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Greetings! This is Ben here, and in today’s tutorial, you will be introduced to the four
straw men approaches to business ethics: The Friedman Doctrine, Cultural Relativism, The
Righteous Moralist, and the Naïve Immoralist. THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS DISCUSSED FOR EDUCATIONAL
PURPOSES ONLY. USER DISCRETION IS ADVISED! First, let’s go over The Friedman Doctrine.
Daredevil—it’s clobbering time! Friedman’s basic position is that the only
social responsibility of business is to increase profits, so long as the company stays within
the rules of law. Businesses should behave in an ethical manner and not engage in deception
and fraud, but need not undertake social expenditures beyond those mandated by the law. A firm’s
priority should be to maximize profits for its stockholders, or owners. If stockholders
then wish to use the proceeds to make social investments, that is their right, but managers
of the firm should not make that decision for them.
Now that the Man Without Fear has given his insight on the Friedman Doctrine, let’s
see what Dr. Doom has to say about Cultural Relativism.
Ethics are nothing more than the reflection of a culture—all ethics are culturally determined—and
that accordingly, a firm should adopt the ethics of the culture in which it is operating.
Societal values and norms vary from one culture to another, so it follows that certain business
practices are ethical in one country but not another. If the business decisions are not
ethically desirable, it is at least ethically acceptable. Rule of thumb: When in Rome do
as the Romans do. If you wish to do differently, conquer Rome.
Good advice! Let’s see how Venom’s Righteous Moralist approach differs.
We disagree with Dr. Doom! The Righteous Moralist dictates that a multinational’s home-country
standards of ethics should be followed by foreign countries. This especially holds true
with managers from developed nations. After all, developing nations often model their
business practices after developed nations. Learning our ways has enabled them to grow
in the global economy. We do not succumb to their standards of ethics! They have much
to learn from us! Thanks, Dr. Doom and Venom. Now let’s give
the floor to Wolverine for his Naïve Immoralist approach.
Thanks, bub. If a manager of a multinational sees that firms from other nations are not
following ethical norms in a host nation, that manager should not either. If the actions
are consistent with widely accepted moral standards in the global community, it may
be ethically justified. Basically if everyone else is doing it, you may be disadvantaged
or even wrong not to do it. If businesses really thought their actions were wrong and
did not act in the best of their interests, they would not be doing it.
Thanks, Wolverine. Today, we went over the four straw men approaches to business ethics:
The Friedman Doctrine, Cultural Relativism, The Righteous Moralist, and the Naïve Immoralist.
Thank you for your time.