Business and Ethics Reflection

Question: Describe about the Report for Business and Ethics Reflection. Answer: Introduction In my paper of business ethics reflection, I will be emphasizing on four major important issues in the society. These issues include personal values and ethics, ethical models, the corporate social responsibility of individuals and the ethical dilemma that most people face in their everyday life. Of all the four major issues of ethical models that I have outlined, the one that I identify with most is utilitarianism. Most of the time it helps me a lot whenever I face an ethical dilemma, and It is a must for me to take a decision or position in a particular matter or situation. The second part of my paper will be all about how my personal values and ethics have shaped and made the person that I am. I will specifically talk about culture, my internal reflection and also my family. I will also discuss an example of a dilemma that I had to face sometimes back and how utilitarianism helped me in making the right decision. Finally the last part of my paper will direct my attention on the corporate social responsibility where I will compare the Chinese ethics and values with the American ethics and values. We will look at how these values and ethics have influenced the people who are in China and America especially in the business organizations. Lastly, I will share my personal opinion that will cement the importance of corporate social responsibility that we all have. The Models of Ethics Ethics is described as a section of philosophy that mainly and most of the time answers different queries about our morality. Ethics plays a critical and vital part in everyones life especially when it comes to making hard and important decisions on matters of great interest to the society and business. I have learned that there is existence many different ethical theories. However, it should be known that some of these ethical theories like the theory of justice, utilitarianism and moral rights have a lot of influence on many people than any other theory that exists (DesJardins and McCall 2014). The Justice Theory Many individuals who regard this theory by taking it as their ethical model most of the time argue out for a fair distribution of the people's resources where the people allocate their burdens and benefits fairly amongst themselves. The theory is known for always treating everyone fairly and impartially according to the legal rules (Kolk 2015). The most generous thing about this theory is that it has the ability urging and motivating people to help the others who are in great need. However, I have learned that one bad thing about this theory is that takes equality as an absolute thing without even looking at the price that will be involved in implementing this equality. The theory of moral rights It mainly looks at the production and respect of everyone in the society and also their fundamental rights that they enjoy. The best thing about this theory is that it makes it easier to protect our fundamental rights. However, the bad thing about the theory is that it does not care about the costs and benefits of getting respect for any other right (Su 2014). Relativism of culture Cultural relativism is the standard that ethical conduct ought to consistently be deduced in cultural perspective. Universalism tells us that moral principles are supreme, which has the different denotation to the traditional relativism. Utilitarianism Utilitarianism asserts to us that anyone who is making a decision must always maximize utilization for the society as a whole. According to my understanding, this simply tells me that everyone must first all settle down and think about the costs and benefits that are going to result from his or her decisions and actions to the whole society. If the advantages are going to outweigh the costs, then it is appropriate for a person who takes himself or herself as a utilitarian to act accordingly. I have learned that utilitarianism needs me always not only to look at the influence of my actions on myself, my friends and my family but it also needs me to know how my decisions are going to have an impact on the society as a whole (Provis 2015). This shows that utilitarianism always makes people responsible for their actions on the society. However, the difficulty with utilitarianism is that it is not easy to measure the personal pain and pleasure against all the members of the society and furthermore it cannot be constrained by law. But all in all, I prefer utilitarianism amongst all the other models because it cares more about the consequences that the decisions that we make will have on the society. I do not think that it is only enough for us only to care about our personal dissatisfactions and satisfactions at the expense of the society (Lai, Pan and Vukovic 2013). Utilitarianism makes it easier for us to have a deep critical thinking before we take any decision especially when we face dilemmas in our life. As a utilitarian, I will always focus on analyzing other factors before taking any decisions. Utilitarianism will help me to list other alternative courses of action and finally take the right alternative that resona tes well with the society as a whole. This will enable me to form a win-win situation. Personal Values and Ethics My personal values and ethics are going to be very easy to understand for me. When making decisions, I will not have to be always depending on my intuition. All always be asking myself some questions before taking any decision or action e.g. whether my decision is legal or not, whether it complies with my values? If I take the decision? How will I feel? Whether my decision is going to benefit the society? Whether I am willing to sacrifice something for the benefit of the society? This critical thinking will then lead me to my solution and answer. My internal reflection, my culture, and my family, are the major three things that always have an influence on my culture but the one that influences my personal ethics is the family. My family has instilled in me a stronger sense of wrong and right ever since I was a child. My parents behavior has influenced me much more. They have taught me always to have some sense of ethics in everything I do. The culture that I live in has also influenced a lot by me as I have learned how to be loyal to my faith, to be good to people and always seek for justice. My internal reflection has a significant role in my individual decision-making process. Whenever I do something against my morals and principles, it will have some bad feelings of guilt or shame. If I do something that meets my personal ethics and values, I will have a feeling of proudness. This will influence creation of my ethical principles and my decisions. My ethical dilemma experience I remember some time back when I faced an ethical dilemma when I was given more balance than I was to be given in a supermarket after shopping. My ethical dilemma was whether to give back this excess money back or just to take it as a good luck and walk away. I realized this after walking some distance from the supermarket. I had to make the right decision. If have to take the money then it would mean a loss for the supermarket, and on the other hand, the money would have also helped me to buy more things that I needed. After critically analyzing the situation I decided to give the extra change back to the supermarket. I felt and knew I had done the right thing. The corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility can be described as a way of corporate self-regulation that has been incorporated into various business models. This makes every business organization to be responsible for its actions and decisions. However, many people argue that taking more corporate social responsibility can be a violation against the business organizations in profit maximization. Every country in the world now views America and China as superpowers of today (Schweigert 2016). These two nations share some differences and similarities regarding their values and ethics. This way, the two countries can have more influence on their people and many businesses around the world. Both America and China have the same similarity in the attitudes in peoples lives. As we all know, life is the most precious thing in both of these countries and hence the two countries always focus on ensuring that the business organization follows and practice good corporate ethics. Both of them value the importance of integrity as it is seen as an intangible comparative advantage for companies both in America and China to attract more customers. However, the two countries are said to have the different cultural perception that forms the pattern of environmental stimuli, implicit understanding that is known for conveying meaning between the people of different culture and the physical cues. For instance, China has a high level of context culture whereas U.S. has a lower text culture (Kolk 2015). The Chinese always prefer to have group duties, values, and decisions while the Americans, on the other hand, prefer personal initiatives, achievements, and self-assertions. Conclusion I have learned that ethical principles have a critical role in my decision-making process. Our ethical principles are many times shaped and influenced by various dynamics like culture, family, friends and our internal reflections. Critical thinking should always be a critical ingredient in our life. It will help solve our ethical dilemmas more easily. We should adopt a utilitarian approach so that we put the privileges of the society first before our personal profits. It is important for every business organization to take a corporate social responsibility to help in the development of the society. References Provis, C., 2015. Intuition, analysis and reflection in business ethics.Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-11. Schweigert, F.J., 2016. Conclusion: Moral Formation and Ethical Reflection in Business Education. InBusiness Ethics Education and the Pragmatic Pursuit of the Good(pp. 241-249). Springer International Publishing. Kolk, A., 2015. The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the environment to CSR and sustainable development.Journal of World Business,51(1), p.2016. Lai, K., Pan, J. and Vukovic, S., 2013. THEORY SESSION 6 COMPARATIVE BUSINESS ETHICS CRITICAL REFLECTION. DesJardins, J.R. and McCall, J.J., 2014.Contemporary issues in business ethics. Cengage Learning. Su, H.Y., 2014. Business ethics and the development of intellectual capital. Journal of Business Ethics,119(1), pp.87-98.