PHIX 201 Business and Professional Ethics

a) What does Goodpaster mean by ‘strategic stakeholder synthesis’?

Why does he think that businesses that operate according to the principles of strategic stakeholder synthesis do not really introduce ethical values into business decisionmaking?

b) Goodpaster argues that we need an approach to business ethics that avoids business without ethics and ethics without business

(a multi-fiduciary stakeholder approach). Explain Goodpaster’s nonfiduciary approach to business obligations, making sure you distinguish it from both the multifiduciary stakeholder approach and the strategic stakeholder approach.

c) Does Goodpaster’s nonfiduciary account of business obligations provide sufficient protection for the interests of stakeholders other than shareholders? Does it avoid the problem of treating stakeholders as mere means to corporate ends? Give reasons for your answer.

2. Listen to the following radio program or read the transcript: ‘Casualties in the Supermarket Wars’ and answer the following questions:

Goodpaster argues that businesses have significant nonfiduciary duties to stakeholders other than shareholders. These include the duties not to harm, coerce, lie, cheat or steal.

a) Do you believe, based on the accounts given in the radio program, that the major supermarket chains in Australia violate any of the fundamental moral duties which Goodpaster argues for? Provide details to support your answer.

b) What moral duties, if any, do you believe the large supermarkets owe to their suppliers? Answer this question using your own moral reasoning and examples from the program to illustrate your points.

3. Read the following news item and answer the related questions.

a) Is Woolworths’ request for ‘Mind the Gap’ payments from suppliers consistent with the narrow view of business ethics? Provide reasons to support your conclusion.

b) Is Woolworths’ request for ‘Mind the Gap’ payments from suppliers consistent with a stakeholder approach to business ethics? Provide reasons to support your conclusion.