The Evolution of Business Ethics
One nice thing about this course is that you will find your background reading page rather short—but there will still be a respectable amount of reading to do. The reason is that you will be using a textbook for your Case Assignments. Well, it’s actually more of a narrative of the history of Lockheed Martin’s (LM) ethics program than an actual textbook.
The first part of the text provides a general history of the company and also provides the setting for the creation of the company’s ethics program. Military contractors like LM tend to find themselves in the unique position of manufacturing weapons of war which they sell for a profit. But those weapons also provide a military superiority that helps to protect our troops in the field.
With this said, please read pages 1-48 for this module from the following book in the Trident Online Library:
Terris, D. (2013). Ethics at work: Creating virtue at an American corporation. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press. Retrieved from the Trident Online Library.
For SLP assignment you will be asked to spend some time reviewing an article on stakeholder management. Stakeholder management is foundational to the practice of business ethics. This is because typically when a company player does something unethical, stakeholders are the ones impacted. As always, some stakeholders may benefit and others may lose, but stakeholders will always be involved. Balancing stakeholder concerns is subsequently an important aspect of ethical decision making. This article provides a good overview of stakeholder management.
Howitt, M., & McManus, J. (2012). Stakeholder management: An instrument for decision making. Management Services, 56(3), 29-34. Retrieved from Trident Online Library (ProQuest).
Harrison, J. S., & Wicks, A. C. (2013). Stakeholder theory, value, and firm performance. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(1), 97-124. Retrieved from the Trident Online Library.
Required Reading
Bossuyt, S., & Patrick, V. K. (2018). Assertiveness Bias in Gender Ethics Research: Why Women Deserve the Benefit of the Doubt. Journal of Business Ethics, 150(3), 727-739. Available in the Trident Online Library.
Terris, D. (2005). Ethics at work: Creating virtue at an American corporation. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press. Retrieved from the Trident Online Library.
Howitt, M., & McManus, J. (2012). Stakeholder management: An instrument for decision making. Management Services, 56(3), 29-34. Retrieved from Trident Online Library (ProQuest).
Harrison, J. S., & Wicks, A. C. (2013). Stakeholder theory, value, and firm performance. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(1), 97-124. Retrieved from the Trident Online Library.
Emerson, W. M., Alves, H., & Raposo, M. (2011). Stakeholder theory: Issues to resolve. Management Decision, 49(2), 226-252.
Stieb, J. A. (2009). Assessing Freeman's stakeholder theory. Journal of Business Ethics, 87(3), 401-414.
Vlachos, P. A., Panagopoulos, N. G., & Rapp, A. A. (2013). Feeling good by doing good: Employee CSR-induced attributions, job satisfaction, and the role of charismatic leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(3), 577-588.
Schweitzer, M. E., & Gibson, D. E. (2008). Fairness, feelings, and ethical decision-making: Consequences of violating community standards of fairness. Journal of Business Ethics, 77(3), 287.
The following tutorial provides detailed information that can be applied to the topics of this course. There are a number of videos and lessons on ethics. Please review the materials in this tutorial and save the tutorial for your future assignments. (At the end of the tutorial, there is an “exercise” that is NOT required for you to complete.)
Overview
The first part of your reading in Daniel Terris’ book will include an overview of Lockheed Martin’s organization and will lay out the research plan that Terris used to obtain information necessary for his work. This will be followed by a general overview of the evolution of business ethics in America.
- Based on your readings, describe what you consider to be the responsibility of top leadership in a large organization with respect to reaching a balance between profits and stakeholder concerns. Please support your position by giving some examples from the text or from other sources where CEOs did a good or poor job of finding this balance.
Terris discusses the history of business ethics in America since the late 1800s with respect to anti-competitive practices, seeking unfair advantage through immoral arrangements with suppliers and public officials, failing to adhere to laws and regulations, and lack of transparency. Discuss to what extent you believe things to be better or worse in the present day for businesses in general.
On page 41, Terris discusses the ideas of Howard Bowen regarding the evolution of social responsibility of businesses. To what extent do you think his predictions held true since 1953?