Topic > Ethics and Ethics Essay - 1301

There are a number of factors that tend to play a very significant role in human life, such as humanity, love, brotherhood, sympathy. Among these factors is one called ethics. Basically, ethics has its roots in philosophy and deals with the concept of right and wrong. It is ethics that tells us what is right and what is wrong. In other words, it is that branch of philosophy that aims to recommend concepts regarding conduct. Like every area of ​​life, businesses have also been influenced by ethics. Previously, business was viewed simply as a means to generate profits for the owners without any positive impact on society. However, now the scenario has changed with the development of the term corporate social responsibility. Various approaches have been adopted towards corporate social responsibility, including Kantian ethics, virtue ethics and utilitarian ethics (Bucar et.al, 2003, pp. 261-281). Kantian ethics is an ethical theory put forward by a German philosopher Immanuel Kant. In his theory, he emphasized that good will is the fundamental factor behind every good action, that is, any action will be considered good if it is based on good will (Bowie, 1999). This theory has played an important role in the development of corporate social responsibility. According to Kant, particular circumstances or consequences are not the factors on which decisions about right and wrong depend. Perhaps he thought that morality was strongly related to certain principles that were immutable and should be applied by human beings to all ethical problems ((Porter et.al, 2006, pp. 78-92). In contrast, virtue ethics places its foundations on the virtues or moral character of the...... at the heart of the paper ......activities at the same time (Holme et.al, 1999). Here it is worth mentioning the initiatives undertaken by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK ) to meet its CSR. According to the company's CEO, over the past six years the company has worked hard to improve the effectiveness of its products for patients and at the same time ensure improved financial performance for its shareholders, added that the company has launched several plans to improve the way it sells and markets its products to doctors in order to align their activities with the fundamental interests of patients and at the same time attempted to eliminate the perception of conflict of interest He also stated that the company is committed to making available its new malaria vaccine which has proven to be very effective at a non-profit price (GlaxoSmithKline, 2013).