Course Unit – Ethics for International Business

School of Technology and Management

Bachelor in International Business Management
Academic year 2019/2020 (2nd semester)
Teacher: Sandra Oliveira
NAME: ZANNAT UL FERDOUS
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IN CLASS QUESTION 04 – JUNE 02nd

The in class questions is available at the exact time of the course, Tuesdays at 11am.
After publication, each student will answer in writing (maximum 3 pages - pdf), and will
send it by email until 1pm, to sandra.oliveira@ipb.pt.
The document with your answer should be saved, pdf, as in the example below:
sandraoliveira_answer_in class question04
INSTRUCTIONS:

1. WRITE YOUR NAME;

2. ANSWER THE QUESTIONS HERE IN THIS FILE;
3. AT THE END SAVE THE FILE AS PDF

1º Defines objectively and concisely the following concepts

a) Ethics:

Ethics is related to the study of morality and human action. The concept comes from the
Greek term ethikos, which means "character". An ethical sentence is a moral statement
that makes affirmations and defines what is good, bad, obligatory, allowed, etc. in relation
to an action or a decision.

b) Morals:

Morality is a set of norms, values and beliefs existing and accepted in a society that serve
as a model of conduct and assessment to establish what is right or wrong.

c) Values:

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Ethical values are behavioral guides that regulate the conduct of an individual. In the first
place, ethics is the branch of philosophy that studies what is moral and performs an
analysis of the moral system to be applied at the individual and social level.

d) Social Responsibility:

Social responsibility is the commitment, obligation and duty of individuals, members of a

society or company to voluntarily contribute to a more just society and to protect the
environment.

e) Justice:

Justice is a set of essential values on which a society and the State must be based. These
values are respect, equity, equality and freedom.

f) Corruption:

Corruption is the action and effect of corrupting, that is, it is the process of deliberately
breaking the order of the system, both ethically and functionally, for personal gain. In
addition to the corrupt committing an illegal action, it also pressures or compels others to
commit such acts.

g) Conflict of Interests:

Conflicts of interest are those situations in which the judgment of a subject, in relation to a
primary interest for him or her, and the integrity of his actions, tend to be unduly
influenced by a secondary interest, which is frequently economic or personal type.

h) Philanthropy:
Philanthropy means humanitarianism or altruism, it is a feeling (empathy) that makes
individuals help other people in a disinterested way, it is unconditional love, that is, without
interests, without profit and without requiring anything in return, towards the human being.

i) Integrity:

The word integrity has its origin in the Latin integrĭtas which implies quality of integrity.
There are different types of integrity, but when speaking in relation to a person, it is the
capacity of a human being to conduct himself correctly and according to his ideas and
decisions.
j) Utilitarianism:

Utilitarianism is an ethical conception that considers human life to be oriented towards

the satisfaction of an ultimate goal, which is pleasure, with which happiness is achieved,
which determines the morality of acts.

k) Deontology:

Deontology is a discipline that lies in the study and observation of duties and values
mandated by morality. The forerunner of this behavior was Jeremy Benhtam, a British
philosopher who put this knowledge into circulation. Deontology has been a normative
ethic, a type of philosophy that shows what should be considered as good and what

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should be appreciated as bad. This clearly indicates that each field, work or profession can
have its own deontology that shows what the obligation of each individual is.

l) Virtue Ethics:

The ethics of virtues is the current of study of morality that starts from the fact that it
arises from internal features of the person, the virtues, as opposed to the position of
deontology - morality arises from rules - and consequentialism - morality. it depends on
the result of the act.

2º Defines objectively what institutionalization of business ethics is, explain

the idea in a simple way only with the critical information about the
concept.
ANSWER:
Ethical institutionalization for business life means the existence of a system formally and
explicitly incorporated into organizational practices.

The process of Ethical Institutionalization in organizations is a task in which many elements

must be considered in order for them to be successful and contribute to the strengthening
of the organizational ethical culture. The complementary nature of the different
mechanisms allows minimizing these disadvantages that can hinder the process of
institutionalizing ethics in organizations and contribute to the final objective that is the
transformation of the organization.

3º Workplace ethics leads to a happy and satisfied employee. What can a

company do, organize to avoid discomfort and promote this well-being?
ANSWER:
Contributing to the improvement of employee well-being must be a top priority of any
company or organization. In this way, not only is worker satisfaction increased, but so is
their motivation, productivity and, consequently, that of the entire company.

Few measures to promote the well-being of your employees:

Balance between work and family life

Taking steps to reconcile your employee's workday with his personal life is one of the things
that makes your employees feel better. Allowing a flexible schedule, offering the option of
teleworking or even offering childcare in your company are some options that your
employee will value more.

Constant improvement of workspaces

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The large number of hours spent working makes comfort in the workplace a vital factor.
Having a good ergonomic chair, a powerful computer, updated software, quality material or
a coffee machine are factors that directly contribute to the well-being of the worker.

Propose challenges and objectives

Most people love challenges as they are a way to demonstrate their worth and excel,
especially if they are accompanied by some kind of reward: promotions, salary increases,
etc. It is important that the objectives are always feasible, measurable and challenging. In
this way, its achievement will make your employees feel satisfied.

Obtain continuous recognition

Feeling appreciation from their superiors for the work done is one of the most important
factors for most workers. In addition, rewarding achievements, both financially and through
other incentives, is a way to make this recognition more palpable and with even more
impact in the face of your employee satisfaction.

Constant training

Offering facilities to the worker to improve their skills and knowledge is usually highly valued
and offers many advantages for the company as employees become more capable and their
self-esteem and satisfaction are increased.

Promote a good work environment

Organizing activities outside the office, such as team building or afterworks, directly
contributes to improving the work environment, one of the elements most valued by
workers.

Promote the active participation of employees

We should always seek consensus in all company decisions, involving employees, either
through meetings or participatory dynamics. In this way, the identification of your
employees with the organization will be achieved with all the advantages that this
represents.

Encourage a healthy lifestyle

In addition to facilitating healthy eating at work, there are other actions that will help
reinforce a healthier life for your workers. Organizing sports activities within the company,
collaborating on the costs of physical activities or even facilitating mobility by bicycle are
some of the actions that can be carried out. In addition, it is important to raise awareness
about the harm caused by tobacco and offer programs to stop smoking.

Promote occupational health

Finally, and one of the most important factors to improve the well-being of your workers:
involving all members of the organization in promoting health and well-being will help the
mental development of the worker and, consequently, increase individual productivity and
collective. Offering senior management courses to learn how to manage stress and, on the

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other hand, offering employees relaxation courses are examples that can help in the short
term.

In short, work forms a fundamental part of the life project of most people and a great deal
of time, effort, energy, and often years of study and preparation are dedicated to its
realization. For this reason, workers have many expectations and wishes for their work
experience: recognition, respect, personal fulfillment, sense of worth, feeling useful,
interacting with others.

4º Prepare a summary of the content of this article identified and published

in the resources of this unit without exceeding 400 words - “Roles of
business ethics in new global economic environment” by Eva Svitačová and
Elena Kováčiková
ANSWER:
Business Morals explains enterprise as a movement with moral requests, and focuses at
shameless practices in business exercises, its work is to direct and help kill negative wonders
and procedures in another worldwide condition. It is associated with the prerequisite of
enterprising subjects to adjust to the conditions such that individuals and the nature don't
endure. Numerous issues confronted by business subjects as well as worldwide residents
can be maintained a strategic distance from on the off chance that when virtues
areconsidered specifically financial procedures and exercises. The way that these days
numerous business subjects don't focus on morals in business or looking for monetary
exercises dependent on values and don't consider moral guideline for viable instrument of
issue arrangement in enterprise. This circumstance emerges for the most part in the nations
wherein the air has not been made so as to convince financial subject that coordination of
empathetic perspectives on business, thinking about virtues past enterprise and regarding
moral standards or ties towards social subjects, it helps forestalling or duplicating issues,
rises and threatsin another worldwide condition. To wrap things up, regarding moral
standards encourages specific enterprising subjects to improve their position in a household
showcase as well as European or worldwide one. Along these lines, it speaks to for them an
upper hand empowering arriving at higher benefits and improving its situation on a market.
Numerous business subjects despite everything have not understood this reality.