The Nature and Forms of Business Purposes of Establishing a Business

Organization 1. Money - a person can earn without depending

Business and Business Organizations on his own ability to succeed and excel in the
Types of Business Organizations: marketplace.
• Service business - provide services rather 2. Control - business allows for a more personal
than products to customers. control of an owner’s financial future.
• Merchandising business - sell products 3. Adventure - adventurous people may find
they purchase from other business to excitement of the marketplace irresistible so they
customers pursue their own business basically for the
• Manufacturing business - change basic adventure, regardless of how much profit they will
inputs into products that are sold to likely gain.
customers. 4. Service - some businesses are founded chiefly
Ethics with the aim of serving the local community or the
• Ethics is a branch of philosophy concerned world in general.
with the meaning of all aspects of human Business Organizations and Socio-economic
behavior. Development
• Theoretical ethics - also called as • Socio-economic development – is the
normative ethics. It is about delineating right process of social and economic
from wrong. development in a society.
Business Ethics ⮚ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - sum of gross
• Business ethics is the study of appropriate value added by all resident producers in the
business policies and practices regarding economy plus any product taxes and minus any
controversial subjects. subsidizes not included in the value of products.
Levels of Business Ethics ⮚ Life expectancy - statistical measure of how
Macro. It is defined as the area that represents long an organism may live, based on the year of
business operations bound by the virtues and birth, their current age and other demographic
norms of the different political and social systems of factors like gender.
every society.
⮚ Literacy rate - total percentage of the population
Corporate. It represents how each company
aged 15 and above who can, with understanding,
interpret the rules and standards of the industry
read and write a short, simple statement on their
operates.
everyday life.
Corporate. It represents how each company
interpret the rules and standards of the industry ⮚ Employment rate - measure of the number of
operates. people who are both jobless and looking for a job.
Corporate. It represents how each company Four Main Reasons that may persuade a
interpret the rules and standards of the industry business to act ethically:
operates. 1. Legal reasons
Partnerships - an association of two or more 2. Public image reasons
people as partners; it refers to arrangement in 3. Pragmatic reasons – acknowledging that
which the individuals share the profits and liabilities sometimes, acting ethically might be the most direct
of a business ventures. path to business success.
• General - all partners have unrestricted 4. Moral reasons – where it is affirmed that these
liability for debts and obligation of the reasons are different form each of the other three
partnership, practically resembling a sole types.
proprietorship. • Small and medium enterprises
• Limited - one or more general partners (SMEs) are important contributors to
have unlimited liability so creditors cannot economic growth and a tool to reduce
target their personal assets. poverty in developing countries.
Corporation - an entity created by law that is • Microfinance is an effective tool in the
separate and distinct from its owners and its arsenal of the war against poverty.
continued existence is dependent upon the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – is a
corporate statutes of the state in which it is continuing commitment by business to behave
incorporated. ethically and contribute to economic development.
Cooperative - a duly registered business 2. The Morality of Advertising
organization owned by a group of individuals and is Deceptive advertisement – are those that make
operated for their mutual benefit. false statements about or misrepresent the product.
Types of Cooperatives 3. Basic Employee Rights, Job Discrimination,
1. Credit - promotes and accepts savings and Other Labor-Related Ethical Issues
lending services among its members. 4. Whistle Blowing
2. Consumers - maintain intention to buy and It is the act, for an employee (or former employee),
allocate commodities to members and non- of disclosing what he believes to be unethical or
members. illegal behavior to higher management (internal
3. Producers - combined production whether whistle-blowing) or to an external authority or the
agricultural or industrial. public (external whistle-blowing).
4. Service - engages on offering services to
members and non-members of the cooperative Core Principles of Fairness, Accountability,
5. Multipurpose - combines two or more of the and Transparency
business activities. Fairness- refers to equal treatment.
Accountability ● Common Good - a principle that whatever
It refers to the obligation and responsibility serves the most number of members in a
Company’s constituencies: community is considered good.
⮚ Institutional investors - give more information ● Greatest Good - principle that there is a
about board performance, morally acceptable standard that people must cooperatively strive for
policies and practices, compensation policies and to maximize the harmony in the community.
the behavior of senior management, as well as fully ● Code - has value just like an internal guideline
transparent financial data and information on the and an external statement of corporate values and
company’s prospects growth. commitments.
⮚ Customers - inform them with product quality ● Codes of Right Conduct - tells a story about
community involvement, child-labor practices, what the company believes and cares about, what
pricing, customer’s service and performance it is truly committed to and the way it can be
issues. expected to act.
● Consequentialist theory - focuses on the
⮚ Employees - information on employment
outcomes of actions, settling on whether or not an
decisions, compensation practices, and amount of
action is good by knowing the results
money devoted for training and development,
(Utilitarianism).
growth potential, working environment, culture of
● Non-consequentialist theory - centers on the
organization, work-family and domestic partner
principle that an action is good based on the
benefits.
principle people follow and regardless of the results
⮚ Communities - be accountable for all actions of the action (Deontology).
that may affect the communities in which they
operate. Ethics and Philosophy
Transparency Ethics
It means openness, willingness by the • Has several meanings.
company to provide clear information to
shareholders and other stakeholders Philosophy
⮚ Respect - a chance to observe and know how a • Comes from two Greek words: philia -
business operates behind the scenes and the love and sophia - wisdom.
processes that are involved in all the business Three Branches of Philosophy
operations. 1. Metaphysics
⮚ Positive public perception - openly protect ontology - deals with nature of
themselves or otherwise enlighten the public of existence; cosmology - inspects the origin and
their actions and behaviors. organization of the universe.
⮚ Staff involvement - open and honest 2. Epistemology
communication must be maintained with the staff. Logic is a key dimension to epistemology.
⮚ Customer service - it can get better through (1) deductive logic - moving from general to
transparent business operations. (2) inductive logic - specific to general facts.
⮚ Image management - established media 3. Axiology
connections can help disseminate information (1) ethics - studies human conduct and examines
during a crisis. moral values;
(2) aesthetics - values beauty, nature, and
Codes of Ethics aesthetic experience.
Components of a Code of Ethics Ethics - involves a discipline that examines good or
Values. A company's values guide the bad practices within the context of a moral duty
organization's internal conduct and its relationship Strands of Philosophy
with stakeholders. 1. Idealism
• Considered as the oldest philosophy of
Principles. These are credos that employees
should live with during their stay in the company. Western culture.
Management Support. Management is Leading proponents are:
considering the code as the bible of the employees Socrates (Greek philosopher)
in terms of ethics. Plato (Greek philosopher, "Father of Idealism").
Personal Responsibility. Any member of the and 5th centuries)
organization should uphold and preserve the code Rene Descartes - all we really know is what is in
of ethics because any violation of the code may our own consciousnesses, and that the whole
involve legal and moral consequences. external world is merely an idea or picture in our
Compliance. All legal requirements of the code minds.
should be met. Immanuel Kant - the mind shapes the world as we
Culture perceive it to take the form of space-and-time.
• Has profound influence on all aspects of
2. Realism
human behavior. Considered as the antithesis of idealism, whereby
Corporate culture refers to the beliefs and "the Universe exists whether mind perceives it or
behaviors that determine how a company's not."
employees and management interact and handle The leading proponents are:
outside business transactions. Aristotle (Greek philosopher, "Father of Realism")
- Forms and universals rests on prior knowledge: if
we did not know what universals were in the first
place, we would have no idea of what we were
trying to prove, and so could not be trying to prove Hinduism
it. • Oldest religion in the world.
John Locke - the world only contains the primary • To attain the goal, the soul must obtain
qualities (such as shape, size, distance, hardness liberation (moksha), or from the endless
and volume), and that other properties were entirely cycle of birth, death, and rebirth (samsara).
subjective, depending for their existence upon • Believe in reincarnation, which is
some perceiver who can observe the objects. influenced
3. Neo-theism • karma (material actions resulting from the
known as Theistic Realism - "God exists and can consequences of previous actions),
be known through faith and reason." • dharma (fulfilling one's duty in life)
4. Contemporary Philosophies • Believe in ahimsa (all life is sacred) and
• Pragmatism should not be harmed.
Known as experimentalism (experience of things • Cow - symbolize a gratifying reincarnation
that work). for a soul.
Existentialism Judaism
• Revolt against the mathematical, scientific • Oldest known monotheistic religion
philosophies that preceded it. Christianity
• Most popular religion in the world based on
The Classical Philosophers and their the number of worshippers.
Philosophies Buddhism
Socrates: Have the Courage to Disagree • Developed in India, and is based on many
Plato: The Power to Rule of the foundation concepts of Hinduism.
Aristotle: Let People Seek Fulfillment • Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha) -
Immanuel Kant Founder, bothered by the human
• Kantian ethics - emphasizes a single depression
principle of duty. Wheel of Life - most important symbols of
Augustine Buddhism, stands for the endless cycle of life
• Eudaemonistic - proposes an end for through reincarnation and because each of its
human conduct, namely happiness. But eight spokes represents one of the teachings of
this happiness is to be found only in God. the Eightfold Path. Confucianism
Thomas Aquinas • Confucius (founder) believed that the single
• HIs moral philosophy involves a merger of treatment was to stress a sense of social
at least two apparently disparate order and mutual respect, a philosophy
traditions: Aristotelian eudaimonism and that later became identified as
Christian theology. Confucianism.
Confucius: Live a Contented, Moral and Happy Taoism
Life • Chinese philosophy in the latter part of the
Plutarch: Be a Good Role Model Chou Dynasty.
Epictetus: Build a Flexible Mindset Tao - "the way" It is a philosophy that teaches that
Utilitarianism as an Example of a Yin-Yang Symbol nature has a "way" in which it
Consequentialist Theory moves.
• Consequentialist theory - quick way to Islam
morally assess an action by appealing to • Means "To submit to the will of Allah"
experience, rather than by appealing to (Arabic).
get intuitions or long lists of questionable
duties.
• Jeremy Bentham - presented one of the The Filipino Value System
earliest fully developed systems of
utilitarianism.
John Stuart Mill • Bahala Na
• Rule-utilitarianism - revised version of • Utang na Loob
utilitarianism. A behavioral code or rule is • Ningas Cogon
morally right if the consequences of • Padrino System
adopting that rule are more favorable than • Mañana Habit
unfavorable to everyone. • Amor Propio/Self-respect
What are Belief Systems? • Delicadeza
• It is an ideology or set of principles that • Hiya
helps interpret everyday reality. • Pakikisama/Pakikipagkapwa-tao
Animism • Family Orientation
• It includes the beliefs that there is no • Hospitality
disconnection between the spiritual and • Joy and Humor
physical (or material) world. • Flexibility, Adaptability, Creativity
Shaman - a person considered as having way • Faith and Religiosity
to and control in the world of kind and wicked
• Ability to Survive
spirits.
• Hardwork and Industry
Shinto
• Filipino Time
• "Way of the gods," - customary religion of
Japan that center on natural world.