W11773009
Krupi Mehta
Writing for Academic Success
Krupi Mehta W11773009 Writing for Academic Success Module: 1LAN401 “Business and ethics are rarely compatible.” Discuss this statement and develop an argument which either supports or opposes it, based on your research. Apply your arguments to a specific case study. 860 words
1
W11773009
Krupi Mehta
Writing for Academic Success
15 words 1. Morality. 2. Stakeholders 3. Profit 4. Maximise 5. Motivated 6. Negative 7. Disposable 8. Supports 9. Legal 10. Necessary 11. Discounted 12. Fair 13. Externalities 14. Expands 15. Denotes 16. Perspectives 17. Fund 18. Cosmetic 19. Alternative 20. Reducing
2
W11773009
Krupi Mehta
Writing for Academic Success
Essay plan “Business and ethics are rarely compatible.” Discuss this statement and develop an argument which either supports or opposes it, based on your research. Apply your arguments to a specific case study. Introduction - What is business and ethics? I will be providing a brief explanation of what the essay is based on and what I intend to address on the subject matter. Also in brief I will compare the similarities and differences between business and ethics. Source Crane, A. Matten, M., (2007). Business Ethics 2nd Ed. New York: Oxford University Press Inc Paragraph One – Outsourcing This paragraph will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing and my overall opinion on this and link it to the question. Source Crane, A. Matten, M., (2007). Business Ethics 2nd Ed. New York: Oxford University Press Inc Paragraph Two – Fair trade and WTO In this paragraph I will discuss about fair trade and the World Trade Organisation. Who they are and how they can affect a business’s decision. Source WTO, (February 2007). WTO - Understanding the WTO. 3rd edition Chapter 1, 11 [Online] World Trade Organization Information and Media Relations Division: Available from: (WTO Online) [Accessed 19 November 2008]. Paragraph Three – Externalities and social costs The issue of externalities and social costs will be discussed in this paragraph. It will outline how firms can harm the environment and the social costs to the environment. Source Crane, A. Matten, M., (2007). Business Ethics 2nd Ed. New York: Oxford University Press Inc Paragraph Four -Animal testing In this paragraph I will discuss animal testing in particular the moral issues and discuss the different views from firms and consumers. Source Rincon, P., Kinver, P., (2007). Court review for animal testing [Online] BBC News Available from: [Accessed 21 Nov 2008] Conclusion In my conclusion, I will summarise my ideas and state my opinion on this issue.
3
W11773009
Krupi Mehta
Writing for Academic Success
“Business and ethics are rarely compatible.” Discuss this statement and develop an argument which either supports or opposes it, based on your research. Apply your arguments to a specific case study. In this essay, I will be discussing the key issues between business and ethics. What is business and ethics? Business and ethics is the study of business activities where moral or ethical issues are addressed. In “Business ethics”, Crane and Matten. (2007) have defined ethics as, “ethics is concerned with the study of morality and the application of reason to elucidate specific rules and principles that determine right and wrong for a given situation” (p.8). When firms expand production, they can maximise their profits by increasing output. However, there are other factors which can influence the profits of a firm, such as ethical issues and social responsibilities a firm may have to its stakeholders.
Firstly, it can be argued that business and ethics are rarely compatible, because from a firm’s perspective, their objective is to maximise profits in the short run. One approach to profit maximising could be to outsource the firm worldwide. This allows the firm to benefit from lower costs of production for goods, as they will purchase cheaper raw materials or cheap labour. This argument is supported by Blowfield (1999) cited in Crane and Matten (2007). Hughes (2005) cited in Crane and Matten (2007) states that “however, in some cases ethical sourcing can actually be more developmental, where suppliers that are seen to be socially beneficial in some way are protected, rewarded and assisted in achieving development goals.” (p.390). This shows that, outsourcing will benefit suppliers, as it will create new jobs and the employees can get motivated, maybe with some form of income. However, from the employee’s perspective, they will receive a lower income. For example, if the firm sets up their company in China, they will get lower wages, compared to employees in
4
W11773009
Krupi Mehta
Writing for Academic Success
the UK. This would have a negative impact on the employees, as their standard of living will decrease, due to a low disposable income for everyday spending. I disagree with the argument, because in most cases firm’s look for increasing profits, firms do not the ethics of their firm and employees, for example fair trade, income and motivating staffs. Therefore, this argument supports that business and ethics are rarely compatible.
Secondly, an international government organization, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is a body, which deals with the legal rules and regulations of international trade. The WTO allows fair trading to occur and also ensures people are treated equally. This is necessary because, firms will look at the benefits for the business, such as increasing profits in the short term, therefore they will want to decrease the average costs. Most firms will manufacture their goods in developing countries to benefit from cheap labour, and discounted raw materials. Hence, the WTO can intervene in a firm’s decision by ensuring that the firms are, trading fairly, fair wages are paid to employees and human rights are followed. From my research, I found that, a well known high street retailer, ‘The body shop,’ follow the ethical trade code, as well as profit maximising. In my opinion, if small businesses like ‘The body shop’ can follow the ethical code as well as business objectives, then why cannot the large firms?
Thirdly, as a firm expands, externalities increase too. Externalities are the costs or benefits that arise from a business activity. Firms can benefit from economies of scale. These are when the average cost of production decreases, as output increases. This denotes that consumers can benefit from more choice and lower prices for goods;
5
W11773009
Krupi Mehta
Writing for Academic Success
therefore there will be social benefits to the consumers. On the other hand, there may be social costs to the environment involved such as, pollution, deforestation, and global warming. Therefore, a business would have social responsibility to look after the local environment, and do less damage to the environment. Freeman (1984) explains that from an economic perspectives, if a firm shuts down, then this would affect many stakeholders, as unemployment would increase in that region, a fall in taxes to fund education and healthcare and also affect other public services. (p.61)
Fourthly, several cosmetic goods are tested on animals. This is ethically wrong and many people are against animal testing. Animal testing occurs, when businesses have no alternative methods to test the product on except animals. In this case, businesses will look at ways of reducing their costs, and not look at the ethical issues of animal testing. Animal testing is increasing by a small percentage. This can be supported by the article from British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) “court review for animal testing”, where it states that “a total of three million procedures were carried out on animals in 2006, a rise of 4% on the previous year.” Animal testing is morally wrong, as animals should be treated fairly and equally. It is cruel to hurt animals and they should be left to live in peace and harmony.
In conclusion, to some extent I think business and ethics are rarely compatible. This is because, I think business and ethics are two separate issues and they can be viewed from two different perspectives, legal and from an economic perspective. A firm should consider both ethical and business issues, as there is a relationship between them.
6
W11773009
Krupi Mehta
Writing for Academic Success
Bibliography: References: Crane, A. Matten, M., (2007). Business Ethics 2nd Ed. New York: Oxford University Press Inc WTO, (February 2007). WTO - Understanding the WTO. 3rd edition Chapter 1, 11 [Online] World Trade Organization Information and Media Relations Division: Available from: (WTO Online) [Accessed 19 November 2008]. Rincon, P., Kinver, P., (2007). Court review for animal testing [Online] BBC News Available from: [Accessed 21 Nov 2008]
7
W11773009
Krupi Mehta
Writing for Academic Success
Reflection on the essay What/How you have improved the essay I improved my essay plan by adding words, as this would explain the essay plan more clearly. I improved the essay by correcting some references, as I did not reference correct the page numbers from the text, with the Harvard system. Also, I corrected some other minor changes, for example, lower case letters for the fist word in quotes How you have progressed your grammar and vocabulary action plan I think I have progressed quite well, because I have improved my academic writing skills, compared to when I first did essay writing in this university. I now use various vocabularies in my work, and my grammar and correct use of punctuation has improved too. What you have learnt on this module and how you have/will use what you have learnt on other modules and in your future career. I have learnt how to write academically, sentence structures, grammar vocabulary and different types of text and purposes of writing. I will apply whatever I have learnt practically in my own work, and in future too.
8
