David Lemuel E. Garcia                                                                                         2/12/2008

10564721      BS-IM

Moral Issues in Business 6^th Edition

William H. Shaw and Vincent Barry

Chapter 1: The Nature of Morality

                        “…managers at every level experience role conflicts between what is expected of them as efficient, profit-minded managers and what are expected of them as ethical persons.”

            - It does show that those managers are also rated by the way they act in their field of work as ethical persons, judging them from  their actions as ethical persons can also affect their performance in terms of managing because most of the people being trusted by the company are the ones that has the best ethical rating because trust is also a big part of the criteria in choosing for such tasks and position in a certain company.

Summary of the Chapter:

            It talks about ethics dealing with the moral rules that govern and limit our conduct. Another thing is about the moral standards, as opposed to nonmoral standards, concern behavior that has serious consequences for human well-being.

Ethical relativism, Acceptance of moral principle, morality as a code of conduct, aspects of corporate structure, moral reasoning, and philosophical discussion is being tackled on this chapter.

Chapter 2: Normative Theories of Ethics

                        “We see ourselves… as being under various moral obligations that cannot be reduced to the single obligation of maximizing happiness“

            - Acquiring new moral obligations often take part whenever we encounter or go into a new relationship. We are to realize that we are not living on a solely single moral obligation that we need to fulfill and make ourselves be fooled by it. Having a single type of moral obligation would mean boring, and foolish because that only means that you don’t have any other thing to do in your life and that you are alone without anyone to be with. It means that you don’t want any weight to be added in your walk in this life and that the only problems that you want to encounter and solve are the ones that are yours.

Summary of the Chapter:

            Consequentialist moral theory, Egoism, Utilitarianism, Kant’s Theory, Kant’s categorical imperative and its two alternative formulations, His ethics, non-consequentialist theories, moral rights, rule utilitarianism, and controversial theoretical issues are being tackled on this chapter. It talks about the normative theories of ethics that makes an individual think differently on every decision that they make even if the situation was the same.

Chapter 3: Justice and Economic Distribution

                        “Injustice in one sense of unfairness occurs when like cases are not treated in the same fashion.”

            - Like cases are intended to be done with the same action but then there are some very special cases that we need to do a different way in order to finish it. But then, Injustice is being said when one is being trampled by the action that you made and that it has ruined the living of the other person.

Summary of the Chapter:

            Justice is one important aspect of morality as the book says. Economic distribution may be based on pure equality, need, effort, social contribution, or merit. Utilitarianism holds that the maximization of happiness ultimately determines what is just and unjust. Utilitarians must examine a number of factual issues in order to determine for themselves which economic system and principles will best promote social being. The libertarian theory and its philosopher Robert Nozick is being talked about in here. Rawls’s work and the story of Wilt Chamberlain is also being discussed in this book.