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Business Ethics and Espionage

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SYNOPSIS
In 2001, John Pepper, the then Chairman of the Board at Procter and Gamble ( P& G), discovered that contractors for his company had been spying on a competitor, Unilever. They had been digging through trash bins outside Unilever's Chicago offices in hope of find-ing memos that revealed the company's marketing strategy. They took some 80 documents related to hair care products. Pepper was outraged by the practice and fired the contractors. He confessed the action to Unilever, returned the documents, and pledged not to use the information in them. Although P& G's spying was not criminal behavior, Unilever responded by playing hardball. It demanded $ 20 million in damages, reassignment of some P& G hair care managers, and restrictions on the marketing of some of its hair care products. It further demanded that P& G submit to a third- party audi-tor who would ensure that the company did not act on the information in the documents. Reporters asked a spokesman for The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals about the ethics of P& G's behavior. He responded that the society's Code of Ethics condones trash scavenging only when the trash bins are on public property.
THE ISSUE
Suppose that when John Pepper discovered the espionage, he also discovered that very similar information appeared in the business media the day before the trash bins were raided. Develop a power point presentation that presents your results in applying the generalist test, utilitarian test and the virtue ethics test.

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This response presents a brilliant discussion on Business Ethics

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I need help understanding the three ethical perspectives so that I can put them in a power point presentation. The three perspectives are generalization test, utilitarian test and virtue ethics test. Attached is the case. Thanks.

The first point of view is the generalization test. Generalization says, the reason for your action should match the assumption that everyone who has the same rational will act the same way. It means that everyone who has the same reason will act the same way. Think about the given example, Pepper found that his contractors had rummaged the garbage of Unilever and pulled out 80 documents that revealed Unilever's strategy. He fired the contractors. According to the generalization test, would other CEOs who ...

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Hatim Baxamusa, MBA
Education
  • BSc , University of Calcutta
  • MBA, Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management
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