The need for ethical conduct in business is becoming increasingly obvious, given

Question

The need for ethical conduct in business is becoming increasingly obvious, given numerous examples of questionable action in recent history. In making decisions,managers must consider how their decisions will affect shareholders, management, employees, customers, the community at large, and the environment. Finding solutions that will be in the best interests of all of these stakeholders is not always easy, but it is a goal that all managers should strive to achieve. Furthermore, even managers with the best intentions will sometimes make mistakes. If mistakes do occur, managers should act responsibly to correct those mistakes as quickly as possible, and to address any negative consequences.  

The Markula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University identifies five principles for thinking ethically:

Utilitarian Principle - The good done by an action or inaction should outweigh any harm it causes or might cause.

Rights Principle - Actions should respect and protect the moral rights of others.

Fairness Principle - Equals should be held to, or evaluated by, the same standards.

Common Good Principle - Actions should contribute to the common good of the community.

Virtue Principle - Actions should be consistent with certain ideal virtues.

Question:

Give two example of unethical conduct involving product or service design and the ethical principles.

Explanation / Answer

Two examples of unethical conduct involving product or service design and the ethical principles are:

1. An unethical conduct involving a product design is the over use of a harmful ingredient in a food product. For instance take the example of a Chinese restaurant. The restaurant is putting in excessive quantities of ajinomoto (monosodium glutamate) as this works as a taste enhancer. The FDA has put a limit to the use of ajinomoto but the restaurant is violating the FDA’s limit and putting in more quantities of ajinomoto in its food than what is allowed by the FDA. The restaurant does this to make its food attractive in terms of taste quotient and hence attract more diners.

The restaurant, in this case, is violating the utilitarian principle of ethics. This is because the good done by the action of using extra quantities of ajinomoto is increasing the taste quotient of the food items being sold. But this action also causes harm as excess consumption of monosodium glutamate can lead to health related problems in the long run. Thus the harm of this action outweighs the benefit of this action and hence will be considered unethical.

2. The second example is the use of phosphates in detergents (both laundry detergents as well as dish detergents). Companies manufacturing detergents add phosphates to their products as it helps in making the detergent more efficient and enabling it to efficiently remove all grease and dirt from the clothes and utensils. But on the flipside the phosphates remain in wastewater and in the long run they enter into a natural body of water. This contaminates the natural water bodies and leads to water pollution. Many developing countries still do not have regulations against the use of phosphates and many companies still make use of phosphates in their detergents.

This is unethical from a utilitarian perspective as the harms from the use of phosphates far outweigh the benefits of phosphates.

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