advertising from an ethical point of view? Is it ethical to influence parents through their children? We
think not.
Some commercials which have not been made in a professional manner may be in bad taste and evoke
negative feelings from people. For example, the commercial advertising Uruguay butter in Azerbaijan
was doomed to failure from the start. In the end, both the commercial and the product disappeared from
our market.
Commercials in the Azerbaijan market are mostly translated from foreign languages. Poor quality
translation, or a failure to take account of local traditions and customs, can
lead to the failure of the
product in the local market. For example, the plot of one commercial for washing powder is as follows: a
daughter-in-law scolds her mother-in-law, because she does not use a particular brand of washing
powder. In addition, the young woman pushes the older woman out of the way. To what extent can this
commercial relate to Azerbaijan mentality? What kind of ethical standards could accept such behavior?
Summarizing our discussion above, we can state that advertising using unethical methods will be counter-
productive in the response it evokes from society at large, and can have negative consequences for the
advertiser, namely:
•
refusal of customers to buy certain products;
•
waste of funds spent on advertisement
•
reduction of sales volumes;
•
damage to the reputation of a company;
•
degradation of public taste.
SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER V.
LYING AND DECEPTION IN BUSINESS
The questions below are designed to assess your understanding of the material.
Forms of lying and deception in business
♦
What forms of lying can you name?
♦
What are the negative consequences of lying and deception?
♦
In what cases could lying be justified from a moral point of view?
♦
How does the business world treat the breaking of promises, stealing and cheating?
♦
What is the fundamental difference between lying and cheating?
♦
What examples of cheating in our country can you give? Please justify your opinion.
Intellectual property
♦
What kinds of intellectual property can you name?
♦
What is intellectual property?
♦
What is copyright?
♦
What is a patent?
♦
What is the difference between production secrets, patents and copyright?
Truthfulness in advertising
♦
What methods of unethical advertising can you name?
♦
What methods are used in advertising to influence the will of people in order to make them buy
certain products?
♦
What is subliminal advertising?
♦
What are the negative consequences of unethical advertising methods?
CASE STUDIES FOR CHAPTER V.
LYING AND DECEPTION IN BUSINESS
Please read the cases below and chose your answer from the options provided. Please substantiate your
answer. The notes to cases can be found at the end of the book.
1. The Alievs' family insured their real estate and their car for 10 years with X insurance firm. They did
not have any problems for a long time. However, one day the head of the family, taking his car out of the
garage, scratched the back left side of the car against a fence, but forgot to repair it. Some days later his
car was struck by another car and the rear of his car was severely damaged. The family applied to the
insurance firm for reimbursement of the repair expenses. The family decided to include the earlier
damage into the list for their insurer. The Alievs’ decided that the insurance firm would not pay attention
to such minor details and would underwrite not only the serious repair, but also the earlier, minor one.
(a)
What ethical issues do you see here?
(b)
How correct is the Alievs' family’s decision?
(c)
What do you think they should have done under these circumstances?
(d)
Do you think that the Alievs’ acted unethically? Please justify your opinion.
2. You have been working for X factory for a number of years. The management has been promising to
raise your salary for some time now. You are not satisfied with your salary rate, and nor are many of
your colleagues. One day you and other workers file an official compliant, but after numerous discussions
the management informs you that they are not able to raise your salary at the moment. You believe that
you have not received fair treatment. Therefore, you take some tools and spare parts away from the
factory and set up your own workshop. You can justify your actions: the management does not care about
its workers, so the workers should take care of themselves, and should take advantage of the slightest
opportunity to support themselves.
(a)
What unethical actions do you see in this case?
(b)
What do you think of the unfulfilled promises by the factory management?
(c)
Is the worker’s decision right?
(d)
What do you think of the worker’s self-justification?
3. In which of the cases below can stealing be justified?
(a)
A very poor family – neither of the parents is able to find a job. The family has no food. The head of
the family decides to steal to save his wife and children from starving.
(b)
A person being chased takes the first available car and flees the site.
(c)
Many people believe that stealing from a friend or acquaintance or, in general, from an individual, is
impermissible. However, they may believe that stealing from companies or corporations can be
justified. These people defend their position as follows: “Companies and corporations earn huge
profits thanks to the hard work of their employees, so the employees are entitled to reap the fruits of
their labor as well.”
Vagif Gaziev
CHAPTER VI. MECHANISMS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS
ETHICS
Corporate documentation on ethics
Companies design several types of documents, defining their ethical principles. As a rule, shorter
documents (one to several pages) are referred to as missions, declarations or statements of general
principles. More detailed documents (from several to a hundred pages) are called Codes of Ethics or