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Lying And Tobacco (стр. 1 из 4)

– Solid Research Essay, Research Paper

Here is the tobacco case study for the marketing ethics discussion:

LYING

AND

TOBACCO

Senior Executives Caught in the Ethical Cross Hairs:

Shareholder Loyalty or Social Responsibility?

Case Development: Shelton S. Bridges, IV & Stephen M. Mounts

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

The Ninth Commandment

Exodus 20:16

INTRODUCTION

For at least 3,400 years ? and probably much longer ? scholars, philosophers, theologians, and others have pondered the question of truth. What is truth? Can the whole truth ever be known? What is a lie? Is it ever acceptable to tell a lie? Are some lies worse than others? What are the characteristics of a lie? Why do people tell lies?

In this case, the above questions are explored and examined. Of course, it is impossible to completely cover such ancient and weighty issues in a case study, so we have limited our exploration to relatively few topics. In this case we look through the business lens, emphasizing the impact of truth and lies on business and the corporate world. Among the issues explored in this case are lying to the government, the public, and competitors, justifications and excuses for lying, and whether lying is ever acceptable. To more clearly illustrate the issues and to stimulate critical thought, we look objectively at the conduct of the U.S. tobacco industry in the years prior to 1999, with special emphasis on the congressional hearings of 1994 and 1998.

THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH?

Any serious discussion of lying must begin with at least a cursory consideration of truth. After all, without truth there can be no lies. But we must also recognize an ultimate fact from which humans cannot escape: the whole truth can never be known, limited as we are by our intellect and senses. Perhaps it is safest to start with the premise that lying, at least from a human point of view, depends on one’s intent. Since the whole truth cannot be known, “truth” as we know it requires that there be no intent to deceive. In other words, a person does not lie if that person is not aware that the statement he utters is false.

Mosaic Law recognized the importance of intent in many instances and that recognition has been passed down to American law, as statutes often criminalize the “knowing and intentional” commission of some act. Indeed, one of the major differences between murder and manslaughter is intent. The former requires intent or premeditation and is punishable by death in Florida and many other states; the latter does not require intent and is punishable by a prison term of not more than fifteen years.

Sissela Bok, a professor at Brandeis University, has defined a lie as “an intentionally deceptive message in the form of a statement.” A statement is not limited to verbal utterances; writing and other forms of expression may be statements. Not everyone agrees with Bok and her definition, but for our purposes it will suffice.

CHOICES AND LIES

Ultimately, lying may be viewed as an attempt to gain power, power over information which in turn gives the liar power over the one who is deceived. When one is lied to, one’s power of choice is diminished. The lie may misinform, eliminate or obscure alternatives, alter estimates of costs and benefits, or affect how certainly we view our choices. If one does not know the true alternatives, how may one make an intelligent, reasoned choice? If someone tells a lie, the one deceived no longer has truly free choice.

People who learn they have been deceived become suspicious, resentful, and disappointed, and understandably so. Deception has a profound psychological impact. Whether one is deceived by a trivial lie or a grandiose lie, the impact is the same in that the one deceived becomes more suspicious and less likely to believe anything he or she hears from the liar.

A person may be harmed by a lie even if he or she is not the person being deceived. This is something most people have experienced. For example, Andrew tells a lie to Bill about Charles. Charles’ reputation in Bill’s mind, or perhaps their friendship, suffers because of the lie. Andrew told the lie to Bill, but Charles suffers even though he was not the one deceived.

IS LYING EVER ACCEPTABLE?

Having established a working definition of lying and a basic understanding of how lies impact our psychology and decision-making processes, we now turn to an age-old question that lies at the heart of our discussion: when, if ever, is it acceptable to tell a lie? Most of us probably would reply that lying is acceptable in certain situations, but is it really? Is it ever acceptable to take away another’s freedom of choice by lying to them? In theory it may be comfortable to draw invisible lines and say, “I’ll lie about these things but nothing else,” but in reality do we lie about only those things? Can we really avoid the slippery slope by telling ourselves, “This far, but no farther”? No matter how justifiable or excusable a lie may seem at the moment, doesn’t telling even that “good” lie cause us to become more willing to lie the next time? When we tell even “good” lies, aren’t we making it easier for us to tell a “bad” lie in the future by blurring the lines between black and white?

Since the beginning of recorded history, men and women have debated whether lying is ever acceptable and if so, under what circumstances. Among the most influential of these intellectuals are St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant.

In North Africa in the years 396-430, an early Church father named Augustine wrote a series of treatises and books that have largely shaped Christian and Western thought. Augustine firmly believed that all lies are wrong, but allowed that some lies are worse than others and established eight categories of lies. He maintained that a person should never tell a lie, though even he struggled with this absolute prohibition.

More than 800 years after Augustine died, Thomas Aquinas took up discussion of the issue in Summa Theologica. Aquinas, relying on Augustine, concluded that there are three types of lies: lies told in jest, helpful lies, and malicious lies. Aquinas said all lies are wrong, but only malicious lies place the soul in jeopardy.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a German philosopher, took an even more extreme position than Augustine and Aquinas. For Kant, lying is never acceptable under any circumstances for any reason. Even when lying might seem to be justified in the minds of some, Kant argues that any lie always harms all people because it debases the source of law. Furthermore, when a person tells a lie, that person has destroyed his human dignity.

Theorizing about any subject or issue is often quite different from putting that theory into practical action. What happens when a person is faced with an actual situation in which he must choose a lie or the truth, knowing that his answer will determine whether another person lives or dies? Even then, the answer is not as clear as it may seem. Even then, good people may differ in their approach to truth telling and in their belief as to what constitutes the morally right course of action. Consider the differing beliefs of the Ten Boom sisters.

One of the most famous examples of the “good” lie is provided by the experiences of Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who helped hide Jews from the Nazis during World War II. A devout Christian who believed lying is morally wrong, Corrie nevertheless lied to the Gestapo to protect the Jews in her house. She reasoned that lying, though wrong, was justified because it was better than telling the truth, which would have caused the arrest ? and likely the execution ? of the Jews. Interestingly, Corrie’s sister, Nollie, disagreed. Nollie was also a devout Christian, but she felt lying was never acceptable. She believed that God would honor those who told the truth. Nollie’s veracity led to her arrest and the arrest of a Jewish woman, but six days later the Dutch resistance freed them both. Nollie saw her freedom and that of the Jewish woman as proof that God would never allow evil to befall truth tellers.

Thankfully, the vast majority of us will never face a situation like Corrie Ten Boom’s, when our choices to lie or to tell the truth could well be the difference between life and death. But in our daily lives we encounter less serious situations when lying may be (or at least seem) justified. For example, suppose Richard’s roommate, Sean, just broke up with his girlfriend. Sean tells Richard he doesn’t want to speak to his ex-girlfriend if she calls. A few minutes later, the phone rings. Richard answers the phone and Sean’s ex-girlfriend asks if Sean is home. What should Richard do? Most of us probably would lie and say, “No, Sean isn’t home. May I take a message?” Is the lie justified? Would it be better if Richard evaded the question? What if Richard equivocated and said, “I’m not sure exactly where Sean is,” since Richard does not, in fact, know which room of the apartment Sean is in at that exact moment? Are any of these statements by Richard acceptable?

Some people take a “commonsense” approach to lying, often used by utilitarian philosophers, choosing to lie only when the lie is less harmful than telling the truth. This approach looks at lying in context of the whole situation and allows the liar more flexibility and freedom. In the above example, this approach would justify a lie told by Richard if he truly believed it was better for everyone that he tell the lie. This approach is not without its problems, though. First, can we ever truly know what is “for the greater good”? Second, this approach seems to say that telling the truth and telling a lie are the same as long as the result is for the good. This attitude of neutrality toward lying and the dependence on ends to justify the means disturb more than a few people.

EXCUSE AND JUSTIFICATION

For those who believe that certain lies are acceptable, the basis of the acceptability ? that is, the “thing” that makes the lie acceptable ? is an excuse. Although justification is a type of excuse, it’s important to understand a fundamental difference between justification and other excuses. Justification embraces the lie and defends the telling of the lie as morally correct, whereas other excuses make no attempt to give a reason why the lie was a “good” lie. One type of excuse is “that what is seen as a fault is not really one”. For example, John tells a lie to a friend at a party. Two days later, the friend confronts John with the lie and John replies, “I was just joking around. You shouldn’t take seriously what I said.” Another type of excuse is that though there has been a fault, the person who told the lie isn’t to blame because he isn’t responsible. An example of this would be a lie someone tells while delirious from a fever.

Generally speaking, excuses point to four moral principles as defenses: harm, benefit, fairness, and veracity. In other words, all excuses fundamentally rely on one or more of those principles to explain why the lie was told. In the first case, a person may lie in hopes of avoiding harm to self or others. For example, David makes a 1.5 GPA in his first semester of college and tells his parents he made a 3.5 because he doesn’t want to be chastised. A person may lie to gain a benefit for self or others. The professor who lies or exaggerates in a letter of recommendation for a student who is trying to get a job demonstrates this type of lie. The third principle is fairness. A person might lie because he feels that lying is the only way to achieve a just end. For example, Sarah puts a false name on an essay she has written for a competition because she thinks the judges, who know her, will be unfair to her if she uses her real name. The final principle is veracity. The idea here is that a person will lie to preserve the truth. For example, telling one lie to undo the effect of a previous lie.

Compared to other excuses, justification functions under a separate set of rules. The principles mentioned above might pertain to justification, but justification involves something more. Above all, justification requires that the lie be made public and exposed to the judgment of reasonable people; by making public the lie and the reasons for the lie, the liar demonstrates his belief that the lie was just and seeks public justification of the lie.

LYING TO COMPETITORS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE GOVERNMENT

In the corporate world, lying is an important issue to be considered by businesses but by no means is it the sole issue. Considering the views presented to this point ? never tell a lie, lie only if it serves the greater good, and all points in between ? what viewpoint should businesses embrace, especially for-profit businesses that have shareholders? Should a company lie to the government about the dangers of a product if lying will boost sales, prevent regulation, or protect the company from lawsuits? Is it acceptable to lie to the public to ensure shareholder profits? Is it proper for a company lie to a competitor to gain the upper hand in a merger, a buyout, or some other business deal?

Lying to a competitor or the government can cause them to divert their maneuvers and can help in the strategy to run the competitor out of business or to “defeat” the government in the legal arena. Given the competitive nature of business in a capitalistic society, businesses may develop a survivalist mentality; an “us or them” approach in dealing with other companies and the government that results in the government and other businesses being viewed as enemies that must be either thwarted or destroyed.

Beyond the desire to survive, businesses want to thrive. To thrive, a business must increase profits and keep its shareholders happy. Traditionally, businesses have seen no way to reconcile maximization of profits and moral treatment of the public, the government, and the competition. Even when it is possible to do both, businesses traditionally have given first consideration to profits and have acted morally only if doing so doesn’t interfere with maximization of wealth.

Underlying all of this, of course, is the question of precisely what is a corporation’s duty to its shareholders. Is the duty to maximize profits or to make a profit? Do corporations have a duty to the public at large? Do businesses have a duty to the government or to competitors? If the answer to the latter two questions is yes, then what is that duty? Are the needs and wants of shareholders subordinate to that duty?

While most people think that turning huge profits is a corporation’s chief duty to shareholders, it is not the only duty. Cultivating trust and goodwill between the public and the corporation is something of value to many shareholders, and most people are aware of corporate contributions to schools, parks, charitable organizations, and so forth.

Some people have turned the whole question on its head, not asking if a corporation breaches its duty by not lying to maximize profits, but arguing that corporations breach their duty to shareholders when they don’t act in a morally responsible fashion. The argument contends that doing good for the community and being honest with the public, the government, and other companies makes the corporation look good in consumers’ eyes. Consequently, the consumers buy more often from the corporation, profits rise, and shareholders benefit. Though this argument may be sound, most companies still adhere to the belief that profits reign supreme and that maximization of profits is more important than telling the truth.

THE U.S. TOBACCO INDUSTRY

As was mentioned previously, there is considerable difference between discussing a moral issue like lying in the abstract and deciding how to put the theory into practice in the real, concrete, day-to-day world. To help students apply the foregoing moral issues to the real, business world, we turn our attention to the U.S. tobacco industry in the years leading up to 1998. We will examine the lies that were told by the industry, explore the excuses for those lies, and ask questions that go to the very heart of business ethics.

The sale of tobacco and cigarettes has been quite profitable to those selling it. Today “Big Tobacco,” with annual net income over 50 billion dollars, is one of the most profitable industries in the world. Despite the financial success of tobacco, the industry has been one wrought with controversy.

The basis for this case is the rather disturbing testimonies of several Chief Executive Officers in the tobacco industry during the 1994 “Waxman” hearings. In addition to these hearings, the executives were called back on the stand for what some thought would be an encore performance during the 1998 congressional hearings. The most recent round of hearings was a product of the class action suit brought by over 40 states to seek reimbursement from the industry for tobacco-related Medicaid expenditures.

The tobacco story is one filled with deception, lies, and money. Whistle-blowers, internal leaks, and questions of unethical marketing campaigns are just some of the elements the industry has brought into the media’s spotlight. This case presents a summary of the facts surrounding the hearings. Although it may be evident that the authors of this case do not approve of the behavior of the executives or the industry as a whole, it is important that you make your own decision regarding the executives’ methods and what some would call their corporate strategy.