Law assignment on: Business ethcis
1. Introduction
Business Ethics can be said to be what means right or wrong in a business scenario. The business scandals in news recently have focused the interest of business leaders as well as the society towards the concept of business ethics (Shaw, 2010). Responsible organizations can make good contribution for the evolution of a successful market economy, by improving the performance of the organizations. The article analyses the statement ‘Justice is the first virtue of social institutions’ by John Rawl. The validity of the statement is referred using the ethical standards of business considering the case of Fall of Lehmann Brothers in 2008. The article also discusses on how the social institutions promote justice as fairness with respect to the statement by Rawls.. Social Institutions and Social Justice
Organizations are expected in meeting the standards of responsible conduct of the business for going beyond that had happened years before. Improvements in business performance, profit and progress of the economy comes to those organizations that satisfy their key stakeholders, customers, personnel, suppliers, and the environment in which the company operates. Success of the business is measured in terms of the profit or loss and companies, which are socially responsible, generates capital and revenue required for operating and sustaining in business over the long time. Organizations, which are socially responsible, should generate enough revenue for the coverage of real capital costs, the risk associated with the future operations of the business (Lippke, 1995). For an organization, which operates in a market economy that is emerging, the sustenance as well as competing with similar organizations is a risk as well as a challenge. It also offers opportunity to explore new markets as well as accessing the international capital. Risk is increase in competition as well as reversals in capital workflow due to threats in the external business environment, the challenge for the company is learning from the successful businesses for adapting to overcome the legacy of the commanding economy. (Commerce, 2004). The main subject of justice is the elementary structure of the society and the manner in which the distribution of fundamental rights and duties determines the benefits of social cooperation. Organizations usually differ in practices for their sustaining in two different ways 1) organizations generates external goods while the social practices are focused on the internal goods of the organization.2) though the social practices comprises of practices, the practices are also vulnerable to corruption. Management can be defined as the life-giving element of business. According to Drucker, the external good of profits can be considered secondary to the internal good of creation of a customer (Mankiw, 2008). Integrity in business is the result of acceptance of business ethics. The responsibility of managers is to serve the consumers by helping them understand the meaning of good life, which is subject to be justifiable in the eyes of law and within the limits of their financial resources.
Rawls begin the theory by the definition of institution, which is a public system of rules which helps to defines the offices and positions having their right and performing their duties, power and immunities. Social Justice Strategies aim at cultivating and restoring healthy relationships in the society. Individuals in the different spheres and the communities need from for servicing each other and for exercising their role in the society. Governments should serve o guard the role and responsibility of every individual when the public life is interfered by various institutions. Justice can be considered as a complex principle of ethics where the meanings intend from the fair treatment of people to equal allocation resources in healthcare resources. Justice deals with the equal distribution of the benefits and the burden of individuals in different social institutions and how the rights of different individuals are realized. Justice in healthcare deals with the fair treatment of people, equitable treatment of individuals (Feinsod, 2008)
The collapse of the New York Investment bank, Lehman Brothers in Sep 2008 triggered the financial recession in the economy. Lehman Brothers provided financial services to governments and various other institutions across the world. Economic growth was seen to be sustained by cheaper consumer credit in US and many financial institutions were subjected to high levels of risk, there was real threat of deflation. Lehman was overleveraging them, without maintaining the minimum capital that was required. The entire world is concerned about the people’s actions and thoughts as workers, consumers as also as self-organized groups, homemakers, etc. and there entire interest lies in the well-being of the humanity. There should be meaningful means f bridging the gap between the two factors. The fall of Lehman Brother became the reason for all that went wrong in Wall Street. This included everything from predatory landings to high executive pay for corporate (Dr.Worden, 2011).
The CEO of Lehman Brothers Fuld acknowledged that he had accepted about $ 300 man as pay in the last 8 years. The company claimed it to be the result of market forces which ere uncontrollable. It was said that the fixed income assets were swapped for cash before the quarterly results were announced. Ernst and Young Stated that the financial statements were fair with respect to the US accounting standards. The company had made misleading statements of the banks financial conditions to the society and the management had deliberately tried to understate the risk. It cannot consider being fair, though it is legal since it was allowed by GAAP. There are different ways win which liability or an asset can be valued fairly. The fall of Lehman brothers resulted in unemployment of 5000 UK based employees and in US. There was a dip in the global financial market because of fall of Lehmann brother. Banks with soli credit ratings as well as reasonable advantage could not borrow money (Alman, Cudmore, & McVeigh, n.d).
Social Justice also entails the promotion of human rights. The Government should make sure that the basic needs of the individual are met including food health and shelter and morals needs such as security, affection, and actuation. The society has agreed on a some conventions, laws and regulation to ensure that the social justice is guaranteed to the individuals. In order to ensure the freedom of the individual there should be institutional frameworks for preserving it against the encroachments. The various constitutions and laws alone cannot ensure the freedom of individual. There has been erosion of values supporting freedom and the protection of this freedom has been violated even in societies even in societies with tradition of freedom. The benefit of intervention of state is direct and immediate, but the veil effects seem to be slow.In case of health care, social justice can be violated as in the case where FDA may make two types of errors, one is under caution and approving a drug with dangerous side effects which were not anticipated, or by over caution where a useful drug is not approved. Another example of hindering the social justice by less developed nations is the restrictions on the import polices. Major institution that distributes the fundamental rights and duties involves the political constitutions as well s the arrangements in the society and economy, which favor the starting places over the others (Williams, 1996).
The moral evaluation of the business practices cannot be detached from the theories of social justice. The success of the economy in fulfillment do the justice depends on how well the wealth and resources are utilized. Managers as well as investors should all contribute to the creation of a just society; this largely depends on the leadership in organizations and in wise investments. In business, there should be institutionalized schemes to encourage the participation of workers. These schemes should be structured in such a way that there is input from the workers in decision-making. This will give the workers partial effective control on the running of the organization. The Theory of Justice by Rawls suggests drawing a line between the responsibility of the society and the deep and society’s inequality (Shaw, 2010).
3. Conclusion
Business Ethics, Good governance and CSR has become significant practices by companies these days. For many companies, ethics is now limited to a function of compliance which just limits itself to a legal checklist. Very few organizations have gone beyond the minimum ethics to take a strategic way to management of risks as well as the interest do the society (Costa, 2010).The fall of Lehmann Brothers had demanded for significant social costs, with millions of people losing their jobs and unemployment. Business researchers who have studied the practices of the companies have found ethical and CSR issues are usually parsed for eliminating to a higher purpose. The ethical lapses b the businesses have moral consequences which have impact on large number of people in the society. It can be said that the main aim of business ethics should be to adapt itself to reasonable norms to match the current practices and to challenge the society to adapt to the practices in order to fit the norms (Costa, 2010).
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