[First Last Name]
Business [Number]
[Date Month Year]
Q1: Gansman lied to his employers on the insider information he gave Murdoch (Steiner and Steiner 264). Murdoch lied to her husband on the extramarital affair and later on to the FBI (264,266). Brodsky lied about his trading on insider information (266). Murdoch and Brodsky used the lie for money; Gansman for egoistic interest without justifying it publicly (264). Those harmed were primarily the stocks and options investors of Blackstone and other Ernst & Young clients whose trades inadvertently manipulated by the insider information (265-266). The most harmful lies were that of Murdoch, which caused direct harm to Gansman (imprisonment, loss of job, loss of practice, and money by betrayal), her trade counterparts, and her husband’s trust.
Q2: From a legal standpoint, it is fair punishments for Gansman, Murdoch, and Brodsky.
Q3: From an absolutist perspective, Ashley Madison may be considered operating under an unethical model. However, absolutism depends on what ethical perspective is being considered absolute. From a relativistic perspective, the business may be considered ethical in providing its customers the service they need, based on Kotler’s Push & Pull Theory of Customer Satisfaction (Hassan 79). Ashley Madison is, at best, an ethically controversial business model because even Kant’s ‘intention, duty, and freedom’ paradigms can support it (Hooker 1). Its ‘intentions’ may be ethical towards its customers much like sellers of firearms and abortion pills with their legal backings. If the ‘duty’ paradigm is applied on the customers (and not on their families), the firm also may be ‘ethical’. Ashley Madison’s business is an exercise of its ‘freedom’.
Q4: Biderman justified the Ashley Madison business along the line of Kotler’s Push & Pull Theory of Customer Satisfaction (Hassan 79), ethical relativism (Fryer 13) that primarily values satisfying its customers’ needs, and even Freeman’s stakeholder theory (Fryer 32-34).
Q5: Business ethics constitutes multi-faceted perspectives of ethical business behavior, which effectively makes the ethical discourse practically diverse and relativistic. Thus, business ethical application becomes relativistic also, depending only on the personal ethical standards of those who own or manage it. Capitalism, thus, places ethical judgment on business owners whose ethical standards may not agree with that of society as long as it fulfills its capitalistic purpose of providing for and satisfying customer needs.
Works Cited
Fryer, Mick. Ethics Theory & Business Practice. London: SAGE Publications, 2015. Print.
Hassan, Ismail Ali Yusuf. Customer Service and Organizational Growth of Service Enterprise in
Somalia. Educational Research International, 2(2): 79-88. PDF file.
Hooker, Brad. Kant’s Normative Ethics. Richmond Journal of Philosophy, Jun. 2002: 1-7. PDF
Steiner, John F. and George A. Steiner. Business, Government, and Society: A Managerial
Perspective, Text and Cases. 13th ed. Colombus, OH: McGraw-Hill Education, 2011. Print.
