European Business Ethics Cases in Context: The Morality of Corporate Decision Making

283 Pages·2011·2.801 MB·English

by  Henk van Luijk (auth.), Wim Dubbink, Luc van Liedekerke, Henk van Luijk (eds.)

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
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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.
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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
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