Explore this Free Assignment Sample on Responsible Enterprise and Modern Slavery to see how ethical frameworks, corporate duty, Indigenous Australian values, and human rights responsibilities apply within the Australian banking sector. Get expert Assignment Help Services for business ethics, corporate governance, and CSR-focused assessments from experienced academic writers.
Introduction: Modern Slavery In Banking: Corporate Responsibility Insights
Slavery in the present era is one major ethical concern that cannot be overlooked by businesses. In this essay, the researcher will write from a deontological approach to support the fact that businesses should do something about modern slavery, stressing the moral imperative to respect human rights and human dignity.
The essay will be divided into three main sections, in which the first part will be on modern slavery, followed by the second part, where all four ethical frameworks will be described. Lastly, a reflection will be provided on how I have discovered the issues and in what manner the frameworks have helped me.
Main Body
Contemporary slavery means forced labour or compelled service, sexual exploitation, or submission to hazardous circumstances that deprive a person of freedom and in which explicit or implicit threats of violence are used. This is a covert criminal act that robs its victims of liberty and self-esteem. In particular, when it comes to this essay, attention will be solely paid to the banking industry of Australia, within which the financial institutions may unintentionally contribute or at least look the other way while enabling the transactions connected with slavery-related operations, so the ethical and appropriate response should be given to it (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2020).
Deontology (Duty)
Deontology is a moral theory based on Immanuel Kant, where extreme focus is given to duty and moral rules. Based on the deontological approach, business has a primary moral duty to fight modern slavery without reference to the outcomes. In the banking sector, it entails taking an active role in making sure that their business, their financial investments, and their relationships with other companies and businesses do not fund the practice of slavery. Human rights remain a priority that cannot be ignored by banks; due diligence must be done, robust policies against slavery must be implemented, and clear, thorough reporting on the progress towards ending slavery in supply chains or the banks’ financial transactions must be made. The deontological framework states that these actions must be done because it is the right thing to do and the organisations have a responsibility to do them regardless of the possible benefits (Bales & Soodalter, 2019).
Teleology (Consequences)
Teleological ethics or consequentialism means testing the actions according to their consequences. In this regard, the main emphasis is placed on the outcomes of organisational activities connected with modern slavery. Self-identified by the subject matter, the following positive effects were identified concerning the modern slavery issues in the banking sector: economic return, a better reputation, greater customer trust, and sustainable business development. On the other hand, the failure to recognise and eliminate slavery attracts legal consequences, financial losses, and heavy reputation risks. From a teleological perspective, it would be rational to say that businesses should guard against modern slavery because the utility is greater than the disutility. The ultimate aim is the maximisation of utility, that is, the ‘greatest happiness of the greatest number’; here, this involves safeguarding potentially vulnerable persons, as well as presenting a favourable company image (Crane et al., 2021).
Virtue Ethics (Character)
Virtue ethics, borrowed from Aristotle, asserts that ethics is all about the nature of the characters or people/organisations in question. On this premise, we have virtues such as integrity, justice, and compassion, which should define a virtuous bank. According to virtue ethics, the implication of the modern slavery issue implies that it is important for any bank to establish and sustain an ethical culture consistent with these virtues. On the other hand, active counteraction against slavery shows banks’ devotion to justice and humanity as a corporation, creating a culture that goes beyond the idea of profit-making labour. This is an ethical business approach for organisations to be in a position to act out courteous business moral standards and create organisational and societal impact (Murray & Chamberlain, 2020).
Indigenous Australian Values
Ethical systems are a component of Indigenous Australian culture that are anchored in kinship, people’s obligations to one another, and the oneness of existence. From such a viewpoint, modern slavery is not only the violation of individual rights but also the violation of collective interest and social integration of the community. In the Indigenous Australians’ context, the notion of individual and communal affiliation is evident in their perception of each individual’s health as a reflection of the welfare of the whole society; slavery distorts this. In this understanding, the banks must be dignified to everybody and not show the signs and symptoms of degrading others or making them suffer (Ramasastry, 2021).
Applying various ethical paradigms to the discussion of the issue was valuable since the analysis depicted modern slavery as a multi-layered phenomenon and highlighted the nontriviality of ethical decision-making in banking. Deontology relied on the bell and whistle call to action, teleology focused on the results to be attained, virtue ethics centred on the character of the organisation, and the Indigenous Australian values centred on communal responsibility. It becomes difficult to take a stand on the issue because each of the frameworks provides a viable but unique way of solving the problem; one has to think very closely as to which ethical principles should be employed in business.
The last stand is that modern slavery is something that cannot be justified even if it is legal, and businesses must fight against it according to the principles of a deontological perspective because it is their principled responsibility to protect human rights (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2022).
Conclusion
In this essay, modern slavery was examined through four ethical frameworks: The deontological approach, the teleological approach, the virtue ethical approach, and finally, the Indigenous Australian ethical system for analysing the banking sector of Australian culture. This has shown how each approach offers some valuable perspectives as to why firms ought to respond to modern slavery. Finally, given the above, the deontological principle that deals with the moral rights of human beings was adopted. The essay thus notes that capitalist enterprises ought to condemn the contemporary slavery and abuse of vulnerable labour, not as a matter of moral orthodoxy, but as their absolute social and legal responsibility to uphold the human rights and decent treatment of others.
