Product Managers of Socially Harmful Products - Term Paper Example

Ensuring Ethical Decision Making Introduction “Marketing any product or service carries with it strong ethical responsibilities” (Coyne &Traflet, 193). “Most marketing decisions have ethical ramifications whether business executives realize it or not” (Laczniak & Murphy, 259). In a Gallup Poll study (1983) “which judged the ethical standards of various occupations, salespeople and advertising practitioners were ranked at the bottom of ethical standard scale”. Morals and Ethics Religion is a general belief in supreme beings; faith in God or gods. It is a system of belief that is commonly practiced through obedience, faith, worship and prayer. People mostly practice religion for distinctive reasons. While some follow a specific religion due to their tribal or family culture and heritage, for others it provides a particular feeling of security primarily due to the setting of ethical and moral principles that ultimately leads to happiness and salvation to improve themselves in the present or another life that follows death. (Berman, P. 1996) Some people yield the benefits of religion as a sense of fulfillment providing meaning to life. Thousands of religions are present in the world, each of them in one way or other sharing a common belief in ethics and morality. Among these religions, we shall discuss in this paper, three of the main religions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the message they establish about ethics and morality in the common life of a person. (Adler, E. 1990) Utilitarianism: Utilitarianism is core concept of philosophy and can be defined as a belief that an act is right if it promotes happiness among the people. According to the utilitarians those action are right who tend to maximize and promote happiness and good moral values and diminish bad moral values. A utilitarian always focuses on the achievement that is gained after doing an act. It does not concentrate on the basic nature of the action whether it is good or bad. It is all about what this action gives to the doer if the doer is happy then action is right otherwise it is wrong. Such example is drinking. According to utilitarian the act of drinking is not bad because it gives satisfaction to the doer rather wine itself is bad that causes harm to one’s life. So finally utilitarianism is the concept of doing the action of your choice that will in result give you pleasure. This story is a best example of understanding this concept. Suppose a magistrate is forced by the people to pass an order to kill one person who is innocent in order to save the lives of other people. Here magistrate is working as a utilitarian. But will this order right? Should magistrate do this just because of mob is asking for this action and also it will promote the happiness among most of the people? Is utilitarianism is always right? Obviously no, we can’t apply utilitarianism everywhere. Rather It will more appropriate if we say that any action that a person takes demonstrates his responsibility and moral values. A person should do the act that is morally correct. In the above example the magistrate would be doing wrong if he kills the innocent people. Magistrate should do only what he thinks is morally right. He should make the decision that reflects his moral values. (Ridley, 1998) Deontological reasoning: The main arguments that deontologists make is the particular type of an act whether it is good or bad in nature irrespective of their consequences. The deontologists focus on the point that moral status can just be determined by the consequences. Consequentialists argue that even if the act is classifies wrong but done just to achieve good result is right. For example hitting for the purpose of good ends is right. Deontologists are against of this approach. They state that such act should not be performed if they are wrong morally even to get good ends. (Donagan, 1977) Let’s take an example to understand this concept. Let suppose a man who wants to raise the voice against the child abuse. According to the deontologist, if he stood bravely for the protection of someone then this conduct is morally good. (Fried, 1978) Normative ethics: This ethic refers to arriving at the moral standard where we decide what is wrong and right conduct. Obviously I should do to the other what I want others to do with me. I do not want my neighbor to break my window glass and also it is wrong for me to break his glass. (Penslar, 1995). Product Management Ethics Unethical marketing is the use of unethical practices to promote products that are potentially harmful, hazardous or are unsafe for human consumption. Marketing of such products is ethically questionable. Ethical Problems Arising in Product Management Ethics Marketers need to consider many factors when they market a product. The ethical dilemma arises when marketers try to sell unsafe products. The products can be socially and environmentally harmful, can be harmful in the process of production or can be harmful in the process of consumption. The marketing of products like tobacco and alcohol has long been controversial due to the harmful effects of these products. There are many instances of unethical conduct in marketing of tobacco products. Consider the case of marketing of cigarettes. As cigarette smoking is criticized in the U.S. due to its harmful effects, marketers have developed a new strategy to sell cigarettes. They try to sell these products in third world where people are less aware of harmful effects of cigarettes. It has been disclosed by many tobacco companies that the cigarette brands sold to third world countries contain more tar and nicotine than sold in developed countries. (Mulson, 1). Product managers may face ethical dilemma while marketing a potentially harmful product such as tobacco. Nestlé’s marketing of infant milk formula in third world countries is another case of unethical marketing. The company promoted the infant formula as substitute for breast- feeding. Adoption of infant formula over breast-feeding led to health problems in infants and in many cases caused deaths among infants. The marketing of harmful products like tobacco and targeting vulnerable consumers such as Nestlé’s promotion of infant formula in developing countries is ethically questionable. Besides these, there are numerous such examples that amply show that there are many areas of product management where the issue of ethics arises. It may arise due to marketing of harmful products by targeting vulnerable consumers such as children, youngsters, or people in developing countries, it may arise due to deceptive or misleading advertising or it may arise due to product counterfeiting or selling socially or environmentally harmful products. Frameworks for Ethical Decision Making These examples show that marketing managers make use of unethical practices. Therefore, there is a need to help marketing managers to arrive at ethical decisions whenever they face ethical dilemmas. The rules and principles that help marketing managers to arrive at ethical decisions are called ethical frameworks or theories. There are many general frameworks or maxims of ethics but these general frameworks are difficult to apply in different situations. So researchers developed different frameworks that can be utilized by all the marketers to reach at ethical decisions. These models show a relationship between ethical reasoning and ethical decision making. According to the general theory of marketing ethics “there are five kinds of factors that influence an individual's ethical decision-making process: (1) cultural environment (2) professional environment (3) industry environment (4) organizational environment (5) personal characteristics” (Hunt and Vitell, 2006). “Ferrell and Gresham (1985) proposed “Contingency Framework” for understanding ethical decision making in marketing situations. Besides individual factors and existing organizational environment this model included the influence of “significant others” and “opportunity” on decisions of marketing managers. Thomas Jones added another important factor that influence the ethical decision making process of marketing managers, that of “moral intensity” (Frederickson & Ghere, 53). “Kohlberg (1981) argued that “an individual's level of cognitive moral development strongly influences his/her decisions regarding right and wrong” (Nwachukwu and Vitell, 753). “The model progresses through six stages; the six stages are embedded within three levels (pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional). The six stages document an individual's movement from highly egocentric concerns (decisions based on personal interest), through a stage of making decisions based on what others expect or what rules require (maintaining norms), to a view of morality based on universal principles such as equality, justice and human rights” (Woodward et al.). “Trevino (1986) proposed a "person-situation" interaction model to guide research in ethical decision making in organizations. Trevino asserts that individuals react to ethical dilemmas with cognitions determined by the stage of their cognitive moral development. The model adopts Kohlberg's (1969, 1981) theory of cognitive moral development as its conceptual base” (Nwachukwu and Vitell, 753). In 1989, another model was developed by Ferrell, Gresham, and Fraedrich which was synthesis of all the previous frameworks. This model revealed “that ethical decision making is affected by both external factors (e.g., social and economic environment, organizational culture, peers, and the situation) and internal factors like moral value structure” (Nwachukwu and Vitell, 758). Evaluation of Frameworks These models are basically descriptive and generic in nature and only provide a theory base for how ethical decisions can be made. But none of these models gives practical and complete solution for the question how ethical standards can be maintained in the marketing of potentially harmful product such as tobacco. Ensuring Ethical Decision-Making In Case of Potentially Harmful Products Product managers should provide sufficient information: Marketers of potentially harmful products have special responsibilities. Product managers have duty to inform about product risks and product-use risks. There should be health warnings (Disease awareness) on the labels of such products. The product should present all relevant information accurately. Regulation on Tobacco Advertisements: The government should regulate the advertising and promotional strategies of Tobacco companies. The Combination of Policy and Cultural Development: Companies should recognize that conducting business in ethical manner is essential for maintaining long term profit. So the organizations should maintain ethical standards in business practices and ethical codes should be embedded in business practices. Organizations should develop the combination of policy and cultural development. Following efforts can help companies in this regard: Corporate Culture: “The ability to see and respond ethically may be related more to attributes of corporate culture than to attributes of individual employees. So the organizations should attempt to shape the behavior of managers through organizational environment in which they operate. The more ethical the culture of an organization, the more ethical will be an individual's decision behavior” (Chen et al., 855-56). Corporate culture is defined as “the shared values and beliefs of organizational members, specifically beliefs about what works within an organization, and values about preferred end states and the . . . approaches used to reach them” (Reidenbach and Robin, 273).The organizations can ensure corporate culture through seminars, code of ethics, enforcement of that code, ethical audits, and top leadership's disregard for unethical behavior. Commitment of Top management: Top management must be committed to ensure ethical behavior in the organization and should be serious in setting the trend. The CEO’s should adhere to the ethical norms of the firm and gradually integrating them within the organizational culture. Codes of Ethics: Research has revealed “that codes influence ethical decision making and assist in raising the general level of awareness of ethical issues” (Loe et al., 194). Ethical codes can help the organization in generating awareness of ethical issues. Code of ethics should be revised from time to time and must be enforced strictly. “Culture and effective communication are key components to a code’s success. If codes are embedded in the culture and embraced by the leaders, they are likely to be successful. Communicating the code’s precepts in an effective way is crucial to its success. Discussion between employees and management is a key component of successful ethical codes” (Stevens, 601). To make the codes effective corporations should publicize these codes in official meetings. Ethics Programs: Tobacco companies should organize seminars for its marketing managers to help them better know the ethical decision making. The purpose of such seminars is not to provide exact answers to their questions but to make managers sensitive to potential ethical problems that can arise. Firms should make it mandatory for each manager to attend one seminar every year. The managers should be given a chance to develop capability for ethical reasoning through hypothetical situations. Ethical Audits: Organizations should use the tool of social audits to assess the ethical performance of the company. “A social audit is a way of measuring, understanding, reporting and ultimately improving an organization’s social and ethical performance” (Muljono, 2).Through social audits companies can determine whether their employees are taking ethical and social responsibility seriously. For this purpose companies should take the help of an outside consultant who can conduct the ethical audits. Conclusion Product managers of socially harmful products should provide sufficient information about product risks. Sometimes self regulation does not bring desired results so companies can ensure ethical decisions of its managers by establishing policies like code of conducts. Besides formal code of ethics companies can also help product managers to solve their ethical dilemma by imbibing corporate culture. Government should also regulate marketing practices of these companies. List of References Chen, Al Y.S., Sawyers R.B & Williams P.F. (1997) Reinforcing Ethical Decision Making Through Corporate Culture, Journal of Business Ethics (16) pp. 855-865 Coyne, M.P. and Traflet, J.M. (2008) Ethical Issues Related to the Mass Marketing of Securities, Journal of Business Ethics (78) pp.193–198 Cox, J. L. (2001) Can Differential Prices Be Fair? The Journal of Product and Brand Management, 10(4/5), pp. 264-275. Desai, A.B. and Rittenburg, T. (1997) Global Ethics: An Integrative Framework for MNEs, Journal of Business Ethics (16)791-800 Ethical Issues in Marketing: The Context of Developing Countries Viewed on Jan 10, 2009 Available at Frederickson, H. G. and Ghere, R. K. Ethics in Public Management, Viewed on Jan 10, 2009 Available at Gallup Poll (1983) Honesty and Ethical Standards Hunt, S. D. and Vitell S. J. (2006) The General Theory of Marketing Ethics: A Revision and Three Questions Viewed on Jan 10, 2009 Available at Kulik et al. (2008) Do Competitive Environments Lead to the Rise and Spread of Unethical Behavior? Parallels from Enron, Journal of Business Ethics, (83) pp 703–723 Loe, T.W., Ferrell,L., and Mansfield, P.( 2000) A Review of Empirical Studies Assessing Ethical Decision Making in Business, Journal of Business Ethics (25) 185-204 Mulson, S. (1985) Cigarette Companies Develop Third World as a Growth Market Wall Street Journal 5th July, p. 1 Muljono, P. Social Audit and its Relevance to Audit the Social Performance of the Organization Reidenbach, R. E. and D. P Robin: 1991, 'A Conceptual Model of Corporate Moral Development', Journal of Business Ethics (10) 273-284. Stevens, B. (2008) Corporate Ethical Codes: Effective Instruments for Influencing Behavior, Journal of Business Ethics 78 pp. 601–609 The Junk Food Generation (2004), Viewed on Jan 10, 2009 Available at Woodward et al. (2007) The Relationship between Ethical Decision Making and Ethical Reasoning in Information Technology Students, Journal of Information Systems Education, Viewed on Jan 10, 2009 Available at Read More