Discuss about the Business Ethics for Case Study of Michel.
Business ethics are the ethical and moral principles, which guide an organization towards right direction (Su 2014). This study will assess the ethical dillemma in the case study of Michel, who is a product manger of a technical start up company and handed by his boss with the confidential and private information of the competitive companies. Moreover, his boss has unethically accessed the confidential and private information of competive firms from their company server (Weber 2001). This study will also discussion Michel’s do’s as per relevant ethical theories. The study will also assess the boss of Michel as either ethical or unethical. Apart from that, the study will also suggest wheather Michel should whistleblow in such situation or not for preventing the unethical action of the boss in future. Furthermore, the study will also provide four reasons for which business ethics are relevant to the business.
Ethical issue defines a problematic situation, which requires an individual or an organization to select between alternatives that must be assessed as ethical or unethical. In business or organizational context, it involves decision making, which is actually aligned with sense of right or wrongness (Floyd et al. 2013). In the case scenario, the boss of Michel has unethically accessed important and private information of competitor organizations. Moreover, the boss has accessed the private and confidential data of the competitor companies without taking any permission from them. The boss has answered Michel that he has not personally broken any password. However, he has obtained the information through electronic access via a colleague. It may not create any serious legal complication but it is obviously a serious ethical dilemma in the organization.
As per the organizational code of conduct, no organization has right to access any private and confidential information of other companies (May, Luth and Schwoerer 2014). Therefore, in this case, the boss of Michel has obviously breached the ethical boundaries of the organization by accessing the private and confidential information of competitor companies without any permission from them. On the other hand, the boss has also asked Michel not to pass on this matter to anybody else. In this way, he is also breaching the transparency of the organization. Moreover, it can create a situation of mistrust among the employees. Therefore, it is leading to ethical dilemma in the organization.
The unethical activity of Michel’s boss can be effectively assessed through Virtue Theory of Ethics. According to Rozuel (2016), virtue theory of ethics highly focuses on the moral character or mind of an individual rather than the result of their actions. Moreover, honesty and generosity lead a person towards ethical actions. However, in this case scenario, the boss of Michel has dishonestly and unethically accessed the private and confidential information of the competitor companies. The case scenario demonstrates a wrong and dishonest intension of the boss towards gaining competitive advantage through unethically imitating the business plans and resources of other competitors. On the other hand, Alwi, Ali and Nguyen (2017) opined that virtue theory also indicates moral traits of a person, which can lead to happiness for others. However, in the case scenario, the boss is going to create major issues for the competitors though unethically accessing theory important data and using their business plans. In such situation, Michel should ask for justification to his boss for his unethical behavior. Moreover, he should be firm on his own ethics and do not agree with the unintentional activity of his boss.
According to Robertson, Voegtlin and Maak (2017), duty of care ethics suggest people to adhere with standard code of conduct, while they are performing some activities. Moreover, the actions should not harm others from any angle. As per this theory, the responsibility of an individual is to avoid any act, which is likely to cause harm to others. In this case scenario, the boss of Michel has unethically accessed the private and confidential information of the competitor companies without their permission. Such activity of the boss can actually harm the business success of the competitor companies, while the same business plan will be executed by other companies. Therefore, as per this theory, the boss has conducted an ethical activity. On the other hand, Michaelson et al. (2014) opined that the action of an individual is considered to be negligent, if it does not meet the standard of care for others. In this case scenario, the unethical access of competitor’s confidential information can also ruin the reputation of his organization, if such confidential data goes out. The activity of the boss does not meet the standard of care even for his own organization. In such situation, Michel should make his understand about the disadvantage of ethical information access of other companies. On the other hand, Michel should also suggest his boss some other alternative suggestions for gaining competitive advantage, so that the boss never repeats the same for gaining competitive advantage.
The boss of Michel has accessed the private and confidential data of competitor companies from the competing companies’ servers. He has not personally broken any password, but he obtained the electronic access from a colleague. However, accessing private and confidential data of others without their permission is always an unethical activity whether be it in business context or in personal context (Brenkert 2016). Therefore, there is clear evidence that the boss of Michel is completely unethical. On the other hand, Wang and Calvano (2015) opined that organization should always maintain its transparency with all of its stakeholders. Lack of transparency indicates ethical dilemma in an organization. In this case scenario, the boss of Michel is hiding the unethical access of confidential information from the organizational stakeholders. It indicates an unauthentic and dishonest mind of the boss, who wants to gain competitive advantage through unethically accessing the confidential information of the competitors. Moreover, unauthentic access of confidential information can also hamper the competitive advantage of the competitor companies. Apart from that, the unauthentic and unethical access of information can also hamper the corporate image of the organization, if this action goes out to media. Therefore, the activity of Michel boss is actually being harmful for both his competitors as well as for his own company. It proves that the boss of Michel is obviously unethical.
At certain situation when an employee finds violation of ethics within the organization doneeither knowingly and unknowingly by managers, seniors or other peers, which might trigger imminent danger for the company, he raises the concern. This is known as whistleblowing, which helps in protecting corporate image. According to Near and Miceli (2016), employees of an organization take pride in achieving corporate success however, since violation of ethics leads to damage of one’s own morale, it leads to whistleblowing. On the other hand, Campbell and Göritz (2014) pointed out that when an employee finds proven ethics violation that might lead to hamper stakeholder moral and create negative publicity, it motivates whistle-blowers to raise the concern.
While considering the viewpoint of Kaplan (2015), it can be said that whistleblowing is justified when a policy, product or document creates considerable and serious harm to stakeholders. A situation when one’s morale concern contradict with ethical sustainability, whistle-blowing is justified. On the other hand, Gao, Greenberg and Wong-On-Wing (2015) pointed out that one must have documented evidence regarding the ethical issue before fighting for its justification. Exchange of confidential information in favor of competitive edge that might lead to violation of data protection must be escalated through whistle blowing. Therefore, under the mentioned circumstances whistleblowing is justified.
Considering the situation of Michael, it can be said that whistleblowing is justified. This is because he has the document and supporting evidence. Also, it must be said that there is a contradiction between Michael’s morale and organizational ethics. On the other hand, the main concern will be the impact on corporate image once the documents are known by the media. Such ethical issues once highlighted by media, will be known to public and other stakeholders, which will surely impose a negative impact. Therefore, Michael needs to whistle blow so that both his own image and corporate image does not get affected.
Firstly, it must be said that ethics forms the morale and positive attitude while making decisions regarding organizational sustainability, thereby enhancing corporate governance.Managers while taking any decision if found to possess positive and innovative ideas that might not violate data protection and copyright notions, then surely there will be no negative publicity. This will ensure ethical business proceedings and eventually reputation will be restored.
Secondly, corporate culture enriched with ethics will surely create a sense of pride among the employees. Morally sound individuals when find organizational proceedings to be quite justified, then surely it will enhance the transparency among employees. Ethical business will help in creating strong bond among the stakeholders as well, which will in turn result is corporate sustainability.
Thirdly, ethical business will help in creating positive publicity and stakeholder attraction. Brand image will be enhanced and customers will be more attracted. This will in turn help in earning revenue. On the other hand, positive publicity will attract potential candidates, due to which cost of recruitment and training will be reduced. Investors can also be attracted as there will be less risk from negative publicity.
Finally, business ethics is extremely important for building corporate sustainability. No business can survive without support from stakeholders and therefore ethics will lead to brand loyalty and stakeholder retention. Often there might be crisis but reputation and image in the society will help in continued business process outcomes. Therefore, business ethics is extremely important for organizational growth, stakeholder retention, publicity and sustainability.
Conclusion
While concluding the study, it can be said that the boss of Michel has unauthentically accssed the private and confidential information of competitor companies. Moreover, he has accses those information unethically from the server of the of the competiting companies. As per virtue theiry of ethics, the boss of Michel has accessed the confidential information of the competitive firms with a dishonest mind to use those information towards gaining competitive advantage. Therefore, the boss has obviously conducted an unetical activity. On the other hand, as per durty of care ethical theory, the boss has conducted an action, which can harm the business profit potential of the competitive companies. In such situation, Michel should suggest some better altrenative options to his boss for gaining competitive advantage without unethically accessing the cofidential information of competitors. Michel can also whistleblow the unethical matter of his boss for preventing him from repeating such unethical action in future. Business ethics can mainatin transpaerncy of the organization with the stakeholders. On the other hand, business ethics can build corporate reputation of the organization in the market for better business sucess.
Reference List
Alwi, S.F.S., Ali, S.M. and Nguyen, B., 2017. The importance of ethics in branding: Mediating effects of ethical branding on company reputation and brand loyalty. Business Ethics Quarterly, 27(3), pp.393-422.
Brenkert, G.G., 2016. Business Ethics and Human Rights: An Overview. Business and Human Rights Journal, 1(2), pp.277-306.
Campbell, J.L. and Göritz, A.S., 2014. Culture corrupts! A qualitative study of organizational culture in corrupt organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 120(3), pp.291-311.
Floyd, L.A., Xu, F., Atkins, R. and Caldwell, C., 2013. Ethical outcomes and business ethics: Toward improving business ethics education. Journal of business ethics, 117(4), pp.753-776.
Gao, J., Greenberg, R. and Wong-On-Wing, B., 2015. Whistleblowing intentions of lower-level employees: The effect of reporting channel, bystanders, and wrongdoer power status. Journal of Business Ethics, 126(1), pp.85-99.
Kaplan, S.E., 2015. Discussant Comment on Whistleblowing Intentions of Lower-Level Employees: The Effect of Reporting Channel, Bystanders, and Wrongdoer Power Status by Jingyu Gao, Robert Greenberg, Bernard Wong-On-Wing. Journal of Business Ethics, 126(1), p.101.
May, D.R., Luth, M.T. and Schwoerer, C.E., 2014. The influence of business ethics education on moral efficacy, moral meaningfulness, and moral courage: A quasi-experimental study. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(1), pp.67-80.
Michaelson, C., Pratt, M.G., Grant, A.M. and Dunn, C.P., 2014. Meaningful work: Connecting business ethics and organization studies. Journal of Business Ethics, 121(1), pp.77-90.
Near, J.P. and Miceli, M.P., 2016. After the wrongdoing: What managers should know about whistleblowing. Business Horizons, 59(1), pp.105-114.
Robertson, D.C., Voegtlin, C. and Maak, T., 2017. Business ethics: The promise of neuroscience. Journal of Business Ethics, 144(4), pp.679-697.
Rozuel, C., 2016. Challenging the ‘Million Zeros’: The Importance of Imagination for Business Ethics Education. Journal of Business Ethics, 138(1), pp.39-51.
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Weber, K., 2001. What Would You Do?: Gold Mine or Fool’s Gold?. Business Ethics: The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility, 15(1), pp.18-18.
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