Ethics for Business and Technology PDF 2025

Marta Rocchi 2025 Outline: 1. What is Responsibility? 2. Modifiers of Responsibility 3. Actions We Are Responsible For 4. Focus on some actions and omissions in business and technology Marta Rocchi...

Marta Rocchi 2025 Outline: 1. What is Responsibility? 2. Modifiers of Responsibility 3. Actions We Are Responsible For 4. Focus on some actions and omissions in business and technology Marta Rocchi 2025 Outline: 1. What is Responsibility? 2. Modifiers of Responsibility 3. Actions We Are Responsible For 4. Focus on some actions and omissions in business and technology Marta Rocchi 2025  Responsibility The term responsibility has its roots in the Latin word ‘respondere’ (to respond). It is usually associated with human actions or behaviours that happen freely (so are under our control) and presupposes our capability of answering for these free actions. Marta Rocchi 2025  Responsibility The concept of responsibility has two main assumptions. The existence of someone else to whom we are responsible (that could also be ourselves). The freedom of action, as only those who are free and in control of their actions can be responsible for them. Marta Rocchi 2025 Prof. Daryl Koehn offers an analysis of the meaning of responsibility in our age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. She revises the meaning of responsibility in the Anglo-American culture, finding out how much it has been influenced by both analytical philosophy and the legal tradition of the West. Due to these influences, responsibility is perceived “in two primary ways – as duty fulfilment and as causal, intentional agency” (Koehn 2019, p. 1). Marta Rocchi 2025 Responsibility in the Anglo-American culture: As duty fulfilment → we can easily retrace in our everyday life that we associate responsibility with the fact that we do what we are supposed to, as a mere fulfilment of a duty. We will see that the same applies to companies, which can perceive their purpose as a way of fulfilling the obligation they have towards the shareholders and the other agents interested by their activity. As intentional agency → it is easy to understand it in the context of criminal law. Someone is judged as fully responsible for an action that caused harm to someone or something when this person had the intention to cause that harm. Marta Rocchi 2025 Responsibility outside the Anglo-American culture: Hans Jonas → “being responsible means honouring a prospective duty to care for humankind” (Koehn 2019, p. 3). This means that the concept of responsibility goes beyond the roles that we can assume in our everyday life, and it is strictly related to fact that we all share the fact of being human. Hannah Arendt → responsibility as a “communicative act. We are responsible when we offer to ourselves and to others an account of our actions and speech and when we attempt to respond to their concerns and objections” (Koehn 2019, p. 3). Marta Rocchi 2025 Plato’s conception of responsibility Koehn suggests to look at Plato’s conception of responsibility, especially in our age where Artificial Intelligence-based systems are making us re-think about human moral agency. In a world where automation can substitute processes and even decisions, who would be ultimately responsible for a wrongdoing or for harming someone? For this reason prof. Koehn suggests to look at responsibility as Plato presents it through Socrates, construing “responsibility as acting from a particular form of self-knowledge and self- awareness” (Koehn 2019, p. 6). Marta Rocchi 2025  Responsibility Moral responsibility refers to human acts which are free (full consent) and aware (full knowledge). Marta Rocchi 2025 Outline: 1. What is Responsibility? 2. Modifiers of Responsibility 3. Actions We Are Responsible For 4. Focus on some actions and omissions in business and technology Marta Rocchi 2025 Marta Rocchi 2025 invincible surmountable intentional ignorance ignorance ignorance Marta Rocchi 2025 Case corner: on ignorance Sam’s dilemma Sam is a new hire of an accounting company in Dublin. She has been working in the company for the last three months, and she finds the environment very friendly. However, last month, one of her supervisors, Sarah, was suddenly fired because she was found responsible for the falsification of financial statements of one of the company’s clients. Sam was in disbelief when this event happened, as Sarah at least apparently was a very honest person. She did not have a chance to talk to Sarah. They did not even have time to get to know each other better, so that Sam could call her and ask how she was feeling. One day, Sam needed to go and see John, Sarah’s boss. While making her way toward his office, Sam overhears a conversation that John is having on the phone. From what Sam could hear, it seems that Sarah was not really aware of what she was doing, because it was John himself who gave her the data she worked on. Sam was shocked. Who was on the phone with John? Was Sarah fired unjustly? Why did she not resist this unfair decision? Your thoughts o If you were Sam, what would you do? o Knowing that what happened to your supervisor was not exactly what you were told, would you be responsible for her unjust firing if you do not say anything? Marta Rocchi 2025  Strong Physical/ emotions/ Mental psychological intellectual illness coercion fear / habits… Marta Rocchi 2025 Outline: 1. What is Responsibility? 2. Modifiers of Responsibility 3. Actions We Are Responsible For 4. Focus on some actions and omissions in business and technology Marta Rocchi 2025 What are we responsible for? Direct voluntary actions “an action is directly voluntary when someone decides to perform or not perform in order to achieve something desired or as a means to an end. Many business actions are directly voluntary.” Indirect voluntary action “These occur when someone consciously, on their own initiative, carries out an action (or allows an omission) that causes something undesired but foreseeable (at least, vaguely) and also avoidable.” From Mele’ 2019, pp.66-67 Marta Rocchi 2025 What are we responsible for? Direct voluntary actions “an action is directly voluntary when someone decides to perform or not perform in order to achieve something desired or as a means to an end. Many business actions are directly voluntary.” Indirect voluntary action “These occur when someone consciously, on their own initiative, carries out an action (or allows an omission) that causes something undesired but foreseeable (at least, vaguely) and also avoidable.” From Mele’ 2019, pp.66-67 Problem of secondary effects E.g. person killed by a car whose driver was drunk. In business: consumer affected by the not correct use of a Martaare product, whose instructions Rocchi not properly written/displayed; employee injured by a machinery 2025 not properly checked. What are we responsible for? Direct voluntary actions “an action is directly voluntary when someone decides to perform or We are responsible not perform in order to achieve something desired or as a means to for these actions an end. Many business actions are directly voluntary.” Indirect voluntary actions “These occur when someone consciously, on their own initiative, carries out an action (or allows an omission) that causes something Are we responsible undesired but foreseeable (at least, vaguely) and also avoidable.” for these actions? From Mele’ 2019, pp.66-67 Marta Rocchi 2025 What are we responsible for? The problem of secondary effects Indirect voluntary actions “These occur when someone consciously, on their own initiative, Are we responsible carries out an action (or allows an omission) that causes something undesired but foreseeable (at least, vaguely) and also avoidable.” for these actions? “The responsibility for secondary effects depends on the capacity to foresee and avoid them”. In addition, we need to consider criteria of seriousness of wrongdoing and proximity to the action to its consequences. From Mele’ 2019, pp.66-67 Marta Rocchi 2025 What are we responsible for? The problem of secondary effects 1. “An agent is responsible for reasonably predictable consequences of an action that can be reasonably easily prevented or avoided. 2. The greater the capacity to avoid negative secondary effects of Four criteria an action, the greater the responsibility to avoid them. 3. The more serious the consequences of an event, the greater the responsibility to take appropriate measures, even if the consequences are only remotely likely. 4. The greater the causal proximity of the action and its consequences, the greater the responsibility.” From Mele’ 2019, pp.66-67 – One page reading on Loop Marta Rocchi 2025 Categorizing actions Formal Material Marta Rocchi 2025  Formal Material Material cooperation is ethically acceptable when 4 conditions are met: The action itself is good The intention is good The immediate effect is good The cause is proportional Marta Rocchi 2025 Table of My actions broken down into two columns. The first column represents My own actions and this is broken down into two rows as follows: Actions - Actions directly realized and These actions are freely wanted and realized. The second row is Omission - Actions not realized, even though they should and could have been performed and Omission relates to actions that are due and possible, however, they are not performed. The second column represents My actions in relation to the actions of others and this is broken down into two rows. The first row Induction and this is Actions that make other people act in a specific wawy (giving an order, persuading, imposing, suggesting, etc.). The second row Cooperation and this is Actions that directly or indirectly help someone else to perform an action. There are two kinds of coooperation: Formal cooperation - you deliberately and freely cooperate with someone else’s action, sharing this person’s intentions and goals and Material cooperation - you find yourself cooperating with someone else’s action, without knowing that you are actually involved and without sharing intentions and goals. Marta Rocchi 2025 Link Marta Rocchi 2025 Outline: 1. What is Responsibility? 2. Modifiers of Responsibility 3. Actions We Are Responsible For 4. Focus on some actions and omissions in business and technology Marta Rocchi 2025 Despair, Envy, Idolatry, Injustice, Wrath, Inconstancy, Foolishness Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance, Justice, Faith, Charity, Hope Marta Rocchi 2025 Injustice 1. Ablatio rei alienae 2. Iniusta damnificatio Marta Rocchi 2025 Injustice 1. Ablatio rei alienae 1. Theft 2. Robbery (theft + a form of violence) 3. Fraud Marta Rocchi 2025  2.Iniusta damnificatio Injustice 1. Unjust damage 2. Cooperation to an unjust damage 3. Going against truthfulness (reputation, honor, communications in general) Marta Rocchi 2025  Actions and omissions related to justice Injustice a) Infringement of contracts b) Misappropriation c) Fraud d) Conflicts of Interest e) Tax Evasion f) Insider Trading g) Irregular Payments Marta Rocchi 2025 Contracts Elements of a contract: 1. Object 2. Agreement 3. Contractual duties Conditions of validity of a contract 1. Capacity of the parties 2. Fair agreement 3. Appropriate matter Marta Rocchi 2025 Infringement of contracts 1. Breaching a legitimate contract 2. Making illicit or illegal agreement 3. Misrepresentation 4. Lack of good faith 5. Silence or inactivity to favor errors 6. Abusing power to obtain a contract using intimidation Marta Rocchi 2025 Misappropriation 1/4 Misuse of company resources and time (material resources, money, time) Interesting links: Resources https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/business/yourmoney/s ticky-fingers-in-the-supply-closet.html Time https://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/05/how-using-social-media- can-get-you-fired.html Marta Rocchi 2025  1. Misuse Misappropriation 2/4 of company resources 2. Counterfeit (imitation) Infringement of intellectual property - From Mele’ 2019 Copyright infringement: Using and trading material without the permission of the copyright holder. Trademark infringement: The violation of the exclusive right attached to a registered trademark without the authorization of the trademark holder or of any licensee. Patent infringement: When someone utilizes an invention which is protected by a patent without the permission of the patent holder. Marta Rocchi 2025 Misappropriation 3/4 1. Misuse of company resources Counterfeit Marta Rocchi 2025 Misappropriation 4/4 Trade secrets “Any formula, pattern, design, instrument, process or compliance of information which is used in a business and not known to people outside the firm and which provides a benefit to the holder or an advantage over competitors and customers” (Mele’ 2019, p. 113) Marta Rocchi 2025 A case of misappropriation? Marta Rocchi 2025  Fraud Fraud happens “when individuals engage in intentional deceptive practices to advance their own interests over those of the organization’s or some other group” (Ferrell et al., 2019, p. 71). Marta Rocchi 2025 Fraud Marta Rocchi 2025 Fraud Link to video – watch here. Marta Rocchi 2025  Conflicts of interest “A conflict of interest is understood as a situation in which the private interests and the official responsibilities of a person in a position of trust are in conflict or when someone who ought to be serving people has competing interests” (Mele’ 2019, p. 114) Marta Rocchi 2025 Tax evasion “Avoiding the payment of taxes lawfully due” Tax avoidance “Making use of legal methods to one’s own advantage in order to reduce the amount payable” (Mele’ 2019, p. 115) Marta Rocchi 2025 A real story related to taxes… The Laundromat describes Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca “as ruthless uncaring lawyers who are involved in money laundering, tax evasion, bribery and/or other criminal conduct” (from the statement by Mossack and Fonseca against Netflix) https://nypost.com/2019/10/16/firm-behind-panama-papers-sues-netflix-for-libel-over-the- laundromat/ Marta Rocchi 2025  Insider Trading “Trading of stocks or other securities of a firm or corporation, such as bonds and stock options, using internal information that has not been disclosed to the public and that, if and when it were disclosed, could substantially influence the price of such stocks or securities” (Mele’ 2019, p. 116) Marta Rocchi 2025  Insider Trading – Why not? - It is unfair competition - It erodes trust in the securities market - It violates the fiduciary duty and professional secrecy - It is misappropriation/misuse of private information - It breaks the duty of confidentiality/professional secrecy (Mele’ 2019, p. 116) Marta Rocchi 2025 Insider Trading – 5 famous cases https://money.cnn.com/gallery/investing/2014/06/ 02/insider-trading-famous-cases/index.html Marta Rocchi 2025 Irregular Payments 1. Bribery 2. Extortion 3. Blackmail 4. Kickbacks 5. Facilitating payments 6. Questionable gifts and business consideration Marta Rocchi 2025 Irregular Payments “An action in which someone gives cash, a gift or some other BRIBERY benefit such as an emolument or privilege, to obtain an unfair judgment” “When someone demands money or some other gift to which he or she is not entitled, in ‘exchange’ for doing what he or she is in fact EXTORTION obliged to do, or perhaps for granting the victim favorable treatment” (Mele’ 2019) Marta Rocchi 2025 Irregular Payments GIVES IN TO EXTORTION REQUIRES AGENT 1 AGENT 2 INSTITUTION OFFERS BRIBE ACCEPTS (Mele’ 2019) Marta Rocchi 2025 Irregular Payments Specific forms of bribery and extortion When a person threatens to expose discreditable BLACKMAIL information about someone unless the victim gives money or some other thing of value to the blackmailer. It refers to the return of a percentage of a sum of a contract KICKBACKS received by a civil servant, politician or some other person who awards it. (Mele’ 2019) Marta Rocchi 2025 Irregular Payments Specific forms of bribery and extortion Giving a moderate amount of money to public officials (or to FACILITATING employees of a private company) in order to expedite PAYMENTS performance of duties of a non-discretionary nature. QUESTIONABLE GIFTS Exorbitant gifts and excessive business considerations are AND CONSIDERATIONS cover bribes (Mele’ 2019) Marta Rocchi 2025 Possible guidelines: 1. Resisting extortion 2. Seeking alternatives 3. Being honest 4. Having just and proportionate causes (see actions with double effect) 5. Avoiding scandal Marta Rocchi 2025 Solution ex post to misbehaviors: 1. Restitution 2. Compensatory damages Marta Rocchi 2025 Outline: 1. What is Responsibility? 2. Modifiers of Responsibility 3. Actions We Are Responsible For 4. Focus on some actions and omissions in business and technology Marta Rocchi 2025 Marta Rocchi 2025