A solution to TransCanada Corps Ethical dilemma:
This paper is for my Management Ethics class. It’s a term paper where we have to find an ethical dilemma and write about a solution to it. I have copy pasted an overview of the ethical dilemma and attached the requirements for the paper below. I’ve added the overview of the entire course content to give you an idea of what the course entails so the paper can be specific to the concepts introduced throughout the course. I don’t think we need peer reviewed references for this paper but nonetheless sources are required please include 5+ references linking theories and concepts to those in the course outline etc. Do let me know if you require more information
The ethical dilemma I have chosen to discuss All Canada pipeline project by TransCanada Corp. This project is very similar to the Keystone Pipeline project that is currently under review in the US Congress. Some consider it as an ‘Industry Pipe Dream’ whilst others look at is as more of a ‘New Tar Sands Menace’. This is a common situation of tradeoff of development and growth with all its benefits for the economy against protecting the environment. This constitutes an ethical dilemma as for TransCanada Corp it comes down to making huge profits from its $12 billion project with the social cost of exploiting and harming the environment. There are a few ethical ways in which TransCanada Corp can handle this situation.
o The story to look for is one that outlines or suggests an ethical dilemma. An ethical dilemma reflects a conflict of values that can be resolved in two or more ethically defensible ways. The story should relate to a business issue, in the broad sense of that term. It may deal with the world of commerce, marketing, finance or with environmental issues. Be careful not to choose a story that reflects only a situation where a person or organization has succumbed to moral temptation – that is a situation where someone has done something that is clearly evil, wrong or bad. You are looking for a dilemma.
o The paper itself will analyse the story from the perspective of the concepts you have been introduced to in this course. This is not a research assignment, but students may want to look at information beyond the initial story in order to flesh out their paper, for instance by checking facts, getting other opinions or providing important background and contextual information.
o The expectation is that the student will use the concepts and critical skills developed in this course for resolving an ethical dilemma to make the case for how the dilemma should be or should have been decided. Students are expected to refer to the ethical methods introduced in this course and to use the four philosophical analytic tools that have been used in class discussion.
o You are to write the paper as a report directed to the person making the decision about the ethical dilemma.
o The paper should be 1200 to 1500 words in length (double spaced) excluding appendices, references and the title page
o Grades will be assigned based how well the paper demonstrates knowledge of the course material and the ability to use the ethical concepts and methods of analysis in resolving the ethical dilemma chosen. The learning goals for the course should be kept in mind in preparing a paper.
o While grammar, spelling and general writing ability are not the central learning objectives of this course, students need to attend to these matters in order to communicate clearly and persuasively. Accordingly shortcomings in these areas will affect the overall grade.
o Students are encouraged to think creatively about presentation. Inserting photographs or other graphics to add emphasis or illustrate a point is encouraged. Formatting and layout of the paper is also an issue. Using subtitles and shorter paragraphs increases the readability and effectiveness of your communication. Where appropriate including hyperlinks to resources or video clips may help. Formatting papers as one long ‘text message’ will be considered a sign of inappropriate lack of attention to the seriousness of the need to communicate effectively. Students are encouraged to read their paper over aloud before submitting it. The ear is often a better editor than the eye.
Outline of Classes
Class 1 – Jan. 6 Introduction
Today we will begin our term-long conversation about the concept of ethics by looking at some of the concepts we will work with such as:
• Ethics
• Morality
• Moralism
• Ethical Dilemmas
• Moral Temptations
• Values
• Good
• We will look at the learning resources identified above and discuss the requirement for monitoring the media to identify business ethics issues and examples
• We will also begin the process of getting acquainted as a class of co-learners.
• Finally I will give a brief overview of the structure of the course, assessment and my expectations.
Required Readings:
• Action framework for Giving Voice to Values
• Building a GVV toolkit
Class 2 – Jan. 8- Introduction to the Giving Voice to Values approach
• We will work in small groups and consider two cases presented in the “Reasons and Rationalizations” reading. This will get us started in thinking about how we come to decide what is ethical and how we act on that decision.
Preparation
• Reasons and Rationalizations (Case)
Class 3 – Jan. 13 – Values
• In this class we will continue our exploration of values
• We will talk in groups about the 2 stories that you write about in the assignment
Preparation:
• Tale of Two Stories (Connect)
• Ethical Leadership and the Psychology of Decision-Making (Connect)
Class 4 – Jan. 15 – Theories about the development of ethics Values Identification
• In this class we will look at two theories. Lawrence Kohlberg’s is the most well known theory of how we develop as moral persons. Jonathon Haidt offers a novel theory as to the sociological origin of morality, which helps us understand the role that morality plays in human society.
Preparation:
• “Stages of Moral Development” Kohlberg (Connect)
• “Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives”, Haidt https://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.htm
• “Naiveté or Boldness” (GVV case)
Class 5 – Jan. 20 – Barriers to Doing Ethics ‘A’ Conflict of Interest Front Row Group 1
• This class will be an exploration of what constitutes a conflict of interest, why it can be difficult to detect and how to deal with it if it arises
• This is the first of five classes looking at things that often arise which make it more difficult to see what is ethical as well as making it more difficult to choose the ethical action.
Preparation:
• Be Careful What you wish for (Case)
• “Conflicts of Interest”, Carson (Connect)
Class 6 – Jan. 22 – Barriers to Doing Ethics ‘B’ Authority and Distancing from Responsibility Front Row Group 2
• This class explores a surprising source of unethical behavior, our inclination to not think through the ethics of an issue when we think someone else is taking responsibility, even if we are actually doing something we would think unethical if we did it on our own.
Preparation:
• “The psychology of evil” Philip Zimbardo
https://www.google.ca/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=zimbardo+ted+talk&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=Di4gUPGwLMXUiwL9xYC4DA
• “The Milgram Experiment, 1962” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpGJjNUbmpo&feature=related
Class 7 – Jan. 27 – Barriers to Doing Ethics ‘C’ Group Think and other pressures
Front Row Group 3
• Just as authority can relieve us of our sense of moral responsibility, so too can pressure from our peers, the members of the group with whom we work
Preparation:
• Challenger Disaster
o https://dssresources.com/cases/spaceshuttlechallenger/index.html
• Psychology of Conformity – Simolean Sense
o https://www.simoleonsense.com/awesome-video-psychology-of-conformity-groupthink-wikileaks/
• Smartest Guys in the Room – The Enron Disaster
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvLZBv8HsO4 (Kal-ee-‘forn-yah)
Class 8 – Jan. 29 Barriers to doing ethics ‘D’ – Moral Myopia and Tunnel Vision
Front Row Group 4:
Preparation – Moral Myopia – Ethics Unwrapped video
https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/video/moral-myopia
– Explaining Enron – Seeger and Ulmer
Class 9 – Feb. 3 – Barriers to doing ethics ‘E’ – Rationalization
Front Row Group 5
Preparation – Reasons and Rationalizations video
https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/video/pillar-7-reasons-and-rationalizations
“The Jack Abramoff Story”
https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/video/in-it-to-win-the-jack-abramoff-story
– Naiveté or Boldness (Case)
Class 10 – Feb. 5 – Introducing the Corporation – What is a Corporation? What is a person?
Front Row Group 6
• This class will examine the corporation, which is a type of organization created by human beings that lies at the heart of economic activity. We will consider the nature of a corporation and also why it has the features that it does and most importantly the moral impact of the corporation on business.
Preparation
• Watch The Corporation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bKZ8FUj7tg
Feb. 10 and 12 – No Classes – Reading Week
• You are encouraged to take this opportunity to get ahead on your preparation. In particular this is a good time to watch the film “Inside Job” assigned for Class 14.
Class 11 – Feb. 17 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Front Row Group 7
• While there may be some debate as to whether Corporations are moral agents, there is no disagreement with the claim that they have some responsibility to society both positively in terms of what they contribute and negatively in terms of liability for negative impacts of their activities.
• This class is the first of three that will examine CSR and some of the leading theories about it
Preparation
• “Corporate Social Responsibility”
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryv7RiDG1hA
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30xJj88s9j0
• “CSR and Citizenship”
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bsMpShiOp0
• “Justice, Episode 11”, Sandel https://www.justiceharvard.org/
Class 12 – Feb. 19 – Corporate Social Responsibility – Stakeholders and Stockholders
Front Row Group 8
• This class will look at the 2 leading theories of CSR. Stockholder (also shareholder) theory says the social responsibility of the firm is to make profits, so long as it stays within the law and behaves ethically. Stakeholder theory emphasizes the need for firms to balance the interests of all the people it impacts (stakeholders). Note that the two theories are not necessarily mutually exclusive, although they are often presented that way.
Preparation
• “Stakeholder Theory”, Freedman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIRUaLcvPe8&feature=results_main
• “Stakeholder Theory and the Corporate Objective Revisited”, Freedman et al (Connect)
• “The Social Responsibility of Business”, Friedman (Connect)
• “What’s a Business for?” Charles Handy, Harvard Business Review, December, 2002
Class 13 – Feb. 24 – Corporate Social Responsibility – Agency Theory and Motivation
Front Row Group 9
• Philosophers, lawyers and economists all use the term ‘agency theory’ to refer to related but distinct concepts. From the perspective of CSR agency theory is an important organizational theory that tries to explain how owners (shareholders) who do not actually manage a firm can make sure that the executives who do manage it do so in the best interest of the owners, not themselves.
• The question that both theories seek to address is how to motivate people so we will begin this class with a look at motivation.
Preparation
• Dan Pink https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vMTmm_7E_g
• Dan Ariely https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onLPDegxXx8
• Agency Theory (Case)
Class 14 – Feb. 26 – Corporate Social Responsibility – The Financial Crash of 2008
Front Row Group 1
Preparation
• Inside Job – watch the film which may be purchased at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYm_oEO5iyE or read the book available at
https://www.amazon.ca/Inside-Job-Charles-Ferguson/dp/1780745486/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409510407&sr=1-1&keywords=inside+job
• Financial Crisis of 2008 https://www.simoleonsense.com/video-the-psychology-of-the-financial-crisis/ Nicholas Barberis
Class 15 – March 3 Review for Midterm
Class 16 – March 5 – Midterm Exam
• The midterm exam will cover all material discussed in class up to this point in the term. You are expected to be familiar with all of the assigned videos, readings and other materials.
• The exam will have two components. The first will consist of questions that are multiple choice, fill in the blank, true/false, short answer or a similar style. The second part of the exam will be one or more essay type questions and one or more cases.
Class 17 – March 10 – Doing Business Ethics 4 Philosophical Methods for reasoning about ethics
Front Row Group 2
• This class will provide an overview of the classical philosophical methods for analyzing ethical dilemmas.
• The 3 websites listed under “Learning Resources” at the beginning of this document each have numerous links to articles and lectures that deal with these 4 Methods in greater detail. While not required reading, these are your ‘go to’ resources if you find the material difficult to follow in the required material mentioned below.
Preparation
• “Defining Moments” Joseph Badarraco (Connect)
• “John Rawls shares some thoughts”
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCJqNrqWykU
• Pudding Media (Case)
Class 18 – March 12 – Applied Business Ethics ‘A’ Utilitarianism
Front Row Group 3
Preparation
• “Justice, Lecture 1 (second ½) and Lecture 2 (first ½)”, Sandel https://www.justiceharvard.org/
• “Pinto Fires and personal ethics” Dennis Gioia, (Connect)
• Polluter’s Dilemma (Case)
Class 19 – March 17 – Applied Business Ethics ‘B’ Deontology
Front Row Group 4
Preparation
• “Justice, Episodes 6 & 7(first ½)”, Sandel https://www.justiceharvard.org/
• On-line Identities (Case)
Class 20 – March 19 – Applied Business Ethics ‘C’ Virtue
Front Row Group 5
Preparation
• A brief intro to virtue, Oxley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emc0630rQA8
• Virtue Ethics, Rosalind Hursthouse https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/ethics-virtue/
• Better Wrong than Right (Case)
Class 21 – March 24 – Applied Business Ethics ‘D’ Fairness
Front Row Group 6
Preparation
• “Justice, Episodes 7(second ½), & 8”, Sandel https://www.justiceharvard.org/
• Felipe Montez (Case)
Class 22 – March 26 – Analysing an Ethical Dilemma using the 4 philosophical methods
• During this class we will work through an ethical dilemma following the format that is to be used when writing your final paper.
Class 23 – March 31 – Major Issues in CSR ‘A’ The Environment Front Row Group 7
The Film An Inconvenient Truth will be discussed
Preparation
• “Justice, Episode 12.2”, Sandel https://www.justiceharvard.org/
• Avco Environmental (Connect case)
Class 24 – Apr. 2 – Major Issues in CSR ‘B’ Globalization, Corruption & Bribery
Front Row Group 8
Preparation
• “Justice, lecture 11”, Sandel https://www.justiceharvard.org/
• The Indent for Machines (Case)
Class 25 – Apr. 7 – Major Issues in CSR ‘C’ Profit – What’s a business for?
Front Row Group 9
• This class will consider the social contribution of corporations and the philosophies that underlie some of the different ideas about how corporations best make that contribution
• In particular we will revisit agency theory and the issue of executive compensation
Preparation
• “Justice, Episodes 3.1, 3.2 & 4.1”, Sandel https://www.justiceharvard.org/
• Profits and Layoffs (Case)
• “What’s a Business for?” Charles Handy, Harvard Business Review, December, 2002 (Assigned for Class 12 – review this article for this lecture)