Lectures Ethics & the Future of Business
Lecture 1: 3 February 2025
Course structure
- Theme 1: ethics
o Definition: systematic study of right and wrong
o Level: individual
o Foundation: philosophy, psychology, (behavioural) economics, leadership
- Theme 2: responsibility
o Definition: integration of triple bottom line into companies
o Level: organization
o Foundation: management
- Theme 3: sustainability
o Definition: human welfare within ecological balance
o Level: society
o Foundations: sustainability, political school, complexity
Morality, ethics, and ethical theory
- Morality: humans’ ability to
distinguish between right and wrong
- Ethics: the systematic study of
morality
o Normative ethics: the study of
how we ought to behave
- Ethical theories: principles and rules that determine right and wrong in diJerent situations
Ethics
- An on-going discussion about morality with a very long history
- Ethics typically examines right and wrong from the perspective of a human being (=
anthropocentric: regarding humankind as the central or most important element of
existence, especially as opposed to God or animals), instead of nature, for instance
- Key questions include:
o What kind of moral principles should guide our actions?
o What kind of outcomes should we aim for?
- Ethics is not just theorization of morals (= the development of ethical theories and
principles/ abstract ideas about what is right or wrong, just and unjust), but the aim is also to
aJect practice/influence real-world behaviour
- Ethical theories can give contradictory solutions to the same problem
- Business ethics: the study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of
right and wrong are addressed
Do we need ethics when we have the law?
- In society, morality is the foundation of the law
- Law and ethics partly overlap
- Nonetheless:
o The law does not cover all ethical issues (e.g. cheating on your partner)
o Not all legal issues are ethical (e.g. driving on the right side of the road)
o Law and ethics can involve contradictions (e.g. apartheid)
§ Apartheid: was a system of institutionalized racial segregation and
discrimination in South Africa; laws were designed to separate people based
on race, giving political, social, and economic privileges to the white
minority while oppressing and denying basic rights to the Black majority and
other non-white groups
- The road from unethical to illegal is short and slippery
1
,Lectures Ethics & the Future of Business
- Companies can operate in locations with lacking legal infrastructure
Moral orientations
- Which moral principle do you think is the best to distinguish right from wrong:
o Follow the moral guidance of your religion
o Follow your conscience
o Aim at your own benefit
o Do your duty
o Respect yourself and others
o Do not violate human rights
o Support the common good
o Act with fairness and justice
o Be a good person
Trolley dilemma
- Ted talk
- Eleanor Nelsen: “would you sacrifice one person to save five?”
- Trolley problem: series of thought experiments involving ethical dilemmas of whether to
sacrifice one person to save a larger number
o Usually begins with a scenario in which a runaway trolley or train is on course to
collide with and kill a number of people (five) down the track
o A driver or bystander can intervene and divert the vehicle to kill just one person on a
diJerent track
o Then other variations of the runaway vehicle, and analogous life-and-death
dilemmas are posed, each containing the option to either do nothing (e.g., several
people will be killed) or intervene and sacrifice one initially "safe" person to save the
others
Moral machine: preferences
- Study exploring moral decision-making preferences in hypothetical self-driving car
dilemmas
- Similar to the trolley problem
- Category A (left side): categories of moral preference
- Category B (right side): specific character preferences
Moral machine: culture
- Comparing moral decision-
making preferences across
Western, Eastern, and
Southern regions
- Shows how cultural factors
influence ethical decision-
making
- Western region:
2
, Lectures Ethics & the Future of Business
o Strong preference for sparing humans
o Sparing more individuals (as opposed to a single one)
o Sparing the young
o Moderate preference for sparing law-abiding individuals and pedestrians
o Preference for sparing higher status is weaker compared to other regions
- Eastern region:
o Higher emphasis on sparing lawful individuals and higher-status people
o Less emphasis on sparing pedestrians or more characters than in Western regions
o Generally lower or neutral preferences for many categories à shows diJerent
cultural values on life prioritization
- Southern region:
o Moderate preferences spread across several categories
o Relatively stronger emphasis on sparing the lawful, higher status, and the fit
o Preferences are not as extreme as in other regions, suggesting a more balanced
distribution across categories
Normative ethical theories: principles vs. outcomes
3
Lecture 1: 3 February 2025
Course structure
- Theme 1: ethics
o Definition: systematic study of right and wrong
o Level: individual
o Foundation: philosophy, psychology, (behavioural) economics, leadership
- Theme 2: responsibility
o Definition: integration of triple bottom line into companies
o Level: organization
o Foundation: management
- Theme 3: sustainability
o Definition: human welfare within ecological balance
o Level: society
o Foundations: sustainability, political school, complexity
Morality, ethics, and ethical theory
- Morality: humans’ ability to
distinguish between right and wrong
- Ethics: the systematic study of
morality
o Normative ethics: the study of
how we ought to behave
- Ethical theories: principles and rules that determine right and wrong in diJerent situations
Ethics
- An on-going discussion about morality with a very long history
- Ethics typically examines right and wrong from the perspective of a human being (=
anthropocentric: regarding humankind as the central or most important element of
existence, especially as opposed to God or animals), instead of nature, for instance
- Key questions include:
o What kind of moral principles should guide our actions?
o What kind of outcomes should we aim for?
- Ethics is not just theorization of morals (= the development of ethical theories and
principles/ abstract ideas about what is right or wrong, just and unjust), but the aim is also to
aJect practice/influence real-world behaviour
- Ethical theories can give contradictory solutions to the same problem
- Business ethics: the study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of
right and wrong are addressed
Do we need ethics when we have the law?
- In society, morality is the foundation of the law
- Law and ethics partly overlap
- Nonetheless:
o The law does not cover all ethical issues (e.g. cheating on your partner)
o Not all legal issues are ethical (e.g. driving on the right side of the road)
o Law and ethics can involve contradictions (e.g. apartheid)
§ Apartheid: was a system of institutionalized racial segregation and
discrimination in South Africa; laws were designed to separate people based
on race, giving political, social, and economic privileges to the white
minority while oppressing and denying basic rights to the Black majority and
other non-white groups
- The road from unethical to illegal is short and slippery
1
,Lectures Ethics & the Future of Business
- Companies can operate in locations with lacking legal infrastructure
Moral orientations
- Which moral principle do you think is the best to distinguish right from wrong:
o Follow the moral guidance of your religion
o Follow your conscience
o Aim at your own benefit
o Do your duty
o Respect yourself and others
o Do not violate human rights
o Support the common good
o Act with fairness and justice
o Be a good person
Trolley dilemma
- Ted talk
- Eleanor Nelsen: “would you sacrifice one person to save five?”
- Trolley problem: series of thought experiments involving ethical dilemmas of whether to
sacrifice one person to save a larger number
o Usually begins with a scenario in which a runaway trolley or train is on course to
collide with and kill a number of people (five) down the track
o A driver or bystander can intervene and divert the vehicle to kill just one person on a
diJerent track
o Then other variations of the runaway vehicle, and analogous life-and-death
dilemmas are posed, each containing the option to either do nothing (e.g., several
people will be killed) or intervene and sacrifice one initially "safe" person to save the
others
Moral machine: preferences
- Study exploring moral decision-making preferences in hypothetical self-driving car
dilemmas
- Similar to the trolley problem
- Category A (left side): categories of moral preference
- Category B (right side): specific character preferences
Moral machine: culture
- Comparing moral decision-
making preferences across
Western, Eastern, and
Southern regions
- Shows how cultural factors
influence ethical decision-
making
- Western region:
2
, Lectures Ethics & the Future of Business
o Strong preference for sparing humans
o Sparing more individuals (as opposed to a single one)
o Sparing the young
o Moderate preference for sparing law-abiding individuals and pedestrians
o Preference for sparing higher status is weaker compared to other regions
- Eastern region:
o Higher emphasis on sparing lawful individuals and higher-status people
o Less emphasis on sparing pedestrians or more characters than in Western regions
o Generally lower or neutral preferences for many categories à shows diJerent
cultural values on life prioritization
- Southern region:
o Moderate preferences spread across several categories
o Relatively stronger emphasis on sparing the lawful, higher status, and the fit
o Preferences are not as extreme as in other regions, suggesting a more balanced
distribution across categories
Normative ethical theories: principles vs. outcomes
3
