SAMPLE. Resources for Courses

Transcription

1 Resources for Courses

2 The Only Way is Ethics Resources for Courses Overview The Only Way is Ethics is a thought provoking, engaging and emotive introduction to business ethics and is suitable for a range of qualifications and specifications where ethics and ethical decision making forms part of the teaching content. Teacher Instructions 1 Split the students into pairs or small groups 2 Give each pair/ small group a set of the business action cards (each card contains a questionable ; business action, some of which have been carried out by actual businesses) 3 Students then need to rank the cards, most ethical to least ethical and note down reasons for their decision 4 Students should then compare and contrast their answers, discussing the justifications for their decisions and ultimately deciding on the factors that determine ethics. Extension Activity The Devil s Advocate Ask students to choose the action that they find the least ethical (or, to avoid repetition, assign each pair/ small group a business action). Once this is done, they must assume the role of the CEO or manager who made the decision, and justify the action/ decision to the rest of the class. A list of possible arguments for each scenario has been provided. Students should be given a minute each to speak and can bonus points if any of the arguments they use are included in the teachers sheet.

3 In order to increase public awareness of child poverty, a charity publishes unpleasant images of children that upset the public A drug company releases a new medicine before it has been thoroughly tested, in order to prevent a widespread disease

4 A cigarette manufacturer uses images of young people in its latest advertising campaign A UK gun manufacturer prevents the loss of 1,000 jobs by exporting arms to Russia

5 A bank make 1000 retail staff redundant, but pays its Directors huge bonuses A pharmaceutical business develops a new drug that can treat cancer. It sets the price at 500,000

6 An animal rights pressure group frees animals that are being used for experiments that will save human lives A clothes shop adopts a Zero Hours contract policy with all new staff

7 A farmer tips waste into the river near his farm, killing all of the fish downstream for 10km A sportswear business moves production of its trainers to a country that uses child labour in order to reduce its costs

8 Devil s Advocate Teachers Sheet Business Action Possible Arguments For In order to increase public awareness of child poverty, a charity publishes unpleasant images of children that upset the public Sometimes people have to be shocked in order for them to care Our intention is to help those in need We need to stand out from other charities A drug company releases a new medicine before it has been thoroughly tested, in order to prevent a widespread disease We felt that the risk was relatively low It would have taken us a further year to fully test the medicine Had we done nothing, the disease would continue to spread A cigarette manufacturer uses images of young people in its latest advertising campaign A UK gun manufacturer prevents the loss of 1,000 jobs by exporting arms to Russia A bank make 1000 retail staff redundant, but pays its Directors huge bonuses A pharmaceutical business develops a new drug that can treat cancer. It sets the price at 500,000 An animal rights pressure group frees animals that are being used for experiments that will save human lives Some kids think smoking is cool. If they don t buy our brand, they ll go with one of our competitors Our shareholders demand increased market share We want to build positive, long term relationships with our young customers The businesses that we sell the arms to are not involved in the current war Defence in the UK employs hundreds of thousands of people If they buy the products from other countries, it will only weaken our countries economy If our top earning directors are not rewarded, they will leave us and work for competitors Fewer people are using the high streets and we must adapt to this change Our long term strategy is to increase profits and to create more jobs in internet banking The revenue from this will help us to develop other lifesaving medicines It has cost millions in R&D to develop this product To create this medicine, we must employ the best staff in the world Testing on animals causes pain and suffering to animals Testing often leads to no human benefit Many animal tests are misleading as humans sometimes react differently to animals A clothes shop adopts a Zero Hours contract policy with all new staff We need to remain flexible in this difficult economic climate We employ many workers on permanent contracts If our costs increase further, we would have to make redundancies A farmer tips waste into the river near his farm, killing all of the fish downstream for 10km It s not killing anyone Everybody else does it The cost of disposal is very expensive A sportswear business moves its production of its trainers to a country that uses child labour in order to reduce its costs The money they earn enables them to help them and their families to survive No laws were actually being broken Manufacturing in the UK would decrease our competitiveness and increase the prices for our customers and some UK job losses