Utility ethics and corporate social responsibility
Normally people choose the product or service they purchase based on finding the best quality for the lowest price. It is rare that corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a big role when most people decide on where to take their business. However, Uber’s largest competitor Lyft is trying to use the issue of CSR to lure customers away from Uber.
Review Chapter 13 of Brusseau (2012) on CSR, and do some research on any attempts Uber and Lyft have made to improve their CSR. Here are is an example of Uber’s claims to CSR from their webpage:
Shifting expectations: Finding better ways for cities to move, work, and thrive. (2017). Retrieved from: https://www.uber.com/helping-cities/
Likewise, here an example from Lyft’s webpage on their claims to CSR:
Paving the way for greener cities. (2015). Retrieved from: https://blog.lyft.com/posts/earthday
Finally, this article is critical of both Lyft and Uber regarding CSR:
Griswold, A. (2017, March 3). Lyft might be “woke” compared to Uber, but that’s a low bar. Quartz. Retrieved from: https://qz.com/945304/lyft-ceo-john-zimmer-said-the-company-is-woke-maybe-compared-to-uber/
After you’ve finished reviewing Chapter 13 of Brusseau (2012) and have done some research on Uber and Lyft (use the above articles plus some other recent articles that you find), write a 2- to 3-page paper addressing the following issues:
1. Evaluate Uber’s CSR efforts. Based on your research on Uber as well as the various theories of CSR in Brusseau (2012), do you think their CSR efforts are mostly hype or are genuine?
2. Evaluate Lyft’s CSR efforts. Based on your research on Lyft as well as the various theories of CSR in Brusseau (2012) do you think their CSR efforts are mostly hype or are genuine?
3. Overall, do you think their CSR efforts will lead either one of them to greater success? Or do you think most consumers (including yourself) will be more likely only to consider price and quality of service?
the SLP, we will be exploring the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR. It has been said that business leaders are never asked about their personal sense of ethics these days—at least not until they are seated in front of a legislative committee. It would seem that there is an abundance of truth in this statement—that is, we don’t often think about our organizational leaders’ sense of ethics until they’ve gotten themselves into serious legal trouble.
All of this brings up the question of whether highly ethical organizational cultures are more apt to produce ethical behaviors. Common sense tells us that they would. But if this is true, then why don’t all—or perhaps most—organizations have ethical behaviors? One possible answer might be that building an ethical organization requires a lot of money, a lot of know-how and emphasis, a lot of dedicated people, and a lot of organizational energy.
Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, begins with engagement—that is, a company’s engagement with internal and external stakeholders (not “stockholders,” but stakeholders—those individuals or entities that have some interest in the company—for example, employees, stockholders, potential investors, suppliers, buyers, the government, and the community at large). Begin by reading the following book chapter related to CSR, and what it means for organizations to be “socially responsible”:
Brusseau, J. (2012). Chapter 13: The responsible office: Corporations and social responsibility. Business Ethics. Lardbucket Books. Retrieved from: https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/business-ethics/s17-the-responsible-office-corpora.html
Optional Reading
Legum, R. (2015). Utilitarianism 1-4. Rich Legum’s Business Ethics Course. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHI6u78acKs&list=PLEHmI0Qx0uPmwW7f5UizqP-SnlgfMWVP1&index=9
Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (2015). Consequentialism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consequentialism/
