Assignment 1
Q1 – What was up with Wall Street? The Goldman Standard and Shades of Gray.
Go back through the case; make a list of each action/ practice that could be called a gray area.
The problems to be investigated are the business ethics and practices of Goldman Sachs. There were several grey areas in which Goldman Sachs operated their business.
Ethical Grey areas are situations and problems that don’t fit neatly into any existing mode of ethical analysis within the business (Marshall, 2007). Peter Drucker’s interpretation of business ethics is that personal ethics and business ethics cannot be separated. He uses the example of businessmen should not cheat, steal, lie, bribe, or take bribes. But nor should anyone else. He also mentioned that “men and women don’t acquire exemption from ordinary rules of personal behavior because of their work or job” (Drucker, 1986).
The first grey area was Goldman Sachs using a technique called “layering”. Goldman would start a company and used their own money to buy 90% of the shares. The public would see how the stocks were selling so quickly and wanted a piece of the pie. The public were unaware that Goldman was buying their own stocks and then continuously increasing the price of the stock and selling it back at the higher price. Goldman saw how well this was working and decided to continue with this practice. He started new companies and followed the same formula as before, making bags of money, while investors had no idea
Shaw, W.H. (2014). Business ethics: A Textbook with cases, (8th ed.). Boston, MA : Cengage.
Ethics, in business, refers to moral principles and standards that define acceptable behavior in the world of business. Ethical decisions foster trust among individuals and in business relationships. Recognizing ethical issues is important in the workplace. An ethical issue is an identifiable problem requiring a person or organization to choose from among several actions that may be evaluated as ethical or unethical. When you’re determining is a situation is ethical or not, there are three factors to take into consideration. Individual factors, organizational factors, and opportunity. Individual factors are sets of principles that describe what a person believes are the right way to behave. Organizational factors include the influence of managers, coworkers, and the work group. Opportunity is a set of conditions that punish unfavorable behavior or reward favorable behavior. “Target thrives on competing to win in the marketplace. We compete and negotiate actively, but always with integrity. Taking advantage of anyone by manipulating or concealing
The author Robert Solomon argues that ethics has to an integral part with regard to business management. He does not believe that business management must include unethical or illegal methods to be able to succeed. Solomon preaches that business management is not as simple as obtaining revenue. “Businesses need to abide by fair policies and their owners have to be ethical in dealing with their customers” (Shaw p. 37). The author acknowledges that while illegal practices in business management could bring positive results at first, eventually the business is bound to fail. This is why Solomon recommended eight important policies that can help businesses in integrating ethics into their operations.
Ethics in business addresses the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ behaviours of business practises, and how these practices impact the employees, shareholders, the general public and the environment.
Ethics “is the study of moral principles concerning rightful conduct based on our most deeply held values”. It is prescriptive and normative, categorizing and laying down guidelines for determining what is right and what is wrong; what is good and what is evil; what is fair and what is not. Although there are many points of convergence between ethical norms and the law, however, quite a few instances could be cited where what is legal may not be considered ethical or moral. But, there appears to be a vast overlap between ethical norms and the moral values of the world’s great religions. Where ethical considerations flow into business domain, business ethics comes into being.
As many things in life, ethics has evolved through the history of our society. As anyone who has ever has read the news can attest, there are certain behaviors and tradition typical in societies around the world that may seem unethical and, sometimes, inhuman when seen through our ethical point of view. However, we often forget that many of those behaviors and tradition were, not only accepted, but expected in our society at one time. As our society changes over time, our moral code and compass shifts changing our outlook and tolerance for certain behaviors. And, as in other aspects of our society, the way we conduct business is no different.
Bank of America is one of the largest banks in the nation. It is a multinational company and it is recognized by its high revenue value. Unfortunately, Bank of America has endured many complaints and harsh views regarding their lack of ethics. Ethical issues occur when there is a blatant disregard to implement integrity, trust, and responsibility. In some financial institutions, ethical matters are displayed in the way the consumers are treated. Within the past nine years, Bank of America has diminished all of their ethical promises by revealing customer information without their permission; discriminating against consumers based on their race; and manipulating overdraft fees in order to benefit the bank. In order to assess these problems, it is vital to recognize what Bank of America claims to stand for and determine where their most concerning issues are generated from.
One of the activities that may be regarded to be in the gray area for Goldman is when the company created another company then bought 90% of the shares of the second company with its own money. Then without the knowledge of the public, Goldman wanted to buy a piece of the company. This meant that Goldman could sell the shares that they had bought in the company for a higher
This will be an over view of ethics as it relates to business in our society. Concepts from Philosophy will seek to describe the correlation between actions that are classified as morally right or ethical in our dealings with each other as human beings. Clear and concise examples will be given as well as ways in which to improve upon business ethics.
The crucial question raised by the “Whale incident “ report and by the explanation of causes in the internal report was whether these types of blameworthy acts, with significant consequences, are likely to repeat itself again in this huge financial institutions because they simply cannot control important corporate or business units with significant capital at risk.
Ethical standards in business are important for every leader to know and understand. The book Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know by: John C. Maxwell discusses ethics in the world today. When people make unethical choices, the reason they do because of three main pitfalls. People do what is most convenient to them, people tend to do what they must do to win, and people rationalize their choices with relativism. In this summary, Maxwell’s definition of business ethics will be framed, examples of ethical standards and guidelines, the meaning and contrast of ethical thinking and ethical behavior, and how to avoid these major pitfalls to live an ethical life. The
Wall Street has been performing criminal acts ever since its inception, and many of these schemes have become infamous public events. Scandals have included fraud, blackmail, and even outright stealing of money. These schemes have involved different techniques over Wall Street’s history, many of which fundamentally changed how the world deals in finance and regulates the economy. What most do not realize is that when someone commits fraud for billions of dollars, millions of people around the world are affected due to having invested in false promises. These scandals have also had a major effect on the American people, and it is important for people to know about Wall Street’s darker hours.
Business Ethics is a set of moral principles applied in the commercial world. Business ethics provide guidelines for acceptable behavior by organizations in both their strategy formulation and day-to-day operations. An ethical approach is becoming necessary both for corporate success and a positive corporate image. Following pressure from
Boatright, J. (2009). Ethics and the conduct of business (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ : Prentice Hall. ISBN: 9780205667505
Major business ethics issues had emerged, such as bribery, deceptive advertising, price collusion, product safety, and the environment.