O Connor Vs. Uber Technologies Summary

It's difficult not to be cynical about how “big business” treats the subject of ethics in today's world. In many corporations, where the

It's difficult not to be cynical about how “big business” treats the subject of ethics in today's world. In many corporations, where the

Uber Technologies, Inc. was founded in 2009 by Travis Kalanik and Garrett Camp as a way to solve their own transportation problems in the traffic congested city of San Francisco where it is still based and headquartered. Uber Technologies offers an on demand car service application for smartphone users that links drivers with people needing a ride. According to Jim Makos of Pestle Analysis “It brilliantly connects the transportation industry with technology via its ride-sharing app.” With the click of a button on the application you can summons a vehicle of your choice see your rate, pay

that you uphold a moral standard that some companies can’t even begin to start or even fathom. Competition is a work environment

This essay will take a look at two different types of business structures; the capitalist corporation and the workers cooperative, and review how the differing approach to business and the fundamental ideologies of each, impacts ethical practises.

Since its initial launch in 1994, Amazon.com has now become the biggest e-commerce store in the world. Despite the slow start during its early years, Amazon has skyrocketed its growth around 2014 with its $90 billion revenue and 154,100 employees (“The Amazon Effect”). The increasing popularity of the company is backed up by its convenience and cheap factors that are present in e-commerce stores especially Amazon. The rapid and sudden grow of Amazon pushes the company to expand its factories and internal system. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, has been known for his powerful and authoritarian style of leadership. However, as of now, Amazon has raised several controversies regarding its actions from tax avoidances, predatory pricing, and the mistreatment of workers. These controversies grabbed a lot of attention especially for tech enthusiasts and engineers. Even though these controversies are generally labeled as misconducts and bad practices, it turns out these practices are not necessarily unethical when seen from the three ethical perspectives: Kantian theory, Utilitarianism, and Ethical Egoism perspective. These three common perspectives in the study of ethics can be used to evaluate the ethicality of the internal practices and effects of Amazon.

This being despite the recession of 2008, we are witnessing an increasingly cooperative and sophisticated international business working environment. While it faces scrutiny in congress currently, the agreement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty was reached in October, 2015; the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership treaty is also seemingly achievable with the revival of American economy in the near future. These new agreements will set up a worldwide business rule structure that will be fulfilled by many major economies. Within this new structure, businessmen and women will face ethical issues globally despite continuing cultural and regional factors still playing a big role within these issues and decisions being made. Learning and analyzing business ethical issues within the case competition will not only assist us to become global business leaders with a deep understanding of corporate social responsibilities but also prepare us to make better decisions for our

In summary, if, as Smith contended, self-interest is a chief motivator and the invisible hand really works, then as companies seek to maximize profits, the greatest public good will result for the greatest number.

Since its initial launch in 1994, Amazon has now become the biggest e-commerce store in the world. Despite a slow start during its early years, Amazon has increased its growth around 2014 with $90 billion revenue and 154,100 employees (“The Amazon Effect”). The increasing popularity of the company is backed up by its “unmatched customer service” and cheap prices provided for the customers (Parker). The rapid and sudden grow of Amazon pushed the company to expand its factories and internal systems. According to the New York Times, Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, has been known for his powerful and authoritarian style of leadership; and as of now, Amazon has raised several controversies regarding its actions from tax avoidances, predatory pricing, and the mistreatment of workers. These controversies were a hot topic around the media especially for tech enthusiasts and engineers. The ethicality of the internal practices of amazon and its effects can be evaluated from the three ethical perspectives in philosophy: Kantian theory, Utilitarianism, and Ethical Egoistic perspective.

Uber and Volkswagen are both very important and revolutionary companies that have shaped the world in their own individual ways. Although they are successful, they both have interesting start up stories and have run into the law on multiple occasions. Law has had a powerful impact on the how both companies have created their business model and made expansions to better each company. In the novels Wild Ride by Adam Lashinsky and Faster, Higher, Farther by Jack Ewing the authors go through the company’s stories and also the legal challenges that they had to face along the way and that they are still facing to this day. It is clear that the law gets in the way of these companies plans, and has gotten major employees of these companies in a lot of trouble for the illegalities that they committed. Many major companies get sued by employees and customers because they try to make money off of them. In many of the cases we can examine if it is worth it for the company to fight all of these cases individually or to group the similar ones together and make necessary changes to the company to satisfy the employees and customers. Even with some of these issues going on and many counter-arguments, both Uber and Volkswagen have handled their situations with the law very well to keep the companies moving forward.

The corporate world has an unfavorable view of itself by being selfish, evil, and against the average American. Companies market themselves and their products in certain ways that makes them and their products appealing to everyone and if not everyone then a certain group of people. Every company has a mission to follow and values to go by, but some companies lack ethics and morals. In this paper I am going to talk about one company that engages in ethical behavior and another that doesn’t.

In this case Jake Markos is the moral agent and is contemplating on whether or not he should embed spyware into the Diabetes Foundation website that allows his company, ALAC marketing, to collet email addresses and use them to market a product. Other moral agents presented in this case are Nathan Brook, Jake’s boss, Maia Herrick, Nathan’s assistant manager, and ALAC Marketing. In this case, ALAC is the least important moral agent because it possess vicarious moral sensitivity and responsiveness thus, if we examine the sensitivity and responsiveness of its individual employees we would understand ALAC’s position regarding Jake’s dilemma. This is also, in part, due to the fact that corporations employ highly organized holistic decision-making and although corporations are morally accountable it does not mean that individuals who are employed by the corporation are not also morally accountable.

The purpose of this discussion is to give the opportunity to apply ethical theories to the complex issues of egoism in the workplace. Significantly, are the older workers taking employment from the younger workers or the younger workers taking jobs from older workers? Well, this has been an ongoing issue for both in which ageism is a type of discrimination on the basis of a personage. Consequently, this prejudice creates numerous problems for both such as younger workers are facing trouble in order to obtain career entry, whereas, older workers are facing challenges to finding re-employment. In fact, the “lump labor fallacy” is a belief by some economists that the number of jobs available in the economy is fixed according to Economist D.F.

In the book, The Corporation Joel Bakan presents arguments, that corporations are nothing but institutional pathological psychopaths that are “a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and societies.” Their main responsibility is maximizing profit for their stockholders and ignoring the means to achieve this goal, portrays them as “psychopathic.” Bakan argues that, corporations are psychopaths, corporate social responsibility is illegal, and that corporations are able to manipulate anyone, even the government.

Is the deception of consumers worth making a profit? The Ford Pinto, popular car of the 1970s, made a profit off of a vehicle that endangered the lives of hundreds of people. In his essay “Pinto Madness” Mark Dowie, author and Pulitzer Prize nominee, exposed the unethical decisions made by Ford Motor Company. When it came to their customer’s safety and profit for the company, Ford made a decision that led to consequences their customers had to pay the price for. Should the business be held accountable for these actions? In his essay “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profit” Milton Friedman, powerful economist, discusses what a business should prioritize in the economic system. Friedman declares what a business is responsible for and the guidelines they must follow. Due to Friedman’s view, he would not have condoned the actions and decisions that the executives at Ford Motor Company took.