Ethical Issues in Google Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ethical Issues in Google - Essay Example Ethic primarily comprises moral principles that help an individual to justify and distinguish good behaviour from bad ones. Organisation ethics is defined as a set of principles and guidelines that govern organisational decision and practices (Pojman, 1989). The paper aims at analysing ethical issues relevant to Google while briefly highlighting ethical theories and examples thereof. Organisational behaviour is significantly affected by organisational ethics. Ethic is gaining importance at large corporations such as Google because, with growing organisational complexities, the ethical dilemma at companies is also increasing rapidly. From the perspective of organisational behaviour, four ethical theories were ascertained to be appropriate for discussing the relevance of ethics at Google. These theories are the utilitarian ethical theory, virtue ethics, rights-based ethics and justice based ethics (Peterson, 2002). Utilitarian theory of ethics was originally posited by Jeremy Bentham, which however was later advanced by authors such as John Stuart Mill. The theory implies that self-interest should be overlooked and impartial judgment should be made when the interest of a number of individuals is associated with a particular action. Consequently, it is also known as the rule-based theory. In other words, utilitarian ethics is focused on the impact of an action’s outcome on various stakeholders. These stakeholders can be either internal or external to an organization. Utilitarian ethics emphasizes on a maximization of stakeholders’ wealth while minimizing potential damage. From organizational perspective, utilitarian ethical approach delivers long-term benefits to a firm by means of goodwill (Freeman, 1994). One example of the violation of utilitarian ethics by Google can be the strategy it adopted while entering China. China being one of the most populous countries presents an enormous opportunity for growth for Google but the Chinese government insists that all digital activities of its citizens require national monitoring for political control.  Ã‚