Unit 10 Ethics, Іноземна мова

Unit 10 Ethics

Vocabulary

In order to be able to discuss the issues you need to consider the concept and definition of ethics and the related terms. For this purpose you can use the following information resources:

http://www.businessethics.ca/definitions/business-ethics.html,

http://www.investorwords.com/6431/business_ethics.html,

http://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/business-ethics.html

Language focus: check up your etiquette intelligence at

http://entertaining.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?

site=http://www.etiquetteexpert.com/eti_quiz.htm

Reading 1

Read the article by Don Rafner about the examples of business ethics at work who has been writing professionally since 1992, with work published in "The Washington Post," "Chicago Tribune," "Phoenix Magazine" and several trade magazines. He is also the managing editor of "Midwest Real Estate News." He specializes in writing about mortgage lending, personal finance, business and real-estate topics.  to get to know about the opportunities for investing in different types of businesses.

Information resource: 

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/

examples-business-ethics-workplace-10830.html

Examples of business ethics in the workplace

Your employees face ethical dilemmas every day in the workplace. They might be tempted to leave work early, take credit for the work of others or lie to a potential client to get him to sign the insurance policy, order the service or purchase the product that they are selling. The key to fostering strong business ethics at your company is to create an ethics policy that clearly spells out what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

Cheating the Company

A solid ethics policy should clearly outline the procedure employees should follow if they need to take time off, leave early or start late. If you don't spell out these procedures, employees might be tempted to handle these matters on their own. They might claim to be meeting a client at the end of the workday when instead they are leaving early to catch a ballgame on TV. They might claim to be at a workshop for the first half of the day when instead they are sneaking in some extra sleep. Make sure your ethics policy contains a provision telling your employees how they can request time off even for personal matters. Open communication is a far better alternative than the sneaking around required when employees try to cloak the reasons for their late starts or absences.

Working With Clients

Your ethics policy also should make it clear that your workers must treat clients and customers fairly and honestly. This means prohibiting employees from lying to potential clients or providing them with misleading information. Employees shouldn't hide the true price of a service, policy or product in an effort to trick customers into signing up. They also shouldn't promise more than their service or product can deliver. Employees should never bully or harass potential clients. Your ethics policy should state how often your workers can contact potential customers, at what times of the day and what exactly they can and cannot say during their conversations.

Abusive Behavior

Any effective ethics policy forbids abusive behavior in your workplace. This kind of behavior can take many forms. Employees might engage in sexual harassment, bully other workers, tell inappropriate or offensive jokes, display pornography on their computer screens or steal from co-workers or the company. Your ethics policy must explicitly state that all such actions are forbidden at work. It also needs to spell out the punishments or repercussions of such actions.

Undue Credit

Some employees might try to rise in your company by taking credit for work that others employees actually performed. This can have a negative impact on morale if it goes unquestioned. Make sure your ethics policy prohibits this behavior, too. Take seriously employee complaints that their fellow workers are stealing their ideas or taking credit for the reports, proposals or sales they complete.

Answer the questions:

1. What are the most common examples of unethical behaviour of employees?

2. What should ethics policy contain to make it clear what is considered unethical behaviour?

3. Do you know specific examples of unethical behaviour at work and how the companies solve the problems?

Reading 2

Read the article by Lynne MacDonald who has experience in the fields of human resource management, training, organizational development and law

Information resource: 

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/

advantages-disadvantages-business-ethics-10414.html

Advantages & disadvantages of business ethics

The events that led up to the economic recession in 2008 and 2009 have placed a renewed emphasis on business ethics. Questionable financial reporting, inflated executive compensation and worthless public assurances undermined consumer and investor confidence. The Rasmussen index of investor confidence reached its lowest ever level at 52.5 on March 9, 2009.

Business Ethics

Some commentators, such as Milton Friedman, believe that the "primary and only responsibility of business is to make money" while abiding by the law. Supporters of this point of view argue that companies' self-interested pursuit of profit benefits the whole of society. Profitable businesses clearly benefit shareholders, but other commentators, such as Edward Freeman, argue that businesses should also benefit other stakeholders. Stakeholders are people and groups with whom the business has a relationship. This includes shareholders, but extends out to include employees, their families, the community within which the business operates, customers and suppliers.

Advantages

Business ethics offer companies a competitive advantage. Consumers learn to trust ethical brands and remain loyal to them, even during difficult periods. In 1982, Johnson & Johnson spent over $100 million dollars recalling Tylenol, its best-selling product, after someone tampered with bottles of the painkiller. The company followed its credo, a set of ethical organizational values, and the result was a boost in consumer confidence, despite the contamination scare. Society benefits from business ethics because ethical companies recognize their social responsibilities.

Disadvantages

Business ethics reduce a company's freedom to maximize its profit. For example, a multinational company may move its manufacturing facility to a developing country to reduce costs. Practices acceptable in that country, such as child labor, poor health and safety, poverty-level wages and coerced employment, will not be tolerated by an ethical company. Improvements in working conditions, such as a living wage and minimum health and safety standard’s reduce the level of cost-savings that the company generates. However, it could be argued that the restrictions on company freedom benefit wider society.

People, Planet, Profit

Companies increasingly recognize the need to commit to business ethics and measure their success by more than just profitability. This has led to the introduction of the triple bottom line, also known as "people, planet, profit." Companies report on their financial, social and environmental performance. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index benchmarks companies who report their performance based on the triple bottom line. This type of performance reporting acknowledges that companies must make a profit to survive, but encourages ethical and sustainable business conduct.

Answer the questions:

1. What challenges dealing with ethics are mentioned in the text ?

2. Are there more advantages or disadvantages for the companies?

3. What are the current trends concerning business ethics in the world?

Grammar review

Narrative tenses

Past Simple Tense

The past simple tense is sometimes called the "preterite tense". We can use several tenses and forms to talk about the past, but the past simple tense is the one we use most often.

How do we make the Past Simple Tense?

To make the past simple tense, we use:

• past form only
  or
• auxiliary did + base form

Here you can see examples of the past form and base form for irregular verbs and regular verbs:

The structure for positive sentences in the past simple tense is:

The structure for negative sentences in the past simple tense is:

The structure for question sentences in the past simple tense is:

The auxiliary verb did is not conjugated. It is the same for all persons (I did, you did, he did etc). And the base form and past form do not change. Look at these examples with the main verbs go and work:

Exception! The verb to be is different. We conjugate the verb to be (I was, you were, he/she/it was, we were, they were); and we donot use an auxiliary for negative and question sentences. To make a question, we exchange the subject and verb. Look at these examples:

How do we use the Past Simple Tense?

We use the past simple tense to talk about an action or a situation - an event - in the past. The event can be short or long.

Here are some short events with the past simple tense:

Here are some long events with the past simple tense:

Notice that it does not matter how long ago the event is: it can be a few minutes or seconds in the past, or millions of years in the past. Also it does not matter how long the event is. It can be a few milliseconds (car explosion) or millions of years (Jurassic period). We use the past simple tense when:

• the event is in the past

• the event is completely finished

• we say (or understand) the time and/or place of the event

In general, if we say the time or place of the event, we must use the past simple tense; we cannot use the present perfect.

Here are some more examples:

• I lived in that house when I was young.

• He didn't like the movie.

• What did you eat for dinner?

• John drove to London on Monday.

• Mary did not go to work yesterday.

• Did you play tennis last week?

• I was at work yesterday.

• We were not late (for the train).

• Were you angry?

Note that when we tell a story, we usually use the past simple tense. We may use the past continuous tense to "set the scene", but we almost always use the past simple tense for the action. Look at this example of the beginning of a story:

"The wind was howling around the hotel and the rain was pouring down. It was cold. The door opened and James Bond entered. Hetook off his coat, which was very wet, and ordered a drink at the bar. He sat down in the corner of the lounge and quietly drank his..."

Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense is quite an easy tense to understand and to use. This tense talks about the "past in the past".

How do we make the Past Perfect Tense?

The structure of the past perfect tense is:

For negative sentences in the past perfect tense, we insert not between the auxiliary verb and main verb. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and auxiliary verb. Look at these example sentences with the past perfect tense:

When speaking with the past perfect tense, we often contract the subject and auxiliary verb:

How do we use the Past Perfect Tense?

The past perfect tense expresses action in the past before another action in the past. This is the past in the past. For example:

• The train left at 9am. We arrived at 9.15am. When we arrived, the train had left.

Look at some more examples:

• I wasn't hungry. I had just eaten.

• They were hungry. They had not eaten for five hours.

• I didn't know who he was. I had never seen him before.

• "Mary wasn't at home when I arrived."

  "Really? Where had she gone?"

You can sometimes think of the past perfect tense like the present perfect tense, but instead of the time being now the time is past.

For example, imagine that you arrive at the station at 9.15am. The stationmaster says to you:

• "You are too late. The train has left."

Later, you tell your friends:

• "We were too late. The train had left."

We often use the past perfect tense in reported speech after verbs like said, told, asked, thought, wondered:

Look at these examples:

• He told us that the train had left.

• I thought I had met her before, but I was wrong.

• He explained that he had closed the window because of the rain.

• I wondered if I had been there before.

• I asked them why they had not finished. 

Present Perfect Tense

The present perfect tense is a rather important tense in English, but it gives speakers of some languages a difficult time. That is because it uses concepts or ideas that do not exist in those languages. In fact, the structure of the present perfect tense is very simple. The problems come with the use of the tense. In addition, there are some differences in usage between British and American English.

How do we make the Present Perfect Tense?

The structure of the present perfect tense is:

Here are some examples of the present perfect tense: 

Contractions with the present perfect tense

When we use the present perfect tense in speaking, we usually contract the subject and auxiliary verb. We also sometimes do this when we write.

Here are some examples:

• I've finished my work.

• John's seen ET.

• They've gone home.

How do we use the Present Perfect Tense?

This tense is called the present perfect tense. There is always a connection with the past and with the present. There are basically three uses for the present perfect tense:

1. experience

2. change

3. continuing situation

1. Present perfect tense for experience

We often use the present perfect tense to talk about experience from the past. We are not interested in when you did something. We only want to know if you did it:

Connection with past: the event was in the past.
Connection with present: in my head, now, I have a memory of the event; I know something about the event; I have experience of it.

2. Present perfect tense for change

We also use the present perfect tense to talk about a change or new information:

Connection with past: the past is the opposite of the present.

Connection with present: the present is the opposite of the past.

Americans do not use the present perfect tense so much as British speakers. Americans often use the past tense instead. An American might say "Did you have lunch?", where a British person would say "Have you had lunch?"

3. Present perfect tense for continuing situation

We often use the present perfect tense to talk about a continuing situation. This is a state that started in the past and continues in the present (and will probably continue into the future). This is a state (not an action). We usually use for or since with this structure.

Connection with past: the situation started in the past.
Connection with present: the situation continues in the present.

Past Continuous Tense

The past continuous tense is an important tense in English. We use it to say what we were in the middle of doing at a particular moment in the past.

How do we make the Past Continuous Tense?

The structure of the past continuous tense is:

For negative sentences in the past continuous tense, we insert not between the auxiliary verb and main verb. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and auxiliary verb. Look at these example sentences with the past continuous tense:

How do we use the Past Continuous Tense?

The past continuous tense expresses action at a particular moment in the past. The action started before that moment but has not finished at that moment. For example, yesterday I watched a film on TV. The film started at 7pm and finished at 9pm.

When we use the past continuous tense, our listener usually knows or understands what time we are talking about. Look at these examples:

• I was working at 10pm last night.

• They were not playing football at 9am this morning.

• What were you doing at 10pm last night?

• What were you doing when he arrived?

• She was cooking when I telephoned her.

• We were having dinner when it started to rain.

• Ram went home early because it was snowing.

Some verbs cannot be used in continuous/progressive tenses.

We often use the past continuous tense to "set the scene" in stories. We use it to describe the background situation at the moment when the action begins. Often, the story starts with the past continuous tense and then moves into the simple past tense. Here is an example:

" James Bond was driving through town. It was raining. The wind was blowing hard. Nobody was walking in the streets. Suddenly, Bond saw the killer in a telephone box..."

Past Continuous Tense + Simple Past Tense

We often use the past continuous tense with the simple past tense. We use the past continuous tense to express a long action. And we use the simple past tense to express a short action that happens in the middle of the long action. We can join the two ideas withwhen or while.

In the following example, we have two actions:

1. long action (watching TV), expressed with past continuous tense

2. short action (telephoned), expressed with simple past tense

We can join these two actions with when:

• I was watching TV when you telephoned.

(Notice that "when you telephoned" is also a way of defining the time [8pm].)

We use:

• when + short action (simple past tense)
• while + long action (past continuous tense)

There are four basic combinations:

Notice that the long action and short action are relative.

• "Watching TV" took a few hours. "Telephoned" took a few seconds.

• "Walking past the car" took a few seconds. "Exploded" took a few milliseconds.

For more information see Market Leader. Course book. Intermediate business English/ D.Cotton, D.Falvey, S.Kent: Longman, 2001 (p. 138) [1]

Check your understanding of grammar and do the exercises:

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/simple-past-1

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/simple-past-2

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/simple-past-3

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/past-perfect-simple-1

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/past-perfect-simple-2

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/present-perfect-simple-1

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/present-perfect-simple-2

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/present-perfect-simple-3

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/past-progressive-1

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/past-progressive-2

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/tests/past-progressive-3

Skills: Problem solving

Improve your communication skills of talking about business ethics. Watch the video and put down some useful expressions, words and quotations. Single out the major ethical issues mentioned and how the employers should manage the problems with unethical employees. Use the information resource:

For more information see Market Leader. Course book. Intermediate business English/ D.Cotton, D.Falvey, S.Kent: Longman, 2001 (p. 78-85) [1]

Revision: check up your understanding and knowledge of the ethical issues at 

http://quizlet.com/3724911/test/

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