Business Ethics and Ethical Decision Making
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
- NCAA encouraging ethics and compliance
The NCAA has used the realism moral philosophy to encourage ethics and compliance in college football (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2015). The realism moral philosophy is of the opinion that human beings are naturally competitive. They are willing to do anything to serve their interests in a competitive setting. This philosophy does not assume that humans are naturally benevolent and kind. In the quest for their personal interests, some are likely to engage in unethical behavior. It is for this reason that the NCAA was created- to curb unethical malpractices in college sports.
NCAA encourages a culture of ethics and compliance by developing a set of principles upon which college football teams should operate. In what is dubbed “the principle for the conduct of intercollegiate athletics”, the NCAA outlines the major guidelines for college football. The principles touch on the conduct of athletics staff, the well -being of student athletes, and the culture of sportsmanship among college athletes.
In addition, the body also stipulates guidelines on the recruitment of players, the academic standards to which the players are held, and compliance with NCAA rules. By making the principles public, the NCAA is trying to encourage ethical behavior and compliance. Ethical behavior is important for businesses to adhere to. If the body kept the principles a secret or left out key information, then it would appear that the body is out to make money from fines instead of encouraging ethical behavior.
NCAA encourages ethics and compliance by enforcing the rules. Colleges incur hefty fines for non-compliance to rules as well as to some ethical behavior. The body has ensured that disciplinary measures are stringent enough to act as a deterrent against future malpractices. Although some teams still engage in unethical behavior, the cases would have been more without the principles of this body.
- Criticism about NCAA Compliance against Ethics
It is true that the NCAA is more concerned with compliance than ethical values. The body has come up with compliance regulations upon which all colleges must operate. Any institution found to be in violation of the principles is liable for hefty punishment. The hefty punishments are imposed to ensure compliance. The body is only concerned with the violation of its principles and not the upholding of ethical behavior on and off the field. For instance, coach Petrino was not in violation of the board’s principles when he hired Ms. Dorrell despite the conflict of interest. As unethical as it may sound, it is surprising that the NCAA could not find fault in his actions. This particular incident goes to lengths to show that the body is only concerned with the violation of its principles alone.
The NCAA does not organize campaigns to promote ethical behavior in college teams. It assumes the role of the malicious tutor that watches its students err so that he can punish them later. Of course the NCAA gains from these fines, but then it should do a lot more to ensure that ethics prevail in the game of football. There are no media campaigns by this body, to support ethical behavior in the game. The body does not come out to condemn the actions of individual players such gender violence or alcohol abuse, yet it claims to be concerned with the welfare of players. In my view, the NCAA is out to make money off penalties placed on college football teams rather than promoting ethical behavior.
- Proactive Response to ethics and Compliance
The first proactive response by student athletes, coaches and university administration would be to report any violations to the NCAA or other relevant authorities. From the case study, it is quite clear that some colleges cover up non- compliance to avoid jeopardizing their revenue. A case in point is that involving sexual assault allegations against a coaching staff. The university tried to cover up the crime in order to avoid tainting its image. Institutions can create a proactive response to ethics and compliance by promoting a culture of integrity (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2015). Any actions that violate ethics should face full disciplinary action without fearing what the impact would be on the university’s revenue. Institutions and coaches alike need to move away from the culture of placing more importance on revenue than on the culture of integrity.
As Ferrell, Fraedrich and Ferrell (2015) indicate, the presence of role models for ethics, in an organization, is a proactive response to ethics and compliance. It is unrealistic for the administration and coaches to behave unethically and expect the student athletes to uphold ethics in retrospect. Enhancing ethics and compliance ought to start from the top flowing downwards. The administration and coaches should lead the proactive response to ethics and compliance by avoiding unethical practices during recruitment and handling the player welfare. If the top is clean, then the student athletes will have the motivation to act ethically. This is because ethics are part of the learnt behavior, where people learn from each other, especially from the people leading them. In contrast, if the administration and coaches keep indulging in unethical practices, the student athletes will not feel the obligation to stop participating in unethical practices such as bartering and doping.
- Kevin O’Leary’s Opinion about Poverty
When Adam Smith invented the philosophy of Free- market capitalism, he relied on the morality and goodness of business people (Ferrell, Fraedrich& Ferrell.) However, as businesses began to grow in the late 18 Century it became largely impossible to uphold ethical behavior. Under the current capitalist society, managers are only concerned with profits without taking into consideration the possible impact of their decisions on the society. From the video, it quite unethical of Mr. O’Leary to claim that it is okay for 1% of the world’s population to control over 80% of its resource (Neo, 2015). This is unkind to around 3.5 Billion people who are living under the poverty line (Neo, 015). In addition, his claims that the few rich people act as a motivation to the poor, is an insult to the poor people.
As much as the capitalist society dictates every man should take care of their interests, it is unethical for businesspeople to thrive on the sweat of poor people. Mr. O’Leary forgets that it is the poor people that provide labor and market for his products. The poor might seem useless to O’Leary but he should remember that his businesses thrive only because they (the poor) decide to maintain political stability. It is ethical for the rich to give back to society because the society has played a major role in their success. Not every poor person is a lazy bum surviving on benefits. Some are in the situation because they lack opportunities. The likes of O’Leary are not rich because they are geniuses, it is all because of the opportunities they had. Maybe if O’Leary had been raised in a politically unstable environment like the Middle East, he would not be in a position to ridicule the poor today.
- Trust in Business Practices
According to MacDonald (2015), Valeant Pharmaceuticals has lost a better part of its share capital due to unethical engagements with a specialty pharmacy called Philidor. Many shareholders have withdrawn their investment to the point of placing the company on the verge of collapsing. I agree with the writer’s opinion of trust in the business.
No sane investor can entrust his money with a business that engages in unethical practices. When the malpractice came to the public, the investors could not help but wonder how many more were yet to come to light. They had to act fast. Businesses should adopt a culture of upholding ethical behavior. Secret engagements should be a mirage for serious business ventures that intend to maintain their investors. As Ferrell, Fraedrich and Ferrell write, ethical behavior emanates from the top of the hierarchy in both centralized and decentralized organization structures. When investors find out the top leadership of the business is unethical, they automatically assume that the whole system is rotten.
Businesses should make all their operations transparent. It is unethical for a business to make major decisions without informing its shareholders. The investor- business relationship can only prosper if there is mutual trust between the two. When the trust disintegrates, the consequences could be dire like in the case of Valeant Pharmaceuticals. Trust is very brittle- takes time to build, but can easily shatter in the shortest time possible.
References
Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2015). Business ethics; ethical decision making and cases. 10th Ed. Cengage Learning.
MacDonald, C. (2015). Trust is the most valuable asset any company has. Canadian Business. Retrieved from, <http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blogs-and-comment/trust-is-the-most-valuable-asset-any-company-has> 8 November, 2015
Neo, N. (2015). Kevin O’Leary Says 3.5 billion People Living in Poverty is ‘Fantastic News’. YouTube. Retrieved from, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U79DoiC49r0> 8 November, 2015