PHI FPX 2000 assessment 2

Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) involves diverse meanings among industries based on financial burdens and stakeholder relations. Adopting sustainable development, which involves Corporate Social Responsibility and business ethics, is vital to address current needs without compromising future generations’ possibilities, thereby leading to the development of sustainable development goals. Corporate responsibility is becoming more adopted with greater vigilance by businesses, consumers, researchers, and policymakers (Manasakis, 2018).

Ethical Issues and Their Relationships

The modern scene presents ethical challenges, specifically around informed consent and possible revelation of sensitive genetic information. Uchromz, with its collection of millions of DNA samples within its growing biobank, is threatened by security, confidentiality, and possible misuse by third parties. Privacy, security, informed consent, and confidentiality become key ethical concerns, with the difficulty of attainment of genuinely informed consent (Darby & Weinstock, 2018).

Clarity in consent forms is essential for DNA donors due to ambiguous language, ensuring transparency and safety. Privacy and confidentiality stand as paramount ethical principles, and Uchromz must responsibly safeguard customer information, particularly when dealing with third parties beyond its control (Noroozi et al., 2018).

Stakeholders’ Primary Interests

Uchromz’s stakeholders, such as the company itself, consumers, and partner institutions, have competing interests. Uchromz strives to meet ethical and legal requirements, respect customer privacy, and minimize possible risks. Consumers desire genetic tests for ancestry and health information while maintaining ownership of their DNA information. Partner institutions hope to have access to a massive DNA biobank for research purposes and collaborations with a successful biotech company such as Uchromz (Schumacher et al., 2020).

Normative Ethical Theory

Utilitarianism, a normative ethical theory that focuses on actions and outcomes, offers a versatile framework. In applying Utilitarianism to the situation, Uchromz places a high value on the security and confidentiality of DNA donors, bringing its interests in line with those of customers, employees, and other stakeholders (Häyry, 2020).

Milton Friedman’s Stakeholder’s Theory

Friedman’s stakeholder theory argues that a company’s ultimate responsibility is to promote stakeholders’ economic interests, emphasizing profit maximization. Uchromz needs to balance the interests of stakeholders to achieve long-term success, using this theory to prioritize stakeholders’ core interests and values (Okafor et al., 2021).

Traditional Theory of Normative Ethics

In the deontological account of normative ethics, activities are evaluated in terms of conformity to ethical principles or rules. As part of its corporate social responsibility, Uchromz is required to protect the privacy and security of DNA donors by restricting third-party disclosure of information (Barrow & Khandhar, 2019).

Deficiencies of Milton Friedman’s Shareholder Theory

Milton Friedman’s Shareholder Theory, built around maximizing profit and minimal social responsibility, has been criticized for being centered on short-term profit at the expense of wider societal and environmental issues. Uchromz needs to give way to safety and security over profit, based on basic ethical principles and protecting stakeholders (Clarke, 2020).

Conclusion

In short, CSR entails sustainable development, taking into account social, environmental, and economic aspects for long-term business effects. Business ethics guides companies to be honest, and an adoption of normative ethical theories helps to tackle ethical issues effectively.

PHI FPX 2000 Assessment 2 Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility

Häyry, M. (2020). Just better Utilitarianism. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 30(2), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963180120000882

Manasakis, C. (2018). Business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Managerial and Decision Economics, 39(4), 486–497. https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.2921

Noroozi, M., Zahedi, L., Bathaei, F. S., & Salari, P. (2018). Challenges of confidentiality in clinical settings: Compilation of an ethical guideline. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 47(6), 875–883. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6077627/

Okafor, A., Adeleye, B. N., & Adusei, M. (2021). Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: Evidence from U.S tech firms. Journal of Cleaner Production, 292, 126078. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126078

Schumacher, G. J., Sawaya, S., Nelson, D., & Hansen, A. J. (2020). Genetic information insecurity as state of the art. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2020.591980