The 4 Partners Mod 4 Part 4
Summary
TLDRThe video script emphasizes the importance of ethical management in business, highlighting the four key partners: employees, customers, the environment, and shareholders. It challenges the notion that one's ethics should be determined by others' behavior, advocating for personal integrity regardless of external influences. The script uses examples like the 'Heinz Dilemma' and a factory renovation to illustrate the importance of considering stakeholders' needs and making decisions that align with ethical values. It concludes with a five-step process for ethical decision-making in business, emphasizing the need for clear issue definition, stakeholder identification, factual analysis, and ethical option evaluation.
Takeaways
- 🤝 The critical four partners of a company are employees, customers, the environment (materials and resources), and shareholders.
- 🔍 Ethical management involves asking if one's own honesty depends on the honesty of others, and making decisions that reflect personal integrity regardless of others' actions.
- 🌟 The needs of the many should outweigh the needs of the few, a principle that guides ethical decision-making, as illustrated by the famous 'Star Trek' quote.
- 💡 Ethical leaders don't require others to be ethical first; they lead by example, considering how they want to be perceived in the public eye.
- 🤔 Philanthropy isn't always the ultimate ethical act; it's essential to consider the needs of all partners before making charitable donations that might neglect internal stakeholders.
- 🏭 A real-life example of ethical decision-making in a factory involved consulting with employees about installing air conditioning, showing the importance of considering partners' preferences.
- 💊 The Heinz dilemma highlights the need to consider all stakeholders' perspectives, including asking the wife if she would want her husband to steal the drug to save her life.
- ✋ The importance of defining issues correctly to avoid incorrect solutions, as seen in the Coca-Cola 'New Coke' fiasco, is emphasized.
- 👥 Identifying stakeholders and understanding how they are affected by a situation is crucial for ethical decision-making.
- 📋 Descriptive facts, rather than opinions or feelings, are key to understanding the situation and making informed ethical decisions.
- 🛠️ Ethical management involves evaluating reasonable options and their moral implications to address issues effectively and responsibly.
Q & A
What are the four critical partners of a company according to the speaker?
-The four critical partners of a company mentioned by the speaker are the employees, the customers, the environment (materials required for the product or service), and the shareholders.
How does the speaker define an ethical manager?
-An ethical manager, according to the speaker, is someone who does not require others to be ethical first. Instead, they lead by example and consider what they would want to be said about them if their actions were reported in the newspaper.
What is the significance of the 'needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few' quote from Star Trek?
-The quote signifies the ethical principle of prioritizing the greater good over individual interests, which the speaker relates to the responsibility each person has to make ethical decisions, regardless of others' actions.
Why does the speaker argue that philanthropy might not always be ethical behavior?
-The speaker argues that philanthropy might not be ethical if it disregards the needs of the company's partners, such as employees. It's important to consider the impact on all stakeholders before making decisions like donating to charity.
What is the Heinz ethical dilemma mentioned in the script?
-The Heinz ethical dilemma is a thought experiment where a man must decide whether to steal a life-saving drug that is prohibitively expensive for his wife, raising questions about the morality of breaking the law for personal gain.
How did the factory owner in Montreal address the issue of installing air conditioning?
-The factory owner in Montreal consulted with the female workers and learned they preferred not to have air conditioning installed due to health concerns. Instead, they requested overhead fans for better air circulation.
What is the importance of involving stakeholders in decision-making according to the script?
-Involving stakeholders in decision-making is crucial because it ensures that the decisions made consider the needs and preferences of all partners, leading to more ethical and effective outcomes.
What is the role of Starbucks as an example in the context of ethical management?
-Starbucks is used as an example to illustrate a company that not only pursues profits but also values ethical management, as demonstrated by their support for farmers, matching donations, and providing health care to part-time employees.
What are the five steps for processing ethical issues in business as outlined in the script?
-The five steps for processing ethical issues in business are: defining the issue, identifying stakeholders, developing key descriptive facts, considering reasonable options, and understanding the moral implications.
How does the speaker relate the Coca-Cola formula change to the importance of defining issues correctly?
-The speaker uses the Coca-Cola formula change as an example of how defining the issue incorrectly can lead to disastrous consequences. Coca-Cola changed their formula in response to taste tests favoring Pepsi, but this decision led to significant financial loss when consumers rejected the new formula.
What is the difference between descriptive and normative facts in the context of the script?
-Descriptive facts are observable and objective pieces of information obtained from a situation, while normative facts are based on opinions, feelings, or beliefs. The speaker emphasizes the importance of focusing on descriptive facts to make ethical business decisions.
Outlines
🤝 The Four Partners of a Company
The speaker emphasizes the importance of considering four key partners in a company: employees, customers, the environment, and shareholders. They argue that being an ethical manager is crucial and involves asking whether one's honesty depends on others' honesty. The speaker uses the example of the movie 'Star Trek' to illustrate the ethical dilemma of balancing individual needs with the needs of many. They also discuss the importance of personal responsibility and ethical leadership, suggesting that one should consider how they would want to be portrayed in the media if their actions were publicized. The speaker challenges the notion of philanthropy as the ultimate ethical act, suggesting that it might be more ethical to prioritize the needs of company partners over charitable donations.
🏭 Ethical Decision-Making in a Factory
The speaker tells a story about a factory owner who, while renovating and adding a fourth floor to his factory, faced the decision of whether to install an air conditioning system. Despite the common assumption that employees would want air conditioning, the owner chose to consult with his employees. The workers, mostly women sewing garments, decided against air conditioning due to health concerns and the potential impact on their income if they fell sick. Instead, they requested overhead fans for better air circulation. This decision saved the company significant costs and respected the workers' preferences, highlighting the importance of considering the needs and opinions of all partners in ethical decision-making.
☕️ Starbucks as an Ethical Company Model
The speaker uses Starbucks as an example of a company that balances profit with ethical practices. They mention that Starbucks matches donations, supports farmers, and provides health care to part-time employees, demonstrating a commitment to nurturing a culture that values its employees as key partners in the company's success. The speaker argues that ethical management often leads to more successful outcomes and aligns with a manager's responsibility to maximize profits. They introduce a five-step process for ethical decision-making in business: defining the issue, identifying stakeholders, developing key descriptive facts, evaluating reasonable options, and considering the moral implications of each option.
🔍 Steps for Ethical Problem Solving
The speaker outlines a five-step process for addressing ethical dilemmas in business. The first step is to accurately define the issue to avoid incorrect solutions. The second step involves identifying stakeholders and understanding how they are affected. The third step is to gather key descriptive facts, which are observable and not based on opinions or feelings. The fourth step is to consider the reasonable options for resolving the issue. The final step is to evaluate the moral implications of each option to make an ethical decision. The speaker emphasizes that this structured approach can be applied to any business problem to achieve wise and ethical outcomes.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Ethical Manager
💡Stakeholders
💡Integrity
💡Responsibility
💡Partnership
💡Ethical Dilemma
💡Philanthropy
💡Starbucks
💡Ethical Leadership
💡Decision-Making
Highlights
The critical four partners of a company are employees, customers, the environment, and shareholders.
An ethical manager must answer the question of whether they need others' honesty to be honest themselves.
The famous 'Star Trek' quote 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few' is used to illustrate ethical decision-making.
Ethical leadership is about personal responsibility and not relying on others' ethics.
Philanthropy can be questioned as ethical behavior if it neglects the needs of company partners.
A real-life example of a factory owner prioritizing employee needs over installing air conditioning.
The Heinz ethical dilemma is discussed to highlight the importance of considering all stakeholders' perspectives.
The importance of asking stakeholders their preferences before making ethical decisions.
Starbucks is cited as a company that values ethical management and recognizes employees as key partners.
Ethical management often leads to more successful results and aligns with a manager's responsibility to maximize profit.
Five steps for ethical decision-making in business are outlined.
Defining the issue correctly is crucial for finding the right solution.
Identifying stakeholders and understanding how they are affected by an issue is key in ethical decision-making.
Descriptive facts, as opposed to normative facts, are essential for making informed ethical decisions.
Developing reasonable options and understanding their moral implications is part of the ethical decision-making process.
Ethical dilemmas should be approached by considering the needs and wishes of all partners involved.
Transcripts
this week we're going to talk about
the four partners i've mentioned this
subject
a number of times i just wanted to
elaborate
on it a little bit more
as far as i'm concerned the critical
four
partners of a company
are the employees
the customers
the environment that we're in and by
that i mean the materials
that we require in order to make our
product or if there's a service
and finally and not unimportantly
the shareholders so those are the four
partners that i talk about integrating
all the time
now in order to act as an ethical
manager there is a singular
basic question that every one of us
needs to answer
and that is do we need the
honesty
of another person or another individual
in order for us to be honest
by that i mean if
the other person is deceptive or
dishonest
or tricky does that mean that i have to
now become
deceptive tricky and dishonest
and that's at the core of many decisions
that type of question you know in the
movie star trek
famous scene where spock is
sacrificed his life in order to save
the crew the famous line that he says to
kirk from behind this glass wall that
has him in this totally polluted chamber
is the needs of the many
outweigh the needs of the few
the needs of the many
outweigh the needs of the few
each of us is given the ability to be
responsible
we have a choice as to whether we
take that need to be responsible
and honor it or cast it aside
as an ethical leader
if you need other people to be ethical
first
you'll never be an ethical leader
because there always will be
some common denominator that is less
ethical than you
so the best model that you can adopt is
if the newspaper we're going to come out
tomorrow with my picture on the front
page
what do i want it to say about me
not about the other person because i
don't care about what it says about the
other person
i care about what it says about
me
for example many people believe that
philanthropy is the ultimate ethical
behavior
you're giving away money to charity star
foundation the children's wish
foundation cancer research
let's give money to all these different
organizations
and many many more
is that ethical behavior that may
totally be unethical behavior
why because if i am to consider
the needs of my partners
before the needs of this charity which
is not my partner
i would have to at the least
ask them what they think
maybe they don't want me to give money
to the wish foundation maybe the
employees need to have
bathrooms that are updated and instead
of giving
a hundred thousand dollars to the cancer
research
i should be giving a hundred thousand
dollars to fix the toilets
i have to conduct my decision making
in that way i'll just tell you a quick
story a friend of mine had a big factory
um in montreal three floors
they were renovating the factory they
were putting on a fourth floor because
business
was exceptional
so when it came to a building the fourth
floor
i mean they knew what they had to put in
in terms of production and equipment and
everything of that sort
but now there was an opportunity
to install an air conditioning system
which they did not have before because
the building when it was originally
built
there was no air conditioning put in so
now they have the opportunity to put air
conditioning in
approximately a thousand women
worked in this factory
sewing different garments
what would you do would you put in
the uh the air conditioning
most people ask them that questions like
of course
sure let me give the employees something
but they didn't do that they didn't do
that
i'll give you another question
it's a famous ethical dilemma called the
heinz ethical dilemma
man's wife
is suffering from an incurable disease
well it's curable but it's a horrible
disease
that'll kill her
he hears that there's a pharmacist in
town
who has discovered what appears to be
the cure
he goes to the pharmacist and he says
i'd like to buy this pill from my wife
because she's got
this disease the pharmacist says it's
eight thousand dollars for the pill
the guy says whoa that's a lot of money
i don't have eight thousand dollars
can i write you um
five checks over the next five months
for the eight thousand dollars nope
i need the eight thousand dollars up
front or don't bother
asking for the pill don't let the door
hit you on the way out
guy walks in what can he do
comes back goes to his family tries to
get the money
he can't come up with more than four
thousand dollars goes back to the
pharmacist and look i got four grand
let me give you a chat let me give you
five checks eight hundred dollars
and you'll have and you'll have the
other four grand over the next five
months
i need to save her life
no you got the eight grand come back and
see me
so the ethical question is should he
should he steal
the drug now most people have this whole
discussion about this
should he steal the drug yes no
yes all kinds of conditions come in
about this question the one thing that
nobody mentions in any of the classes is
ask the wife
what does she want she's a partner in
this
if he steals the drug and he gets caught
so she doesn't get the drug
she may die alone he goes to jail
what if they have kids now their kids
are basically orphaned
ask the wife that's what an
ethical person would do similarly
with my buddy and his factory he called
all the women or he called
a group of the women together he said
look this is what we're doing
this is what we'd like to do for you is
that what you want
they talked about it they thought about
it they came back to him
a month later they said you know what
we've all talked about it we voted on it
we would rather you did not put in the
air conditioning system
why because if
you put the air conditioning system in
it's possible that
when we come from the hot summer weather
into the cold air-conditioned
temperature we'll get sick
and if we get sick we won't be able to
come to work and if we can't come to
work
then we won't get paid as much money so
we'd rather be able to come here and
come to work and do our jobs
than sit in air-conditioned comfort
however
what we would like that would be very
helpful are if you could install the
overhead fans and maybe some other fans
to just circulate the air so at least
it's not
um sort of sitting on us that's what he
did
saved him 250 000 for the air
conditioning which he was willing to
spend
because they were his employees and he
loved them
when we have partners that's what we're
talking about
i've mentioned the company starbucks
before
starbucks is not a company that says you
know we're not we're not interested in
making any money
oh my gosh they have
uh profit gold that they
expect to meet but they also want
quote unquote everybody to live their
values they want people to be able to
come
to work and be the same people that were
sitting at home in the suburbs of
seattle
with the same values and the same
beliefs and the same ability to help
people
that's why they match the donations
they support the farmers they report
uh in a social utility format they give
health care to the part-timers and et
cetera et cetera
they're doing that in order to nurture a
culture
and to nurture an environment
that recognizes their employees as a key
partner
in the success of the company
now there's no such thing as a perfect
system there's
always going to be bad apples that's
without a doubt
but there is absolutely no question if
you look
at the data and if you look at
all the different companies that i'm
going to be talking to about
if you look at them
and understand
that ethical management creates more
successful results on many levels
most of the time and since your
responsibility as a manager
is to approach the ethical dilemma
and the corporate challenge as making
the most amount of money
being an ethical manager just plain and
simple
makes sense now one of the things i want
to talk
to you about is as an ethical manager
how do you actually process
wise deal with those issues
so there are five steps that apply to
every single problem you can you can
encounter in the business world and you
just have to apply the same five steps
and you'll come up with wise results
you must be able to define what the
issue is
defining the incorrect issue
leads to the incorrect solution
obviously
if you recall the story with coca-cola
and the taste tests with pepsi in the
late 1980s
and the fact that coca-cola as a as a
response
to the fact that every taste test gave
pepsi the number one slot changed their
formula
and then found out that they lost 300
million dollars in less than a month
because people didn't want the new
coca-cola that was sweeter
they wanted their same old coke
otherwise they could drink pepsi
so you have to be able to define the
issue properly
we've just been talking about
stakeholders
you have to be able to now identify
stakeholders
the partners and how they are
affected by
the situation that you've just defined
as the issue
so if you recall the story that we did
with the um with the sadhu
i think it's actually coming up so the
sadhu
is a character who could die
on the top of the mountain that's how
he's affected
so that's what we're talking about how
are you affected
the third thing you have to develop are
what are the key
descriptive facts and why are they
important
now a descriptive fact is not a
normative fact
it's not an opinion or a feeling or an
insight or no matter what you think
it's observable information that you get
from the particular situation that
you're in
text messages emails video camera
footage
whatever you've got as a descriptive
information in fact once you have these
three bits of information
you have the entire story what's wrong
who's involved
what what happened then you have two
management issues to deal with
what are the reasonable options because
you may have
two or three different choices or four
or five
that can resolve this issue
and which one are you going to do
from an ethical perspective ethics as
you know
is a study of morality so you will have
had to have figured out what the moral
implication is
of this particular issue that you're
dealing with
once you've done that you then can
tackle any company
any problem any issue
and give an ethical response to that
situation
تصفح المزيد من مقاطع الفيديو ذات الصلة
Lec 09- Understanding the Marketing Environment, Ethical Behavior, and Social Responsibility- 2
Pentingnya Etika Bisnis di suatu perusahaan
Magisterial Lectures | Antonette Palma-Angeles PhD - Tools for Ethical Decision Making
LINGKUNGAN MANAJEMEN
Ethical theories | Egoism theory | Utilitarianism theory | Teleological Theories
Care Ethics: An Ethical Theory
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)