In the episode, “Toy Company”, of the show “Nathan for You”, the toymaker has been presented with an idea to get more of his unpopular toy sold. The idea is to get more kids to buy the toys by proving that owning the toy won’t make them babies. Here we will discuss how the issue relates to business ethics by explaining it from a deontologist, utilitarian and a virtue ethicist’s point of view.
In the video, Nathan goes to a toy factory, picks the worst-selling toy and comes up with an ad campaign to make the toys more appealing to children to get more of the units sold. He suggests that owning that particular kind of toy won’t make the kids look babies - the very thing everyone wants as a kid. Now the issue is to find what relates this problem to business ethics and we can resolve it to determine whether or not the toymaker should really adopt the campaign. According to the definitions of these ethical theories, a deontologist will review the actions and check if they’re morally acceptable for the toymaker, whereas a utilitarian will go over the outcome of this situation and see if the happiness or satisfaction for both the toymaker and the customers is maximized. However, a virtue ethicist will think
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Both of these systems have weaknesses too. For instance, the critics of deontology point out that lying is always unacceptable, no matter how much harm it will cause. In this case, they don’t care about the toymaker being unprofitable or the kids not feeling good about themselves. For virtue ethicists, they have a big flaw in their system too. As it’s not rule-based, it relies on qualitative judgement, not logic or consequences. It doesn’t promise that it supports the well-being of both the toymaker and the babies. It relies on social validation and character, which sometimes does more harm than good when making a business
In 2005, the Vermont Teddy Bear Company produced a controversial bear for the Valentine holiday. The bear that was made was called “Crazy for You” and wore a straitjacket. It became an issue when the company was confronted for offending the mentally ill. After the problem became apparent to the organization, it responded by saying that it would continue selling the toy until the inventory was empty. It was put out for the public in January and was sold out by February 3. The ethical issue in this case is whether or not Vermont Teddy Bear Company handled the situation ethically correct.
In everyday experience one is likely to encounter ethical dilemmas. This paper presents one framework for working through any given dilemma. I have chosen to integrate three theories from Ruggerio Vicent, Bernard Lonergan and Robert Kegan. When making a deceison you must collabrate different views to come to a one conclusion. Ruggerio factors in different aspects that will take effect. Depending on which order of conciousness you are in by Kegan we can closely compare this with Ruggerio's theories also. As I continue I will closely describe the three theories with Kegan and how this will compare with Lonerga's theory combining the three. While Family,
This essay is an ethnographic study of Whole Foods Market which is located in Kensington, London. Whole Foods Market is a niche supermarket that sells high quality organic and natural products at high prices. In this essay, I will provide a brief orientation of ethics with regards to the concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility - macroethics and Business Ethics - microethics and the theoretical frameworks of consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics. I will be using deontology framework in ethics devised by Immanuel Kant to assess if the marketing strategy and the products sold at Whole Foods Market support their principle of ‘organic and natural’.
By looking further into this dilemma using various ethical standpoints allows for a broad understanding of principles and complexity in a specific situation with these paradigms. The focuses are three prominent ethical paradigms such as: teleological utilitarianism, deontological duty theories and virtue based ethics. Each of these three paradigms will be applied to the aforementioned dilemma, each will be evaluated and the best option will be revealed.
Paradigm Toys would benefit from an annual ethics audit by a third party audit company. Ethics audits would ensure that Paradigm Toys is performing ethically internally with all areas of their business. It would provide a time to make sure that employees understand what is expected of them ethically. In areas that need improvement a plan could be discussed so that management knows what needs to be changed and how to change it. The main object is to make sure that Paradigm Toys is performing ethically for their best interest as well as the best interest of their internal and external stakeholders.
The quality, the happiness, the good thing that you can give the consumer is the end, your sense of duty to do these things is the means. Looking at things from this perspective, Fords actions were unethical. The Kantian idea causes me believe that Ford should have put the potentially life-saving part into the Pinto, not because they have a moral obligation to produce safe vehicles, or because they want praise for looking out for the safety and well-being of their consumers, but because it’s the right thing to do. Clearly, Ford didn’t do that. Based on the case study and the information presented, they allowed financial data and projections to dictate the decision, whether morally right or
Virtue theory and utilitarian theory are two of the principal ethical theories. Though each theory deserves the general respect they have gathered, both are under constant attack from objection and scrutiny.
Two noteworthy ethical theories endeavor to indicate and legitimize moral guidelines and rules: utilitarianism and deontological morals. Utilitarianism is an ethical hypothesis created and refined in the current world in the compositions of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. There are a few assortments of utilitarianism. Fundamentally, a practical way to deal with profound quality infers that no ethical demonstration or tenet is inherently right or off-base. Or maybe, the rightness or misleading quality of a presentation or standard is exclusively a matter of the no ethical excellent delivered in the outcomes of doing that demonstration or taking after that run the show. In whole, as indicated by utilitarianism, ethical quality involves the
...t be in business very long. But, for instance, what if RGIS was offered the chance to perform one “test” inventory for a company that had many stores and the inventory went extremely well because of the customer service levels provided? RGIS would have the opportunity to service this customer’s other stores not because of the data, but because of the service they received. This human factor played huge role in garnering business for the RGIS and yet their employees have no chance in earning any more compensation than they would have for simply putting data into a machine. Let’s look at other ethics principles and see where an example like the one above would fit in.
In this case study, the ethical dilemma is “individual versus community.” Debra Borchert is bothered by Jerry who is a developmentally delayed. He is following her and bumping into her and making her feel uncomfortable. Debra’s difficult decision is whether or not to tell the manager Jerry is bothering her, risking getting him fired, and also risking the store not hiring anymore mentally challenged kids. Jerry also might not get hired anywhere else; the job at the grocery store was a good one for him. Debra’s brothers were very similar to Jerry, and she wished they could be able to have jobs just like Jerry so that is another reason why she didn’t want to complain. On the other hand it would be a good idea to tell the manager something because she feels uncomfortable, and she should think about herself before being concerned with what is going to happen to Jerry.
Normative ethical theory is the study of “What constitutes an acceptable ethical standard for business practice, and by what authority is the standard acceptable?” (Arnold, Beauchamp, Bowie, 2013, p. 17) Utilitarian, Kantian, and Virtue theories will be compared against Ms. Stewart’s actions in the ImClone
Virtue theory defines what it takes to be a good person and above all else one’s character matters most (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2014). This theory focuses on the person’s moral character rather than duties. A virtuous person is someone who acts just in situations throughout his or her lifetime because of their good character (Boylan, 2009, p. 133-139). An example of a virtuous person would be a priest. A virtuous person does not act to gain favors, but only to do their duty. Individuals who practice virtue theory ponders questions like; how should one live, what is a good life or what are proper social and family values. The deontological ethics approach accentuates one’s duty to rules (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2014, para. 1). The morality of an action is based on following rules. The “rules” help guide individuals morally in decision making. Therefore, the person should make a moral choice as long as he or she sticks to the guidelines. The third approach is the utilitarianism,...
According to Drolet, Marie-Josée, and Anne Hudon (p.51), two main theories attempt to explain in depth and justify moral laws and principles; utilitarianism and deontological theories. Jeremy Bentham and John Mill developed the theory of utilitarianism while Immanuel Kant developed the deontological theory. These two theories are based on how the consequences of a given act impact on an individual. The deontological theory is based on the one’s moral judgment rather than the set rules and regulations. On the other hand, the utilitarianism theory focuses on the consequences of a given deed. This paper primarily focuses on how a strict utilitarian and a strict deontologist would respond to George’s scenario. The arguments will be based on the
As in any other discipline that entails interaction with individuals, the aspect of ethics must include a conscious principle. To define ethics in its simplest form, it is known as the ability to distinguish right from wrong. In the movie, the sudden pressure from management drives the company’s salesmen to increase sales with no regards to ethics in order to maintain job security. All of the main characters had made their fair share of unethical decisions, out of desperation, to increase their sales and ultimately to keep their jobs. The degree of each decision can be left for viewers to determine the level of appropriateness based on their own values. Personally, although all characters have made unethical decisions, the most ethical salesman was Ricky Roma. Ri...
Executive summary of the event. In this business case, a shift from seasonal to monthly production of toys will change the seasonal cycle of Toys World's working capital needs and necessitate new bank credit arrangements. It has to analyze the company's performance, forecast fund needs and make a recommendation. The case introduces the pattern of current assets and cash flows in a seasonal company and provides elementary exercise in the construction of the pro forma financial statements and estimation of fund needs.