Ethical theory and business Practice: Are the French strikes ethical as they defend the working conditions while they block the economy?

Résumé du document

This report is going to highlight an ethical case. I decided to choose the French strikes that happen every year as an example of business ethic dilemmas. Before explaining the case, I would like to summarize what is ethics and how it applies to business.
Let's see an "academic" definition of business ethics.
"Business ethics is applied philosophy to analyze economic institutions at various levels:

• Macro (the market)
• Meso (the corporation/organization)
• Micro (Individual decisions, behavior)

In order to assess the moral justification of economic institutions, organizational strategies and individual behavior". We can see now a "practical" definition which applies maybe better to the real life. According to Hoffman, "ethics is the thought process that comes into play when we are deciding between right and wrong, or more typically, about weighting two rights". We can say that ethics lead our behavior and make our behavior good or bad. This is something that allows the individual to be part or the group. If the individual does not respect the ethics and the values shared by the main part of the group, it won't be able to play its own role.

Ethics is a mix of values that people have in mind. We can also say that different groups can have different ways of ethics. Some groups will think that what they are doing is right and some others will think the contrary. It can applies to business, to everyday life.
When it deals with ethical business dilemma, there are two different categories that can help us to understand the main issues:
• The Right versus wrong
• The Right versus Right
These two categories contain several paradigms such as Truth versus Loyalty; Individual versus Community; Short-term versus Long-term; Justice versus Mercy. In fact, ethic contains many factors that rule our daily life. We are constantly facing decisions that can be good or not for us or for the people around us. Here is a short overview of ethics. Let's be more focused on "business".
Ethics can also be applied to business environment. Managers and employees have to be careful about their action if they don't want to be misunderstood. Nowadays, consumers and also companies are more and more focused on ethics.

Extraits

[...] Someone who is dependent from the transport could agree with the strikers? Is it a solution to block to population because you are claiming for better working conditions? Is it ethical to fight for a small part of the population while the main part is working lot harder without complaining? There is not only the fact that the employees block the population, there is also the reason why they are striking which can be considered as unethical. In fact the public sector employee has many “privileges” unlike the private sector employees. [...]

[...] Where does it come from and the main actors The main strikes happened in France in the late 40's and 50's. Most of the time it was the car industry employees from Renault, Citroen or Peugeot. They were fighting for better salary. Then, one of the most famous strikes in France happened in 1968. It is the strike called 1968”. It was more led by students who were criticizing the society and the working condition. The strikes organized by the transport companies such as SNCF or RATP happened almost every year. [...]

[...] I would say that there is a confrontation between these employees and the French population. This is not the goal of the SNCF employees to be against the French Population but this is one of the consequences of their action. I understand that the SNCF's employees are trying to defend their “Right”(against Wrong). If we consider ourselves as SNCF's employees, the action is totally ethical. h. The reason why it is unethical Ethics of consequences: Do what generates the greatest happiness for the greatest number =>Mill, Utilitarianism. [...]

[...] The trade unions use their power in this kind of strike in order to defend the employees' conditions. But there are others way to negotiate. When there are some strikes, I am very disappointed about the image that we give to the world. I know that there are wise people who do not trust the “clichés” but I can understand that some people see France as a country of strikers, of communists, of lazy people We are one of the country in Europe where employees are the less involved in trade unions. [...]

[...] Ethical Theory and Business Practice: Are the French strikes ethical because they defend the working conditions while they block the economy? Executive summary French strikes bring chaos this is a common sentence in France. Every year we can see happen several strikes organized by the trade unions. The most famous ones are CGT, CFDT or SUD RAIL. These organizations represent the employees who claim something. Most of the time the strikers are employees from the public sector. In France, there are the public and the private sector. [...]