We have prepared this quasi-anthology containing, in part, a selection of specific works by one or more authors, on the subject of ethics in its double conceptual presentation and in its practical application applied to the professional performance and actions of the company.
professional-ethics-and-businessWe reiterate, throughout the text, about the conceptualization of ethics and that is why, in the course of the theme, we redefine, in all possible ways, what ethics is and its importance. Our intention is to place students, specifically from the career of business administration, and generally readers, on a structured path of what is professional and business ethics in this 21st century.
Ethics has acquired new dimensions of responsibility in our time. Hans Jonas in his work "The Principle of Responsibilities", maintains that until now ethics was applied to the evaluation of action with an immediate scope. That had to do with the here and now, with concrete situations of men both in the public and private spheres. Today man has expanded the sphere of his action, since much of what he does will have consequences for the future life of human beings.
There is an immense power that is unfolding and we adopt, as a concern, the impact that science and technology can have, both on the plane of human life and that of nature in general. For this reason, we advocate the need for an ethical model to be generated based on the impact of technology on nature, so that the future cost of actions can be regulated.
Technology is driven by constant progress, it outperforms itself day by day, and its purpose is to achieve greater mastery over things. This is why if the sphere of production invaded the sphere of action, morality will have to penetrate the sphere of production and become concrete in public policies that have future generations as subjects of the law.
We must take into account a fundamental principle: "Work in such a way that you want what you do to continue supporting the life of the planet." The obligation will be that the action to be taken must guarantee conduct that facilitates the continuity of human existence.
So the expansion of the sphere of responsibility is given because ethics today requires us:
• Respond for an act of which it is the cause, or for its omission;
• Respond to others, that is, for the power that you have over others;
• Respond for the future, for the effects of our long-term actions, in the generations to come.
HUMAN NEEDS AND THEIR SATISFACTION
In today's age, life cannot be conceived without a series of satisfiers such as aspirin, disposable diapers, instant coffee, microwave food, weight loss products, and without the computer, cell phone, iphone, laptops, tablets, social networks, etc.
It is not surprising that when living immersed in a consumer society (mass production and consumption), more and more creative ways of doing business are devised, such as the globalization of points of sale, more complex distribution channels, etc., an effort made simultaneously by all industries.
Under the logic of the consumer society, therefore, not only the consumer's behavior is studied psychologically (where do they buy, when, why, who is the purchasing decision maker, etc.), but also what happens to the brand image that carries on your mind.
For this, sensual forms of product presentation are devised, guaranteeing the full satisfaction of deep senses through its consumption, since it is the subject of multiple advertising campaigns and diverse pressures (sales promotion) that it can hardly resist.
In a society characterized by its transformation into a consumer society from the industrial revolution and the consequent economic boom in which now the growing well-being based on the consumption of more or less durable goods is accessed, it becomes the psychological environment in which our society unfolds.
Necessity is simply defined as the lack of something. This lack can be of a material, spiritual or other type, but whatever its origin, people seek satisfaction. Satisfaction starts with the desire and search (and disposition) of the means capable of calming the anguish that lack creates.
Product of the advance of the economy, technology, telecommunications, computing and entertainment, cybernetics, transportation, medicine etc. and in general of the standard of living, it is that material objects whose purpose is to increase well-being are made available to consumers. At the moment of its daily use, the need is transformed from the apparent and superfluous towards the "necessary to live".
In this sense, it is lawful to question whether there is any difference between what is a real or apparent need and when it is possible to speak of one or the other. Could it be a real need to have a computer to work or do we jealously guard the definition to define what exclusively allows us to continue living, as is the case with food, although we also have to ask ourselves what kind of food falls into this category (if delicacies do or do not fall under this definition.)
Economic progress has discovered new possibilities for the person and such a varied display of needs that modern man has become obsessed with consumption. His desires are no longer limited to the mere need for subsistence, but he aspires to satisfy his needs as a human person. He aspires to live as a (generic) man, and as such rooted in a culture.
However, this progress has encouraged the frantic search for material well-being that delivers permanent and immediate satisfaction. To obtain it, you must exercise a purchasing power where you must be willing to deliver something in exchange (money).
The materialization of the acquisition is what we call "consumption" and the applicant a "consumer", psychologically the consumer's behavior is reflected in the appropriation of goods not only for the well-being it represents but also for obtaining "positive points" in front of to society, that is to say "tell me what (how much) you have and I will tell you who you are".
The distinction between real and apparent needs is not superfluous or subjective and even when they are not independent of economic and social organization, needs can be discussed without having to make a distinction between wishes or preferences. It is also useful to distinguish between preferred and undesirable needs in terms of choosing what will give us more long-term satisfaction (education) than short-term and lasting satisfaction, and even that goes against rationality but immediate satisfaction (drug use).
Theory of human needs
The study of the satisfaction of human needs has led to the development of different theories. We will deal with the "Theory of Human Needs" that was elaborated by the American psychologist Dr. Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), maximum exponent of humanistic psychology, in his work "Motivation and Personality" or rather, in Spanish "Motivation and Personality ”in 1954, with which he intended to make known that man is a being who has needs to survive, in addition to being a biopsychosocial being, Maslow groups all the needs of man into 5 groups or categories hierarchized through a pyramid, which They are;
1) Physiological needs (air, water, food, rest, coats, etc.)
2) Security needs (protection against danger or fear, etc.)
3) Social needs (friendship, group membership, etc.)
4) Self-esteem needs (reputation, recognition, self-respect, etc.)
5) Self-realization needs (potential development of talents, leaving a mark, etc.)
Maslow in 1971 added to his hierarchy of needs 2 more classes, namely:
6) Need to know and understand
7) Aesthetic needs
Maslow believes that man is a being whose needs grow and change throughout his life. As man satisfies his basic or primary needs, other higher ones, such as secondary ones, dominate his behavior and become essential.
Maslow argues that the human being is constituted and composed of a physical body, a sociological body and a spiritual body and that any repercussion or problem that occurs in any of these bodies automatically affects the rest of the bodies in the structure. That is why Maslow proposes within his theory the concept of hierarchy, in order to give order to the needs at the level of the physical, sociological and spiritual body.
Needs are structurally organized with different degrees of power.
MASLOW'S PYRAMID
He decides to give an order of pyramid (see previous figure) to his theory, finding, the survival needs in the lower parts, while the development needs in the higher parts. Maslow's theory states that lower or primary needs (physiological, security, social, and self-esteem) are a priority and therefore more influential and important than higher or secondary needs (self-actualization; transcendence).
There are a number of differences between higher and lower needs according to Maslow's pyramid:
• The higher the need, the less essential it is for the survival of the individual.
• As higher needs are met, there is a higher level of survival of the person.
• If higher needs are met, more desirable subjective results are produced, for example more happiness, but it depends on each individual.
• A series of good external conditions are necessary to cover the higher needs, very good conditions are required to make self-realization possible.
• The satisfaction of lower needs is much more palpable, more tangible than the satisfaction of higher needs, and is measured more in quantitative terms.
• Higher needs are developments of late evolution; they are less demanding and can be delayed more in time.
Maslow's needs, according to the structure already mentioned are;
Physiological needs
Among these needs are those related to the survival of the individual, that is, the primordial, basic, essential, elemental, in short, as you want to call them, the most important for life, of which the human being needs to live, and are within these needs: food, shelter, sexual desire, breathing, reproduction, rest or sleep, caress, love, maternal behavior, maintenance of body temperature, homeostasis (effort of the body to maintain a normal state and a constant blood supply), pain relief, etc.
Physiological needs can be defined from three main characteristics: somatic origin, relative independence, and power.
a) Somatic origin: the adjective 'physiological' goes to the fact that these needs have a bodily origin, and in this sense they differ from other needs such as security, love, etc. In some cases, as in the classic examples of hunger, thirst and sexual desire, there is a somatic base located specifically in certain parts of the body, something that does not happen in other cases such as the need for rest, sleep or maternal behaviors..
b) Relative independence: physiological needs are relatively independent from each other, as well as from other non-physiological needs and from the body as a whole. By this, Maslow probably meant that hunger, thirst, and sexual desire, for example, are satisfied independently because quenching thirst does not stop being hungry, or sexually dissatisfied, although it may momentarily make these needs more bearable.
c) Potency: If a person lacks food, security, love and esteem, he will probably feel the absence of food more strongly than anything else, and therefore he will try to satisfy the physiological need first. Physiological needs are, therefore, the most powerful.
Thus, if all needs are unmet, the organism will be dominated by physiological needs, while the others may be non-existent or simply be displaced to the bottom
Security Needs
When physiological needs are reasonably met, then these needs are activated.
By his nature man wants to be, as far as possible, protected against danger or deprivation, covered from future problems; it requires feeling safe in the future, being free of dangers and living in a pleasant environment, keeping order for him and his family.
Also included within this category are the needs for: stability, absence of fear, absence of anxiety, fear of the unknown, fear of chaos or confusion, losing control of their lives, being vulnerable or weak to new circumstances., current or to come, among others. The safety aspect is particularly important for children. Because she does not have a great deal of control over her surroundings, the child is often the victim of fearful situations.
Maslow believed that children should be educated in an environment that is protective, trustworthy, and firmly structured. They should be protected from painful experiences until they have acquired sufficient powers to cope with stress. Childhood feelings of insecurity may carry over into adulthood.
In children it takes the form of seeking an orderly and predictable routine, and in adults it can be reflected in the search for economic and job stability, health insurance for himself and his family, retirement pension, etc.
Social needs
Also calls of love, belonging or affection, are related to interpersonal relationships or social interaction, continue after the physiological and security needs are met, social needs become the active motivators of behavior, which are; having good relationships with friends and their peers, having a partner, receiving and giving affection, belonging and being accepted within a social group, the needs of having a good family environment, that is, a home, living in a good neighborhood and sharing with the neighbors, participate in group activities, etc.
Esteem Needs
Also known as the needs of the ego or recognition. They include the person's concern for mastery, competence, and status. Maslow groups these needs into two classes: those that refer to self-love, self-respect, self-esteem and self-evaluation; and those that refer to others, the needs of reputation, condition, social success, fame, glory, prestige, appreciation of the rest, being prominent within a social group, recognition by their peers, among others that make man feel more important to society and with this raise your own self-esteem.
When we satisfy this need for self-esteem it leads to feelings of self-confidence, strength, capacity, sufficiency and a feeling of being useful and necessary, while their frustration generates feelings of inferiority, weakness and helplessness.
Self-Realization Needs
Also known as self improvement needs, self update.
Self-actualization needs are more difficult to describe because they are distinct and unique, and vary from one individual to another.
For Maslow self-realization is an ideal that every man wants to reach, it is satisfied through opportunities to develop talent and its potential to the fullest, express ideas and knowledge, grow and develop as a great person, obtain personal achievements, so that every human being differentiate yourself from the others.
In this context, man requires transcending, he wants to leave a mark of his passage in this world, one way to achieve this is to create and carry out his own work.
For a person to realize himself, numerous preconditions have to be satisfied, that is, all of the above.
Men who achieve optimal self-realization, for Maslow are considered whole beings.
Need to know and understand
These cognitive needs do not have a specific place in the hierarchy, but were nevertheless addressed by Maslow. These needs would be derivatives of basic needs, expressed in the form of a desire to know the causes of things and to be passive towards the world. It is based on man's need to know and discover new things and those that already surround him in the world, as well as exploring the unknown.
Aesthetic needs
Aesthetic needs are related to the desire for order and beauty, both of its surroundings and of itself. These aesthetic needs include: need for order, needs for symmetry, the need to fill in the gap in poorly structured situations, the need to alleviate the tension produced by unfinished situations and the need to structure the facts, the need to have environments nice to surround men, etc.
In summary
A need is something that is essential for the development and proper functioning of the human being, it is something that needs to be satisfied, whether physically, psychologically or spiritually, that depends on the type of need that man wants to satisfy.
All the needs of the individual are equally important, what varies is the degree of urgency of the need and the needs that the man has previously satisfied, but it should not be neglected that the man is born with innate or hereditary needs that are physiological And as it grows and develops, the search for new higher level needs begins.
Each man will have a different way of satisfying his needs and this will depend on each person, since there will be people motivated to seek the satisfaction of physiological and safety needs, just as there will be others who only seek to satisfy the needs of self-realization, trying to quickly meet lower needs.
Unmet needs influence the behavior and goals that each man has throughout his life. The lowest needs require a pattern that is quicker and easier to satisfy, since it is much more accessible to get food and security, than social status, achievement or recognition in some work done by someone. To reach the higher levels it takes much more time and for the individual to make more effort and more dedication than for the lower levels of the pyramid.
An obstacle to satisfying a need or a lack of satisfaction completely, can lead to frustration, becoming a great psychological threat to the individual. Which can lead to an attempt on your life or that of the rest of the people around you.
To finish I will put a phrase from Maslow that I would like to analyze later for people who read my work;
«It is true that man lives only for bread, when there is no bread. But what happens to man's desires when there is a lot of bread and when his stomach is chronically full ”. A. Maslow.
Purpose of the economy: the satisfaction of human needs
Economic activity is first and foremost a human activity carried out by people and therefore must be at their service. Human and social well-being is the purpose of the economy. The economic problem is the search for the best distribution of scarce resources and Paul A. Samuelson tried to give his answer by asking some basic questions. Following its outline but formulating the questions by introducing an ethical criterion, the development of the topic is divided by means of the following sections:
What goods should be produced?
The satisfaction of human needs as the purpose of the economy: All those goods that scarce resources (material and spiritual) allow for the satisfaction of human needs:
They must increase their living conditions. Indeed, the basic needs (elemental or primordial) are no longer biological, but respect for dignity, food and clothing, shelter, education, health of body and soul.
Material well-being is equated with human well-being insofar as the end of production is for the service of integral man, that is, taking into account his material needs, his intellectual, moral, spiritual and religious demands (multidimensional character). The aspirations of today's man: to be free from misery, greater security for their own subsistence, health, job stability, more responsibilities, respect for dignity, to do more, to know more, to have more to be more.
Man has the right to satisfy his material needs, since it is one of the conditions of social life that allows man the fullest and easiest achievement of his own perfection. The other rights, both personal and economic, social, political, cultural, must be included in the scope of what is considered fundamental for the development of a full life.
The previous precepts leave aside the logic of blind market mechanisms aimed at accumulating wealth. It also leaves out the purely economic purpose based exclusively on the satisfaction of material needs measured in money. It is emphasized that the entire capitalist system is based on this.
a) How should it be produced?
The production process must be organized in a way that favors the humanization of the person, this is above science and technique, which often put the prudence of man at stake. Science and technique have led man to see the technically possible methods of mechanical production, the perfection of culture and earthly happiness. The mistake of materialism is to subordinate the spiritual and the personal to the material (practical materialism).
Man must prevail over all created goods, property, science and technology. By participating in the production process, workers should have an active participation in profits, ownership and management.
b) For whom should it be produced?
Equivalent to questioning about fair distribution. As long as it is regulated by the laws of the market there will never be equitable distribution, and therefore inequalities will prevail. These will be overcome to the extent that the current market system changes by one that ensures the equal dignity of all men. In other words, it is not enough to implement policies within the current system, but to change the system itself.
Satisfying needs through the market
There are two situations in which the market does not guarantee the satisfaction of demand:
The theory claims that demand is satisfied through the balanced supply of satisfying goods. This relationship determines the equilibrium price at which the claimant is willing to acquire the satisfactor. The demand is the client and this is the King, although his reign will be subject to the exercise of purchasing power. In other words, it is assumed that the demand to which we refer, has sufficient solvency to execute the acquisition.
The companies prepare their existence thinking about selling to this demand, which, to the extent that it is "solvent", is considered as a "market". Market solvency is classified into socio-economic strata and its behavior is studied. Whatever the stratum, it is also assumed that the acquisition of a good is made exclusively for payment, in the sense that if it has been paid for the good, it is paid for the exclusive use. I want to make the distinction between individual and collective good. Individuals are those unique goods that only the acquirer has access to. A collective good is any service (for example, Cable TV), where there is no exclusivity of content, while others can also access it, but there is exclusivity in the non-transferable right of use. In other words, once you pay for its use, the signal is exclusive.
Those goods that do not have the ability to pay are not exclusively appropriable and therefore there is no demand for them (breathing the air). In other words, if the market does not respond to consumer demand, demand is not recognized.
According to these two situations, the economic demand satisfaction model does not work on its own but to the extent of intervention through elements that act with different motives.
The consumer society and consumer protection
In a society characterized by its transformation into a consumer society from the industrial revolution and the consequent economic boom in which now the growing well-being based on the consumption of more or less durable goods is accessed. Continuous growth measured in terms of real disposable income, becomes the psychological environment in which our society operates. The man puts all his effort to have greater well-being every day.
Today life is not conceivable without aspirin, disposable diapers, instant milk, Scotch tape and band-aid patches, as well as the computer and very soon access to the Internet, cell phone, iPhones, Tablets, etc.. Therefore, man works to consume well-being and entertainment. It is not surprising when you live immersed in a society of consumption, production and mass consumption; More and more creative ways are being devised to carry out trade, such as the globalization of points of sale, more complex distribution channels, etc., an effort made simultaneously by all industries; And since the plaintiff is scarce, bidders must compete hard.
Therefore, psychologically not only consumer behavior is studied (where do you buy, when, why, who is the purchasing decision maker, etc.), but also what happens to the brand image that you have in your mind. For this, sensual forms of product presentation are devised guaranteeing the full satisfaction of the deep senses through its consumption, since it is the subject of multiple advertising campaigns and various pressures (sales promotion) to which it can hardly counterbalance.
In this consumer society, the consumer must be protected and defended. Since there is no perfect competition in the market for lack of atomicity (there is no transparency and the consumer is powerless to discover fraud), the consumer is faced with multiple abuses, even when they are evident (even from the simple determination of prices or poor quality undercover). This is why the consumer is not the King, but rather the subject of the mercantile apparatus and therefore must be protected. The principle of consumer sovereignty, so defended by liberal economists, has little effect in this consumer society.
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