01/01 Ethics Lecture

Today’s Professor lectured about Business Ethics. Most of his teaching incorporated Hindu doctrine which had me thinking about all the differences between Christianity and Hinduism and the correlation of business ethics to the two different religions and international business excerpt from the textbook.

In 1904 Max Weber hypothesized about a causal relationship b/w Protestantism and capitalism. He argued that by the doctrine encouraging individuals to have freedom in a relationship with God, it made way for individuals to pursue individual economic & political freedoms and philosophy. I agree. Weber's theory is clearly shown/has been shown in the US. For instance, US workers have weaker identification with a company and more with their kind of occupation-rather than saying, "I am from Microsoft Inc.," they will say, "I am an accountant." As I've learned in other businesses classes this knowledge significantly influences management (creating job motivation, lowering turnover, job commitment, etc). Undoubtedly, when a US manager transfers to company in a highly collectivist country, different tactics will be needed (team rewarding, team competition, etc).

One excerpt from the textbook had me wondering about common ethical issues in India. A multinational company called UNOCAL invested w/ a French oil company located in Myanmar to build a gas pipeline. ( And at the time of their investment many other American companies terminated ventures in that country due to the brutal military dictatorship.) During the project, the Myanmar army basically used slave labor. There were even reports that concluded rapings, afflications, and other atrocious acts. While India's democratic government and working environment are far from the example above, what are their common ethical issues?-extreme pollution and toxic waste control-piracy of intellectual properties-sexual harassment?