Business Ethics

Chapter 9 PROFESSIONS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

PowerPoint Image Slideshow

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Chapter Outline

• 9.1 Entrepreneurship and Start-Up Culture
• 9.2 The Influence of Advertising
• 9.3 The Insurance Industry
• 9.4 Ethical Issues in the Provision of Health Care

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Figure 9.1

What are the ethical challenges in entrepreneurship? In social media and advertising? In insurance and health care? This chapter examines these industries through an ethical lens. (credit: modification of “Health Care Medicine Healthy” by “ar130405”/Pixabay, CC0)

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Learning Objectives: Section 9.1

• 9.1 Entrepreneurship and Start-Up Culture
• Identify ethical challenges relating to entrepreneurial start-ups
• Describe positive and negative effects of growth in a start-up
• Discuss the role of the founder in instilling an ethical culture

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Figure 9.2

Hewlett-Packard has restored the original garage in Palo Alto, California, in which its two cofounders, Bill Hewlett and David Packard, former Stanford University classmates, began work in 1938 on the electrical switches and sound oscillators that became their new company’s first products. (credit: “HP Garage in Silicon Valley” by “MGA73bot2”/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)

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Feature Box: Cases from the Real World

Critical Thinking

• What price would you be willing to pay to pursue an entrepreneurial career? What price would you demand from your partners in the business? How long could you let work monopolize your life?
• In your opinion, was Orfalea right to manage Kinko’s the way he did as it grew? Were the worries, anxieties, and bad moods he experienced inevitable? How would you avoid these?

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Discussion Question

• If you are a business student anticipating a career as an entrepreneur, what additional information would you want to have before fully committing to following this ambition?

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Learning Objectives: Section 9.2

• 9.2 The Influence of Advertising
• Discuss how social media has altered the advertising landscape
• Explain the influence of advertising on consumers
• Analyze the potential for subliminal advertising

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Figure 9.3

When an unwise purchase is made appealing, where does the consumer’s responsibility for decision-making lie? Furthermore, if the purchase is spurred by children who are responding to advertising specifically directed at them, is consumer responsibility diminished? (credit: “Big Burgers - Asia (5490379696)” by Kinoko kokonotsu/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)

Learning Objectives: Section 9.3

• 9.3 The Insurance Industry
• Discuss whether the underlying business model of the insurance industry is an ethical one
• Identify the reasons why the government offers certain kinds of insurance
• Discuss the ethical issues in insurers’ decisions whether to offer disaster insurance
• Explain the concept of redlining

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Feature Box Ideas: What Would You Do?

Critical Thinking

• How will you make the decision within an ethical framework?
• What will you, your business, and your employees gain and lose based on what you decide?
• What, if anything, do you and your business owe the community of which you have been a part for so long?

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Figure 9.4

The National Flood Insurance Program in the United States is part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). (credit: modification of “National Flood Insurance Program 50^th Anniversary Logo – white background” by FEMA/fema.gov, Public Domain)

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Feature Box: Cases from the Real World (2)

Critical Thinking

• In selecting coverage and setting prices, how does an insurance company choose the ethical balance between making a reasonable profit and risking catastrophic losses of its own?
• Should the law require that carriers offer property insurance in states where harsh natural disasters occur? Or should federal and state monies be used to subsidize insurance companies’ resources in these circumstances? In each case, why or why not?

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Learning Objectives: Section 9.4

• 9.4 Ethical Issues in the Provision of Health Care
• Identify ethical problems related to the availability and cost of health care in the United States and elsewhere
• Discuss recent developments in insuring or otherwise providing for health care in the United States

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Figure 9.5

(a) The Indiana University Health University Hospital is an example of a contemporary medical center affiliated with a university medical school, in this case on the Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis campus. This is indicative of a common partnership through which hospitalization and medical-school education are made available in the United States. (b) This type of affiliation also exists abroad, as evidenced by this state-of-the-art operating facility at the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, Italy. (credit a: modification of “Indiana University Hospital - IUPUI - DSC00508” by “Daderot”/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain; credit b: modification of “Hybrid operating room for cardiovascular surgery at Gemelli Hospital in Rome” by “Pfree2014”/Wikimedia Commons, CC0)

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Figure 9.6

Anthem Inc. (formerly WellPoint, Inc.), headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is one of the largest health care vendors in the nation, with more than fifty thousand employees and nearly $2.5 billion in net revenue in fiscal year 2016. (credit: modification of “Company headquarters on Monument Circle in Indianapolis” by Serge Melki/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)

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Feature Box: Ethics Across Time and Cultures

Critical Thinking

• Do you find it appropriate that health care costs be provided by a mix of private versus public sources?
• What advantages might single-payer health care offer over employer-provided coverage, care provided under the ACA, or privately purchased health insurance?

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Discussion Question

• Why do you believe access to affordable healthcare in the United States has been so controversial and difficult to achieve?

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Copyright

This OpenStax ancillary resource is © Rice University under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International license; it may be reproduced or modified for noncommercial purposes only but must be attributed to OpenStax, Rice University and any changes must be noted. Any adaptation must be shared under the same type of license.