Moral Frameworks for Business Ethics - Research Paper Example

Ethics in Business Introduction Developments that have taken place in the recent past in business enterprises, specifically the ones that are connected directly to industries of banking have made stakeholders and shareholders to ask of the corporations moral obligations. Business ethics and moral obligations are vital and incorporated part in management of corporations. The corporations, failures have not done much in the acquisition of business and shareholders’ trust. The management functions in a business are not all about intellectual execution but entail a range of values. For instance being responsible and fit is concerned with moral and aesthetic values. Organizations undergo in part a morality breadth by which the organizations are ruled. The people who execute are morally responsible to the people they serve. Similarly, they should also be an inspiration by creating trust and leading via common purpose and understanding. The decisions made by corporations cannot be separated from the culture, behavior and structure. A proposal was outlined by some researchers to associate a corporation to its political and social environment in the same way their decisions interfaced with the economic environment and the structure of the industry. This research represented a rigorous understanding call for social and ethical characteristics, which dominated decision making for corporations. In the last ten years, a large amount of journals in ethics has gained development. In the management of corporations, the strategic part of it came into existence recently and currently is used in planning and business. A researcher took a position that was radical that there is intrinsic worth in stakeholder’s interest irrespective of if its advances to shareholders interest. From this point of view, a corporation’s success is not the last but in another way should be viewed as a vessel to the advancement of stakeholders’ interest. Ethical analysis is the way of arriving at conflicts resolution in goals and morals. It is vital in a business. CSR developments have led to the questioning of investments decision’s moral sensitivity. Facts Morality is majorly on the norms, beliefs and values which are embedded in the process of socialization, which defines the wrong and right of a specific society. All human beings have morality which is a basic in sensing of wrong and right in association to an activity. In a corporation, the management personnel are recognized as moral people. Moral problems majorly concentrate on the harms brought by or caused to people in ways they cannot control. The principle of harm has been derived from many sources inclusive of utilitarian, contractual, virtue ethics and deontology. According to the utilitarian, the correct actions are the ones which excavate the best from any given situation. Therefore, harming others does not produce anything good, and if harm is prevented there are always good results in most cases. Every manager in any corporation makes decisions based on this case. Moral problems majorly focus on harms caused to specific groups or individuals beyond their control. The moral problems, which are related to working conditions, are complicated as the harm they cause to particular people or group is due to the benefits derived by others. For instance, the employees of a specific company might be working under pathetic conditions as their managers have embezzled some funds that were meant to deal with the situation. In contrary, a company at times has to execute irrespective of the harm that is caused to other people. The secret behind morality is related to the notion that moral issues are not measures which vary with economic and cultural conditions. The application of morality to business has been made more acceptable than before. Morality in business provides an explicit framework of morality within which business can specifically be evaluated activities by corporations. The growth of morality in business has taken a slow pace as a result of academicians who still view this from a different perspective. Though these applications of morality have been gaining grounds in the last twenty years, its application in management of corporations is still not well researched. Ethical developments that have been carried out in the recent past do not base their arguments on normative ethics. They rather keep checks on their activities from its results. They may also check on their activities through discourse, approaches of postmodern ethics and underlying principles to a decision maker’s character. There have been various moral theories in trying to deal with the working conditions of employees in a corporation. The principles of morality in the analysis are regarded as objective and not subjective. Moreover, they do not make variations on time, culture and time. The notion that the lowly placed according to education, wealth, and income, should not be harmed is the same. There is evidence that value judgments and moral standards are quite different in different groups and people. Despite many researches that are still in action, the differences in moral values have not been established and are not well understood. The deduction, which can be made, is that there are economic, social, cultural and religious influences that should be taken into consideration. Moral frameworks Egoism is the first moral framework used in this report. It mainly focuses on the interests and desires of individuals. Its notion is that the knowledge of man is limited. This argument premise’s insinuates that if individuals are concerned with their own interests without looking at other’s, then the society is destined to grow as each and every individual is left free and hence can produce (Crane & Matten, 2007). This makes any society to be better off as there is development from such notions. In summary, it advises individuals to retreat from acting on things that ultimately are not of interest to them. Another framework of morality is utilitarianism which focuses on collective welfare. It states that what controls man is avoiding of pain and gaining of pleasure. The notion behind this framework is that a moral act is that which result into good to a majority of people and to those who are affected. It can be expressed as avoid actions that will never result to any good. Virtue ethics focuses on human beings as rational and bases its argument on moral virtues that individuals should use to solve problems related to morality. Here, individuals are regarded as self-directed and are independent in the decisions they make in regards to morality. Justice and rights framework focuses on human beings to be distinguished by means of dignity. The rights notion in morality requires that other individuals should respect them. The implication of the notion is that one should not deprive another of the rights. On the other hand, there is the principle of justice which is majorly on fairness of individuals in the society. Economic efficiency focuses on the supremacy of the shareholders. It states that entire economic activities are there to serve the populations’ interest. It bases its argument on basic needs. Its implication is that if any of the basic needs is not made available to individuals then the rights premises has no meaning. There should be an aim to optimize satisfaction with the least resources as possible. The principle does dwell on maximization of profits taking the consideration of the budget constraint. Last framework in ethics and morality is non-egalitarian which focuses on justice that is in an economic system. It argues that if there is wealth distribution in a specific economy, then it is as a result of just transfers. Moral principal is used as a vehicle in the determination of what is fair, right and just in whatever human being do. The main question is how the principle of morality can be used in the solution of the working conditions in a corporation. The content contained in the different frameworks of morality help in the solution to the working conditions improvement in any corporation. The frameworks can be used in the resolution of the working conditions in that by knowing what is best for an individual worker, a corporation stands a position to serve them right. Avoidance of deprivation of any worker’s right in a corporation improves the working condition of individual workers as they are not either underpaid or overworked (Crane & Matten, 2007). The presence of justice in a corporation improves the working conditions in that the people involved treated right and equally. All these can contribute to the improvement of the production output in any corporation tremendously as all barriers at work are lifted. Corporation’s point of view According to the Newmont Mining Corporation, its success comes by serving the interest of those who make it achieve its goal, purposes and objectives. This has imitations as it should be limited considering the main objectives of an organization. In this sense, the working conditions of workers are a vital issue. This is because the workers are major contributors to the achievement of an organization. Therefore, their interest on how the working conditions are supposed to be should be addressed. Workers through the conditions they undergo while they are at work in a large scale affect the achievements of the corporation. A corporation is not merely an organization that makes profit but is supposed to be addressing good working condition to the parties that make it what is it. The workers in another sense are also the stakeholders. Therefore, Newmont Mining Corporation in the real sense should be after the stakeholders benefit and not the benefit of the shareholders. If this is taken into consideration the stakeholder’s working conditions are improved. The stakeholders of a corporation always have a negative or positive effect on the on how a corporation competes in the market. The main problem is that the corporations do always perceive that stakeholders look at benefits from the same point of view which is wrong. In the same way; stakeholders’ solution to problems are very different. Therefore, while considering the working conditions of stakeholders, each and every stakeholder’s interest should be served right and just. Newmont Mining Corporation should be innovative and inventive. For this to happen, the prevailing conditions of work for the stakeholders should be good. In the sense that the stakeholders should be presented with all the opportunities to be entrepreneurial hence be in a position to invent. The invention is a major punch for any corporation. The competence of any corporation is always decided by the different stakeholders in the corporation. To make it successful, it should work much on motivation of workers. If workers are motivated, they are left with no choice but to deliver in the market. A corporation should, therefore, make sure that its stakeholders are well motivated. Actors’ point of view Actors in this sense are the parties that are involved in a corporation in which in this case are stakeholders. The actors advocate for good working conditions in order to deliver. They believe that there is no any good that results from exposing another agent harm. For instance, the actors believe that it is improper for a corporation to make profits while the working condition under which operation takes place is poor. Therefore, according to them their interest should be served prior any as the outcome of the corporation is highly dependent on them. All the parties are to be treated in the right and the same way. Improvement of any corporation solely depends on the treatment the corporation gives them. If it is favorable, a corporation can then compete well as there is a possibility of improvement on the commodity they deal in. Recommendation It is, therefore, highly recommended that the working conditions should be addressed using the moral frameworks that have been laid. The interest of the stakeholder should come first before any other thing in a corporation. The corporation should ensure that for any action by them for good should not harm any other party. The secret behind morality is related to the notion that moral issues are not measures which vary with economic and cultural conditions. Moral issues are basically the basic principles that see a good community. The application of morality to business has been made more acceptable than before. Morality in business provides an explicit framework of morality within which business can specifically be evaluated activities by corporations. Despite the serving of stakeholders’ interest, the corporation should make sure that its state is compromised in the sense of liquidity. This because the main purpose of a corporation is profit making and, therefore, stakeholder’s interest should be served with a consideration of the corporation’s state at the back of the mind. The corporation should adapt all the moral frameworks. Reference Crane, A. & Matten, D., 2007. Business Ethics. 2nd ed. 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