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This is a video that talks about the news release of Obama deploying 100 US troops to Central Africa to help find and bring Joseph Kony (a man who has engaged Central Africa in war for 26 years, has killed hundreds of thousands, and kidnaps children and forces them to fight in his army) to justice. This group has come together because three guys saw a moral and ethical problem and wanted to do what they could to change it. 

I get news updates on my phone, and I saw an article about the possibility of Bieber being the father of a fan's child. I'm glad he is taking the DNA test, but the main point of me posting this article is that Bieber is an idol for younger kids today. If it turns out he did father a child at 16, he will be letting down many fans. And a butterfly effect could happen where all of a sudden the tweens and teens that are his biggest fans may start thinking that engaging in sexual activity when they are young is ok. If Bieber can do it, why can't they? By the way, I'm using the "tag" for this article loosely!

I thought considering last week's reading, this blog post was good to look at. It coincides with Maitland's argument for sweatshops. The part I found most interesting was this: "The most important aspect relating to the morality of sweatshop labor is that it is voluntary. That is, sweatshop laborers get up in the morning and choose to work in a sweatshop instead of doing anyother possible thing on any given day. Why would they do that? It's simple, by working at a sweatshop a laborer is able to earn more for himself and his family than he would otherwise be able to were he not employed at that sweatshop. The laborer has the choice to either perform some other task for money, produce his own goods and services, or go work for the sweatshop. He has made the decision that what he gains by working at the sweatshop is more valuable than what he would gain doing anything else." It begs the question of who gets to decide what these workers do in their lives to support their families and how they should feel about those choices.

Another good reflection on this issue, jdybing. One of the issues with this type of argument is that it's rather theoretical. It simply isn't true of all people that "The laborer has the choice to either perform some other task for money, produce his own goods and services, or go work for the sweatshop." Even if this is true, the next question is whether we should just accept a type of work and working conditions that demoralize people and trivialize the value of their lives. What Maitland says of sweatshops is just as true of the practice of child labor early in the industrial era of the US, where children were not only doing dehumanizing work but doing so under extremely dangerous conditions. It's hard to see how anyone would actually "choose" this type of life given viable options for doing something else.

Kotler and Levy, in their book, Corporate Social Responsibility define corporate social responsibility as "a commitment to improve community well-being through discretionary business practices and contributions of corporate resources". Some of the benefits of being socially responsible include (a) enhanced company and brand image (b) easier to attract and retain employees (c) increased market share (d) lower operating costs and (e) easier to attract investors.

Great article on the sandusky case and mainly about whether Joe Paterno should have been fired or not. A lot of ethical dillema here.

Diversity and ethics go along way in the workplace and are soemthing to be taken very seriously. Every business should take pride in these categories and make sure they are implementing training programs so none of these issues conflict with their work.

Ethics and morals can be changed and throughout history the US has done a good job of adapting even if it took years to happen.

Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (United States: Indiana University)http://php.indiana.edu/~appe/home.html The Association for Practical and Professional Ethics is committed to encouraging high quality interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching in practical and professional ethics by educators and practitioners who appreciate the theoretical and practical impacts of their subjects.

list of business ethics resources

Obligations to other people help to make business transactions and opportunities run smoother for everyone involved. Trust and transparency are very important.

Walmart in Brazil has taken the "Green" approach and is protecting the enviornment. Here is their plan: No companies that employ slave labor; "forced" labor is a rampant problem in developing countries. * No soybeans sourced from illegally deforested areas; 20% of the world's carbon emissions (and 70% of Brazil's emissions) come from burning down trees. * No beef sourced from any newly cleared Amazonian land; globally, deforestation emits more carbon than all vehicles. Brazil and Indonesia are at the heart of this enormous challenge.

A friend had shared a picture on Facebook that I saw today. It was copies from two articles about two different crimes. One was of a wealthy white man and one was of a homeless black man. The pictures note the sentences and crimes committed and imply that there was disparity in the sentencing. Here is a post I found on the two cases. What are your thoughts on the different cases?

I did some extra research on these two cases as well (including Snopes). I posted the linke that I did (and only that) for a couple of reasons. 1) Because of the potential inequality of the two cases and 2) because I don't think that most people look past the information give to them. I was glad to see that someone (granted you are the professor, but still) looked into the stories a bit more. I think that also says something about ethics. I recently sent a friend of mine (who was making claims about products other than those she was selling). The claims were that there was bat guano in many brands of mascara. She told me she had heard this from an optometrist but she had never done any research on her own. When I did (because I did not want to make claims that I did not know to be true), I forwarded some of the sources I found to her. In our society, we tend to take things at face value.

Aha, very clever test :) Glad you're doing some of the critical thinking that, as you indicate, we need to be doing much more of. Keep up the good research!

On the anniversary of the Security Council Resolution 1325, on Women, Peace and Security, the UN Security Council is holding an Open Debate today on the theme of Women's Participation and Role in Conflict Resolution and Mediation.

I think the opening paragraph says it all: "Discussions about ethical issues, not to mention attempts to encourage ethical behavior, are constantly derailed by the invocation of common misstatements of ethical principles. Some of these are honest misconceptions, some are intentional distortions, some are self-serving rationalizations, and some, upon examination, simply make no sense at all."

I do have to disagree with the author's example of consequentialism. Normally, saving a woman from being killed would be ethical, however, going back in time and disrupting the time line (in my opinion) was not. Had he not gone back in time, he wouldn't have had an opportunity to save the woman and in the end, the Nazi's would not have won WWII. Also, in relation to the fallacy of "It's ethical if it's not illegal" - I don't believe that everything that is illegal is immoral or unethical. That is why laws are able to be changed - sometimes the law is wrong or unethical.

More attention is given to Entrepreneurs and the hope that more small businesses get on a role, thus creating jobs.

I strongly agree that it is time for entrepreneurs to really put themselves on the line. This article talks about how entrepreneurs need to stick their head out their and improve our economy and produce more jobs.

Banks are funding the destruction of mountaintops for coal in unethical practices that are further destroying the earth.

Major banks invest in companies that are partaking in destructing the ecosystem.

Discusses the ethics behind allowing office romances

I think that if a couple is flirting too much and other workers are noticing it and their fling is interrupting their work, than I would say something has to be done to keep work efficient and to have no distractions. But, if a couple is married and they do not distract anyone than I think that the office relationship is okay. As long as the office romance doesn't take time away from others and the romancers themselves are keeping up with their work, than everything is okay.

This could be the answer to our economic and enviornmental problems.

I was trying to find a link about learning about good and evil. Then, I remembered seeing this poster many times in the past. I'm sure you've seen it too (or heard about it). This link is to the book on Amazon. I highly suggest clicking on the "Look Inside" on the picture and reading the "First Pages." Amazon allows you to read a select amount of pages. I suggest reading the Credo at the beginning and the Reflections in the back. I, for one, plan to purchase and read the entire thing. Sometimes I think we overthink. Life doesn't always have to be complicated.

Many of us take our clean and safe water for granted, but others aren't so fotunate. Glad to see we are taking great strides to make a difference; making a World Water Day is a great start.

Coporate idealists want to make change for businesses to do good and they believe it is within our reach.