THE ETHICS OF CARE (CONTD.):Morality in International Contexts

Business Ethics MGT610

LESSON 13

THE ETHICS OF CARE (CONTD.)

The American philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre has claimed that a virtue is any human

disposition that is praised because it enables a person to achieve the good at which human

"practices" aim. Pincoffs suggests that virtues include all those dispositions to act, feel, and

think in certain ways that we use as the basis for choosing between persons or between

potential future selves. In general, the virtues seem to be dispositions that enable people to deal

with human life. However, it also seems that what counts as a moral virtue will depend on one's

beliefs and the situations one faces.

Virtue theory says that the aim of the moral life is to develop the dispositions that we call

virtues, and to exercise them as well. The key action guiding implication of virtue theory, then,

can be summed up in the claim that:

"An action is morally right if, in carrying out the action, the agent exercises, exhibits,

or develops a morally virtuous character, and it is morally wrong to the extent that by

carrying out the action the agent exercises, exhibits, or develops a morally vicious

character."

The wrongfulness of an action can be determined by examining the character the action tends

to produce (or the character that tends to produce the action). It also provides a useful criterion

for evaluating our social institutions and practices.

An ethic of virtue, then, is not a fifth kind of moral principle that should take its place alongside

the principles of utilitarianism, rights, justice, and caring. Instead, an ethics of virtue fills out

and adds to utilitarianism, rights, justice, and caring by looking not at the actions people are

required to perform, but at the character they are required to have.

Morality in International Contexts

Though the principles discussed in the chapter so far are clear enough, how they are to be

applied in foreign countries is more complex. Petty bribery, which is considered unethical in

the U.S., is standard practice in Mexico; nepotism and sexism occur as a matter of course in

some Arabic business environments. Should multinationals follow the laws of the less

developed countries in which they operate? Should they try to introduce their own standards?

How do they treat their own employees doing the same job in two very different countries? Do

they pay them the same wage?

The following four questions can help clarify what a multinational corporation ought to do in

the face of these difficulties:

1. What does the action really mean in the local culture's context?

2. Does the action produce consequences that are ethically acceptable from the point of

view of at least one of the four ethical theories?

3. Does the local government truly represent the will of all its people?

4. If the morally questionable action is a common local practice, is it possible to conduct

business there without engaging in it?

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