Virtue Ethics: Enabling Wise Decisions for Businesses and Communities - Essay Sample

Introduction

Virtue ethics provides a valuable opportunity for business managers to think about where they want their organizations to be in the years ahead, by putting measures that will impact their customers, and the wider community through humanitarian activities. Aristotle defines moral virtue as the tendency to choose wisely, and make wise decisions in regards to an intended course of action. Second, moral virtue is enhanced through practice (Wittmer & O’Brien, 2014). Businesses should implement virtuous ethics to ensure they remain relevant and successful while they pursue their goals and objectives. IBM is one of the organizations that is ranked the best for promoting virtuous ethics in its vision and activities. Rochester Drug Co-operative, one of the 10 main pharmaceutical distributors in the United States was involved in an unethical act of knowingly and deliberately violating federal narcotic laws by dispensing opioids to pharmacy clients that they are aware had been sold illicitly (New York Southern District of Newyork, 2019). The paper will analyze both companies to examine how virtue ethics has been promoted and violated in equal measure.

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IBM is an organization that operates on the tenets of trust, integrity, and honesty as the main virtuous elements in their business conduct. This section will analyze five ways IBM exemplifies what trust means to them. First, trust means they commit to integrity and compliance, trust means they safeguard IBM workforce, assets, and assets of clients (IBM, 2018). Thirdly, trust means respect for intellectual property rights, and trust means honesty, accuracy, and completion of tasks within the set time. Finally, trust means the compete fairly with other rival companies and treat them ethically.

Integrity and compliance are essential components of IBM’s success (IBM, 2018). Those who fail to comply with their laws could be subjected to fines, lawsuits, loss of business opportunities, and in some instances imprisonment. IBM endeavors to preserve for its workers a healthy, safe, and productive work context-free from discrimination, and harassment in whatever form of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation (IBM, 2018). The moment Louis Gerstner implemented the IBM Leadership Competencies his main objective was to change from the process-centric management to principle-based leadership concept, effectively establishing an overall outline of principles that all IBMers should possess and believe in (Chou, 2011). The Principles vs Practices model was to build on five aspects of virtue explained in the previous paragraph.

IBM was recently named as one of the World’s most ethical firms for the second year in a row by the Ethisphere Institute, a company devoted to defining and improving the norms of ethical business practices across the world (Miranda, 2020). IBM has endeavored to earn and preserve the trust of its clients, partners, workers, and people in the wider society where they live and work. The company’s holistic approach considers the impact of IBM products and operations on the environment, the sustainability of their international supply chain, and the overall governance, ethics, and integrity of how they introduce evolving technologies like Artificial intelligence in the world (Miranda, 2020). Finally, IBM has developed measures that enhance inclusion, and treating people with dignity and respect (Miranda, 2020).

Rochester Drug Co-operative is a wholesale dispenser of pharmaceutical products like controlled substances, and they are based in Rochester (New York Southern District of Newyork, 2019). The Manhattan U.S. Attorney and DEA announce charges against Rochester Drug Co-operative and two other executives for illegally distributing opioids to pharmacy clients between 2012 and 2017. At the guidance of their senior executives, the company supplied large amounts of oxycodone, fentanyl, and other illegal opioids to pharmacy clients that its compliance personnel determined were distributing those drugs to people who had no legal medical need for them (New York Southern District of Newyork, 2019). RDC dispensed controlled substances to those pharmacies even after identifying “red flags” of alteration, including dispensing highly abused controlled substances in large quantities (New York Southern District of Newyork, 2019). These acts show the company had violated the elements of integrity, honesty, and compliance in their business dealings.

Upon realizing they had contravened the FDA terms in the US, RDC intensified its steps to hid their illegal distribution of controlled substances from the DEA and other law enforcement agencies. Among other issues, RDC made an intentional decision not to scrutinize, monitor, or report to the DEA pharmacy clients that it was aware were diverting opioids and other controlled substances for illegal use (New York Southern District of Newyork, 2019). The charges against the Rochester Drug Co-operative demonstrates how greed can affect a company with virtuous moral ethics in their vision and goal (Mcbain, 2019). As part of a deferred prosecution pact, the Rochester Drug Co-operative consented to pay a $20 million fine, agree to three years of autonomous compliance monitoring and accept responsibility for deliberately dispensing addictive opioids to pharmacies that were selling to clients who did not have a formal prescription from the doctor (Mcbain, 2019).

As part of his co-operation settlement, William Pietruszewski, RDC’s former compliance head, pleaded guilty to a scheme to distribute addictive opioids, plot to deceive the U.S., and failure to file suspicious order reports to the Drug Enforcement Agency (Mcbain, 2019). In the wake of this challenge, it can be concluded that the opioid crisis is escalating, and becoming an alarming epidemic of despair. Andrew Sullivan argued that the challenge to opioid crisis becoming an epidemic of depression stems from the widespread actions of aggressive and misleading marketing of addictive prescription opioids by RDC and many other companies (Mcbain, 2019).

Conclusion

Virtuous ethics is an important aspect that should be embedded in the business culture of most organizations, some having been successful at realigning their ethical practices into actual business conducts as seen in the case of IBM. Whereas others like the Rochester Drug Co-operative, despite having clear ethical and compliance standards as their vision and goal, they have been entangled with the challenge of knowingly and intentionally dispensing addictive opioid drugs to pharmaceutical companies that sell to clients who do not have a prescription or need them for secondary wants. Finally, it is important to underscore that moral virtue as the tendency to choose wisely and make wise decisions in regards to an intended course of action, and moral ethics is enhanced by action as stated by Aristotle, and companies should ascribe to that notion.

References

Chou, J. (2011). IBM strategic change management analysis. Researchgate. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/JCPC-IBMStrategicChangeMgmtAnalysis%20(1).pdf

IBM. (2018). Business conduct guidelines: Trust comes first. https://www.ibm.com/investor/att/pdf/BCG_English_Accessible_2018.pdf

Mcbain, S. (2019). The Rochester Drug Cooperative charges show how corporate greed fueled the opioid crisis. New Statesman. https://www.newstatesman.com/world/north-america/2019/04/rochester-drug-co-operative-charges-show-how-corporate-greed-fueled

Miranda, G. (2020). IBM named one of the world’s most ethical companies. IBM. https://www.ibm.com/blogs/corporate-social-responsibility/2020/02/ethisphere-2020/

Southern District of Newyork. (2019). Manhattan U.S. Attorney and DEA announce charges against Rochester Drug Co-operative and two executives for unlawfully distributing controlled substances. United States Department of Justice. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-and-dea-announce-charges-against-rochester-drug-co-operative-and

Wittmer, D., & O’Brien, K. (2014). The virtue of “virtue ethics” in business and business education. Journal of Business Ethics Education, 11, 261-278. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/WittmerO'Brien11Authors.pdf