7th Week of CSRGOVE Class: The Third Case, Unethical Advertising Analysis, and Ethics in Marketing

At the Monday of those week, we began the class with discuss about The Third Case. The third case is about Sarah who was recently promoted to a managerial position at her industrial engineering company. But then Sarah found out that her workers worked overtime without getting paid  and when she expressed her concern to her supervisor, he explained to Sarah that the factory meets their goals by having workers work overtime and they don't have enough budget to pay the overtime workers.

From this case, we can see that the ethical issues involved that is the workers work overtime but are not paid for it and Sarah is working for a company that has illegal practices. For this case, we decided that Sarah can go to seminars to learn about how to properly manage workers in order to meet company expectations without having to work overtime for the best decision because it is well considering all the aspect (utilitarianism, kantian duty, justice and fairness, ethics of care, implications for personal integrity and character aspect).

At the Wednesday of those week, we did The Unethical Advertising Analysis and Presentation. My group presentation is about Napoleon Quince’s billboard for their liquor. Its ad billboard featured a tagline saying “Nakatikim ka na ba ng 15-anyos?” The ad was trying to send a message about the liquor, but at the same time, it had a hidden sexual meaning behind it. My group thought this was unethical because it contained sexual innuendos and since this ad was shown to the public, it is very inappropriate. There was an effort to make the ad attention grabbing but the meaning of its tagline may be taken in the wrong context by those who see it.

It can be considered unethical because the innuendo was referring to minors. It is an inappropriate tagline. Also considering the conservatism of the Philippine culture and its adherence to the Catholic Church, jokes like these are not considered moral. Because of this advertisement’s controversial tagline, it was taken down.

For those week, we also learned some new CSR's theories. We learned about Relationship Between Employer and Employee which has main duty to work towards the goal of the firm. Its theory said about the importance to obedience to supervisor, and avoid activities that might be harmful to their goal. We also learned about is ethical Downsizing possible. And then about the characteristic of Sweatshops that is the employee is the child labor, provide under range salary, and not environmental friendly. We also learned about Conflict of Interest, Bribes and Extortion, Employee Theft, and Ethical Issues in Marketing. 

6th Week of CSRGOVE Class: The Model of CSR, Good News on Monday, Second Case Discussion, and Skit

At the fifth week, it was my group turn to have a Good News on Monday presentation. Our good news is about the corporate social responsibility in Mead Johnson Company. Mead Johnson is actually a company that produces nutritional supplements for children and infants. This company have a high commitment to corporate citizenship. This company’s corporate citizenship programs are tied to these three pillars: serving the marketplace, protecting the environment, and nurturing communities. They have A Child’s Best Start Program, Feeding Hope Supplemental Feeding Program, Orphan Disease Program, and Pasiglahin ang Estudyanteng Pinoy (PEP) Feeding Program.

After did our presentation, we discussed about The Second Case in the class. The second case is about Satomi who works as an intern in a research facility that provides statistical results for the bioengineering firm. One day, one of Satomi’s co-intern, Max, failed to verify whether the samples are anonymized and one of the interns asked Satomi not to speak up about their failure for their sakes.

For this case, my group decided to have "Satomi should tell the supervisor about the mistake so that the supervisor may decide the right course of action" as our decision. It cause this decision is well considering the Kantian duty, justice and fairness, ethics of care, implications for personal integrity and character aspect.

We also have the skit performance from every group that is related to the health and safety theory. My group skit is about implementing all the letter of SAFETY FIRST. Our skit is showing the act of every letter of safety first and giving explanation about it. The 'S' letter of our skit saying to 'Stop mobile phone usage'. The 'A' letter of our skit saying to 'Avoid alcohol/drugs'. The The 'F' letter of our skit saying to be 'Fit to Work'. The 'E' letter of our skit saying to do the 'Equipment Maintained'. The 'T' letter of our skit saying to 'Take 5 minutes to get ready'. The 'Y' letter of our skit saying that 'Yes, I’m prepared'.

And then the 'F' letter of our skit saying to do the 'Fall prevention'.  The 'I' letter of our skit saying that 'I am accountable'. The 'R' letter of our skit saying to do the 'Responsible operations'. The 'S' letter of our skit saying to 'Stand in line of sight'. The last one, the 'T' letter of our skit saying to be 'Traffic and MHE safety'.

After did the skit, we learned about The Model of CSR. The model of CSR is talking about economic view of CSR, Philantropic CSR, Social web model of CSR, and Integrative model of CSR.

5th Week of CSRGOVE Class: First Case Discussion and Transportation Strike

At the Monday of those week, we didn't have a class because there was a Transportation Strike. As a foreigner, this is my first time hearing about 'transportation strike' in Manila. I still remember that time I have been in front of class when I suddenly read the message in my exchange student group. I was so sad when I see the message because I also didn't have a class in the morning so I really hope at least I have one class to study in that day :')

If we talk about transportation strike, from what I know, transportation strike here is done by the jeepney driver. In Indonesia, we also have the same case that the public transportation's driver do the strike because of some reasons and it usually gives some big effect to the people's daily life. Actually we can relate this transportation strike case with the theories that we have studied in CSRGOVE class. We can said that there was a big probability that this case happened because of the unethical business or because of not considering ethics in business.

From what I remembered, the transportation strike is caused by the fuel price hike. If we relating it to the ethical decision making theories, we can analyse which step that the government weren't well considering the decision so that it gives the transportation strike impact. It could be that the government didn't well considering the fifth step that is consider how decision affect the stakeholders because it was like that the government didn't considering how will the hike impact the jeepney's driver income.

At the Wednesday of those week, we start discussed about the first case. The first case is about Sherry who has been working at a computer company for 25 years but she didn't find herself can develop because her company having her to train new hires instead of finishing her own projects. We discussed this case by following the ethical decision making steps. From doing this case, I learned that we should consider about a lot of aspect before making a decision. In this case, Sherry can consider about herself goal, her company goal, and the consequences which is probably happen.

I really enjoy to learn by discussing the case with my group mate and my class mate because I think this way is so much more effective to make us understand about implementing the theory in the real case. :)

4th Week of CSRGOVE Class: Parable Sadhu Case Analysis

At the 4th week, we discussed about Parable Sadhu case. We discussed this case in group and we followed the step of the ethical decision making that we have learned in the week before. Parable Sadhu is actually a story about a man that climbed Himalaya with his group from his office. On their way through the climb, they found Sadhu which has almost died. At that moment, they faced the ethical issues that is helping the sadhu or continue their climb which both of it have their own consequences.

From the Parable Sadhu case, we can learn that we should always considering 'ethics' when we are going to make a decision. In Parable Sadhu case, the man and their group decided to leave the Sadhu when they actually knew that it was an unethical act. Moreover, if they tried to considering ethics and do the ethical decision making, they can find the best decision which was considered all of the aspect that they need.

The fifth step of the ethical decision making is one of the most important step to help people have their ethical decision, and also for this Parable Sadhu case. For the fifth step, me and my group mate tried to evaluate every alternatives with the utilitarianism, Kantian duty, justice and fairness, ethics of care, and implications for personal integrity-character aspect. We found that leave the Sadhu with all his needs (clothes, food, and the way back) as the best alternatives because it wont give them consequence to be late to reach the peak of the mountain (utilitarianism), it is considering the humanity aspect (Kantian duty), it will be fair for the Sadhu (justice and fairness), it showed that they care about the live of the Sadhu (ethics of care and implications for personal integrity-character).

For the sixth step, we tried to evaluate the chosen alternative with criteria that is humanity 10 %, safety 30%, and reaching their goals to reach the peak of mountain 60%. And we agree that this decision is the best alternative that the group can do for the Sadhu.

In Wednesday, we had a first quiz about the ethic and business and ethical decision making. At that time, I felt confidence enough because I've tried to study a lot and I even make a summary for every chapter. But the result is not really satisfying me hahaha :') I found that I didn't really understand what is the difference between Kantian duty, and deontology and it got me confused in some questions. After the quiz, I learned that I have to prepare even more and more. :)

3rd Week of CSRGOVE Class: The Moral Compass, Ethical Decision Making

For me, third week is one of my preferred weeks because I learn a lot of new things that I can relate, use, and implement it in my real life. At those week, we discussed about the moral compass and ethical decision making.

The Moral Compass is the dynamics of ethical principles that used in reference to a person's ability to judge what is right and wrong which include five components that is virtue as a centre and four side elements that is individual rights, justice, care, and the common good- utilitarianism. In those discussion, we also discuss about explaining 'bad' acts which could be cognitive barrier, satisficing, motivation, and full power.

We also discussed about Ethical Framework which include utilitarian, rights, deontology, justice & fairness, ethics of care, and virtue ethics. Utilitarian is a ethical theory or something that direct us to decide based on overall consequences of our acts. Rights is an individual's entitlement to something or we can call it 'principle'. Deontology is an ethics of rights and duties which respect the dignity of each individual human being and act so as universal and humanity action.

In Justice and Fairness  we learned about distributive justice (treats equal equally), egalitarianism (every person should be given exactly equal shares of a society's benefit and burdens), capitalist justice (workers paid in proportion to the work they have contribute), socialism, retributive justice, and compensatory justice. Ethics of Care is about our exist in relationship and our caring relationship with other people. Virtue Ethics is the attitude or character traits that enable us to be and to act in ways that develop this potential.

We also discussed about Ethical Decision Making. When I learned about this the class, I felt so excited because everyone can actually implement this theory for every decision that we make in our life, because actually we always have to considered about 'ethics' in our life.

There was seven steps in ethical decision making. The first step is determine the facts which means to look and choose the most relevant case. The second step is identify the ethical issues. For the second step, we can do it by looking for interrogative statement. The third step is identify the stakeholder which means mention all the individual that impacted by the decision and discuss why the could be a part of the stakeholder. The fourth step is considered the alternatives by looking for many alternatives and seeing the advantage and disadvantage of those alternatives.

The fifth step is consider how the decision affects the stakeholder by evaluate its alternative with utilitarianism, kantian duty, justice and fairness, ethics of care, implications for personal integrity and character aspect. The sixth step is make a decision by evaluate the chosen alternative with table criteria, weight, and rationale. The last step is monitor and learn from the outcomes.

2nd Week of CSRGOVE Class: Ethics and Business

At the Monday January 16th, I feel so excited that I finally allow to attend my CSRGOVE Class. My first impression about this class is that this class is really the class that I want to attend! Because the professor is teaching about CSRGOVE excellently, clearly and make me easily to understand about the theories even it was my first time studying in the class that uses English language (in the university in Indonesia, people using Indonesia language for the education). The professor and also the student in this class are very open for me and treat me well, and it makes me feel comfortable even though I'm a foreigner here.

At those meeting, the professor was teaching and discussing with us about ethics and business. From those class, I learn that there was a lot of aspect and element that people have to be considered about to do the business. One of the most important aspect that people should be considered is ethic in the business. Nowadays, when people talk about ethics in business, the question is no longer about 'how do we implement ethics in business?' but more about 'Which values that we should implement?' and 'How to integrated this ethics aspect?'.

Ethic itself means activity of examining one's moral standards or the moral standards of society and asking how these standard applied or we can said ethic as a application of values. Business itself means activity to earn profit. So the tension of ethics in business is doing things right and doing things that customer will pay more.

One of the element in the ethics of business that people should be considered about is Conscience which means something that commands people about doing wrong or good thing. Another element in ethics of business is Religion, when people doing a business, he/she should be considered about religion and not  humiliating other's religion. For this religion element's explanation, miss give us an example about Salman Rushdie's fatwa (novel) which considered humiliating Islam and gives a lot of bad effect even in a lot of countries such as India, Pakistan, and Ireland.

Values and norms are one of the most important element of ethics in business. Norms itself means those standards of appropriate and proper behaviour. Values itself means underlying beliefs and Ethical Values itself means those beliefs and principle that impartially promote human well-being. Another element of ethics in business is the golden rule, morality, personal integrity, and social ethics.

At the 2nd day meeting of those week, we discuss about the most important values from terminal and instrumental values by our own perspective. Those discussion made us study more that everyone has their own values that they think is important in their life and it could be different from one and another. Some people focus on the values related to happiness and pleasure life, and another people focus on the values related to ambitious and intellectual.

In those meeting, we also studied about the ethical audience that people should considered when making a business decision which called stakeholder. Stakeholder itself means individual or group whose welfare may be seriously affected by a corporations activity and thus have stake claim in manager's decision making.

Beside it, we also learned about why we should care about ethics, the argument against business ethics, common unethical acts, key influences on ethical behaviour, government regulation of business and comparison of ethical systems which include paradigm legal, codes, religion, philosophy, and culture.  

1st Week of CSRGOVE Class: My view about this class.

One of the subject that I chose for this term as an exchange student in De La Salle University, Philippines is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSRGOVE). From the time first that I looked on the list of subject that I can choose for this term, I have been fallen in love with this subject because I have never studied so intensify about CSR, because CSR as a subject is not available in the university that I study on in Indonesia, we just study CSR in general view as a part of the human resource management studies.

Even thought I didn't came to the 1st week of this class because I'm still in Indonesia to manage my scholarship and permission (I arrived in Philippines in January 13th), I've been looking forward so excitedly for this class. I have a really high interested to learn  more about CSR, especially I'm sure I can learn not only the theories about CSR, but I can also learn about the CSR's implementation in another country (Philippines).

For the next three months, I really hope I can learn more about CSR theories and implementation, so that I can gain and add more knowledge from the professor and also I hope I can meet so many new friends that has some interest in CSR as me so we can share a lot of experiences and knowledge in this class. :)