Some overlooked ethical issues in acquisitions and mergers robert w. The three main branches of the philosophical study of ethics 1. The term is commonly used in reference to the discussion of general theories about what one ought to do, a central part of western ethics since ancient times. You know, i am pretty sure the admiral went to a game with the ceo of acme last year. One of the most practical applications for the study of philosophy is in the field of ethics. It will then use an original tripartite analytical method in order to suggest how to judge the eus principles, actions and impact by using three major approaches to procedural normative ethics. Oct 23, 2000 the author looks at attempts to prevent consenting adults from entering into an acquisition or merger from both the utilitarian and rights perspectives and concludes that individuals who attempt to prevent consensual activity in the area of acquisitions and mergers engage in unethical conduct, whether viewed from the utilitarian ethical.
The villain of the story, thanos, is a consequentialist. Couldnt someone think that torture, under the circumstances, is a good thing. Assignment 71 paper 3 ministerial code of ethics paper. Normative ethics a short guide to the theories and their application second edition john hendry 20 the treatments of normative ethics found in textbooks on business or professional ethics are often far too cursory, given the weight attributed to them in the course as a whole. Naturalist views in philosophy often combine a quinean denial of a first philoso phy the idea. These questions are the domain of an allied field of enquiry known as normative ethics. Normative ethics is the study of what is right and wrong in general. Five elements of normative ethics a general theory of. The body of ethical statements, or the actual moral arguments or statements of the moral philosophy. Ethics of mergers and acquisitions bibliography philpapers.
The code of ethics and professional conduct is divided into sections that contain standards of conduct which are aligned with the four values that were identified as most important to the project management community. Ethics and compliance in mergers and acquisitions during the 20 global ethics summit, a breakout session moderated by greg lewis, vice president of the ethisphere institute, discussed implementation of compliance and ethics throughout the stages of mergers and acquisitions. But whats the difference between ethics and morality. The meaning of academic honesty and how to uphold it prashant v. In todays mobile society, it is not at all uncommon for lawyers to move from one firm to another for a number of reasons. Overlooked ethical questions in acquisitions and mergers. Identify specific legal and ethical issues that should be considered before, during, and after the merger.
Note that ethical relativism and the divine command theory, which were discussed in chapter 1, can also be seen as normative theories and thus contrasted with the theories of this chapter. The recent uptick in mergers and acquisitions has been widely reported in the press. Shelly kagan offers a division between moral factors and theoretical foundations that reflects the actual working practices of contemporary moral philosophers. All merger s and acqui siti ons in the european union are required to comply with the laiddown rule s. Ethics nature of ethics objectives of ethics business ethics nature of business ethics relationship between ethics and business the unitarian view of ethics the separatist view of ethics the integration view of ethics stages of ethical consciousness in business need for.
Code of ethics and professional conduct mosaic projects. Mergers and acquisitions with a reference to ethical, social. The main difference between normative ethics and descriptive ethics is that normative ethics analyses how people ought to act whereas descriptive ethics analyses what people think is right basically, normative ethics is the study of ethical action whereas descriptive ethics is the study of peoples views about moral beliefs. I normative ethics can be seen as answering the general question, what should we do. It is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when considering how one ought to act, morally speaking. Toward a normative framework for public health ethics and.
Five elements of normative ethics a general theory of normative. Its most general concerns are providing an account of moral evaluation and, possibly, articulating a decision procedure to guide moral action. I applied ethics is unpopular because it is di cult to make progress those who are cynical will say that it is just listing a bunch of competing intuitions with no real direction i normative ethics attempts to give systematic answers to how we should generally decide what to do. Normative ethics continued to occupy the attention of most moral philosophers during the early years of the 20th century, as moore defended. Its evolution throughout history is marked by some important shifts. Normative ethics seeks to set norms or standards for conduct. Valuation for mergers and acquisitions second edition barbara s. The meaning of academic honesty and how to uphold it. Normative ethics is distinct from meta ethics because it examines standards for the rightness and wrongness of actions, while meta ethics studies the. It is concerned with the articulation and the justification of the fundamental principles that govern the issues of how we should live and what we morally ought to do. Normative ethical theory underwent a period of refinement in some areas and proliferation in others during the 20th century. Normative ethics is the branch of ethics judging morality and trying to formulate normative recommendations about how to act or live do the norms and values actually used conform to our ideas about how people should behave.
By characterizing fichtes normative ethics as a combination of deontological and teleological elements, my intention is to build upon, rather than to. Ethical dilemmas during mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers. The academic literature on economic ethics is extensive, citing such authority as natural law and religious law as influences to normative rules in economics. As a strategic hr director, you have been asked to identify ethical and legal issues involved in a merger and develop a plan to resolve these issues. Towards a normative framework for public health ethics and policy. Systematically to establish the general principles for determining right and wrong, good and evil. I in normative ethics, we abstract from a lot of individual cases. People always act according to what they think is best for themselves. Normative ethical theories teleological consequentialist deontological virtue ethics egoism utilitarianism natural law norms for ethics are determined strictly by consequences of actions norms for ethics lie in promotion of human flourishing as determined by natural inclinations andor divine law norms for ethics lie in intrinsic features of. Come browse our large digital warehouse of free sample essays. Such theories arise in religion, spiritual traditions, philosophy, socialpoliticalhistorical systems, literature and the humanities, social.
This unit provides an introduction to the study of ethics and a brief overview of some of the main branches of philosophical thought about ethics. Get the knowledge you need in order to pass your classes and more. While this is good news for companies looking for an exit and their counterparts looking to make an acquisition, california and federal employment laws and regulations create many risks for companies. Business ethics and corporate governance it is thus that man, who can subsist only in society, was fitted by nature to that situation for which he was made. Working in development ethics a tribute to denis goulet.
Introduction metaethics and normative ethics oxford. Hidden legal risks of merger and acquisition events royse. Read this essay on ethics and legal issues in mergers. An empirical study article pdf available in journal of business ethics 691 january 1992 with 1,788 reads how we measure reads.
It is the business of ethics to tell us what are our duties, or by what test we may know them. Normative ethics is the study of ethical action, asking itself how should people act. The field of ethics is usually broken down into three different ways of thinking about ethics. The largest current controversy in normative ethics is how to determine whether a particular act is right or wrong. Mergers and acquisitions with a reference to ethical. Kamat department of chemistry and biochemistry and radiation laboratory university of notre dame. So i think you are okay as long as you do not take anything else from acme this year. With the recent rash of mergers and friendly and unfriendly takeovers, two important issues have not received sufficient attention as questionable ethical practices. Now that you have more information select next to make your final decision. Providing a thorough introduction to current philosophical views on morality, normative ethics examines an acts rightness or wrongness in light of such factors as consequences, harm, and consent. Legal issues in mergers and acquisitions n otforprofit health care providers em barking on a mergeracquisition strategy should be sensitive to a series of significant new legal developments that may affect transaction plans and should pause to eval uate how the legal landscape has changed over the. Pdf merger regulations and ethics in the european union.
Two ethical issues in mergers and acquisitions patricia h. They are sometimes unintelligible, and sometimes plain wrong. An organizational construction ethics maturity model. They deal with questions such as what drew them towards the area, how they view their own contribution and what the future of normative ethics. The code for nurses, adopted by the american nurses association ana in 1950 and revised periodically, is intended to provide definite standards of practice and conduct that are essential to the ethical discharge of the nurses responsibility. Structures of normative theories 25 challenger has an agent neutral understanding, but this contrast will have to be engaged by some other argument. Introduction metaethics and normative ethics oxford handbooks. Some have argued that law properly targets immoral or. Some authors have described these as morally thick. This is a brief podcast for use in ethics and morality courses at alvernia university, reading, pa. Corporate mergers and acquisitions are undertaken with the belief that the combined companies will be able to grow more rapidly and be competitively stronger than they were as independent companies. Normative ethics substantive ethics or morals general meaning. Such theories arise in religion, spiritual traditions, philosophy, socialpoliticalhistorical systems, literature and the humanities, social and cultural movements, and pop psychologies. We dont have to be embarassed by the charge that we are ignoring the good, because the charge is just false.
Although employees are drastically affected by a merger or an. In the area of morals and ethics, people cannot exercise moral judgment without being given a choice. It focuses on theoretical questions that can arise in thinking about any practical issue as well as general moral questions of theoretical importance. The relationship between law, ethics, and justice is one of the most important in any modern state. Applied ethics is an area of moral philosophy that focuses on concrete moral issues, including such matters as abortion, capital. One has to do with the rights of employees affected in mergers and acquisitions and the second concerns the responsibilities of shareholders during these activities. The project that resulted in the report was supported by the macarthur foundation, microsoft corporation, and the national research council.
Philosophers working in this area are not so much concerned with what people or acts in particular are ethical. The organisational world is still shaking from the impact of individual and organisational actions that are contrary to the openended community standards of ethics. Comments are not mandatory parts of the code, but provide examples and. This booklet is based on the report technology, policy, law, and ethics regarding u. The management teams of both companies face ethical dilemmas prior to beginning the merger, as negotiations proceed and. Consequentialist theory is one of the normative ethics theories that try to answer the ethical questions about right or wrong and how we arrive at this answer. Normative models of judgment and decision making jonathan baron, university of pennsylvania1 prepublication version of. Ethics and compliance in mergers and acquisitions legal current. An empirical study carol yehyun lin yuchen wei abstract. It isnt unusual for disagreements in debates over ethics to arise because people are approaching the topic from a different one of these three categories. The term is commonly used in reference to the discussion the application of normative theories and standards to practical moral problems is the concern of applied ethics.
I \the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of. Meta ethics is the attempt to answer questions about ethics. The role of business ethics in merger and acquisition success. Descriptive ethics describes how people currently act. In other words, normative ethics is concerned with and examines moral claims. As well as introducing the central ideas that relate to environmental and development ethics and how these two areas of ethical study interare related, this unit shows why ethics as a discipline can.
I shall take moral realism to combine the following five doctrines. And now you call into this office for me to give you legal blessing for this subterfuge. Two ethical issues in mergers and acquisitions springerlink. Ethics, as a philosophical discipline, was first structured and systematized in ancient greece, most particularly by aristotle. Providing a thorough introduction to current philosophical views on morality, normative ethics examines an acts rightness or wrongness in terms of such factors as consequences, harm, and consent. Meta ethics consists in the attempt to answer the fundamental philosophical questions about the nature of. Mergers and acquisitions with a reference to ethical, social and human resource. This subdiscipline of ethics deals with many major issues of the. His metaethics, to take another example, is neither straightforwardly realist nor antirealist as wood argues in chapter 4. The word deontological is derived from the greek word deon, which means the moral necessity 3 and relates to an obligation or duty. Normative ethics and objective reason council for research in. People use moral reasoning to make moral judgments or to discover right actions. Ethical dilemmas during mergers, acquisitions and takeovers. Normative theories of practical philosophy springerlink.
Philosophical perspectives, 6, ethics, 1992 the structure of normative ethics shelly kagan university of illinois at chicago if you open a typical textbook on normative ethics, it will have a discussion of what it thinks of as rival theories. Pdf the role of business ethics in merger and acquisition. In this article, i briefly examine the normative ethics of these films. If you open a typical textbook on normative ethics, it will have a. Merger regulations and ethics in the european union. Do you think you have a duty as a public servant to give the senior decision makers the straight story. For instance, the issue of abortion is an applied ethical topic in as much as it involves a specific type of controversial behaviour. The integration of process and normative values steven w. The article tries to inquire a third way in normative ethics between. Pdf a framework and methodologytermed logikeyfor the design.
Saqib page 3 here, journalist or any media persons should not have any rights to comment, discriminate or stand against the government. Theories of ethics thomas lombardo within human history and continuing into present times, we. Difference between normative ethics and descriptive ethics. Chapter 2 deals with several important normative theories of ethics that is, with several rival theories of right and wrong. Insightful and material due diligence prior to consummating the deal greatly increases the likelihood that the acquirer will achieve the expected strategic goals and synergies. Ethics is categorized according to three types of inquiry or study. Although employees are drastically affected by a merger or an acquisition because in almost every case a number of jobs are shifted or even eliminated, employees at all levels are usually the last to find out about a merger transaction and have no part in the takeover decision. Ethics is the systematic philosophical study of morality. Nonnormative ethics definition of nonnormative ethics by. Death the open yale courses series normative ethics is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when considering how one ought to act, morally speaking. The three main branches of the philosophical study of. There are three areas of study that ethicists engage in.
The consideration of moral philosophy, or the idea of a moral economy, for example, is a point of departure in. D research scholar department of legal studies university of madras introduction. Normative ethics normative ethical theories academic room. Pdf designing normative theories of ethical reasoning. Normative ethical theory in the 20th century normative ethical theory underwent a period of refinement in some areas and proliferation in others during the 20th century. Sometimes, an authority gives considerable freedom to minority thoughts and cultural issues to promote them if it doesn. One has to do with the rights of employees affected in mergers and acquisitions and the second concerns the. Consequentialism i consequentialism in ethics is the view that whether or not an action is good or bad depends solely on what e ects that action has on the world. This article represents the current state of debate on the wide range of issues discussed in moral philosophy. The similarities and differences between ethics, morality and law is complex and a matter of considerable disagreement. Theories prominent in the 19th century, such as utilitarianism, underwent refinement in light of criticisms.