Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Business Ethics - Essay Example People also differ on how businesses should approach diversity efforts. Some say that firms should manage diversity for legal compliance, while others assert for greater proactive initiatives (Eagley and Carli 110; Sandel 169). I believe that businesses should go beyond following laws that prohibit discrimination, and instead, they should exceed the requirements of the law and actively encourage diversity as the new ethical business strategy, because promoting diversity is a â€Å"common good† and provides multiple benefits for concerned stakeholders. Businesses have a moral obligation to promote diversity as a common good. Firms understandably aim to reduce costs and maximize profits, because those are some of the obvious purposes of having a business. Companies aim to turn profits, so that they can grow either locally or internationally and improve shareholder wealth. However, past and present experiences have shown that these goals should not be the only aims of businesses, because they should also be held accountable for the social, economic, environmental, cultural, and political consequences of their actions. They should be aware that the Machiavellian principle is not always ethical; not all means justify the end. For instance, it is not right to prefer promoting male candidates, because of the belied that women are often divided between family and work roles and responsibilities, and so they may be less reliable than men. It is not also right to hire female workers and pay them less than male counterparts, so that the company can save money. Companies should also be responsible for promoting and contributing to the â€Å"common good† and they can do this through seeing diversity as an ethical business strategy for their good and the good of society. The common good represents what is good for the society in general and not only for individuals. In Chapter 7, Sandel argues for affirmative action. He stresses that affirmative action can serv e the common good, because it corrects the testing gap, balances the wrongs of the past, and supports diversity (169). There is evidence that standardized tests are possibly biased. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and other standardized tests are disputed for not being able to accurately predict academic and professional success, as well as measure different forms of intelligence (Sandel 169). Martin Luther King, Jr. had mediocre scores on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) and even scored below average in verbal aptitude (Sandel 169). Studies also show that African Americans and Hispanics generally score lower than white students in standardized tests and scholars argue that test scores should also be properly interpreted in the context of the students’ social, family, cultural, and educational conditions (Sandel 169). In the same way, firms should also promote diversity, because standardized HR practices and measures are not always fair to minorities. In â€Å"Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership,† Eagley and Carli describe the labyrinth of challenges for women in and vying for leadership positions. They reveal that only 6% of the top positions in corporations on the Fortune 500 list belong to women with only 2% holding the position of CEO (Eagley and Carli 105). They argue that the main causes of gender gap in leadership positions are not the â€Å"glass ceilings,† but because organizations have created a â€Å"labyrinth† for female employees. Firms can address this by changing norms, values, and