Assignment
Module- Case: Utility Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Assignment Overview
Few companies these days are as controversial for their business practices as Uber. However, in spite of the negative publicity they are a very widely used and growing service company that is replacing taxi cabs and even leading some people to give up their own car in favor of using Uber to get to work. The number of drivers also keeps growing.
There are too many controversies regarding Uber to keep track of, so we will focus just on three that we will examine from a utilitarian perspective. Below are three issues to look into for the assignment, and a few articles to get you started on your research:
1. Uber uses money from investors to keep its prices very low. They lose money on many rides, but they are willing to lose money to put the competition out of business:
Wolsen, M. (2014, July 8). Uber's brilliant strategy to make it too big to ban. Wired.
2. Uber classifies their drivers as contractors rather than employees, which keeps labor costs down:
Frazier, R. (2016, October 14). Sharing is caring: Are Uber, Lyft drivers independent contractors? HR Hero Line.
3. Uber has allegedly used technology to evade the authorities and regulations:
Isaac, M. (2017, March 3). How Uber deceives the authorities worldwide. New York Times.
For this assignment, you will be examining these practices of Uber through the lens of utilitarian ethics. You will need to put aside any personal feelings in favor or against Uber and instead take the cold and logical approach of weighing the good caused by their practices vs. the harm caused by their actions for each of the three issues above.
Case Assignment
Once you have finished reviewing the required background readings on utilitarian ethics and corporate social responsibility and had a chance to research the three issues on Uber mentioned above, write a 4- to 5-page paper addressing the following:
1. Who are Uber's main stakeholders? Your answer should be based both on your research on Uber and the discussion in Brusseau (2012) about stakeholders.
2. Which stakeholders are harmed and which stakeholders benefit from Uber's strategy of using investor money to keep prices artificially low? Does the good outweigh the bad, or vice versa? Apply the Utility Test.
3. Which stakeholders are harmed and what stakeholders benefit from Uber's policy of classifying drivers as contractors rather than employees? Apply the Utility Test and explain whether the good outweighs the harm or not.
4. Finally, discuss which shareholders are harmed and which stakeholders are helped by Uber's use of advanced software to evade authorities? Again use the Utility Test and explain whether the good outweighs the harm or not.
Assignment Expectations
• Follow the guidelines in The Student Guide to Writing a High Quality Academic Paper.
• Don't forget to properly cite your sources-both in-text and as end references!
• You are expected to demonstrate evidence of critical thinking-as defined in the background materials and the grading rubric. Don't just summarize information. Instead demonstrate your ability to come to a conclusion and support your conclusion using logical arguments.
Module- SLP: Utility Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Normally people choose the product or service they purchase based on finding the best quality for the lowest price. It is rare that corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a big role when most people decide on where to take their business. However, Uber's largest competitor Lyft is trying to use the issue of CSR to lure customers away from Uber.
Review Chapter 13 of Brusseau (2012) on CSR, and do some research on any attempts Uber and Lyft have made to improve their CSR. Here are is an example of Uber's claims to CSR from their webpage:
Shifting expectations: Finding better ways for cities to move, work, and thrive. (2017).
Likewise, here an example from Lyft's webpage on their claims to CSR:
Paving the way for greener cities. (2015).
Finally, this article is critical of both Lyft and Uber regarding CSR:
Griswold, A. (2017, March 3). Lyft might be "woke" compared to Uber, but that's a low bar. Quartz.
After you've finished reviewing Chapter 13 of Brusseau (2012) and have done some research on Uber and Lyft (use the above articles plus some other recent articles that you find), write a 2- to 3-page paper addressing the following issues:
1. Evaluate Uber's CSR efforts. Based on your research on Uber as well as the various theories of CSR in Brusseau (2012), do you think their CSR efforts are mostly hype or are genuine?
2. Evaluate Lyft's CSR efforts. Based on your research on Lyft as well as the various theories of CSR in Brusseau (2012) do you think their CSR efforts are mostly hype or are genuine?
3. Overall, do you think their CSR efforts will lead either one of them to greater success? Or do you think most consumers (including yourself) will be more likely only to consider price and quality of service?
SLP Assignment Expectations
• Follow the guidelines in The Student Guide to Writing a High Quality Academic Paper.
• Don't forget to properly cite your sources-both in-text and as end references!
• You are expected to demonstrate evidence of critical thinking-as defined in the background materials and the grading rubric. Don't just summarize information. Instead demonstrate your ability to come to a conclusion and support your conclusion using logical arguments.
Utility Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Required Reading
Let's begin Module 3 with an overview of utility ethics. In utility ethics, it is the outcome, or the consequences, of an act that determines whether that act is a good or bad one.
Utility ethics are often referred to as "consequentialist" ethics, because it is the outcome-or the consequences-of an action or behavior that is important. Start off this module by viewing these short videos that will introduce you to the basics of utility ethics:
UT McCombs School of Business. (2017). Ethics defined: Utilitarianism. Ethics Unwrapped Video Series.
Baron, P. (2017). Business ethics and utilitarianism. Peped. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26lY0qKD-Mg
Now read up on utility ethics in more detail with the following book chapters:
Brusseau, J. (2012). Chapter 3: Theories of consequence ethics: Traditional tools for making decisions in business when the ends justify the means. Business Ethics.Lardbucket Books.
Velasquez, M., Andre, C., Shanks, T., & Meyer, M. J. (2008). Calculating consequences: The utilitarian approach to ethics. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
For purposes of the Case Assignment, we will focus on the Utility Test:
Hamilton, B. (2012, June 7). Utility test. Ethics Ops.
The Utility Test may be best understood with a review of the following examples-also from Ethics Ops. Be sure that you review both examples thoroughly, as we will be using the Utility Test in the Case Assignment:
In the SLP, we will be exploring the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR. It has been said that business leaders are never asked about their personal sense of ethics these days-at least not until they are seated in front of a legislative committee. It would seem that there is an abundance of truth in this statement-that is, we don't often think about our organizational leaders' sense of ethics until they've gotten themselves into serious legal trouble.
All of this brings up the question of whether highly ethical organizational cultures are more apt to produce ethical behaviors. Common sense tells us that they would. But if this is true, then why don't all-or perhaps most-organizations have ethical behaviors? One possible answer might be that building an ethical organization requires a lot of money, a lot of know-how and emphasis, a lot of dedicated people, and a lot of organizational energy.
Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, begins with engagement-that is, a company's engagement with internal and external stakeholders (not "stockholders," but stakeholders-those individuals or entities that have some interest in the company-for example, employees, stockholders, potential investors, suppliers, buyers, the government, and the community at large). Begin by reading the following book chapter related to CSR, and what it means for organizations to be "socially responsible":
Brusseau, J. (2012). Chapter 13: The responsible office: Corporations and social responsibility. Business Ethics.Lardbucket Books.
Optional Reading
Legum, R. (2015). Utilitarianism 1-4. Rich Legum's Business Ethics Course.
Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (2015). Consequentialism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.