Original Discussion Question:
Prompt: Review the articles on the gulf oil spill and corporate social responsibility. In 300 words, explain how the philosophy of Milton Friedman played a role in management’s decision. Identify one other ethical framework, other than Free Market Ethics, that influenced management during this event. Incorporate the material from the required readings along with scholarly outside research. All sources used must be cited using APA format.
Instructions: In 150 words or more, respond to 2 peers. Replies to classmates must be substantive and add to the discussions.
******************Student Discussions*******************
STUDENT 1: Chase
Hello Class,
So for this weeks forum the main objective is to go over the article which I will do, but what truly stuck out to me was the Youtube video from Jon Danzig. To sum it up he asks is Awareness raising enough? He goes through multiple different categories that took the legislation to get it going. Basically he also hints at we could have done this a long time ago and some people did. I think he is hinting at the moral right to this side of the workplace. Basically if everyone had morals then we would have nothing to worry about. I completely agree with this, because it is so true. If companies would have had awareness enough to do the right thing then the government would not have to step in and put forth these acts. No matter the company it is a professional workplace that it is based on in the consumer eye so why not just be professional at all times. Obviously this is a lot easier said then done for some people.
In the article it talks also about fair employment and a “social conscience.” To me this means morals and treating everyone the same. I feel that a business is very similar to a child on the aspect of how it is raised or built is how it is viewed. If a child is brought up on hate then they will learn to hate. If a company is built on discrimination then it will always discriminate. The government should not have to step in because everyone is created equally. There should not be a block that someone has to check to show there race, but instead just a resume that lists what they can bring to the company. The tricky part is when the interview comes people will judge in person. I have done numerous interviews on numerous different races and to me I look at who is the best candidate for the job. The resume is great, but to me in the interview I want to only see how they interact with people. That is the biggest part to a supervisor job in my eyes. People skills is huge and how they interact with others. Being from Iowa I was raised by good parents that I believe taught me well, and the Army only helped further that teaching. The article talks about a social responsibility that means not gouging prices in time of a crisis. Look at the hurricanes that struck Florida, you had businesses selling a case of water for $30 which is when people needed it. The social responsibility is to continue to do the right thing, don’t change you prices to something that people cannot afford after they have lost so much.
STUDENT 2: MacKinsey
Milton Friedman, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, stated that in most cases, if a business makes a claim of social responsibility, it’s actually nothing more than the business trying to generate goodwill (Friedman, 1970). In other words, the claim of social responsibility is nothing more than a public relations campaign. It doesn’t appear that this philosophy played a role in BP’s management’s decisions that led to the oil spill so much as it was a great example of Friedman’s philosophy. Verschoor (2010), points out that there was a great disconnect between BP’s claims of environmental protection and safety, and its actual track record well before the oil spill. Friedman called this type of goodwill generation the “cloak of social responsibility” (1970). Friedman claimed that a business making claims of social responsibility was simply using smoke and mirrors to change public perception. This was clearly the case with BP. If BP had actually cared about its “social responsibility” it would have had a much better track record, and the spill might have been avoided. According to Halbert & Ingulli (2008), the framework of Free Market Ethics means that “managers have a primary responsibility to try to improve the value of shareholder investment” (p. 10). Additionally, Friedman claimed that it is a business manager’s responsibility “to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom”. (Halbert & Ingulli, 2008, p. 10). Given that BP operated at a net loss of $3.7 billion in 2010 as a result of managerial decisions leading to the oil spill, it failed to meet the basic requirements of Free Market Ethics (Financial and Operating Information 2010-2014, 2015). Additionally, the oil spill demonstrates a failure of BP to meet Friedman’s definition of a business manager’s responsibility to conform to the basic rules of society. BP managerial decisions were also clearly not meant to “produce the greatest overall good”, which Halbert & Ingulli (2008) claim as a primary tenant of Utilitarianism (p. 10). Nor were their actions upholding Immanuel Kant’s Deontology, which is holding to high ideals without exception (Halbert & Ingulli, 2008, p. 14). Their actions also do not fit with Virtue Ethics, or “habits of goodness” learned from observing others (Halbert & Ingulli, 2008, p. 16). Really, BP’s management decisions were utterly lacking in every ethical fashion.
-Mac
References
Financial and Operating Information 2010-2014. (2015). Bp.com. Retrieved 15 March 2018, from https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/pdf/investors/bp…
Friedman, M. (1970). The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits. Colorado.edu. Retrieved 15 March 2018, from https://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarian…
Halbert, T., & Ingulli, E. (2008). Law & ethics in the business environment. Edge.apus.edu. Retrieved 15 March 2018, from https://edge.apus.edu/access/content/group/busines…
Verschoor, C. (2010). BP Still Hasn’t Learned Ethical Lessons. Search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu. Retrieved 15 March 2018, from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docv…
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