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Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS

Business Ethics
Reflection Paper: National Louis University

Kassia Webb
International College of the Cayman Islands

Seminar on Business and Society BE/SO425

Instructor: Dr. Marshall

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BUSINESS ETHICS
On Wednesday, 18th of May 2016, we visited the National Louis University (NLU).
NLU was founded in 1886 and is a non-profit college. The main presenters were James
Nowotarski, who spoke about Ethical Considerations of Emerging Technologies, and Micheal
Fontaine who presented on Exploring Ethics through Fiction. NLU provided an opportunity to
hear from two leading professors in the area of Business and Ethics. We also had an opportunity
to learn more about the socially conscious mission of National Louis and its academic programs.
I have gathered an overview of technology in business today and some of the ethical
implications. Technology brings a lot of opportunities but there are also dark sides. It provides so
much information and conveniences today for businesses and the society. Business softwares
such as Uber, online taxi business has grown drastically. The company does not own any cars but
they are in the business of providing rides. People find this quick, easy and convenient so the
company has made billions of profits and of course, that is technology at its best. Technology has
taken on an important role in society and in the economy and our personal lives. It is being
referred to as a digital transformation. However the unethical issues of technology are things like
cybercrime and privacy. Also we were advised that we need to know how to use, how to apply
and learn technology to be efficient in an organization.
To resolve unethical issues regarding advance technology in organizations, they will need
to equip employees on the advancement of technology. Professor James mentioned that they are
planning to scan our brain in hardwares so that our brains could live on. I was not sure how
seriously to take this, as it raises interesting ethical questions. Another thing that was interesting
is when you search on the net to check the weather in Chicago, tracking firms get alerted and
then they send the data to other companies. After the companies have been notified that you are
in Chicago, then advertisements related to Chicago will pop up when you go to search the net.

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BUSINESS ETHICS
Target ran into a situation where they used data to identified pregnant women without, the
women telling them that they were expecting. This case could be considered as being ethical and
unethical. I think it could be ethical to enhance their marketing strategy; however it could raise
questions and confrontations with customers and be viewed as offensive.
Business and Ethics is related to business and society because businesses should set
morals and follow them. They should know when to they are being moral or immoral. Business
and Ethics is linked to Chapter 4, Ethics and Ethical Reasoning, in the textbook. Lawrence &
Weber (2014) mentions, Business ethics is the application of general ethical ideas on business
behavior. Business ethics is not a special set of ethical ideas different from ethics in general and
applicable only to business (p. 70).
In Cayman, some organizations and the society as the island lacks ethics in some aspects.
As some laws in Cayman are not entirely enforced by the whole country, it causes issues
regarding business and ethics.
In summary, businesses should practice ethics to be more effective and efficient. Also,
referring back to ethics, people should be educated in knowing what is right and wrong.

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BUSINESS ETHICS
References
Lawrence, Anne T. & Weber, J. (2014). Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public
Policy, 14th Edition.