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MGX5020: Business ethics in a global environment
Week 5:
Reasoning about justice:
Markets and Workplaces

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Your Tutor (me)
Nathan Eva
– nathan.eva@monash.edu
– 9903 4065
– Building N Level 5 Room 14
– www.slideshare.net/nathaneva

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Week 4 Lecture
• Deontology
– If the principle is good, then the action is morally right
– If the principle is bad, then the action is morally bad
– Knowledge of wrong from sacred or human reason
• Kant
– Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same
time will that it should become a universal law. (consistency)
– Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in
that of another, always as an end and never as a means only.
(human dignity)
– Act only so that the will through its maxims could regard itself at
the same time as universally lawgiving. (universality, not
subjectively)

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Assignment 1
• Guided Reading Activities
• Weeks 2-11
• Worth 20%
• Need to submit at least 8 of 10
• Handed in to Cristina
• Put your name, my name, your student number and
class time on the front
• Info on Moodle

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Assignment 2
• Group Assignment (groups of 4)
• Research Paper with subheadings
• Week 8 Monday September 16 4pm
• 3,000 words
• Worth 30%
• You are required to explore the ethical and business
dimensions of a chosen issue falling under one of
the topics in the assignment guide.

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Week 5 Lecture
• Justice
– Distributive Justice
> To achieve distributed justice, the distribution principles applied
should lead to a society where those who have the most deserve
the most and those who have the least deserve the least
– Economic Justice
> Refers to fair distribution of limited commodities
– Common Assumption
> The basis for distribution should be the contribution to the society

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Week 5 Lecture
• Libertarianism (Nozick)
– Strong emphasis on individual rights
– Minimal government
– Distribution by the market
• Socialism
– Production and distribution by the collective
– Bureaucracy rather than free-market
– Emphasis on equity, rather than liberty

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Week 5 Lecture
• Rawlsian Justice
Distribution chosen reasonably by rational people to produce a social order
under the veil of ignorance
1. Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive
scheme of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar
scheme of liberties for others
2. Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that:
a) they are to be of the greatest benefit to the least-advantaged
members of society (the difference principle); and
b) offices and positions must be open to everyone under conditions of
fair equality of opportunity.
Need you to remember Rawl and Nozick as you watch these
videos

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Privatisation
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDMenqKCXdw
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw5Fon_EjGw
Think about the key issues involved in the private
property v commons debate
Think about distributive justice: Nozick v Rawls

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Case study
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3m5lq9FHDo&f
eature=relmfu

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Wal-Mart case
1. What are the ethical issues raised in this case?
2. What is an „externality‟ or „spill-over‟? How might it apply to Wal-Mart?
3. Externalities are considered to be a problem in the application of free-market
economic theory. Are there any other examples where the effect of Wal-
Mart‟s business practices undermine free-market theory?
4. Some theorists, such as Friedman, tend to emphasise the separateness of
business from other aspects of life. Others, such as Solomon (e.g. “It‟s good
business”) tend to emphasise the interconnectedness of business with the
other domains of our lives. What does the case of Wal-Mart tend to suggest
about these approaches?
5. What similarity does the Wal-Mart case share with the sweatshop cases
discussed by Maitland and Arnold & Bowie?
6. Do you think that there is a problem with Wal-Mart‟s business practices? Do
you think they have any obligations they are violating?

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Assignment 2
Spend some time now:
Preparing a brief research plan for their project:
• Topic you will do
• Who will do what part and by when
• Timeline of completion