Title: Task 2: Ethical reasoning
Course: Corporate Social Responsibility online > Section: Part 1: Business ethics and Sustainability

/ca. 25 minutes/

This is an assignment related to questions asked in the Section How do we take ethical decisions?

Upload your answers to all the 6 questions indicated in the text:

Question 1:  Consider a situation in which someone instructs you to follow their authority at work, and you can foresee that harms will occur to others from the business activity at hand, but you are tempted to follow the order because of your own financial benefit. Would you follow the order or refuse it? Explain why.

Question 2: Now turn the situation and imagine you want to buy a product from a salesman who is confronted with this kind of dilemma. If he offers you a product that might hurt you he will get paid. If he refuses to do so, he won't bring money back home.  Would you like the salesman to follow the orders or refuse them?

Question 3: Explain why and confront your justification from the previous question with your way of reasoning in this question. Can you identify any elements of consequencialist or deontological ethics? Explain how these two ways of reasoning may differ.

Question 4: Think about 3 different kinds of negative externalities that are caused by business and that you think may harm different groups of stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, local community, media, government) or environment. Describe them as well as possible consequences resulting from these externalities.

Question 5: Chose one externality from the above-mentioned ones and bring at least 3 deontological  and at least 3 utilitarian (consequentialists) arguments against the company that has caused this externality. (You may take a perspective of any group of stakeholders.)

Question 6: Now, try to think about contrary arguments that the company may bring just to justify its action. Present at least 3 deontological and at least 3 utilitarian (consequentialists) arguments.

Please prepare the assignment within the word limit of ca. 300-500 words.