Business Ethics
Essay I
Business Ethics
CSUN Fall 2015
Write an essay, about 5–6 pages in length, with 12-point font, 1.5 spacing between lines, and standard margins, in which you respond to prompts I — IV below clearly and thoroughly. Essay I will be graded for content (90 points) and grammar (10 points). Essay I is due Wednesday October 21. Essays submitted after class ends on the due date lose 10 points; essays submitted the next day, up to one week late, lose 25 points. So, each 1 week the essay is late, it loses 25 points. You may turn in the paper by hand or email it as an attachment to my email. But the deadline is in real time, so that if I cannot open or print your essay by the deadline, your essay does receive the late penalty.
I. Case 3: TOMS Shoes (p.270). After reading the case in our text, and using only the text provided (no outside sources): (a) Create your best argument (less than 1 page, citing facts found in the case as presented) that Blake Mycoskie’s TOMS Shoes is in fact a genuine philanthropic and altruistic organization. (b) Create your best argument (less than 1 page, citing facts from the case as presented) that TOMS is in fact a self-interested company exploiting people’s natural sympathy for the poor and unfortunate to increase its own wealth.
II. Consider the philanthropic activities of Soles 4 Souls by accessing an online USA Today article (from 4/5/2011). (Google Soles 4 Souls and find “Shoes charity sells more soles than it gives away.”) (a) Based on this USA Today newspaper article only, create your best case (in less than a page) that Soles 4 Souls is in fact not a genuine philanthropic business but rather a self-interested one out to create more wealth. (b) Then create a response (in less than a page) to your own case against Soles 4 Souls. (c) Which of your cases do you believe? Is Soles 4 Souls altruistic, or egoistic and exploitive? (You are to base your conclusion only on the one article you are given about Soles 4 Souls.)
III. Read the case on p.93 concerning Tim Berners-Lee. Our authors (the Stanwicks) present Berners-Lee as an altruistic hero. (a) Answer their question in the text by speculating for yourself: “Why do you think Tim Berners-Lee ‘gave away’ such valuable software?” Give your own speculative answer to this question (do not attempt to research the actual psychological or economic state of the man when he made his decision) that would show Berners-Lee was an altruistic hero, then give a different speculative answer to the same question which would show that perhaps he did not intend to lose millions or billions of dollars after all (though he did not receive any money in fact). (b) Give a thoughtful answer to the Stanwicks’ next question: “If you had developed the software that established the WWW, would you make this software available for free for anyone in the world? Why or why not?” (p.94). Finally, (c) the Stanwicks claim companies do not “charge for internet use” (p.94). Do you agree? Is the World Wide Web absolutely free as the Stanwicks imply? Are telephone calls free? Can a completely destitute, homeless person use the World Wide Web daily? How? Is anyone paying anything to accomplish this? Explain. What are Stanwicks not mentioning when they present the World Wide Web as a free gift to all living human beings from Tim Berner-Lee?
IV. Read the section “How Much Is That Song on the Radio?” (p.379). Based only on it, (a) What is Payola? (b) Should payola be allowed? Explain. (c) What is the real ethical problem with payola?