Ethics in Business
Ethics in business is an aspect that in modern world falls under a risk to be neglected. In order to make money people often overlook the moral principles and the interests of the other people.
To become a good and reputable businessman it is important to regard all the aspects of the deal including the ethic ones. From the moral point of view a businessman must have his principles in making deals to keep his conscience clear and not to offend the interests and feelings of other people. To solve the task of Darren I would like to apply a seven step model.
Identifying a problem. Darren is standing on the crossroad of neglecting the ethic principles in communication with the Puna tribe on the one hand and on losing a profitable business project on the other. The problem lies in the traditions of the Puna tribe and in their strong belief in some rites that they hope will help them to be happy. Such microsocieties as the Puna tribe are usually isolated from the global community and have their own ideology and world outlook. They will probably not want to change their cultural symbols because they trust in the existing ones, and this is not a question of money. The ethical aspect lies in the probability of making damage to the Puna society which Darren is afraid to implement into life.
Gathering information. The Punas is a Native American tribe that has a very long history and strong beliefs and old traditions. The Punas live in isolation from the other tribes and from the rest of the society and is quite strict with people that want to enter the tribe from outside. At the same time the Punas cooperated with some people from outside during their history. Usually this was manufacturing of some unique handmade art objects that are made only by the members of the tribe. But all these orders were made without the demand to make changes into the technology or the ornaments or symbols of the items. Darren is about to change these symbols and takes a risk to provoke a protest in the tribe. He is about to make a responsible decision on how he must act.
Analyzing the situation. From the Punas point of view the order that Darren is about to give them can be offensive. But, on the other hand, the Punas can make money from it which will improve their financial situation. Anyway we must take into consideration that the Puna tribe is not a community that we are used to live in. They have much less access to new technologies and products as well as to the global market. It is possible that the money does not play such an important role in their lives like it does in the life of the developed communities. The Puna tribe can evaluate their customs and traditions higher than the material goods especially if they are not accustomed to them. In such communities natural production usually takes place and people live from what they hunt or plant. They probably will have no use of the money they can earn.
Developing options. Darren has the following options:
- the first option for Darren is to fulfil the project and to make an order for the Puna tribe. In this case he takes a risk to offend the community. Even if not, the change of symbols can cause an unpredictable impact on the life of the tribe. It can be strange and sound weird in the opinions of modern people, but the existence of such beliefs and traditions probably has some reflection on the life of the tribe and on their psychology;
- the second option is to reject implementing the project into life and loose a profitable opportunity for his career. In this case Darren loses a beneficial customer that probably will not want to continue cooperation with Darren’s company. In choosing this option Darren falls into a risk to worsen his career;
- the third option is to involve other people into making the order, so that they can be taught to make such baskets as the Puna tribe makes. In this way the Punas will not be obliged to use the symbols they do not want to use in their creativity, and the order will be completed.
Evaluating alternatives. From all of the options listed above the third one is an alternative to the first two. This option is based on the other people’s work that will be based on the skills and talents of the Puna tribe.
This is the best option in this situation, because the interests of both the customer and the tribe will be preserved. But however there can be some difficulties with this approach. Special people must be hired that have an ability to manufacture handmade things and to study new technologies quickly. As it was said in the order, both men and women of the Puna tribe will be involved into work because there are many baskets to be made. So many manufacturers must be involved which can be a costly affair. Furthermore, all of them must be willing to visit the place where the Puna tribe lives which can be an obstacle. Another obstacle is that the Puna tribe can probably dislike the presence of many people on their territory. Usualy such communities live in isolation and rarely let people from outside into the community. But even if they do they can probably refuse to teach them to make baskets. A solution to this can be a good remuneration.
It is also important to know what materials does the Puna tribe use in their work. It is quite probable that they use such materials that can be found only in the places of their location. So the manufacture of baskets will be possible only within the Puna community, This will cause additional difficulties, because, again, we cannot predict if the Punas would like the manufacturers to stay for long within their tribe. The manufacturers will have to take food and drink with them to be sure that they will not starve in such conditions, because they are not used to natural production and cannot provide themselves food in such conditions. Moreover, they will have to take tents with them in order to have a place to rest in.
If the baskets can be manufactured outside the location of the Puna tribe, this would e a great advantage. Firstly, there is no need to take all the mnufacturers to the Puna tribe location. It is enough to take one of them so that the Punas will teach him how to make the baskets. It is more likely that they will be more loyal with one of the representatives of the outside world than with many of them. Having earned all the tribe skills in basket manufacture the manufacturer can return home and there he can teach the technology to other manufacturers.
There is yet another option for the conditions in which the baskets must be produced within the Puna tribe location. If the baskets are made only from the plants that grow in the Puna tribe region there is a need to take this material to an other location where the manufactuers will be able to cope with it. This involves additional money, of course, but in this case there will be no need to disturb the Puna tribe with long presence of strangers.
Selection of a preffered alternative. To my mind, the third option is the most preferable as it allows to make the baskets and to preserve friendly relations with the Puna tribe at the same time. This option can cost more to the customer but it can be a great solution.
Acting on the decision. In my opinion, the best decision is to implement into life the third option. To do this, the first step will be to discover wheter the baskets can be made only inside the Puna tribe location and to hire people who will be able to manufacture the baskets. Then it is necessary to select one of three ways that I have described in the Evaluating alternatives section. It is important to preserve a friendly attitude within the Puna tribe so the manufacturers must be chosen regarding their ability to:
a) learn new technologies quickly;
b) make handmade objects without additional efforts;
c) have a peaceful character and a willing to discover something new.
Now let us discover some approaches to solving this problem.
From the point of view of utilitarianism, the first option which we discussed in the paper (to make the order for the Puna tribe) is the one that has the least connection with utilitarianism. This approach has a major principle in itself, which is to multiply happiness and satisfaction and to reduce suffering. In the first approach the change of the Puna tribe symbols can be regarded as negligence and suffering, because we want to go against the nature of the Puna tribe’s symbols. The second option is bad too because worsening of the career can be regarded as suffering personally for Darren. The third option coincides with the principles of utilitarianism the most because the interests of the Puna will be preserved and at the same time the order will be completed and Darren will not have to risk his career.
In the Kantian concept the famous philosopher is concerned about the motivations of an action. He devoted many of his works to discovering the true value of different motivations for particular actions irrespective of the very actions ant of the final result they bring. We can see that every option described in this paper for Darren has its own motivation. For example, the motivation for the first option is to fulfil the demands of the customer at any possible value which is not the best approach for a businessman in terms of ethics. The second approach has a motivation to keep peaceful relations with the Puna tribe which is highly ethical of Darren but can make losses for the company he works in. The third approach has a motivation to preserve good relations with the Punas and to make the order for the customer at the same time. There is more motivation for the third option than for the first and the second, that is why I think it is the most preferable.
