Examine the ways in which business ethics might be used to develop a critical dimension in Business Education.

Authors Avatar

SSS - Assignment 1

Critical Business Studies

Examine the ways in which business ethics might be used to develop a critical dimension in Business Education.

The purpose of this assignment is to examine the nature of business ethics and to consider ways in which business ethics may develop a more critical approach to the study of business. You will be expected to develop your understanding of business ethics and to consider the implications for business educators.  You will base the assignment upon one or a series of classes in which aspects of business ethics have been developed.

Introduction

The subject of Business Studies is often taught in a positive light, celebrating the existence of the business organisation and how it strives to meet the needs of consumers, creates employment, and rewards investors.  The reality of business activity portrayed in the media however can be somewhat different, ranging from immoral to illegal behaviour.  

Immoral behaviour of businesses is more commonly highlighted in the media, this depends on one’s perception of immoral; this could be the relocation of a business causing unemployment and misery to the area in which they currently operate in order to reduce operating costs which was recently done by Hewlett-Packard in Erskine (BBC, 2009), producing and marketing a product that severely damages the health of those who consume it which is highlighted in the 2004 film “Super Size Me”; or practices which damage the environment in order to save money and lower immediate threats to employees such as Shell and the Brent Spar incident in the late 1990s during which Greenpeace campaigned heavily for Shell to reverse their decision to sink the oil storage tanker into the North Sea and successfully overturned the decision. (BBC News, 1998)  An Example of illegal behaviour is the Robert Maxwell Pension Scandal in 1991, in which the businessman illegally used money from his Mirror Group employee pension fund to keep the company afloat.  This left employees and retired employees with reduced occupational pensions which they would have relied upon heavily as a source of income after retirement. (Independent, 1999)  Another example of illegal behaviour is the Enron scandal, in which the company falsely declared profits, and tried to cover mistakes by destroying key documentation.  The end result included filing for bankruptcy and criminal trials for several executives.  (Time Magazine, 2002)

The elements of the A level curriculum; External influences, Marketing, Accounting and Finance, People in Organisations, Operations Management, Objectives and Strategy, Business Analysis and Change (QCA, 2006), create opportunities to include a critical dimension within classroom teaching, however, they are traditionally taught in the positive, celebratory manner.  This unbalanced view of business studies is detrimental to the subject itself, as it does not reflect students experiences of business activity in their everyday life and what they are exposed to in the media and to student learning as it does not encourage students to enquire, reflect, debate and question traditional business values and ideas.    (Hall, 2007)  Restrictions in time, along with the current emphasis on summative assessment and individual teacher’s, and school’s performances in assessments being scrutinised, with the added pressure of dealing with students who have a low expected grade and who struggle to deal with the ideas, theories and concepts within the mainstream style of teaching business studies can in some situations leave little room for this important aspect of business studies.  This raises the question as to whether the specification should be changed in order to accommodate this aspect of business.  

What is Business Ethics?

The term Ethics is defined in one A-level Textbook as “a set of values and beliefs which influence how individuals, groups, and society behave” then states that “Business ethics are concerned with how such values and beliefs operate within a business” (Hall, Jones & Raffo, 1993).  Another A-level textbook defines ethics as “a code of behaviour considered morally correct” and states that business ethics “provide moral guidelines for the conduct of business affairs”.  (Marcouse, Gillespie, Martin, Surridge & Wall, 2003)  In a more specific textbook, covering the topic of business ethics, it is given the simple definition as “the study of business situations, activities and decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed”.  (Crane & Matten, 2007)  

Join now!

Business Ethical Theory

Business Ethics is a very complex subject.  The decisions that we make as individuals are not always what others would consider to be ethical, however are part of human nature such as breaking the speed limit when we are in a hurry, telling a lie to prevent ourselves, a friend or a family member from getting into trouble or to avoid hurting someone’s feelings.  Business ethical dilemmas may be more complex; it is not based one or two people but many; in the case of a multi national firm it is not just based ...

This is a preview of the whole essay