Discussion
Ethics play a crucial role in the business world since it impacts on the reputation of any business. Business ethics is not only limited to ethical behavior and attributes of the employees, rather it means beyond of that. Ethics in business refer to practicing ethics in entire business process. Thus the whole essay shedding light on the importance of business ethics analyses a news article which documented an issue regarding business ethics. In the whole course of the discussion, the essay begins by summarizing the key arguments made in the article with giving an overview on the background. The discussion further elaborates on the main ethical issue focused in the article. The article will be discussed based on the key arguments as to whether an appropriate ethical decision has been made or not. The analytical part further relates the seven moral philosophies while aligning with the ethical discussion regarding the chosen article. The essay concludes by giving a sum up of the whole essay.
The article named “Google staff protest against plan for censored Chinese search engine” documents the ethical issue in Google. The issue which has been highlighted in the article is that Google, the giant company in the search engine industry, has made a secretive plan of building a search engine which would comply with Chinese censorship (the Guardian 2018). However, the employees of the company protesting such unethical practice of the company signed a letter calling an urgency to review the company’s ethics and transparency.
As mentioned in the article, Google has left China eight years back protesting the Chinese censorship and the government limits to freedom of speech. However, the media reports based on secret sources have claimed that the company has been working on a project called Dragonfly, a Chinese search engine as secret practice (the Guardian 2018). The article states that the search engine is being designed in a way that would block a range of websites as well as some terms such as human rights and religion. The employees expressed their concern fearing that they had been working unwittingly in the unethical development of a search engine which will assist the country to suppress the freedom of expression (the Guardian 2018). In this regard it is important that the great firewall of China is the internet censorship operation in the largest scale across the whole world. The Chinese internet censorship gives no result for the searches on Taiwanese or Tibetan independence, sites related to Dalai Lama, Chinese policies, pro-democracy sites and incidents of military brutality like Tianamen Square massacre.
Outlining and summarizing the arguments made in the article
The major concern raised in the article is that the employees expressed their concern over the whole idea of the development of a heavily censored version of Google’s search services which they consider to be unethical since it will assist China in oppressing the freedom of speech of the people of country (the Guardian 2018). Moreover, the article stated that the employees claimed to be working on the project unwittingly. The employees of the company signed a joint letter that calls on the leaders of the company to review its ethics and terms of transparency for which the company withdrew its services from the country eight years back. The employees also find it unethical since they had no knowledge about their work and especially the purpose of the project. Hence, it is right to state that the article had stated two key issues in terms of ethics (the Guardian 2018). The development of the project called Dragonfly violets the primary principal of technological development which should benefit society and human wellbeing and no initiative to inform the employees from the organization’s end regarding their work on this particular project.
As per the article, the major ethical business issue is the company’s continuation of secret process of a technological development. The institute named Association of Computing Machinery is considered to be the largest organization to provide support to the computing professionals while securing their ethical practices by setting certain principles for them. According to the codes set by the Association of Computing Machinery, the primary purpose of a technological development must be something good contribution to the society and human well being. However, the search engine project which Google intends to develop for the Chinese market will be a heavily censored search engine. The search engine will give no results on the searches on words like human rights or religion. Thus it can be understood that through the project, Google will further help China to oppress its people’s freedom of speech breaching the principles of ACM. The project will breach another principal of the ACM that states a technological innovation must promote human rights and must protect the right of autonomy of each individual.
However, it is seen that the search engine development by Google in terms of technological innovation will neither promote human rights and right of autonomy since it will give limitations on internet research on the most crucial matters like Taiwanese or Tibetan independence, sites related to Dalai Lama, Chinese policies, pro-democracy sites and incidents of military brutality like Tianamen Square massacre. Instead the project will further suppress the freedom of speech of Chinese people for the sake of generating profits. On the other hand, as the employees alleged the company were running this project without notifying the employees which raises question on the ethical behavior as to why the company kept the employees uninformed. This kind of approach certainly denotes the company’s breaching of its values while prioritizing generating profit.
Discussion of the key ethical issues raised in the article
While analyzing it can be seen that teleological theory of ethics and the theory of relativist perspective have been violated since the decision of developing a technological development was not to fulfill any good purpose in the society (Thiroux and Krasemann 2013). Rather, the whole purpose of the technological development was to further strengthen the intention of Chinese government’s suppression of freedom of speech of the Chinese people. The decision of making highly censored search engine to comply with the Chinese censorship also suggests the deviation of the company from the theory of ethical egoism as the company has preferred to compromise with its values and ethics for the sake of gaining profit from the Chinese market (LaFollette and Persson 2013). In addition the deviation from the theory of Utilitarianism which promotes well being in the society is also evident from the issue presented in the article (Mill 2016). On the other hand, according to deontology the company did not adhere to the principals set by Association of Computing Machinery.
The decision of developing censored search engine also raises questions on the adherence of virtue ethics of the leaders since the technological development denotes unethical practice (Broad 2014). On the other hand while making the decisions and even after they made decision of developing technological innovation the company did not provide information to the employees regarding the project and its purpose (Rossouw and Van Vuuren 2017). While the company’s value statement suggests that the company values freedom of speech, democracy and personal autonomy, such action refers that the leadership has dropped these aspects at the time when it decided to move to Chinese market (Amartya 2017). Hence, it can be seen that the theory of justice has been violated in the company’s decision making of the above mentioned technological development.
Conclusion
Hence, in order to conclude that the article has presented a true example of an issue of business ethics. While discussing, the essay started by outlining the key arguments made in the article with giving an overview of the background. The article mainly highlighted a business issue occurred in Google as they attempted to develop highly censored search engine. The article mainly highlighted a business issue occurred in Google as they attempted to develop highly censored search engine. The two key issues have been drawn from the article are: Google’s deviation from its ethics and non-informing the employees about the project and its purpose. The discussion further elaborated on the main ethical issues focused in the article. The article carried on the discussion based on the key arguments as to whether an appropriate ethical decision has been made or not. The analytical part further related the seven moral philosophies while aligning with the ethical discussion regarding the chosen article. The essay concludes by giving a sum up of the whole essay.
References
Amartya, S.E.N., 2017. What do we want from a theory of justice?. In Theories of Justice (pp. 27-50). Routledge.
Broad, C.D., 2014. Five types of ethical theory management . Routledge.
LaFollette, H. and Persson, I. eds., 2013. The Blackwell guide to ethical theory. John Wiley & Sons.
Mill, J.S., 2016. Utilitarianism management. In Seven Masterpieces of Philosophy (pp. 337-383). Routledge
Rossouw, D. and Van Vuuren, L., 2017. Business ethics. Oxford University Press.
the Guardian (2018). Google staff protest against plan for censored Chinese search engine. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/17/google-staff-protest-against-plan-for-censored-chinese-search-engine [Accessed 24 Sep. 2018].
Thiroux, J.P. and Krasemann, K.W., 1980. Ethics: Theory and practice. Glencoe Publishing Company.
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