A company that adopts the principle of ethical relativism in providing guidance to company personnel _________.

Question

A) bases its standards of what is ethical and what is unethical on the Global Code of Ethical Conduct first developed in 1935 and since subscribed to by the governments of 180 countries.
B) places itself in a perilous position if it is required to defend these activities to its stakeholders in countries with higher ethical expectations or standards because it has no ethical standards or principles of its own.
C) has no fair way to judge the ethical correctness of the conduct of company personnel.
D) has a one-size-fits-all set of ethical standards.
E) allows each company employee to determine what set of ethical standards to observe.

Answer 1

B) places itself in a perilous position if it is required to defend these activities to its stakeholders in countries with higher ethical expectations or standards because it has no ethical standards or principles of its own.
A company that adopts the principle of ethical relativism and holds company personnel to local ethical standards necessarily assumes that what prevails as local morality is an adequate guide to ethical behavior. This can be ethically dangerous; it leads to the conclusion that if a country's culture generally accepts bribery or environmental degradation or exposing workers to dangerous conditions, then managers working in that country are free to engage in such activities. Adopting such a position places a company in a perilous position if it is required to defend these activities to its stakeholders in countries with higher ethical expectations.