European Business Ethics Cases in Context: The Morality of Corporate Decision Making PDF
Preview European Business Ethics Cases in Context: The Morality of Corporate Decision Making
EUROPEANBUSINESSETHICSCASESINCONTEXT Issues in Business Ethics VOLUME28 SeriesEditors: WimDubbink,DepartmentofPhilosophy,TilburgUniversity,TheNetherlands MolliePainter-Morland,DepartmentofPhilosophy,DePaulUniversity,USA ConsultingEditor: PatWerhane,Director,InstituteforBusinessandProfessionalEthics, DePaulUniversity,USA FormerSeriesEditors: BrianHarvey,HenkvanLuijk†,PatWerhane EditorialBoard: GeorgeEnderle,UniversityofNotreDame,USA WilliamC.Frederick,UniversityofPittsburg,USA CampbellJones,UniversityofLeicester,UnitedKingdom DarylKoehn,UniversityofSt.Thomas,USA AndreasScherer,UniversityofZurich,Switzerland HorstSteinmann,UniversityofErlangen-Nürnberg,Germany HiroUmezu,KeioUniversity,Japan LuXiaohe,ShanghaiAcademyofSocialSciences,P.R.China Forfurthervolumes: http://www.springer.com/series/6077 European Business Ethics Cases in Context The Morality of Corporate Decision Making editedby WIMDUBBINK TilburgUniversity,TheNetherlands LUCVANLIEDEKERKE KatholiekeUniversiteitLeuven,Belgium and HENKVANLUIJK 123 Editors WimDubbink LucvanLiedekerke TilburgUniversity KatholiekeUniversiteitLeuven DepartmentofPhilosophy,Faculty CentreforEconomicsandEthics ofHumanities Naamsestraat69 POBox90153 3000Leuven 5000LETilburg Belgium TheNetherlands [email protected] [email protected] HenkvanLuijk(deceased) ISSN0925-6733 ISBN978-90-481-9333-2 e-ISBN978-90-481-9334-9 DOI10.1007/978-90-481-9334-9 SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011921121 ©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2011 Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorby anymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recordingorotherwise,withoutwritten permissionfromthePublisher,withtheexceptionofanymaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurpose ofbeingenteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) InmemoryofHenkvanLuijk (1929–2010) Preface Caseanalysisisthecradleofcontemporarybusinessethics.Theestablishedmoral philosophersofthe1980sweresoabsorbedbyfundamentalissuesthattheycould only make room for sketchy cases in passing. To make matters worse, these so- calledexamplesusuallyhadlittletodowiththerealworld:“Supposeyouwereto beleftonadesertedisland...”;“Supposeyouwouldpassapondinwhichtwopeo- pleweredrowningandyouonlyhadtimetosaveone?”;“Supposeasadisticofficial inaoutlawstatewouldofferyouthechoiceofkillingtwopeople...”.Thepioneer business ethicists of the 1980s distanced themselves from both establishment and fundamental issues by analysing real life cases in a real life manner; i.e. with an interestincontributingtothesolutionofconcreteproblems.Indoingso,theyalso distancedthemselvesfromthedominantsociologicalandpoliticalthoughtoncom- mercial life. At the time these disciplines were enchanted by system theory. This theory looks at the market as ruled by institutional forces. Consequently, there is hardlyanyroomleftforananalysisfromtheactionperspective. Howeveremancipatingallthiswas,almost30yearslatermanybusinessethicists have come to realize the disadvantages and limitations of an academic methodol- ogythatfocusesoncaseanalysis,especiallyifitsaimistoprovidealltooconcrete answerstoconcretequestionslike:isitpermissibleforcompanyAtodoxinthese circumstances?Somewillsaythatwiththisgrowingawarenessthebusinessethics worldhasfinallycomeofage.Nonetheless,thebusinessethicsworldwouldmakea seriousmistakeifitwouldbelievethatitcanandoughttotakeleaveofcaseanalysis asacoremethodologicaldevice.Caseanalysisremainsimportantandnotonlyfor educationalpurposes.Itiscrucialfortheacademicadvancement ofthediscipline. Itisexactlybymeansofthethoroughanalysisofcasesthattoday’sbusinessethi- cists re-establish contact with and learn to appreciate the fundamental issues that theestablishedmoralphilosophersarestrugglingwith.Thus,paradoxically,today’s business ethics may perhaps contribute most to fundamental ethics by stubbornly clingingtocaseanalysis. Despite its long history the need for comprehensive and well-informed case descriptions remains without abatement. Case analysis still is an excellent way of arousingpeople’sinterestinthemoralaspectsofcommerciallifeaswellasinbusi- nessethicsasanacademicdiscipline.Anditcanbeusedasameanstolinkbusiness ethicstootheracademicdisciplinesandmoralphilosophyingeneral. vii viii Preface This book consists of two parts. Part I takes up three short chapters. In these chapters we provide an orientation of contemporary business ethics. We hope this contextwillbeinstructivefortheanalysisofthecases.Thefirstchaptersketchesa briefinsidehistoryofbusinessethicsasanacademicdiscipline.Thesecondchapter touches on the skills needed to analyse and reflect on moral business ethics cases. Inthethirdchapterweelaborateupontheimportantinstitutionalturnthatbusiness ethicsisgoingthroughatthemoment.Theinstitutionalturnmakesitclearthatthe organisation of morality will become a main business ethics theme in the years to come.Italsoshowsthatwemustexploreotherthemes,suchasthetheoryonmoral excuses. The second part of the book consists of eight recent cases that were broadly discussedinEurope;inparticularNorthWesternEurope.Itischaracteristicofthe internationaldimensionofourcontemporaryworldthatmanyofthesecasesrelate to global issues. But one way or another, European companies and the European general public were involved in all these cases. We have also tried to present a varietyofindustries,includingpharmacy,ICTandconstruction.Wehavenotonly focussedonmorallyhardcases.Wehavealsoincludedafewcasesthatcanbetterbe categorizedasproblemsofmoralmotivation.Amorallyhardcaseisasituationin whichamoralagentmustmakeamoralchoice,butsincerelydoesnotknowwhat the morally right course of action is. There are good moral reasons for a specific course of action and good moral reasons against the same course. For example: must a company lay off child workers even if in the particular circumstances at hand,itclearlyisinthebestinterestofthechildrentobeemployed?Morallyhard cases call for reflection. A problem of moral motivation differs categorically from a morally hard case. A problem of moral motivation arises when a person knows whatthemorallyrightcourseofactionisbutfindsithardtomotivateherselftoact accordingly. In case of a problem of moral motivation a person has a good moral reason to do A but a good non-moral reason not to do A. For example: a person hasagoodmoralreasonnottobreakapromisebutalsoagoodnon-moralreasonto breakit(e.g.becauseitisprofitable).Whenapersonfailstoactonthemoralreason, immoralconductensues.Wehaveincludedcasesthatmainlyconcernproblemsof moralmotivationbecausethesecaseshelpustounderstandwhyandhowimmoral conductarisesincommerciallife. A special feature of this book is that we wanted it to be more than a collection ofcases,howeverimportantthatmaybeinitself.Eachcaseisfollowedupbytwo expertcommentaries.Theexpertshavevariousbackgrounds:fromorganisationthe- orytomoralityandfromeconomicstophilosophy.Whatbindsthemalltogetheris that in their own way each commentary shows the extent to which case analysis inbusinessethicshasbecomeinterwovenwithanddependentupontheknowledge gathered and preserved in other disciplines. Issues such as the extent of the duty tohelpofthepharmaceuticalindustryinrelationtoAIDScannotseriouslybedis- cussedwithoutbecomingacquaintedwiththediscussiononoverdemandingnessin morality;ThemoralanalysisoftheaccidentwiththeICEtrainrequiresknowledge ofthe“problemofmanyhands”andtheimpactoftechnologyincontemporarysoci- ety;TheanalysisofcasessuchastheriseandfallofL&Hcanonlybemeaningfully Preface ix pursuedifwehavetakenacourseinleadershiptheory.Asweseeit,themultidis- ciplinarycharacterofbusinessethicsmakesthefieldveryexciting.Italsoisoneof itsgreatestchallenges-howcanonepersonremainuptodateinalltheseexpanding fields of expertise? We hope to demonstrate that the growth of expert knowledge withindisciplinesandsub-disciplinescanstillbemadecompatiblewithmeaningful cross-disciplinaryinteraction. Half-waythroughtheproductionprocessofthebook,HenkvanLuijkindicated thatwehadtospeeduptheprocess.Nowthathiswifewasabouttoretire,thecouple wantedtomovetoFranceandliveafewquietyearsinthecountryside.Infact,they hadalreadyspottedthehousetheywantedtobuy.Butitturnedoutdifferently.Out oftheblue,Henkfellillandhishealthquicklydeteriorated.Hediedearly2010.We dedicatethisbooktohismemory. Tilburg,TheNetherlands WimDubbink Leuven,Belgium LucvanLiedekerke Acknowledgements The realization of this book was financially supported by Springer Science+Business Media; The Department of Organization Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam; Brabant Center of Entrepreneurship, Tilburg University and Eindhoven University of Technology; The Centre for Economics and Ethics of the KU Leuven; and the Department of Philosophy, FacultyofHumanities,TilburgUniversity. Theworkhasgreatlybenefittedfromtheskillanddedicationoftheadministra- tivestaffatourhomeuniversities.WewouldliketoextendourthankstoAnnvan Espen, Annette van Gemerden and Nicole van Eijndhoven. We also like to grate- fully thank Neil Olivier and Diana Nijenhuijzen from Springer for the effort they putintotherealizationofthebook. Tilburg,TheNetherlands WimDubbink Leuven,Belgium LucvanLiedekerke xi
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