Business Ethics and Corporate Culture

Vocabulary flashcards covering business ethics principles, decision-making models, philosophical frameworks, and corporate culture concepts across all four lecture units.

Business Ethics

A normative discipline that examines the responsibilities owed to ourselves and to each other within the business environment, evaluating how individuals and businesses should act.

Practical Reasoning

A category of reasoning focused on what one ought to do and how one should act and behave.

Theoretical Reasoning

A category of reasoning aimed at establishing truth and determining what one should believe based on reasonable standards.

Morality

The underlying moral systems, values, and personal integrity on which individual decisions are based, distinguished from broader questions of social justice.

Norms

Standards of appropriate and proper behavior that establish guidelines for what people should do, how they should act, and what type of person they should be.

Values

The underlying beliefs that incline an individual or institution to act or choose one course of action rather than another.

Ethical Values

Properties of life that contribute to human well-being and a life well lived, serving human well-being in impartial rather than selfish ways.

Separation Thesis

The view in business circles holding that ordinary ethical standards should be kept separate from, and not used to judge, business decisions because business has its own distinct standards.

Psychological Egoism

The psychological theory implying that all human actions are inherently selfish and motivated exclusively by self-interest.

Stakeholder

Any individual or group who affects or is affected by decisions made within a firm, for better or worse.

Risk Assessment

A process to identify potential events that may affect an entity and manage risk within its risk appetite to provide reasonable assurance regarding organizational objectives.

Normative Myopia

Shortsightedness about values, referring to the inability or failure to recognize ethical issues in a decision-making situation.

Inattentional Blindness

A cognitive failure to notice key information or ethical issues resulting from focusing on too narrow a range of questions.

Moral Imagination

The ability to envision various alternative choices, consequences, resolutions, benefits, and harms when facing an ethical decision.

Satisficing

A decision-making shortcut in which an individual selects the alternative that satisfies the minimum decision criteria rather than seeking an optimal solution.

Social Roles

Positions and relationships held in society outside formal institutions, such as friend, son or daughter, spouse, citizen, or neighbor.

Institutional Roles

Positions and responsibilities held within formal organizations, such as employee, manager, professor, or student club president.

Ethical Framework

A systematic structure or approach designed to provide a reasoned answer to the fundamental question of how human beings should live their lives.

Utilitarianism

A consequentialist ethical framework directing that decisions be made based on overall outcomes, aiming to produce the greatest good for the greatest number.

Market Utilitarianism

A version of utilitarian theory, associated with Adam Smith, claiming that free and competitive markets are the best mechanism for maximizing overall social good.

Administrative Utilitarianism

A version of utilitarian theory holding that expert policy makers are best positioned to predict human action and implement regulations that maximize overall social good.

Egoism

A consequentialist ethical theory focusing exclusively on maximizing the happiness and self-interest of the individual decision maker.

Deontology

A principle-based approach to ethics emphasizing that certain actions are intrinsically right or wrong based on duties, obligations, and rules, regardless of consequences.

Principles

Ethical rules or fundamental truths that translate underlying values into specific actions and guidelines.

Categorical Imperative

An unconditional, overriding ethical duty that must be obeyed regardless of circumstances, containing no conditional 'if' clause.

Hypothetical Duty

A conditional obligation or rule, such as a professional code of conduct, that binds an individual only if they fulfill a specific role or profession.

Autonomy

The fundamental human right of self-rule, requiring that persons be treated as ends in themselves and never merely as tools or means to an end.

Libertarian Theory of Justice

A view of social justice holding individual liberty as central, defining a just society as one where individuals are free from government intrusion as long as they do not harm others.

Egalitarian Theory of Justice

A view of social justice holding equality as central, advocating for equal opportunity or equal distribution of basic goods and services with government involvement.

Legal Rights

Entitlements granted to employees or citizens on the basis of statutory legislation or judicial rulings, such as minimum wage laws.

Contractual Rights

Entitlements guaranteed to individuals based on explicit employment agreements, such as healthcare benefits, pensions, and paid holidays.

Moral Rights

Inalienable human entitlements grounded in moral claims independent of legal statutes or contractual agreements, such as the right not to be bullied or sexually harassed.

Virtue Ethics

An ethical framework that focuses on an individual's moral character, dispositions, and habits, shifting attention from 'what should I do?' to 'who should I be?'

Character

The collection of dispositions, relationships, attitudes, values, and beliefs that constitute an individual's enduring moral identity and personality.

Morals

Society's external rules of conduct and social boundaries that serve as the underlying foundation on which decisions are based.

Duties

Moral or legal obligations that an individual is bound to fulfill.

Corporate Culture

A shared pattern of beliefs, expectations, norms, and meanings that guides and influences thinking and behavior among members of an organization.

Compliance-Based Culture

A corporate culture that emphasizes strict adherence to rules, regulations, and legal standards as the primary responsibility of ethics.

Values-Based Culture

A corporate culture that relies on personal integrity and conformity to a shared statement of values and principles rather than simple obedience to rules.

Whistle-Blowing

The practice in which an individual within an organization reports organizational wrongdoing to external authorities or the public.

United States Sentencing Commission (USSC)

An independent agency within the U.S. judiciary responsible for establishing federal sentencing policy and guidelines for organizations.

Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (FSGO)

Federal rules established by the USSC that assign offense levels and offer penalty reductions to organizations that maintain effective ethics and compliance programs.