week 9 – business and professional ethics...your business ethics issue must be based on an online...

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ACCG848

Andrew Skinner – Teaching Morally

Week 9 – Business and Professional Ethics

Week 9 Announcements Getting more ethical each week?

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This week – Week 9

3FBE: Accounting and Corporate Governance

Environmental Ethics

Essay Proposal Feedback

Essay proposal feedback

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Week 9


Essay Proposal Feedback – marks very low on average

I know if you have

left it to the last

minute ….it shows.

Week 9



a. Task overview. You are required to submit a proposed topic for your class essay. The

proposal has the following requirements:

1/ You must be addressing a business ethics issue – e.g. it should not be on a

purely social issue such as abortion or same-sex marriage. However, it can

consider the business implications – for example, ‘Should for-profit abortion

clinics be permitted?’; or ‘Should businesses have the right to refuse service to

same-sex couples?’ Your business ethics issue must be based on an online news

media article which is less than three years old.

2/ Your topic should be controversial - i.e. the answer must not be obvious. We

are aiming to develop an approach to explore complex topics in ACCG 848, and

therefore there is no point in writing an essay about an issue where the moral

answer is clear – e.g. companies polluting in contravention of the law; companies

paying their employees less than the minimum wage in the country they are

operating in etc.

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Week 9



3/ Your topic should be specific - i.e. "sweatshops"; "child labour"; "pollution" is

much too broad. To be manageable you should focus on a particular issue - e.g.

"Should companies in the apparel industry be required to audit the wage and

safety conditions of the employees of all of their suppliers".

4/ You should be exploring a principle, which means you shouldn't have a

company name in the title. The topic needs to be framed more generally and

the specific case is used just as an illustrative example. For example, in the

Moriaty reading his question was 'Do CEOs get paid too much' and then he gave

some examples, as opposed to 'Does the CEO of Apple get paid too much'.

Week 9



Your proposal should contain:

1. The proposed title for the essay, which should be of the form "Should . . ."

2. A link to an illustrative case, e.g. an online newspaper article (which should

be from the past 3 years). This article should provide a good background to your

proposed title and will ideally also provide one or more arguments for and/or

against the topic.

3. Arguments for and against the case. The highest marks will be awarded to

students who provide two strong arguments for the case and two strong

arguments against. A superior understanding of the material will also be

demonstrated by students who are able to correctly identify whether the

arguments are primarily utilitarian (i.e. based on consequences) or Kantian (i.e.

based on duties and rights).

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Week 9


Marking criteria. You will be marked according to the criteria below:

Grade Illustrative case

(2 marks)

Arguments for and against

(8 marks)

Fail One or more pass elements not achieved. One or more pass elements not achieved.

Pass Case provided

Case within the last 3 years

One clear argument for the topic and one clear argument

against provided.

Week 9



Credit As per a Pass grade, and:

Case highlights a significant business

ethics issue

Two clear arguments for the topic and two clear arguments

against provided.

Distinction As per a Credit grade, and:

Case highlights arguments on both sides of

the issue

As per a Credit grade, and:

At least two of the arguments are correctly labelled with the

type of ethical position they are (e.g. Kantian, utilitarian etc.)

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Week 9



High Distinction As per Distinction grade. As per Distinction grade, and:

All of the arguments are correctly labelled with the type of

ethical position they are (e.g. Kantian, utilitarian etc.)

Deductions Poor grammar and/or spelling; poor referencing

(i.e. other than APA 6 style); world limit

exceeded by more than 10%)

Poor grammar and/or spelling; poor referencing (i.e. other than APA

6 style); world limit exceeded by more than 10%

Week 9



After your proposals is submitted and marked, you can still

change it up until you submit Part A of the final essay.

Other comments:

Many wrote very poorly in a conversational NOT academic style.

I put in comments as I marked, but kept strictly to the Marking

Matrix.

I was very disappointed with the quality of most. It shows a

disinterest in the subject.

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Week 9


USE THIS

Ethics Break

Knowing that you do not know that which you do not know.

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So how do we live our life?


What does it mean to lie?

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Week 9 Ethics in the news

The more you look the more you see

Week 9 Lecture 8


Ethics in the news – whistleblowers, could you do it?

God love American Capitalism

Now that is a sucess fee

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Business Ethics????


Uber

Would you get in a Uber Car?Pick up a fair here and a shooting there

A brief history of a few Uber Scandals

This week review


Privacy?

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This week review


Accounting Fraud

The former chief financial officer of Autonomy Corp was found guilty of orchestrating an accounting fraud to arrive at the $US10.3 billion price Hewlett-Packard paid for the UK software maker more than six years ago.A jury voted to convict Sushovan Hussain on Monday on all 16 counts of wire and securities fraud after three days of deliberations in San Francisco federal court.Autonomy was the UK's second-largest software business when Hewlett-Packard acquired it in 2011. Hewlett-Packard later wrote down its value by $US8.8 billion, citing fraud by Autonomy and asking the US Justice Department to investigate.The guilty verdict at least partially vindicates Hewlett-Packard. It also gives the company momentum as it heads toward a trial next year in London in a $US5 billion civil suit against Hussain and Autonomy co-founder and former chief executive officer Mike Lynch.

week 8 - Lecture Review Discourse Ethics

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Week 8 Lecture


A quick review

Did you watch the

lecture?

All on-line

Week 8 Lecture


A quick review but review them yourself

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Week 8 Lecture



Week 8 Lecture



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Week 8 Lecture



Week 8 Lecture



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Week 8 Lecture


Remember a few good men video?

Week 8 Lecture



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Week 8 Lecture



Why Ethics matter


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When the robot is driving


Watch Q and A – Prof Sandel - Part 3 from 46.00 minutes

week 8 - Lecture Review Work, safety and other problems

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Week 8 Lecture


Be safe,

Week 8 Lecture


Be safe,

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Workplace and safety


Why important?

• Every job has safety risks

• You have responsibilities as a worker and a manager

• Workers have rights – but can't be realised if unknown



Examples of work risk

Mining deathTragedy at mine

Bullying and FacebookFacebook you are not my friend

Scaffolding fall

Building sites are danagerous

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Week 8 Lecture


Be more than safe



Key terms - Person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU)

• Person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) – a person conducting a business or undertaking alone or with others, whether or not for profit or gain.

• A PCBU can be a sole trader (for example a self-employed person), each partner within a partnership, company, unincorporated association or government department of public authority (including a municipal council).

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Week 8 Lecture


Be very safe?



Consultation and coordination (sections 46-49)

• PCBUs must so far as reasonably practicable consult with workers who carry out work for the business or undertaking who are, or are likely to be, directly affected by a matter relating to health and safety.

• This includes giving workers a reasonable opportunity to express their views or raise issues about work health and safety at the workplace.

• PCBUs must also consult with other duty holders (suppliers, contractors, property owners etc.)

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Duty of officers (section 27) that is me!

• Officers of corporations and other organisations must manage corporate risks—including work health and safety risks.

• Under the WHS Act an officer of a PCBU must exercise due diligence to ensure the PCBU complies with its health and safety duties.

• This duty relates to the strategic, structural, policy and key resourcing decisions— that is, how the place is run



Penalties

Category 1 – a duty holder, without reasonable excuse, engages in conduct that recklessly exposes a person to a risk of death or serious injury or illness.Category 2 – a duty holder fails to comply with a WHS duty that exposes a person to risk of death or serious injury or illness. Up to $15 MILLION!!!Category 3 – a duty holder fails to comply with a WHS duty

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Case Study

George is a senior mining engineer. He is the responsible person for the mining operations at the Great Huge Mining Pit. Sleeping soundly he is awoken by a phone call at 4.00 am. The duty manager notifies him that there has been an accident at the mine and that Fred has been struck by a drilling rod in the underground delineation drilling site and he needs to be at the mine immediately. George races out to the mine and arrives in time to find that the rescue and recovery team has been unable to save the worker who dies on the site. Understandably, the team are incredibly upset. George now activates the required protocol for the reporting of incidents. Further, the police are also making an investigation to determine if there was any criminal negligence. This is the third fatality on the mining site in the last three years.

On arrival in the morning of the 7 am crew, Julie breaks down and has to be sedated. Meanwhile Fred’s wife also arrives on the scene and also is incredibly upset and is threatening to sue and accusing Fred’s work mate Barney of killing him as the two had a major falling out over a property deal gone wrong.

As one can see such cases are complex and the implications are massive.

Ethics thinking break

These are all part of your participation mark.

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Why do we do what we do?


Why you struggle with English


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What is rightShould you or should you not

Opera House, a billboard or cultural icon?


More than 80 per cent of NSW residents are opposed to Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s decision to overrule Opera House management and ensure promotional materials for the Everest horse race be projected onto its sails, while a majority of survey participants were also concerned that politicians’ values on the issue do not reflect the community.

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Opera House, a billboard or cultural icon?


Group Work

Thus: Should the Opera House Trustees be encouraged to promote advertising on the Opera House to raise money to hold ballet, opera and other worthy cultural pursuits?

In your groups Debate the ethics of this with positive and negative perspectives. Apply stakeholders and Habermasian

Week 9 - Review of Assignment 8

These are all part of your participation mark.

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Week 9 – Assignment 8


Is ethics just an illusion of constraints?

READINGS

Finlayson, J. G. (2005), "Discourse ethics I: The discourse theory of

morality", in Habermas: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University

Press, Oxford, pp. 76-90. (let’s have a look)

Shapiro, B. (1998). "Towards a normative model of rational argumentation

for critical accounting discussion." Accounting, Organisations and Society

WorkCover (2012) Guide to the model Work Health and Safety Act,

Case study: "It's hard to be good".



Let us reason, maybe there is a way.

1. Briefly describe Habermas’s discourse ethics. Refer

back to Weeks 1 and 2 of this course and conclude if

Habermas a universalist or a relativist? What is the

different moral status that Habermasian ethics place

upon laws?

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Discourse

Habermasian ethics was introduced by German philosopher

Jurgen Habermas who had made numerous contributions to

sociology, ethics and political philosophy. Habermasian ethics

focuses heavily on the process. Essentially, an outcome is ethical

if the discourse preceding the outcome was conducted ethically.

For this discourse to be ethical, Habermas’ set of rules called

‘ideal speech’ must be followed. Habermas is a Universalist

within a pluralistic society, meaning a diverse society with many

people living and believing a plethora of ideas, yet tolerating each

other’s.



And stakeholders

In other ethics systems such as Kantian, Utilitarian and

Aristotelian, laws and ethics are often separate. However, under

Habermasian ethics, more focus is placed upon the laws which

will assist the process in deciding the outcome of something. The

situation that occurred at MRW was unfortunate however the way

that it was handled was consistent with Habermasian ideals. This

is because the discourse process preceding the outcome

effectively took place.

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But how to get a right decision?

“The HR department studied each situation and proposed

solutions that conformed to the law or that improved working

conditions for the employee involved; however there was no

formal written policy on maternal leaves at MRW.” (Marti and

Montalvo, 2013) Through the collective voice of speech from the

stakeholders involved, an appropriate conclusion was found to be

the most ideal outcome possible.




2. Identify a time that you have been involved in

some sort of 'stakeholder consultation'. Do you think

that the Habermasian ideals of inclusiveness and

ideal speech were followed? Was the outcome more

ethical than if someone had simply made the

decision without the consultation process?

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With reference to the Shaprio (1998) reading answer

the following:

3. How does Shaprio use Habermasian ethics to

analyse the ethics of US accounting standard-setting?

4. What does he conclude and why?




With reference to the lecture and WorkCover (2012)

reading answer the following:

5. Why is WHS important? What safety risks arise

from working?

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WHS is important because every workplace has safety risks which need to be

identified and avoided. Both managers and workers will have to know what is

required to achieve safety by communication and procedures at the workplace. The

risks in a workplace are physical risks such as natural disasters, work environment

and people you are surrounded by at work. There are also psychosocial risks such as

stress, bullying, sexual harassment and alienation.




6. What are the main rights and responsibilities of PCBUs

and workers in relation to WHS? In particular, what are the

rights and responsibilities in relation to consultation?

The PCBU has the responsibility to provide a safe working environment which

includes maintenance of buildings, equipment and machines as well as to provide

required facilities. They also need to provide information about health and safety

within the organisation and their plants. Workers have the responsibility to take

care of their own and others health and safety and comply and cooperate with

instructions given by the PCBU.

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Why be safe at work?

7. Choose one business discussed in the case study "It's hard to be good" and

answer the following: What are the key WHS risks relevant to this company? To

what extent have they been eliminated or mitigated? What role does the WHS

representative have in improving workplace safety?

Professionally yours….

Being the person, that you know that your SHOULD be, by discipline

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PROFESSIONAL TOPIC QUESTIONS

Continue your focus on exercise:

6. Choose one activity that you will do that will increase your activity level

for the week; and

7. For each day note how much moderate activity you do compared to

your goal.

As in previous weeks, note what strategies worked and what didn’t. And

remember to be kind to yourself when you slip up!!




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Your essay


Week 9 Summary What are the key concepts of ethical theories.

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Week 9 Conclusion


Who will save the world from us?

Week 9 – 4 weeks or less to go


What you need to do

Your tasks:

• Essay

My tasks –

• Marking

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ACCG848End of Week 9See you all in a few weeks, have a safe, ethical, disciplined break!

week 9 – business and professional ethics...your business ethics issue must be based on an online...

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