1. Drawing on John Rawls’s concept of the veil of ignorance, develop an ethical
ID: 1142951 • Letter: 1
Question
1. Drawing on John Rawls’s concept of the veil
of ignorance, develop an ethical code that will
(a) guide the decisions of a large oil multinational
toward environmental protection and
(b) influence the policies of a clothing company
in their potential decision of outsourcing its
manufacturing operations.
2. Do you think facilitating payments (speed payments)
should be ethical?
3. A manager from a developing country is overseeing
a multinational’s operations in a country
where drug trafficking and lawlessness are rife.
One day, a representative of a local “big man”
approaches the manager and asks for a “donation”
to help the big man provide housing for the
poor. The representative tells the manager that in
return for the donation, the big man will make
sure that the manager has a productive stay in his
country. No threats are made, but the manager is
well aware that the big man heads a criminal organization
that is engaged in drug trafficking. He
also knows that the big man does indeed help the
poor in the rundown neighborhood of the city
where he was born. What should the manager do?
4. Milton Friedman stated in his famous article
in the New York Times in 1970 that “the
social responsibility of business is to increase
profits.” Do you agree? If not, do you prefer
that multinational corporations adopt a focus
on corporate social responsibility or sustainability
practices?
5. Reread the Management Focus on Unocal, and
answer the following questions:
a. Was it ethical for Unocal to enter into a
partnership
with a brutal military dictatorship
for financial gain?
b. What actions could Unocal have taken,
short of not investing at all, to safeguard the
human rights of people affected by the gas
pipeline project?
Explanation / Answer
1) John Rawls suggested that a decision is just and ethical if people would allow for it when designing a social system under a veil of ignorance. Rawls’ veil of ignorance is a conceptual tool that can contribute to the moral compass that managers can use to help them navigate through difficult ethical dilemmas.
(a) Although some large oil multinational countries will not charge for violating laws, if there is leakage of oil happening, the companies should consider about the ethical dilemmas by contributing toward environmental protection. The policy of the companies should strengthen the ethical issue of the environmental protection because this is an order of the society.
(b) The companies who did outsourcing should reduce costs by transferring portions of work to outside suppliers rather than completing it internally. This also means that the manufacturing process will be taken place in other countries. Therefore, the companies should consider the ethical dilemmas issue toward the pollution that might happen in the outsourcing countries during the manufacturing process. The company should strengthen the policy on minimization of waste in order to fulfill the order of the society.
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