Montgomery College Rockville Business Ethics and The Law Essay

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Anonymous MG 201 – Business Law Essay 1 – Business Ethics Ethics are a very important part of society and play a big role in determining what is right and wrong. Ethics can be described as moral views and principles that govern actions. Therefore, business ethics are the morals and principles that businesses use to make decisions and maintain social responsibility. It is important for a business to practice good ethics because according to chapter 2, “good ethics is good business”, also the market will respond negatively to unethical behavior (Lieberman, 2.1). Chapter 2 then states businesses that pay attention to ethics do better in the long run (Lieberman, 2.1). However, sometimes situations like the temptation of maximizing profits or an agenda to push certain political views are just too much for a business to turn down and they choose to violate ethical behavior. This can be seen in many different cases but usually will result in a negative effect on the business. As of recent, a company that has acted in an unethical way is ESPN. ESPN is a U.S. cable and satellite sports television channel. They also have many other channels under the same company (ESPN Inc.) such as ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN+, ESPNews, ESPN Classic, and even more. They broadcast all sorts of sporting events from all around the world. When they aren’t broadcasting sports, they are broadcasting talk shows such as SportsCenter, First Take, His and Hers, and many others. These talk shows are supposed to be about sports and news related to sports, but political and social news seem to be a very hot topic a lot of the time; this is where the poor ethics take place. ESPN is punishing and firing employees who have differing political views and are outspoken about them, while not punishing employees who share their common political views. Although they haven’t gone through a legal scandal or violated the law in any way, their recent practices have been demonstrating poor ethics. This can be seen when distinguishing the difference between ethics and the law. Then a closer look at major ethical concepts such as, Michael Josephson’s Core Values, The Stakeholder Theory, and killing the messenger, will help reveal their unethical practices. To understand the unethical practices of ESPN it is important to first distinguish the law from ethics. According to chapter 2, “what is legal is not necessarily ethical. Conversely, what is ethical is not necessarily legal” (Lieberman 2.1). There are many legal tricks and “loopholes” that a business can discover and exploit that are not ethical in any way (Lieberman, 2.1). Ethics deals more with the way people should act whereas the law is how they must act. In learning module 2 we studied the case of The Queen vs. Dudley and Stephens where, basically, two men killed another man in order to save their own lives. In this case, depending on the ethical philosophy, the two men who acted ethically were punished and sentenced to time in prison. In converse, the Arthur Anderson case was one where the supreme court over turned the conviction and yet they still lost many clients and market share due to their practices (Lieberman, 2.1). Here the law was not broken but they were being unethical so the company suffered. ESPN is a private organization and they may hire and fire whoever they choose while remaining in compliance with the law. However, the manor of which certain firings have occurred has been unethical, as will be shown later. Michael Josephson’s core values are a set of six values that relate to ethics. Josephson decided on these six by values from his studies where he asked, “what values people hold dear, what values they wish to be known by, and what values they wish others would exhibit in their actions” (Lieberman, 2.2). These six were the most consistent responses: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship and, therefore, became his core values. These values also are the most universally shared morals among different groups of people (Lieberman, 2.2). The six values directly relate to ethics and because ESPN is violating certain core values, they are violating proper ethics. The two values mainly violated are respect and fairness. This can be seen in their punishing and firing of employees who make “conservative statements” while letting employees who make “liberal statements” go unpunished. In 2016 ESPN baseball analysist Curt Schilling was fired for creating a Facebook post where he gave his opinions on transgenders (USAtoday.com). Also in 2016 host Mike Ditka was removed from a Sunday Night Football show after giving an interview where he criticized Obama and openly showed support for Trump (daileycaller.com). In April 2017, longtime reporter and host Linda Cohn was suspended for agreeing in an interview that there is some political bias at ESPN (USAtoday.com). Then, just a couple of weeks ago, Jemele Hill, host of the talk show His and Hers, posted a tweet where she called President Trump a “white supremacist”. Not only was Hill not fired or suspended, ESPN did not even tell her to publicly apologize for her tweet (USAtoday.com). This is a clear violation of the core value of fairness. Multiple employees are engaging in the same activity of publicly stating their opinions on political topics, however, ESPN is punishing certain employees based on their opinions which is completely unfair. They are also not showing the value of respect by disrespecting their employee’s opinions and views on non-work-related matters. The actions of ESPN are also in violation of The Stakeholder Theory and, therefore, social responsibility. In chapter 2 we learned that The Stakeholder Theory is “a corporation’s social responsibilities go beyond just staying within the law”, simply put organizations “must pay attention not only to the bottom line but also to their overall effect on the community” (Lieberman, 2.4). “Public perception of a company’s unfairness, uncaring, disrespect, or lack of trustworthiness often leads to long-term failure” (Lieberman, 2.4). Clearly ESPN is not considering their overall effect on the community. It was shown earlier that they are not treating their employees fairly and, therefore, this will most likely lead to long term failure. They are also not maintaining social responsibility according to chapter 2, “A socially responsible corporation is likely to consider the impact of its decisions on a wide range of stakeholders, not just shareholders” (Lieberman, 2.4). The shareholders are not considering the impact of their decisions towards stakeholders such as conservative employees and viewers. Killing the Messenger, as we learned in chapter 2, is an unethical technique that businesses sometimes use and ESPN is a good example. Killing the Messenger is when an organization silences or “shuts down” an employee for exposing problems that are being covered up or just exposes bad news in general (Lieberman, 2.4). “Managers like to hear good news and discourage bad news” (Lieberman, 2.4). ESPN has done this by suspending anchor Linda Cohn for agreeing in an interview that ratings have dropped due to their political bias. Another indirect form of ESPN Killing the Messenger is by not releasing certain results from their own political bias survey. They surveyed adults on whether they thought ESPN has a liberal or conservative bias. The results were 63% believed there was a liberal bias while 30% believed there to be a conservative bias (newsbusters.org). ESPN refused to publicly announce the 63% liberal bias but did publicly announce that there was a 30% liberal bias. ESPN essentially rigged their own survey results to give “good news” and “shut down” the “bad news”. Now, although ESPN has not broken the law or gone through any type of legal scandal for their actions, they have still behaved unethically which was proven through analyzing several major ethical concepts. For this they have received a lot of public scrutiny from viewers and ex-employees. The public is left to wonder; what are their standards? Where is their consistency when it comes to what an employee can and can’t get away with? ESPN has not broken the law nor should there be legal action taken against them. Instead they must formulate a code of ethics and strictly stick by it. They need to formally state that employees who publicly voice political opinions will all be punished or not punished at all. Either one will be acceptable as long as they remain consistent and set standards as oppose to letting certain employees get away with the same thing actions that got other employees fired. Works Cited Lieberman, Jethro, Don Mayer, George Siedel and Daniel Warner. The Legal Environment and Business Law. 1st Version. 2012. Print Curtis, Charles. “A quick guide to the political statements that have gotten ESPN employees in hot water”. USAtoday. 17 Sept. 2017. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/09/espn-politicssuspensions-history-jemele-hill-linda-cohn-curt-schilling-britt-mchenry-keith-law Maxson, Jay. “ESPN Hides Overwhelming Truth About Liberal Bias”. NewsBusters. 9, June 2017. https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/jay-maxson/2017/06/09/30-percent-label-espnconservative-network-ignores-liberal-bias Datoc, Christian. “ESPN Removes Mike Ditka from ‘Sunday NFL Countdown’ Days After ProTrump Interview”. DaileyCaller. 03 Sept. 2016. http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/09/report-espnremoves-mike-ditka-from-sunday-nfl-countdown-after-pro-trump-interview/ Business Ethics Essay Rubric Description: This rubric will be utilized in grading the Business Ethics essay submissions. Does not meet criteria Meets criteria Exceptional The textbook concepts were applied throughout the paper with cite to page of textbook Points: 20 (16%) Student does not connect and apply the ethics issue of choice to relevant course concepts/theories from the text. Points: 35 (28%) Student appropriately applies and analyzes relevant course concepts, theories, or materials, and shows some evidence [citations] that correlates posts with unit materials. Points: 50 (40%) Student consistently cites appropriate material in multiple learning modules to demonstrate full synthesis and application of topics and digs deep in student’s analysis to reach full potential of the paper. Demonstrates a clear understanding of learning concepts from the course. Addresses each element of PICK Analysis throughout the paper Points: 0 (0%) Student does not utilize PICK Analysis, and/or fails to correctly address each of its key elements. Points: 25 (20%) Student addresses some elements of PICK Analysis but not all elements, or does so incorrectly. Points: 35 (28%) Student utilizes PICK Analysis and addresses all key elements throughout the paper. Paper free of grammatical errors/typos Points: 0 (0%) There are multiple typos, formatting, and/or grammar issues in paper. Points: 3 (2.4%) There are minor typos, formatting, and/or grammar issues in paper. Points: 5 (4%) There are not typos, formatting, nor grammar issues in paper. Paper is organized and has clarity Points: 0 (0%) Student presents information in a disorganized and unclear manner, making it difficult to interpret the information put forth. Points: 5 (4%) The paper is somewhat clear and concise, but not consistently throughout the paper. Points: 10 (8%) The paper is clear and concise consistently throughout its entirety, and is well organized. Meets page requirements (2 full pages, no more than 3 for paper) using single spacing, 1”margins and 12 point font Points: 0 (0%) There are less than 2 single spaced substantive pages submitted. Points: 10 (8%) At least 2 and no more than 3 substantive pages submitted. However, pages lack substantive information sufficient to comprise the 2 page requirement (e.g., large pictures, graphs,spacing quotes take up too much space). Points: 15 (12%) At least 2 and no more than 3 substantive pages submitted. Does not meet criteria Meets criteria Exceptional Uses research and data to support claims as necessary, which are cited with footnotes throughout Points: 0 (0%) Works cited are not included. (At least the textbook should be cited, and the interview). Points: 5 (4%) Works cited are included but are not clearly noted in footnotes as required. Points: 10 (8%) Works cited are included and are clearly noted using footnotes as required. Submitted timely via Blackboard in .doc or .docx format Points: 0 (0%) Not submitted in correct format. Points: 0 (0%) Per the syllabus, there may be up to a 20% grade reduction per day for late submissions. Points: 0 (0%) Submitted before required deadline. Research and read current papers After and scandal journals and search the finding in a the recent ethical business field, Internet to find legal cases of firms please use the PICK Analysis and/or executives of those firms format, that have been charged with acting syllabus, unethically socially situation and discuss the legal irresponsibly. Choose an ethical and/or ethical implications of the dilemma in business that interests actions as applied to business. you and draft a two to three page Then, discuss a recommendation single spaced paper as follows: you would suggest about how the and as described to in summarize the the ethical dilemma should be resolved or should have been resolved, despite the outcome reported.
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Business Ethics and the law
Ethics serves as an important guide to moral daily living and enables both individuals and
companies to make the right decisions. It also helps individuals and companies in judging
whether their behaviors and decisions are right or wrong. Within the business world, ethics play
a significant role in establishing rules, principles, and values upon which all business decisions
and conducts are based. Moreover, ethics establishes acceptable business behaviors that promote
integrity as well as relations between the business and its customers. Ethics also help businesses
maintain trust from their key stakeholders including customers, investors, and community
members. Although ethics programs have become fundamental within the business, the quality
of such programs varies from one company to the other. Because of this variation, some
companies continue to face lawsuits due to ethical violations. Against this backdrop, this paper
will address the ethical dilemma involving Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal
by applying PICK Analysis.
Facebook Inc. is an American social network and technology company based in Menlo
Park, California. The company was founded in 2004 and has since grown to become the leading
social networking company in the world. Facebook has become a household name when it comes
to social networking. The company currently has over 2.7 billion active users as of 2020 and this
number is rapidly growing considering the number of users that join the network daily (Jaeger,
n.p). With this huge user base, Facebook controls a huge database with critical information of
their users at their disposal. This data may be subject to misuse if proper ethical and regulatory
standards are not integrated both by the company and by the data regulatory bodies.
In 2019, Faceboo...


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