The Ethics of Business: A Discussion by Dr. David Dick

How do ethics and money collide in the business world? Who is impacted by the ethical or unethical decisions made by businesses?

Dr. David Dick, Canadian Centre for Advanced Leadership in Business (CCAL) fellow and assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Calgary, addressed these questions and introduced the concept of business ethics to the inaugural cohort of Haskayne’s Master of Management Program. In collaboration with CCAL, this newly established program was able to bring a unique experience to the class of 29 students and initiate discussion about a challenging and complex topic.

Dr. Dick began the lecture with a question. He asked whether the students thought businesses were inherently ethical. A seemingly unanimous look of skepticism on the part of the audience appeared to be the response he expected. Drawing on his expertise in philosophy, he discussed the foundations of ethics by introducing fundamental concepts such as the separation thesis, consequentialism and utilitarianism. With this basic understanding, he proceeded to discuss several hypothetical cases and encouraged the class to put themselves in the shoes of businesses faced with challenging ethics decisions.

Dr. Dick challenged the group to analyze ethical dilemmas from different ethics standpoints: utilitarian or deontological. Utilitarianism is the belief that the ethical decision is the one which maximizes the benefits and minimizes the bad consequences. On the other hand, a deontological approach, like that of Immanuel Kant’s, focuses on the intentions of an action. The purpose of this exercise was to demonstrate the fundamental aspect of studying ethics: what is considered ethical or not is subjective to the ethical point of view of the individual. In short, ethics are neither black nor white, but grey.

Through these cases, Dr. Dick presented insightful perspectives on business ethics and provided an interesting educational experience by unpacking what it takes to determine whether a business decision is ethical. Evidently, one needs to make decisions based on consequences and intentions. Though this is easier said than done, Dr. Dick delivered his presentation in an enthusiastic manner, allowing each student to easily grasp the ethics of business.

About Dr. David Dick

David G. Dick is an associate professor of philosophy and a fellow in CCAL at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. He teaches ethics, political philosophy and the philosophy of money, and is the author of papers on the ethics of markets, the limits of property and the powers of money.
In the Calgary business community, he oversees the Integrity Network, a working group of ethics professionals from corporate, academic, and non-profit sectors that meets four times a year to discuss and engage business ethics issues.
Dr. Dick has won a total of five teaching awards in his career and in 2017, he was named one of Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40.