of social benefit and consumer choices." (See my post on 5 Types of Capitalism for the full citation.)

To circumvent SOME, but by no means all, of the confusion and misrepresentation in this industry, you should learn how to use the College Scorecard database, developed during the Obama administration.

Here is a short video to get you started. This was originally posted on my Facebook page for Ace Your Online Course, but it also works in this context. I explain some of the things you should look for that may indicate a poorly functioning institution, such as low student retention, low graduation rates, and low salaries after graduation.

As for its potential for a research project in academic Business Ethics, this area, frankly, may not be a very good choice, for although one can be confident the many of the current numbers are manipulated by academic administrations, it is difficult to prove it with sufficient accuracy. However, from time to time in the past, graduation rates have been investigated by Congress and there are some cases that achieved national attention, particularly among the for-profit schools. One might, therefore, be able to broaden the scope of a topic in Business Ethics to include the advantages and disadvantages of public databases in facilitating consumer choice and fair, honest competition.

Online Teaching/Learning Success = Knowledge of Theory + Constant Contact

2019-07-16T10:39:00.001-04:00

Instructors who have been thrown into online learning with little preparation and coaching on its principles are not likely to succeed. Likewise for students. I am putting this post here because using the principle of Constant Contact applies to especially to Business Ethics.

Use the following quizzes (based on our book, How to Ace Your Online Course) to see if you are up to speed about how online courses are often designed using specific principles, including constructivism, andragogy, scaffolding, and peer-to-peer communication. Quizzes are short; only 7-10 questions.

Here are some sample questions from Chapter 1. Experienced educators will be able to discern the correct answers even if they have not read the book.

The authors sharply distinguish between the educational models of non-profit (e.g., "state" schools) and for-profit schools because only for-profit schools tend to treat students like customers. TRUE FALSE
One of the basic principles of distance education, which is to provide students with pre-packaged information and associated assignments that are submitted to an instructor according to a time schedule, derives from ____________________________.

No sign-in required. No tracking. No user data collected. You will just get a score. Take each quiz as often as you like. Questions or comments? Post them here.

Chapter 1 https://www.onlineexambuilder.com/get-your-best-grades-ever-online/exam-110994

Chapter 2 https://www.onlineexambuilder.com/get-your-best-grades-ever-online-chapter-2/exam-292286

Chapter 3 https://www.onlineexambuilder.com/get-your-best-grades-ever-online-chapter-3/exam-288377

Chapter 4 https://www.onlineexambuilder.com/get-your-best-grades-ever-online-chapter-4/exam-288772

Business as Service to Humanity -- and Divine Calling

2017-12-17T16:17:00.000-05:00

Sometime between 1895 and 1915, Elbert Hubbard, one of the most famous motivational writers and entrepreneurs of the early part of the 20th century, wrote the following:

At the beginning of a Business Ethics class, the usual procedure is to describe the course in terms of an overall plan and the expected outcomes. In the past, I have been inclined to tell students

You will learn historically important ethical theories
You will learn how to apply them to contemporary problems

I don't think one can avoid the applied theory approach, but I feel that too much time is spent in Business Ethics describing how easily greed seems to get ahold of people and how theoretical developments in theory (such as Rawlsianism) will lead us away from the Dark Side. Theories are fine, and very helpful, but as I have indicated elsewhere, I don't believe even Kant thought his theory could do all the work. There has to be an inner well from which pure water of the spirit can be drawn -- and this can take a lifetime to build. I think it would be wise to spend some time discussing the history of capitalism and the role of work in life. I would tell students

You will learn historically important ethical theories
You will learn how to develop a positive philosophy of life for the betterment of humanity through business activities

BTW, Elbert Hubbard based his operations in East Aurora, New York, the town where I grew up. We were reminded of him often at school. Hubbard was among the many famous people killed by the German attack on the Lusitania in 1915.

Going Back to College?

2017-10-28T12:13:00.000-04:00

BACK TO COLLEGE?

Some thoughts and some guidance for non-traditional students returning to college

Have you been out of high school or college for 5 years or more? Thinking about attending college for the first time or about returning to college to complete your degree? If so, then you will likely be classified by schools as a “non-traditional” student. Generally, this means you are over 25 and have a job.

In recent years, colleges have made considerable accommodations for non-traditional students. The difference between “traditional” (17-18 years old) and non-traditional students is disappearing in the college classroom. The average age at many colleges is in the middle 20s. In online schools, the student body is even older; the typical online student is a woman in her 30s.

As a non-traditional student you have some advantages:

You are smarter about the ways of the world. You have experience that gives you wisdom and maturity that younger people usually lack. Some of what you have gained from experience may count for college credit (see Tactic 3 below).
You know how to be disciplined with your time and energy. Younger college students waste an enormous amount of time socializing.
Online education, in particular, is heavily slanted toward an adult learning model. The science of teaching adults is andragogy. It differs from pedagogy, the science of teaching younger students (under 25). See http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-andragogy-and-vs-pedagogy/ for a short explanation.

You also have some challenges:

You may need to take the SAT or another entrance exam to get into the best schools. If you have not taken the SAT before, this will likely mean you will need to pay for preparation courses. These days, it is almost mandatory to spend considerable time, energy and money to prepare for nationally-scored entrance exams like the SAT. If you have some schools in mind, check the requirements for returning adult students; some schools do not require the SAT for returning adult students.
If you already have a busy life, it is not going to be easy. Beware of “college degree programs” that promise you a degree “in your spare time.” You will need at least 10-15 hours a week dedicated to study if you are going to earn a meaningful degree.

I have listed various tactics for getting additional education below.

Tactic 1: Forget the degree – just get professional certificates

You may wish to consider some alternatives to getting a degree, such as a certificate from a professional organization or a major corporation. In the future, the traditional undergraduate degree may be replaced by a series of certificates.

Certificates vary a great deal in their importance for employers and their public credibility. Passing the state law boards or CPA exam gives you very high credibility. Earning a certificate in conflict resolution from a weekend seminar at a community college has limited public value; it is unlikely to get you a job in conflict resolution. Some colleges offer certificates, although these are usually at the graduate level. Before you spend the time, money, and energy earning a certificate, make sure that it has legitimate value. Do you know a person who has gotten a better job because of an earned certificate? Do professionals in your line of work speak highly of certain certificates? Is a certificate required to do the kind of work you are interested in?

Examples of professional certificates:

The Project Management Institute

Home page: https://www.pmi.org/

Prerequisites: https://www.pmi.org/certifications/types

Many certificates require considerable background and experience in the field. The most lucrative certificates are in IT. For a list of currently popular certificates, see https://www.globalknowledge.com/us-en/content/articles/top-paying-certifications/

You may train for certification exams on your own, but corporations and some colleges offer extensive training programs. These training programs can be expensive, so be sure it is something you can do before you get involved. You may be able to find training materials online that will help you decide if a certificate is right for you.

Tactic 2: Test the Waters

Some colleges allow adults to take one or two courses without being formally admitted into the school. This way, you can find out if you are ready for college-level work with minimum risk. Often, there are night, summer-session, or online courses available for adults in this category.

Tactic 3: Take CLEP Exams to Build up College Credits and Submit Your Portfolio

Many colleges allow older adults to take exams in lieu of passing some of the common, basic courses in a college education. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Level_Examination_Program for a general explanation. See https://clep.collegeboard.org/ for specific information on the exams.

CLEP is an inexpensive and relatively easy way to earn college credits. It is also low risk. If you already have a good high school background, you won’t spend much time or money gearing up for a CLEP test. And if you pass, it can save you from paying thousands of dollars for being in a classroom for three hours per week for 15 weeks, writing papers and taking a final exam!

The College Board lists study materials for some of the exams (https://clep.collegeboard.org/earn-college-credit/practice). Study.com also has CLEP support materials: http://study.com/academy/goal/transferable-credit/credit-by-exam/clep-exams-college-level-examination-program.html. Note: I can’t attest to the quality of the study materials and I know nothing about the difficulty of the CLEP exams – but I do know that people have gotten college credits through CLEP!

Be aware that you can only transfer a limited number of CLEP exams into an undergraduate program. Typically, in a 120 credit hour program for an undergraduate degree only 30 credits can be earned through CLEP or other means.

Some schools allow you to submit a portfolio of your professional accomplishments for college credit. For example, your work as a manager, public speaker, designer, negotiator, writer, videographer, or product developer may count for credit. For example, see Thomas Edison State University (https://www.tesu.edu/degree-completion/earning-credit.cfm), which also has its own version of the CLEP exams.

Tactic 4: Build Your Own Degree

Many undergraduate degrees merely amount to preliminary training for specific careers. If you are absolutely certain that you need a specific degree to pursue your dreams, then you should try to earn a degree in that field from the very best school that will accept you.

As you can see from the statistics kept by the National Center for Education Statistics, there are only about 30 main areas of study for undergraduate degrees (https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_322.10.asp?current=yes).

About 19% of these degrees are business related. I do not recommend business degrees unless (1) it is from a top school such as Harvard or Wharton or (2) the degree is in some highly specialized area that has a limited pool of professionals who are in great demand at high pay (examples might be tax law, international commerce, statistical analysis, big data analytics, or advanced accounting).

There are simply too many people with generic business degrees for you to stand out.

In addition, many other undergraduate degrees are completely unsuitable for adults with complicated lives and diverse experiences.

If you want to stand out and make better use of what you have already learned in life, you might want to design your own degree. Many colleges now allow students to create their own fields of study. See this informative article in the WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703628204575618622095004264

Some schools with build your own degree plans (from the WSJ article):

UMass at Amherst

Drexel

University of Connecticut

Indiana University

Appalachian State University

University of Alabama

Additional schools that allow adults to create their own degree program: http://study.com/articles/Universities_That_Let_Students_Create_Their_Own_Major.html

Tactic 5: Attend a School with a High Percentage of Adult Learners

If you can, check the average age of students at the schools that you have in mind. Evening and online sessions may have a higher average age. Some schools publish average age data for their various programs. You can also use the search engine at https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/. Use the search function (at the top) to find your school, click on the correct link that will appear below the search box, then click on Campus Life. This will show you a profile of the student body. Here is the profile for University of Maryland University College (UMUC) in 2017:

Schools that serve the military often have middle-aged students. University of Maryland University College, where I took graduate courses, is an excellent school that serves the military world-wide (http://www.umuc.edu/). Thomas Edison State University also caters to adult students (https://www.tesu.edu/current-students/handbook/Degree-Plan.cfm). American Public University System has many students currently in the military (http://www.apus.edu/).

I taught undergraduates at Capella University (https://www.capella.edu/). These students were excellent, almost exclusively older adults with jobs, and many were in the military. Capella now has a Flex-Path option that allow you to take courses at your own pace (https://www.capella.edu/capella-experience/flexpath/).

Tactic 6: Focus on Attending a School with the Right Accreditation

Visit the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (http://www.chea.org/). Click on the button for Degree Mills. Read the information there.

Also read the Wikipedia entry on accreditation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accreditation). Be sure your target school is accredited by one of the seven regional accreditation agencies listed on the Wikipedia page.

Use the map on the Wikipedia page to determine which regional accreditor should match your target school.

The “quality” of your degree depends very much on accreditation and also on the many rankings of schools published online and in print. Check how your school ranks against others in the nation or in your state.

Walmart versus Country GDPs - More Accurate Comparisions

2017-10-15T13:51:00.000-04:00

I previously published a chart "Walmart vs National Economies" (https://teachingbe.blogspot.com/2015/05/walmart-vs-national-economies.html), based on information provided by Global Policy Forum. I said the chart was "basically correct, at least in terms of comparing sales volumes to national GDPs." Although I hedged my claim at the time, I would now like to point out that the chart is extremely misleading. The total revenue of a corporation is NOT a good guide for comparing it to a national economy. Total revenue only measures what a corporation takes in; it does not measure what it contributes to an economy. In fact, if one totaled all the revenues from all corporations in the world, it would far exceed the total world GDP.

A more correct comparison of the "total production" of a corporation to a GDP would use quantities that have functions similar to those used in GDP calculations.

In order to compute what I will call the "total production" of a corporation, one needs to first compute the rough "value added" by the corporation. In the case of a retail operation, such as Walmart, the value added corresponds to the difference between what Walmart sells its goods for and what it costs Walmart to buy these goods from others.

I believe "value added" corresponds, at least approximately, to what is usually published as the operating income (income prior to taxes) of the corporation. To compute operating income, subtract both the cost of the goods sold and the additional costs of operating, selling and administration from the total revenue. In the case of Walmart, the operating income for 2016 was approximately $23B.
Note that the operating income is substantially smaller than the $485B in total revenues reported by Walmart in 2016. Here are the relevant data for 2016 from the Wikipedia entry on Walmart (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmart):

Revenue	US$485.87 billion (2016) ^[3]
Operating income	US$22.76 billion (2016) ^[3]
Net income	US$13.64 billion (2016) ^[3]
Total assets	US$198.82 billion (2016) ^[3]
Total equity	US$77.79 billion (2016) ^[3]

But the operating income alone does NOT measure the total economic impact of a corporation like Walmart because one must ADD back the approximate total wages supplied by the corporation to the domestic (and international) economy. Just as in the calculation of GDP, where wages (as measured by consumer spending and savings) measure productivity, the sum of all wages earned through a corporation constitute a significant portion of corporation's total productivity.

Total wages paid are not always easy numbers to obtain. Total wages paid, for example, are almost never listed as a separate item on annual reports. The number is buried in "selling, general and administrative expenses." I estimated the average worker salary for Walmart's 2.3 million employees at $27,000, based on several posts on the web. The average paid to employees in the U.S. is probably higher than that, but the average paid to employees in other countries is less. Using this calculation, salaries amount to approximately $62B. I therefore estimated Walmart's "total production" at $85B ($23B + $62B).

This dramatically changes the relative size of Walmart's economic footprint if it is to be compared to national economies. Instead of being slightly smaller than Norway (per my first chart), it is a relatively minor economy on the world scale -- although it is still only slightly smaller than the Slovak Republic (population 5.5 million) and slightly larger than Sri Lanka (population 21 million).

*Total Production is an estimate.

I 'Heart' Libraries

2016-09-14T09:05:00.001-04:00

Click image for 110 seconds of provocative humor about libraries, research, and learning.

In Miss Harp's high school English class there was no fooling around. She threatened to take twenty-five points off for a spelling mistake! And when it came to writing a research paper she demanded things for which parents would be likely to sue the school these days. We were required to go to the Buffalo and Erie County Central Library in downtown Buffalo, a thirty-minute drive from our little town. Miss Harp provided us with all the information we needed, including driving instructions and bus schedules. When we got there, she expected us to use the massive card catalog, which had approximately 500,000 entries at the time. She expected us to search through them by topic and by author, using her techniques to select the best entries. For many of the resources, you filled out request slips and gave them to the librarian, who would send the slips to the stacks. The books would arrive 10 or 20 minutes later.

We expected to spend quite a few hours in the library and I think most of us spent many days on our papers. But when all the papers were handed in, Miss Harp provided an unbelievable kicker to her monumental assignment; she announced to the class

"I am going to show you how to do a research paper in two hours."

Well...two hours may have been a bit of an exaggeration. You first had to spend some time reading broadly in a topic area in order to identify a very narrow topic that was likely to have a fairly limited number of books and articles as possible resources. (I picked the historical importance of Thomas Percy, poet and literary collector of the 18th century.)

Once you had your narrow topic, you were off to the races. Miss Harp explained you would need an assistant -- a "runner" who would help you search the card catalog, fill out request slips, and also deliver books to your desk at the library. As books and resources piled up on your desk, you would request more (since one book often referenced another), return the unused books, and scan like mad for key passages, quotable quotes, and arguments pro and con for your topic. By writing down ideas and quotations on cards, a pattern would soon emerge. You would start arranging the cards so that they would form the basis of an introduction, body, and conclusion to your work. Two hours later, your research would be finished. You would have your cards arranged in order. The only remaining tasks would be to write the necessary connecting sentences and the introductory and concluding paragraphs.

These days, students are likely to think they can write a paper in a similarly short amount of time. After all, one only needs to google a few phrases and the resources present themselves to you -- or so many students seem to believe. This technique, needless to say, is both dangerous and inefficient. Google points you to resources that are popular, not necessarily the ones that are the best and are also peer reviewed. In most undergraduate environments, you must use peer-reviewed literature in all your citations.

Today, libraries, particularly college libraries, are as important as ever. If you are a student, you have access to the stacks. You can be your own "runner." You can find the appropriate stack areas in your library in a matter of minutes. No need to spend an hour in front of a computer screen at the library looking at all possible resources. For many topics, all the books you need to look at are on a couple of shelves. Almost all of it is peer-reviewed literature, already vetted by librarians and professors at your college. Libraries can provide you with the limited, quality resources you need to write your paper in "two hours!"

Long live Miss Harp's basic methods and long live the libraries that make them possible!

Consistency in Environmentalism and its Religious Foundations

2016-04-23T13:41:00.000-04:00

The verbal messages I recently heard at an Earth Day forum on religiously-based environmentalism were uniform and univocal. Given certain premises, they were consistent. But complete consistency is rather difficult to find at such events. Take the free water supplied, for example.

I don't think many environmental groups approve of bottled water and bags of ice generated by an ice machine.

You'll want to do better in your classes! You'll want to consider many possible rational and religiously-inspired viewpoints. You might want to point out that conservative "global warming deniers" consider themselves to be as completely Christian in their beliefs as those on the other side.

When teaching units on environmental ethics within business ethics classes, I suggest you include a survey of religiously-based views that might already be in place among your students. Students might be more comfortable if this is done anonymously. Try to find where students stand on some kind of reasonable spectrum of possible positions. For example, you might submit the following propositions to students to get reactions/votes:

• God created nature and created man to be the steward of nature.

– Therefore, environmental ethics involves duties toward everything in the created world, including living and non-living things. Natural things have intrinsic moral worth because God created them.

• We don't know whether or not God created the natural world. Apparently, natural things (living and non-living) only have moral worth due to human valuations. Man’s task is to understand natural laws and use them wisely.

– Therefore, environmental ethics involves satisfaction of human desires only, prudent use of resources, and possibly duties to future generations.

• The relationship between God and man is somewhere between the two possibilities above. God acts partially, or perhaps entirely, in and through man.

– Therefore, environmental ethics involves essentially human prerogatives, but ones that may be informed by or reflect the divine-human relationship.

Obviously, you will need to rephrase these options to your own liking. The last one is rather difficult to explain concisely. I would call it the "Hegelian Option" and it might well be omitted in an initial survey.

Trolley Madness and Student Values Surveys

2015-11-13T09:48:00.001-05:00

Lately, "trolley car ethics" has even come into the popular press. Click the image or link below for a very funny example.

http://existentialcomics.com/comic/106

In the classroom it should be made clear that the purpose of such thought experiments is not really to pose authentic dilemmas to students, but to try to find ways to "measure" pre-reflective moral intuitions or instincts among a variety of people.

I have done such measurements myself, using the "survival boat" problem that is often used in textbooks.

Here is another kind of question that can be used in the classroom to help students understand the purpose of philosophical hypothetical dilemmas:

The voice of God is speaking to you, and you are quite certain it really is God. God says: I am going to give you two statements and you must pick the true one or risk damnation. The first statement is: slavery is wrong. The second statement is: the ultimate material constituents of the world are string-like entities vibrating in space-time; in other words, physicists' contemporary string theory is true.

Which statement do students favor?

There is a quiz interface and an explanation of why choosing statement two would be an odd choice here:
http://www.mindtools.net/cgi-bin/quiztest.cgi?globalethicsquiz

You need to complete the quiz to see the instructive feedback I offer and the reasoning behind the "God speaks" question.

Learning from Kant: A "Student Advisor" Dialogue

2015-08-17T12:52:00.001-04:00

Strange things happen when you page through the works of great philosophers. You may suddenly find yourself looking at a passage that no one has ever mentioned but which -- to you at least -- seems like a potential gold mine of insights into the philosopher's thinking.

I stumbled upon a little-known dialogue written by Kant that seems have held some importance for him as an example of how his philosophy might be taught. In several places (see my previous post on learning Kant without the Categorical Imperative), he indicates he believes his philosophy utilizes moral predilections that are already in place in the common man. It is clear, however, that although the dialogue starts off plausibly (particularly with the student's silence!), it rapidly becomes highly implausible as an actual dialogue. The same, however, might be said of many of the Platonic dialogues.

As a teaching tool, I suggest having students view the video and write briefly about whether or not they find any of the exchanges between the Advisor and the Student effective in stimulating thoughts about why one should lead a life of moral integrity. For example, Kant asks the student if he thinks there ought to be sufficient warrant -- rather than mere chance -- for some people (including one's self) to have happiness. Is happiness (true happiness) something one earns?

The video is a word-for-word reading of Kant's entire text from the 1836 translation of "The Metaphysic of Ethics" translated by J.W. Semple.

Kant published this work in 1797.* He concludes a major section of the work with this dialogue, which he intended as an example of how moral instruction should work between a "Preceptor" and a "Student." The silences -- the inability of the student to answer the first two questions -- follow Kant's "stage directions."

In the introduction, I state that the translation is from 1898, but that is an error. We used the 3rd edition of Semple's translation (1886).

*NOTE: More recent translations identify this work as the "Doctrine of Virtue," or "Part II of the "The Metaphysics of Morals." Not to be confused with his "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals" of 1785, which is commonly used in undergraduate courses.

Are Multi-level Marketing Companies Moral?

2015-06-17T14:33:00.000-04:00

This question would make a great debate/presentation topic in a Business Ethics class. Right now, it is a hot topic, with a federal investigation of Herbalife in progress and vocal supporters and critics on each side. Detractors point to the unreasonable expectations MLM companies tend to foster. Supporters like the way MLM companies can help jump start entrepreneurial activities with very little initial investment.

I believe that laws now require MLM companies to issue statements describing how many people actually make more than they spend on their MLM activities, but I don't think this has dimmed the attraction of MLM companies. It seems everyone thinks they will be among the very small percentage of true success stories.

The Herbalife story would be a good way to introduce the moral issues for MLM companies.

1. Start with Bill Ackman's presentation about Herbalife: http://www.factsaboutherbalife.com/

2. Research Herbalife responses to Ackman: http://ir.herbalife.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=861261

3. Continue with information about the FBI investigation into Ackman: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-fbi-is-investigating-bill-ackman-over-herbalife-2015-3

4. It is dubious that any strictly factual questions upon which moral judgments might be made can be determined from Internet materials. For that reason, I suggest that discussion be limited to principles that ought to guide MLM activities. If you listen to Bill Ackman, the entire concept of MLM is wrong and the MLM business model ought not to be allowed. Is the concept wrong, or just some specific types of business practices? Take a look at the reforms that Herbalife has already instituted in response to critics. Also, consider the types of products being sold through MLM. Do they benefit the consumer? Are they good values?

The Herbalife case may be a watershed moment in the industry. Is the industry headed in the right direction? What about foreign MLM companies that are spinoffs of USA brands? Are they morally sound, or do lax regulations in other countries allow for practices that would be illegal in the USA?

Below is an example of a real "ad" that I can now admit (more than 30 years later) I helped distribute by placing on car windshields. An idiotic practice to say the least! One time I put the ad on green paper and the green dye leaked out of the paper and onto the car when it rained. Let me tell you, S. Henry did some fast talking to avoid getting himself sued.

And what was the opportunity? Life insurance. In fact, I think it was a pretty good product, but the way it was promoted was wrong. Financially, it turned out well for founder and those who got in early: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_L._Williams,_Jr. Other businessmen have also had success with MLM: http://www.forbes.com/profile/richard-devos/

Walmart vs. National Economies

2015-05-01T10:48:00.001-04:00

PLEASE NOTE: THIS INFORMATION HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH AN IMPORTANT RECALCULATION AND NEW CHART. SEE https://teachingbe.blogspot.com/2017/10/walmart-versus-country-gdps-more.html

THE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE) ARE STILL GOOD BUT SHOULD BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE UPDATED CHART.

It is sometimes argued that large companies like Walmart "control" too much of the world's economy. For example, Global Policy Forum states "Two hundred giant corporations, most of them larger than many national economies, now control well over a quarter of the world's economic activity" (GPF). I have checked this calculation. It appears to be basically correct, at least in terms of comparing sales volumes to national GDPs. Also correct is the approximate relative size of Walmart in 2000 (apparently the date of this web page) and its size now. Below is an updated graph I made using data from 2013.

For class discussion: What does it mean to say that large corporations "control" a significant portion of the world's economy? Is "control" the right word, or is the role of corporations better described in some other way? Suppose you are the CEO of a large multi-national corporation. How would you understand your role and your responsibilities? In small group discussions, describe how you would present this understanding to the world at large. Design/describe text and images that you would use on your corporate home page. What are the key ideas, phrases, concepts or images you would use? Compare your discussion results with the Walmart International's home page (NO PEEKING!).

Kant's "Method" and Corporations: Moral Instruction without the Categorical Imperative

2015-03-29T13:24:00.001-04:00

Kant’s “Method” and Corporations

Part 1: Moral Instruction without the Categorical Imperative

It is instructive to consider Kant’s ethical theory in ways that differ from the usual undergraduate approach, which usually consists of an explanation of the categorical imperative based on the principal arguments found in Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals of 1785.

One sees a slightly different side of Kant’s approach to ethical theory in The Critique of Practical Reason of 1788. This great work concludes with an important section subtitled “Methodology of Pure Practical Reason.”

In this brief reflection, I attempt to bring forward some of the ideas I see in this concluding section of Kant’s work that may have application to the teaching and study of business ethics.

This is obviously a very limited account, based on a very small portion of Kant’s works. Nevertheless, I think the following may provide useful and thought-provoking material for teachers and students of business ethics. From the perspective advanced here, the categorical imperative is better thought of as a formula that expresses the consciousness of “the moral law” in its universal application to conscious, free agents, rather than as the pre-defined substance of the moral law itself, which so many students memorize first and then expend such great efforts afterwards seeking to actually comprehend and apply to real contexts.

Kantian Model of Moral Development

Kant’s “Method” of Moral Instruction in the Second Critique

Kant asks, "What is pure morality?" – a question one might believe an ordinary person could not answer. But Kant says that only philosophers make such a question difficult or "doubtful" (194). Unencumbered by philosophy, the common man knows the answer "not indeed by abstract general formulas, but by habitual use like the difference, as it were, between the right and the left hand" (194).

In other words, Kant believes ordinary people already understand his philosophy on an intuitive basis; moral instruction, therefore, will merely be a matter of raising this intuitive understanding to rational consciousness. Kant indicates that this process may be described as a series of stages

A. Stage One: Illustrative Stories and Developing Veneration for Duty

Kant observes that nothing seems more natural among ordinary people (such as businessmen and women) at social gatherings than to turn from idle gossip to involved discussions of the moral merit of certain people or certain actions, using very precise and detailed reasoning.

He then suggests that educators ought to make use of our natural abilities to reason about morality and that certain kinds of stories are best suited for this purpose. Kant asks us to consider the following story outlines:

· A sailor who tries to rescue the victims of a shipwreck at the cost of his own life

· A nobleman pressured by his king, under threat of loss of life, who refuses to provide false testimony against the king’s enemies.

While the first story describes a noble action, we don’t know what motivated the sailor. Was it duty itself, or was it some thought of public recognition for heroism if he succeeded?

Kant very much prefers the second type of story, where it is clear that a wrong act (lying) is not to be committed despite all costs to the agent. For Kant, the value of virtue and adherence to duty becomes most clear in circumstances where there can be no thought of public recognition or profit. Stories should make clear that it is respect for duty that is operative in the mind of the hero. Storytellers should trust that their audiences will find such adherence to duty even more inspiring than the depiction of noble sentiments or meritorious actions. He refers to the process as a method of strengthening “the heart,” rather than simply a form of mental calculation or conceptual awareness. He imagines impressionable young minds being moved from admiration, to amazement, to profound veneration for duty.[i]

B. Stage Two: Critical Examination

The second stage is practice in the critical appraisement of moral situations and moral actions in real life.

On a conceptual level, this involves sharpening one’s judgment about what duties may be involved in a situation. For example, Kant says one should learn to discern what is due to persons as a matter of their rights rather than their wants, or what is morally required rather than what is merely legally required.

More importantly, this stage involves turning one’s critical facilities inward. One must be sure that one's own motives are pure, that is, unsullied by notions of gain, emotional inclinations, or vainglorious thoughts of social acceptance for meritorious actions. For example, in a thorough self-analysis, one might discover that one is merely inclined to be honest because of fear of being caught being dishonest and losing social status rather than for the sake of being honest itself.

Kant inserts a very insightful, almost existential, element of philosophical psychology in his exposition of this phase of moral development. The process of becoming aware of one’s own inclinations and acting without regard to them, or even against them, in the face of duty is at first frightening, or as Kant says “arouses an initial feeling of pain” (201). By attending only to the demands of rational duty and ridding ourselves of the many desires or inclinations we may have, we start to open ourselves to a new kind of sensitivity of the mind: awareness of our freedom to act independently of inclination. Kant’s example: Suppose I am the only one conscious that I have infringed upon the rights of someone else (perhaps someone I dislike); nevertheless I feel the obligation to admit my mistake.

Finally, Kant also argues that during this stage we will experience the satisfaction of using our cognitive facilities and we will come to admire the beauty of our abstract thoughts about morality, even if such practice does not yet produce a true love of duty and a desire to adhere to it for its own sake.

C. Stage Three: Establishing Self Respect

The final stage follows very quickly on the heels of the second stage. When we have learned that we can act with disregard to our inclinations we almost immediately realize that we ourselves are the determiners of our own moral worth. For if, Kant implies, we recognize that demands of reason are worthy of respect in and of themselves, and the demands of reason indicate we should do certain things, then we cannot respect ourselves unless we conform to the demands of reason. The effort to find a basis for – and keep – one’s self-respect becomes the basis for all future moral development:

On this respect, if it is well-founded—if the human being dreads nothing more intensely than to find himself, in inner self-examination, inferior and reprehensible in his own eyes—every good moral attitude can now be grafted, because this is the best and indeed the only guard to prevent ignoble and corrupting impulses from penetrating into the mind. (202)

Because one is continuously faced with new challenges in life, and new, often conflicting duties, it is obvious that this process never ends.

Kant’s “method,” as described in this section of the Second Critique, ends rather abruptly at this point for, as he argues, the many kinds of duties one is likely to have, as well as the general duties one can never escape, would require a more detailed analysis.[ii]

The Ending Point of Kant’s Method: A State of Consciousness

A final note about Kant’s method: there is also a sense in which Kant’s moral psychology recognizes that the process of moral development does not involve a goal that is perpetually out of grasp. For Kant is clear in the pages immediately following his discussion of the method (i.e., the Conclusion of the Second Critique) that deep metaphysical and moral reflection does indeed have an ending state or form of consciousness. Here we find the most famous sentence in all of Kant’s works:

Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and reverence, the more frequently and persistently one's meditation deals with them: the starry sky above me and the moral law within me” (203).

From the point of view of understanding Kant’s method, it is important to know how he explains what it means to recognize the moral law within. Kant says our consciousness of the moral law is directly connected with our consciousness of our existence as intelligent personalities that lead lives independent of our animal nature, lives that are separate from the sensible world and proceed “to infinity” (203). By way of comparison in the history of philosophy, we might say that Kant alludes to a kind life-long Cartesian meditation, the result of which is not direct and indubitable consciousness of both one’s own existence and of God, but direct consciousness of one’s own existence as a free agent. This free agent has the responsibility to make itself compatible with the demands reason. I believe it is significant that in this overview of his philosophy, Kant does not mention any of the conceptual architecture utilized in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, such as the ontological status of the good will (unique among all possible things good in themselves) or the categorical imperative.

Conclusion
The above reflection points toward new possibilities for teaching Kant’s ethical theory. Instead of beginning with the thesis statements presented in the Groundwork, instructors and students might well begin with a more gradual, empirical approach that recognizes how our moral reflections about the true nature of morality and the concept of duty actually begin.

WORKS CITED

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Practical Reason. Trans. Werner S. Pluhar. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2002.

[i] Classroom exercise: Ask students to reflect on examples in popular culture of stories that might be morally instructive using Kant’s criteria. Hint: Casablanca.

[ii] In fact, Kant provided this analysis in one of his last works The Metaphysics of Morals (Die Metaphysik der Sitten), published in 1797. This later work includes Kant’s arguments for why we are obligated to promote the happiness of others, a topic which has some important implications for business ethics.

How to Help Students Integrate Faith and Ethical Theory

2015-01-20T16:19:00.000-05:00

Understanding Faith and Ethics: A Guide to Undergraduates

There are various ways to approach any paper involving ethical theory, your own thought, and concerns or feelings about your religious faith.

1. From a pragmatic point of view, it is often best to simply adopt a viewpoint. Don’t worry about your “real” beliefs. One "adopts" a point of view, e.g., Kantianism, for the purposes of the course and simply goes through the paces. Just do the paper, expressing your adopted viewpoint as well as you can, taking care to express the view accurately, consistently, and supporting it with research. If you have an open mind, you should find the viewpoints of any of the great philosophers quite compelling in any case. You may find that you start to overcome your own doubts and write quite convincingly! And don't worry about your instructor either. Most philosophy instructors care about how well you explain and defend a view, not whether or not you actually believe it or have doubts about it.

Suppose in your heart and in your faith you are radically opposed to abortion. But suppose it is actually easier to write about reasons in favor of abortion (perhaps you have been forced to write in favor of abortion in a group or have been assigned that side at random). Don't worry about it. It's only a paper -- an intellectual exercise that will do you good in the long run. Your real beliefs can be expressed at another time or place.

In some cases, you may be able to adopt several seemingly incompatible views (e.g., Kantianism and Utilitarianism) can be applied the case(s) you are studying. In these kinds of cases, it is often a good strategy to show how several views you have adopted can be shown to support a single point of view you would like to defend as an intellectual exercise (not necessarily what you actually believe). If done properly, instructors may be impressed by this kind of effort.

2. If you feel whatever ethical system you explain or apply in your paper ought to correspond to your religious beliefs, that is very often not hard to accomplish. (Again, just be sure you stick to philosophical reasoning in your defense of your view! In a philosophy course, don't invoke religious principles as starting places.)

Many of the moral developed by Western philosophy support Christian principles and values. Likewise, the principles and values of many major world religions correspond to philosophical principles. Every major religion supports a version of the Golden Rule and the values of truthfulness and service to humanity are emphasized in most major world religions, just as they are in philosophically-derived systems of ethics.

Kant values the individual, freedom, intention, and the will in a very Christian fashion, but builds his system on reason. He demonstrates the necessity of the Categorical Imperative on rational, not religious, grounds but the content of the Imperative is similar to the Golden Rule. You may find it useful to know that Kant thought that it is necessary to think that God exists even though there is no rational proof of His existence.

Many features of Aristotle's ideas about building moral character have been incorporated into Christian teachings. Aristotle's four classical virtues (wisdom, justice, temperance, and courage) became part of the seven Christian virtues. Aristotle supports his system with bio/psychological evidence and a belief that nature tends toward goodness or excellence. In many (but not all) cases, following his line of argumentation will result in a point of view that is similar to a religiously-inspired point of view.

John Stuart Mill thought his system -- in its utter selflessness -- reflected the very essence of Christianity, but he made no reference to it in the initial description of his system. He wanted a rational argument that was independent of religious presuppositions.

Obviously, Aquinas is good choice, if you want to use a philosophical system that should cohere with religious ideas. Aquinas thought that reason and faith can be pursued as separate paths that will end in the same truth. But in this case, you must be careful to separate the strictly philosophical reasoning he makes about the nature and purpose of morality, i.e., natural law theory, from any religious principles or doctrines he also invokes. However, be advised that many books and ethics courses mention Aquinas and natural law theory only to dispense with them as irrelevant to contemporary ethical thought. Be sure to clear research in this area with your instructor.

3. Remember that in a philosophy course (Business Ethics or other applied ethics courses) saying that your beliefs are held on the basis of faith might make you feel good, but it does nothing to help justify your system to others. The point of your philosophy course paper is to make a rational defense of your view. The 9/11 attackers felt they were justified by their faith, but it is hard to believe they could have produced a rational defense for their actions. You want something you can feel good about and explain to others in a logical, rational way, with supporting evidence from the texts utilized in your course or those you have found in your research.

Remember that in today's world you are expected to be able to converse with anyone and to defend and explain your views to anyone. Unlike the 9/11 attackers, you are expected to use reason, to appeal to common experiences, logic, relevant facts, and widely-understood general principles that have no special religious significance in themselves. It's a tall order! But there are many ideas in your course textbook (or online reading materials) that will help you.

Basic Business Ethics in 20 Minutes

2014-12-07T15:57:00.001-05:00

Here is an old slideshow I made that is still good -- as far as the basics of Business Ethics are concerned. The mind map image below is a more current redo of the one used in the old show. The files may take a while to load on your browser, so after you click the image below, wait for the slideshow to load. Click on the "S" is the corner of each slide to hear the sound.

The Most Important Changes in Education - Part 1

2014-04-27T11:38:00.001-04:00

Here is the first video of a series I am contemplating about how educators perceive what changes have been most significant in education over the last few decades. Comments or questions invited. If you are in the Atlanta area, contact me if you would like to appear in a similar video.

Dr. Haney (on the left in the video) is a Professor in the School of Business at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia.

Click HERE if the above does not play.

The Complicity Problem: How Businesses Should Answer Questions about Outsourcing

2014-02-20T08:58:00.000-05:00

How to Answer Questions about Outsourcing | Create Infographics

Russell Brand and Classic Ignorance: How to Respond to It?

2014-01-13T22:07:00.001-05:00

There are many great examples of ignorance and specious reasoning on the Internet. Here (in the video, below) is one of them, generated as a result of comedian and actor Russell Brand's entry into politics. An analysis of this example might well serve as a way to start a course in Business Ethics, demonstrating to students how to respond to this kind of political posturing and poor reasoning.

Within the first minute of this video we have three propositions about the global business and economic climate that many people believe:

1. The current system is destroying the planet.
2. The current system creates massive economic disparity and it should not.
3. The current system ignores the needs of the people.

[Click link if video above does not play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHDcOBgWZqc]

These are propositions that some undergraduates taking Business Ethics might also believe, especially if they are not business majors and are just taking Business Ethics in order to fulfill a general education requirement.

As a general rule, anyone who starts a conversation (or, perhaps more accurately, a proclamation of moral beliefs) by announcing these kinds of theses ought to be stopped immediately by a series of Socratic-style questions and counterarguments. Failure to do so effectively accepts the propositions as true.

Here are some guidelines for immediately stopping proponents of classic ignorance. Students could learn these guidelines in their first Business Ethics class. Let us suggest how one might respond to these three theses, taking them in order.

1. Ask for a definition of "destroying the planet." What specific metrics count as being the "normal" state of the entire planet and how do we measure "destruction"? Ask for specific facts that back up the conclusion that the earth is being destroyed using these metrics. One might also begin by asking the proponent to comment on facts relevant to an alternative view about the environmental impacts of human activity, i.e., that these impacts may be a problem, but are also a very manageable problem. Advanced capitalist economies are effectively addressing environmental impacts through governmental regulation and voluntary programs adopted by industries. For example, one might point out that the overall air quality in the U.S. is improving (using concentrations of poisonous substances as a metric).

Source: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2010/03/40-years-later-air-quality-has-never.html

Such trends are a strong indicator that similar improvements can spread across the globe as the third world economies become able to afford increased pollution controls. Therefore, the claim that "the current system is destroying the planet" appears to be an exaggeration, overlooking specific areas of substantial improvements in environmental quality.

Furthermore, global warming (often considered to be the primary measure of "environmental destruction") has been minimal since 2000. Previous computer projections of temperature rises have proven to be in error by as much as 71%. The most recent IPCC report, the authority most often cited for predictions and evaluations of the global warming phenomenon, does not predict monumental global disasters. It does predict significant changes -- quite a different concept than "disaster." These changes include a rise in sea levels of 40-62 cm and a rise in temperature of 1.0-3.70 degrees Celsius (see Bjorn Lomborg's Newsletter on the latest IPCC report). Some portion of these changes are probably due to human activity but, according to critics like Bjorn Lomborg, current policies will do little or nothing to alter these outcomes, which are not catastrophic in nature. We would be better off spending money on problems we can solve now, such as improving the health a well-being of humanity at large. See my mini-course at http://mindtools.net/globalwarming/. The proponent of Classic Ignorance should be asked to provide a ready response to these facts and counterarguments.

2. What does "massive economic disparity" mean and are there specific "levels of inequality" that would constitute justice? The suggestion that a system "should not" have a certain outcome (inequality) ostensibly means that there is a moral standard not being met. Is the implication that ALL incomes should be equal? If not, what levels of inequality are acceptable and why? In addition to asking for these clarifications, students should be exposed to Nozick's famous "Wilt Chamberlain" argument, a powerful libertarian argument in favor of the idea that there should be no limits to salaries because prescribed limits are apt to violate the justice of free exchanges for goods and services (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchy,_State,_and_Utopia). Students should also have facts about inequality at their disposal. Here is a current (as of January 2014) study of income inequality in the OECD countries: http://www.oecd.org/social/inequality.htm.

Source: http://www.oecd.org/social/inequality.htm.

In this case, another valuable lesson can be learned by students. There is often some validity to the general ideas promoted through popular expressions of Classic Ignorance. Inequality among OECD nations has increased by about 10% since the mid-1980s. But students need to learn that views about income inequality should be based on data and analyses of economic causes rather than broad condemnations of "the current system."

3. What does the phrase "ignore the needs of the people mean"? This is a great example of a phrase that appears to have moral meaning and to express concern and empathy but is actually devoid of specific, measurable content. Who are "the people" with which we should be concerned, and what exactly are their needs? Are we, for example, referring to the global population and Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

If we are, then it is easy to see that in terms of satisfying the most basic needs of food, shelter and safety, the global population has seen dramatic improvements since the fall of the Soviet Empire and the adoption of capitalist principles on a much broader global scale since the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Source: http://mindtools.net/GlobCourse/formula.shtml

In the spirit of Socrates (and, incidentally, much of analytic philosophy as well), one should seek clarification of concepts used in propositions. Defenders of the popular view that "people are not being served" need to be asked for an immediate clarification. They need to specify exactly what they mean before we can assess their claims.

More than learning about specific facts, a course in Business Ethics needs to teach methods of reasoning and principles of meaningful dialogue. The basic principles of meaningful philosophical dialogue have not changed since the days of Socrates: when someone makes a global statement about ethics, politics, or economic systems, ask them to clarify their meaning, cite facts in support of their thesis, and provide a reasonable argument rather than a mere accusation.

John Cage's 10 Rules for Stuents and Teachers: The Business Ethics App

2013-10-29T13:27:00.001-04:00

I recently came across a battered copy of a copy of a copy of Cage's 10 Rules. The original was apparently hanging on the wall at Merce Cunningham Studio in NYC. I discovered the content has been reproduced endlessly in multiple forms on the Internet. I prefer this battered copy (http://lailijun.com/category/studio), which harkens back to the days of manual typewriters -- a way to signify the timelessness of the advice.

The advice most clearly applies tutelage in the arts, but there are some points that can apply to Business Ethics. Although the contemporary classroom emphasizes the leaderless, "guide on the side" model, Number 5 should give both students and teachers food for thought. Self-discipline is not just good to have in the an online Business Ethics course, it is absolutely essential. Teachers may not want to pass themselves off as wise, but there is nothing wrong in showing others how to look for wisdom. And wisdom is essential to one's ultimate success in business because ethical models, theories, and formulas cannot do all the work.

As for Number 10, Business Ethics continues to be a growing and changing field. While Business Ethics needs to take some starting points for granted, students should be ready for new rules. As corporations are granted additional rights as "persons," we may see their corresponding responsibilities expand. As terms like "stakeholder" and "sustainable" work their way into ordinary language we may see these concepts drift away from their original meanings. Students who go through a Business Ethics should know what the existing "rules" are, but should also be ready to seek out new ones.

Student Research Topic: Business's Expressions of Political Opinion

2013-07-24T23:33:00.002-04:00

It's possible to make classroom use of ill-conceived infographics.

Here is yet another infographic that deconstructs itself:
http://www.clarityway.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Obamas-Health-Reform.jpg
For my first example, see http://teachingbe.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-new-business-ethics-issue-linkbait.html

One use of disinformation in the new example above is the claim that the "status quo" causes 14,000 people per day to lose their insurance. While technically true this claim disguises the fact that the number of uninsured has remained nearly constant for decades at 45-50 million. Some people lose (or voluntarily stop) their insurance every day, but an equal number sign up for new policies. See my previous post on how to apply the principles of business ethics and critical thinking to health care issues. (The fact that people "lose" their insurance is due to a fundamental error in thinking about who should be providing insurance in the first place. As it stands, people lose their insurance if they lose their job. But in this post, let's move on to the questions and concerns about infographics.)

The ostensible purpose of the infographic is to promote ObamaCare. But for anyone who values free choice and free enterprise, the graphic actually amounts to a laundry list of reasons to repeal the law. As I write this, anti-ObamaCare sentiment is growing even among former supporters, such as union leaders. By detailing the extent of government intrusion into free enterprise, the graphic actually lends support to claims by opponents that the bill effectively "turns over 16% of the economy to the government."

Should corporations be "allowed" to post infographics that are self-serving? Of course! What if their infographic works against their own agenda? That does not seem to be an immediate moral problem; rather it is a problem of implementation.

Yet, there are many questions for students of Business Ethics about the proper use of "information" in support of political views. Students could discuss the following questions:

1. When is it in the interest of businesses to promote political positions? (Keep in mind Kantian duties for truth as well as duties toward public good and total utilities.)
2. What types of arguments should business use to support positions?
3. When taking political positions, what values should businesses seek to promote?
4. In communications with the public (ads, editorials, blogs, etc.), how should businesses distinguish "information" from political opinion?

Examples of ads, blogs, or infographics could be used. These questions take on even larger proportions if one includes the "infotainment" industry.

A New Business Ethics Issue: Linkbait, Infographics and Truth

2013-03-29T15:27:00.002-04:00

For teachingbe.blogspot.com by Anthony Birch

This topic arises from an email exchange I had with Randy Krum, president of InfoNewt.com and author of CoolInfographics.com. His thoughtful response taught me a new word, "Linkbait," and opened up new possibilities for undergraduate and graduate topics in Business Ethics. I want to spell out the concerns I have and help students get a foothold on this important issue.

We might frame the Business Ethics question this way: Is it morally justifiable for commercial interests to hide their direct or indirect responsibility for "persuasive information" that they want reproduced or used by others?

To capture the moral sense of the question, consider the following example. Suppose a friend tells you that the best auto loans in town are always at XYZ Bank. You have reason to believe your friend and you repeat the information to others. As it stands, the situation raises few moral concerns. But now assume that your friend failed to tell you he had been hired by XYZ Bank specifically to help promote its business. Furthermore, XYZ Bank always uses high-pressure sales tactics to get customers to buy financial products other than auto loans. Clearly, the moral situation is different now.

My concern with this area of digital media ethics arose from repeated requests from people (who did not identify themselves as having any commercial associations) to post infographics like the one shown on the left. These infographics can be huge. To see the original, click here: http://www.mastersdegreeonline.org/masters-of-tax-evasion. Apparently, some people who identify themselves as infographic creators feel empowered to ask for quite a bit of free webspace.

There are number of problems with this infographic. First, it offers not just neutral information, but an argument in Business Ethics – and a very poor one at that, since it skirts the issue of the government’s own responsibility in creating a tax code that encourages the behavior of Apple and other companies. Second, it links back to a site that is only loosely connected with the subject matter of the infographic. Third, the site itself is, in my opinion, suspect because it has no clear authorship. The infographic falls into the category what I would call – using my newfound word – “linkbait” because it is primarily an attempt to drive up hits on a target site only loosely connected with the material in the infographic.

There can be, however, legitimate uses of infographics. Differentiating legitimate from questionable uses is great topic for Business Ethics. It turns out that the industry is sensitive to the potential misuses of infographics and has even proposed a code of ethics relating to their use – still more reasons that this would be a good topic for undergraduate or graduate research papers.

Below I have reproduced Randy Krum’s reply to me when I expressed concerns about the use of infographics.

I usually approach this question with clients from the standpoint of SEO. Companies tend to listen more closely when it's about business success and not ethics.

From the SEO perspective, companies use infographics as an online content marketing tool. Well designed infographics with good information are shared heavily. They drive up the backlinks to the host site, which in turn drives up their pagerank and placement in search engine results. For this to be effective, the infographic needs to include the sponsor company and ideally the URL back to the original infographic on the host site. People need to be able to find the original to create the links the host company is looking for.

Infographics about a topic that has nothing to do with the business of the host site are "Linkbait." They may be fantastic designs, with valuable content, but if the topic of the infographic is unrelated to the hosting site, that’s when the problems begin.

Google is concerned about infographics as Linkbait in a big way. Matt Cutts (Head of Webspam at Google) made some initial comments about infographics in this interview by Eric Enge (http://www.stonetemple.com/matt-cutts-and-eric-talk-about-what-makes-a-quality-site/), and I recently did my own follow-up interview with Eric about this topic in particular (http://infonewt.com/blog/2013/1/14/interview-with-eric-enge-about-infographics-in-an-seo-strate.html). The challenge is that Google wants to provide relevant results to the users, but many infographics are created and hosted by sites that have nothing to do with the topic of the infographic. In simple terms, when Google ranks sites based on the number of visitors and links to that site, and the infographics are unrelated to the site, Google ends up delivering bad results to their users. It’s way more complicated than that, but you get the general idea.

As an example, this James Bond infographic is a good design on a popular topic, but it’s published and hosted by H&R Block, a tax preparation company. This is “Linkbait”. A link to the infographic from someone that likes James Bond movies, probably should not be interpreted by the search engines as an endorsement of H&R Block or their services. However, today every link to the infographic increases the pagerank of the H&R Block site.

Data transparency is also very important in infographic design for the sake of credibility. The best designs provide a URL linking directly to the source data so that anyone can look at and even evaluate the data on their own. This design of the BBC budget has a source URL to the data summarized in a Google Docs spreadsheet that anyone can easily access: http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2010/3/9/bbc-budget-treemap-infographic.html

Many, many designs have these fatal flaws:

· Sources not listed

· Data is misunderstood

· Data is misrepresented and taken out of context

· The data visualization doesn't actually match the data

· The data source is clearly identified, but it's not a credible source

· The data shown is not quantifiably, statistically valid

And many more errors. Most often these are honest mistakes made by people who just don't understand statistics or data visualization well. Only a small number of them are actually maliciously misrepresenting the data to support their own message.

Check out this proposed Code of Ethics for infographic designers: http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=showcase.view&showcaseid=152

Note in particular that the proposed code identifies infographics “visual journalism.” Please contact me or respond to this post if you decide to do a paper on this topic.

Expressing the Opposing Views on Global Warming

2012-12-10T10:01:00.000-05:00

At present, I am developing course material for a new course on Business Ethics. One unit in the course treats Environmental Ethics. After reviewing a number of sources, particularly Lomborg's Cool It and Muller's Physics for Future Presidents, I came up with a short-cut way of expressing some of the fundamental differences between the IPCC/Gore view, as expressed in Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, and the Skeptical view that developed soon afterward. This short-cut overview of the problem is indicated in the images of the slides below.

I tried to maintain the fact that thinkers like Lomborg and Muller agree with significant parts of the IPCC/Gore view but disagree with Gore's assessment of the risks involved and recommendations for action. I am calling Gore's view the "Popular" view and the Lomborg/Muller view the Skeptical/Business/Scientific view. This way of stating the opposing views runs counter to the popular conception that Gore's view is "scientific" and all other views are held only by "climate change deniers," who ignore scientific facts.

Since the course deals with moral reasoning in the context of business, it is crucial for students to see how moral arguments can be constructed.

Moral arguments must include:

1. Statements of facts.
2. Statements of duties.
3. Recommendations for action.

In addition, utilitarian arguments must include:
Statements of probable outcomes of actions or failures to act.

I add this last provision because I have taken a largely utilitarian approach to the problem of climate change. The deontological idea that we owe a certain standard of living to future generations is also included in my considerations.

It is important to note that the statements of facts involved in a case may be quite general in nature. In seeking consensus, this can prove to be crucial. Thus, many parties can agree that "the temperature of the earth is increasing" and that "human activity is at least part of the cause" without specifying the rate of temperature increase and the proportional contribution of human activity. The proportional contribution of human activity may be assigned a wide variety of percentages without changing the basic facts.

I have stated the basic fact in the global warming argument as simply as possible: human activity is increasing the earth's temperature. This does not specify by how much or at what rate because in a broad moral argument the emphasis is on the fundamental nature of the action, not its specifics.

Statements of duties can also be based on consensus. There are a number of moral duties agreed to by businesses, environmentalists, and skeptics alike -- and a duty to ensure future generations with good living conditions is one of them. In other words, duties appealed to in moral arguments need not come from a metaphysical/Kantian analysis or theological speculation about the relationships between God, man and nature. It is often sufficient to merely utilize a duty that is commonly accepted without stating anything deeper about it.

I avoid the common mistake of supposing that the so-called "climate change deniers" want to disregard our duty to future generations. In my way of framing the arguments, both sides agree about duties to future generations.

The remaining two statements in the Skeptical/Business/Scientific view are just modifications of the statements in the Popular view that provide a more nuanced utilitarian appraisal of the probable outcomes of increased temperatures and therefore also of a more nuanced recommendation for actions. The unmitigated disasters predicted by Gore have not happened and are not likely to happen. Therefore, a rational approach is to facilitate human development with current energy sources while using science to help calculate the risks and benefits of both older and newer technologies.

The completed course will provide supporting information for both views. You can see a segment of the complete course HERE.

Statement 2 in the Skeptical/Business/Scientific View finds support in Lomborg's talk HERE.

Statement 4 in the Skeptical/Business/Scientific View finds support in reasoning from Muller's 2008 book, as indicated in the following graphs, reproduced in slides from my course:

Often, lines of reasoning are based solely on the first graph, as follows: Since the U.S. and the European Union are the primary sources of CO2 among developed countries that can afford radical changes in their energy policies and basic economies, these countries should do so.

The second graph, tells a different story. It supplies a prima facie case for the argument that developed economies are already very efficient in terms of energy used per $1000 of GDP. Therefore, efforts to improve the energy efficiency of developed will produce minimal changes to the world's total output of CO2. By contrast, improving the energy efficiency of the economies of China and India (approximately 7 and 4 times LESS efficient than the U.S., respectively) will lead to large reductions in future world total CO2 emissions. This line of argument is further supported by projections of economic growth rates. For example, Jeremy Siegel estimates that by 2050, the economies of China and India combined will be four times the size of the U.S. economy (Siegel 217). This line of reasoning does not necessarily imply that the developed world should do nothing to reduce CO2 emissions, but it does change the focus how we should think about efforts -- from all countries -- to reduce CO2 emissions.

Works Cited

Muller, Richard A. Physics for Future Presidents. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008. Print.

Siegel, Jeremy. The Future for Investors. New York: Crown Business, 2005. Print.

WFEB International Leadership Symposium on Ethics in Business 2012

2012-11-07T14:11:00.000-05:00

There will be an interesting conference held in Brussels. The price is reasonable, especially if you can get your company to pay for it. Some of the speakers:

Mr Sanjiv Ahuja, Founder and Executive Chairman, Augere
Dr Jacques Attali, Founder, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Prof. Jerzy Buzek, Former Prime Minister of Poland, Former President of European Parliament
Mr Nirj Deva, MEP
Prof. Dr. Ronald Jeurissen, Chair of Business Ethics, Nyenrode Business Universiteit

2012 Symposium

World Forum for Ethics in Business: 30 November - 1 December 2012European Parliament, Brussels

International Leadership Symposium 2012:Capitalism – but not reloaded?!

You can read more about it here: http://www.wfeb.org/symposium_2012.html

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The promotional page lists a number of rhetorical questions (below). Just as an exercise, I sketched out some answers to their questions. I very much doubt that anyone in Europe would take the slant I have, but as Rawls argued, there are many forms of social/political arrangements that are compatible with justice. My own view is that being compatible with justice is only part of story. Being compatible with human excellence is the most important part.

Has capitalism failed as a whole?

Obviously not. The global GDP has skyrocketed in the last 20 years. It has about doubled. A good portion of this is due to the liberalization of previous communist/socialist economic policies.

What has led to this crisis of epic proportions?

In Europe, an ill-conceived social contract which holds that workers can retire, living off other productive workers, when they still have 30 more years to live. In the U.S., government regulations promoting "equality" in housing, which forced banks to make bad loans.

What are the lessons to be learnt and what are the solutions?

Too many people are dependent on government and its false promises.

Eliminate the idea that states or corporations owe you income for life after a certain age. Force people to save. Naturally, also provide safety nets for those who can't or won't save, but make people more reliant on themselves and their families.

There can be no economic union without a political union. Create the United States of Europe.

In these most challenging times, is the focus on human values and ethics an indispensable key to overcoming the crisis?

Yes. This means better, more long-term utility calculations and more emphasis on Aristotelian virtues that promote human excellence, as well as aiming toward Kant's vision of the kingdom of ends-in-themselves. More specifically, it means removing government and corporate paternalism and inspiring young people to create great things for the benefit of humanity, especially new food and energy sources.

How could this approach be integrated in governance in private and public institutions?

China and other countries could give up their mind-control political policies. Public schools could explain that nothing is for free. There are no such things as "free" government services. Make people more aware that all government funds come from other citizens.

What is the leadership style that can pave the way for a sustainable future?

Servant leadership, as informed and sustained by utilitarian, Kantian, Aristotelian principles. While this is broad, it is better than "stakeholder theory," which allows the ad hoc addition of "stakeholders," disconnected from the primary duties defined by the principal/agent relationship. Many people think the necessary reform to capitalism involves siphoning off some profits in order to give to those less off. There are two problems with this: (1) it is an invisible tax on consumers and (2) it fosters dependency. These problems need to be addressed.

Moral Dilemmas of MNCs: Bribery and the FCPA

2012-11-01T15:21:00.000-04:00

This is a prototype of a longer slide show, which is currently in the format of a video.

As it stands, the conclusions, regarding the duties of MNCs, are adequate, although perhaps not as strongly stated as they might be. This is intentional. The slideshow is intended as a background for discussion. It is not a statement of a definitive moral position. (The full show includes a discussion of Affirmative Action, adding much more complexity to the duties of MNCs.)

I have omitted further criticism of Donaldson and Dunfee. At present, I do not see how their social contract theory improves upon a combination of utilitarianism and Kantian principles.

At a minimum, this information should be useful for those students and instructors who want a brief overview of the provisions of the FCPA.

The connection to what I call "the morality of the market" is derived from my reading of Bowie, Donaldson and Dunfee, and my understanding of how markets work, which is that only moral markets can ensure prosperity for all.

There are many directions students could pursue regarding this topic, among them:

Why is the U.S. not in the highest category of transparency?
How does transparency figure into the health insurance and health care markets?
Can we do better than saying we must end in a "grey zone" or "broad middle ground" (see last slide)

Please contact me if you are a student, Instructor, or publisher and you have found this material useful for papers, class presentations, or assignments. I need indications of interest to help promote a 6-hour video script, much like a TV series, that will use slideshows like this one.

Bowie's Kantian Ethics: The Principal/Agent Relationship

2012-10-30T09:12:00.000-04:00

NOTE: Please also see https://teachingbe.blogspot.com/2015/03/kants-methodand-corporations-moral.html for additional information about the application of Kant's ideas to business ethics.

One of the keys to understanding Bowie's Kantian approach to business ethics is the importance he gives to the principal/agent relationship.

In a principal/agent relationship, one party (the agent) agrees to perform work on behalf of another (the principal), usually in exchange for money.

The exchange of money, however, is incidental to the moral duties imposed by the agreement. In Kantian terms, when we promise to perform work on behalf of another party we are bound by Kant’s Categorical Imperative. The Categorical Imperative requires not only that we keep our promises, but that when we work on behalf of others, we do so in a manner we could wish to be universal – that is, to work to the best of our ability.

Click on image to magnify

The diagram above indicates two principal/agent relationships that are essential to a Kantian view of business ethics. These relationships are particularly important in publically-held corporations, i.e., corporations with shareholders, boards of directors, management teams, and employees. As one can see from the diagram

(1) Management is the agent of shareholders, who are their principals;

(2) Management is the principal to employees, who are their agents.

The downward arrows represent the flow of power -- which party can hire or fire the other. But note that each of these relationships is really reciprocal. Management owes something to shareholders (responsible use of funds and resources), but shareholders owe something to management (oversight and responsible voting). Employees owe honest labor to management, but management owes safe working conditions to labor.

NOTE: In the context of contemporary business ethics, one should also consider the nature of the principal/agent relationship that may hold between management, or corporations as a whole, and government. This relationship is indicated in the diagram as being ambiguous and requires careful scrutiny in business ethics -- in much greater detail than can be handled here. But initially, one may argue that at least to some extent, corporations are "agents" of government policy and lawmakers. Environmental law provides a good example. In following the law, corporations may be said to be working on behalf of government objectives and therefore to be agents in this sense. However, it is not clear that corporations need to do more than follow the law, i.e., that they are morally required to serve as agents who creatively and independently take measures they believe to be in the interests of their principals (lawmakers). Indeed, as Milton Friedman has argued, it can be morally wrong for corporations to pursue independently-conceived measures, even if deemed to be in the spirit of the laws, especially if such measures place disproportionate burdens on employees or shareholders. Undertaking such measures would circumvent the responsibilities of government to create and monitor effective policies. The hypothetical duties corporations may believe they incur contrast with the actual duties incurred by managers and employees. Managers and employees are required, by the very nature of their work, to be creative and inventive; that is, to use their talents for sake of their principals.

Bowie makes two important points:

First, virtually everyone in the business world is involved in some kind of principal/agent relationship that is fundamentally a moral, rather than financial, relationship.

Second, the duties imposed by the principal/agent relationship are not absolute. These duties can be overridden by other moral duties. It is NOT true, for example, that management needs to return as much profit as possible to shareholders at all times. Other duties, such as duties to consumers, environment, or community, can override the duty to return profits.

CLASSROOM DISCUSSION:

Discuss each of the above principal/agent relationships. What kinds of duties are involved? Use role play and/or small discussion groups to generate ideas, issues, and lists of duties. Where do conflicts tend to arise among duties? What are specific examples from case studies of conflicting duties? What picture of the role of business entities in the implied social contract emerges? How does the government/business relationship differ from the other relationships? For the government/business relationship, use affirmative action law, a topic Bowie also discusses in this context, or other laws that often generate questions about government overreach such as safety, financial, or environmental regulations.

Although moral psychology and how to train employees are not usually topics in business ethics classes, there are some interesting features of Kantian ethics that might also be of use in classroom discussions. See Kant's Method and Corporations.

Works Cited

Bowie, Norman. Business Ethics. 2nd. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1990. Print.

Women: Equality, Opportunities, and Power

2012-09-28T11:47:00.001-04:00

"EQUALITY" STUDIES: HELPFUL AND OFTEN MISLEADING INFORMATION

The World Economic Forum produces a Gender Gap report every year. The Gender Gap is (apparently) intended to indicate the short-fall from ideal equality for women. The survey uses data from 135 countries and ranks the countries overall as well as in various categories. Shown below are results excerpted from the 2011 report.

Countries are given an overall ranking based on the relative opportunities and success of women in the areas of economics, education, health, and political empowerment.

The measures are relative because economically advanced countries do not have an advantage over developing countries. For example (as I interpret their rubric), if an entire country had only 10,000 low-paying jobs, consisting of 5000 women and 5000 men with equal opportunities for advancement for both men and women, the economic participation and opportunity score would be 1.0 (perfect equality). The actual scores involve more factors, including numbers of senior managers, etc., but measuring more or less equal outcomes and opportunities appears to be the idea behind the scores.

Iceland leads the world with an overall score of .85 and a number 1 ranking also in Political Empowerment of .70. This means, roughly, that on average there are 85 women for every 100 men that have been afforded equal objective success, education, and political empowerment.

Of the 135 countries listed in the study, Yemen is the overall worst in the world. Yemen comes near the bottom in Political Empowerment, just ahead of the last place in Political Empowerment held by Saudi Arabia (not listed in the chart), which scores a perfect zero in Political Empowerment.

	Overall		Economic Participation and Opportunity		Educational Attainment		Political Empowerment		PPP (IMF 2011 EST.)
Country	Rank	Score	Rank	Score	Rank	Score	Rank	Score
Iceland	1	.85	24	.75	1	1	1	.70	$38,061
Bahamas	22	.73	1	.90	1	1	117	.04	$30,959
United States	17	.74	6	.80	1	1	39	.19	$48,387
Yemen	135	.49	135	.32	134	.642	131	.02	$2,307
China	61	.69	50	.68	85	.980	57	.15	$8,382
Gambia, The	77	.68	19	.76	122	.830	66	.14	$1,943
Japan	98	.65	100	.57	80	.986	101	.07	$34,740
India	113	.62	131	.40	121	.837	19	.31	$3,694

Source: http://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2011
PPP Data: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

I think this is a good resource for students doing research on the general shapes or lifestyles of various countries. For example, as shown in the chart above, a tiny country like The Gambia with a PPP similar to Yemen's can achieve an economic score higher than an advanced first-world country like Japan or a communist country like China. Students might research why this is so.

The study provides many other angles for research and discussion. For example, many countries have laws requiring a mandatory percent of both genders on corporate boards! Is this a good thing? This would be a great question for discussion. One might combine it with the usual issues confronted in debates about Affirmative Action and quotas. (See Table E3, page 75 of the report for the chart showing countries with quota systems for boards of directors.)

Now for the disclaimers.

Studies like this present a warped sense of reality because they place numerical values on cultural norms and give a pejorative interpretation to situations that may be entirely satisfactory to the people in those countries.
Would the Japanese really prefer a vastly different kind of situation? Doubtless some cultures carry sexual differentiation in social roles too far, but how would one determine what is best? This is a problem that has been discussed for over 2000 years, starting most notably with Plato's Republic. Students should be advised that these problems may not be as easy to solve as some contemporary policy-makers would have us believe.

Nor are differences in participation in various occupations, on corporate boards, or politics necessarily indications of discrimination. They MAY be such indications, but merely reporting the numbers does not prove ill-intended discrimination. This is just a logical fallacy that Business Ethics students need to be very familiar with. To show the fallacy, we can state the argument as follows:

Group X comprises 10% of occupation Y.
Group X comprises 20% of the population.
Therefore, Group X has been subject to discrimination.

It should be clear to students that this kind of argument involves errors of presumption (causal connection) and insufficient data. One needs to supply the objective data on the job qualifications of Group X, the employment preferences of Group X, the practices of local employers, the intent of employers, and other data in order to make plausible claims about ill-intended discrimination. (This does not apply, of course, to what some call "systemic discrimination," for which divergent data population/employment data can be an indicator. For example, systematically inferior education for Group X is a form of injustice that may cause population/employment divergences. But in this case, the problem is whether we can label such injustices "discrimination" without confusing the issue or diluting the meaning of terms. Systemic social injustices involve Kantian duties for equal opportunity and the utilities of workforce diversity.)

In summary, studies like the one provided by the WEF can be useful to students as a way to get a picture of the world, but they should be skeptical of any implied political/cultural points of view that are woven into such studies.