Jumat, 12 Desember 2008

BLOG in Ethics

I think blog is good place to share our opinion and give the information to another. With blog we can get much information that can easier to search the information from other. In other hand, blog have bad side too like false information (hoax), porn blog, the bad press, provocation blog, etc.

Based on KOMPAS newspaper edition: Sunday, November 23rd, 2008, about “Mabuk Dunia Maya” appear image of the physical Moslem’s prophet, Muhammad SAW in wordpress, that offend for Islamic people. And the hoax about information about Sarah Palin is not known Africa is a continent. After traced, the owner of that blog is not real that just game.

I think to user of information in blog, hard to differs the information that user is not know news actually, that true or wrong. Then, another user is can not much helps. For example, a blog give the political provocation, then another the same party to support the information so the user can believe about that provocation information.

To solve the bad side of blog, like in real world, except the fellow human interrelated to keep ethics, must have to protect institution like police, petua adat, etc. same think in virtual world must have the broadcasting institution or ad hoc team to keep the wrong information and tracing the provider the information.

Minggu, 30 November 2008

The Business System

Roy Marshall, an American economist analysis, said that the market systems unregulated is defective because not able to solve the problems, like recession, inflation, trade and free and open competitive, environment, same chance, poor and poorest, need for research and long term innovation, and ensuring the national security. Whereas Robert Anderson, Leader of Rockwell International Corporation, said that the market systems regulated is defective because collide with freedom right and conduct to resource allocation inefficient.
In Analyzing about free markets and government arguments is mean we analyzing what in psychology called ideology. Ideology is a system of belief normative that held in particular social group members. The Business ideology is a systems of normative belief about economic problems, especially that believed by business groups.
George Lodge, Harvard Business School, the identification in 2 important ideologies that characterized from several different society, that is :
1. Individualistic
In individualistic society, a government role is limited. The base purpose is to protect the property, develop the contract, and keep opened market in order to competitive intercorporate can stable and free.
2. Komunitarist
Government roles in komunitarist society very different. Here governments in character are prestigious and authoritative, even authorizer. Government functions are determined society needs either long term or short term, and assured whether that needs was complete.

Command system and free market system
The market purpose is to solve the base of economic problems in faced of all society. In command systems, one authority makes decision about what production, who to produce that would and who that would consumed that product. The authority continuous to communicate this decision to the system members in form command or instructions, and distributing within system members in that command. In free market system, all companies make decision about what production and how to produce that. Next, each of company barters their goods with another company and to consumer with favorable price. Price has a role to coordinating production by way of conducted investment at favorable industries and attracts the investment from unfavorable industries.

Free Markets and Rights: John Locke
An unregulated market human have certain “natural rights” that only a free market system can preserve. The two natural rights that free markets are supposed to protect are the right to freedom and the right to private property. Free markets reputed able to protect the right to private property in far each of individual free top choice what would they do about what they held without government interventions.
John Locke (1632-1704), an English political philosopher, is reputed as developing the idea that human have a “natural right” to freedom and a “natural right” to private property. Locke said that if never have government, humans would get itself in “natural condition”. In this natural condition, everybody politically is same and full free from limited except nature laws. Follow to Locke, nature laws teach everybody that he have right to freedom, thus no everybody can out from this condition and submissive to other politics authority without dealing.

Criticisms of Locke rights
1. Opinion of Locke about free markets based on the unproven assumption that people have rights to freedom and property that take precedence over all other rights.
2. Even if human have a natural right to freedom and property, it does not follow that this right must have precedence over all other rights.
3. Opinion of Locke about free markets based on the idea that free markets create different unfair right.
4. Locke’s argument assume human are atomistic individuals that held rights to freedom and property coming from themselves personal nature separate from their relations to the larger community.

Free Markets and Utility: Adam Smith
Adam Smith (1723-1790), father of economic modern, is inventor of free markets utilitarianism argument. According to Smith theory, when individual leaved free to search their interest itself in free markets, they will be aimed toward public wealth by an invisible hands. Here an invisible hand exactly is free competitive market.
Smith said the best policy from government to drumming up public wealth is not doing anything: leaving the individual search their interest appropriate with “natural freedom”. All government intervention just disturbing competition process and reduce gotten benefits. Smith assume that the society have free markets system that also have private property system, eventhough Smith not give his arguments explicit utilitarianism that private property system is better. Private property system is the best because able to give incentives to individual in order to focused working, to increasing and useful their resources and they know that the benefits from that work can have them privately.

Criticisms of Adam Smith
1. That the impersonal abilities of supply and demand will press price down until lowest level because so many the sellers of products.
2. Smith assume that all the resources used to produce something will be paid by the producer and that the producer will try to reduce these costs to maximize profits. The consequence is appearing tend to usefulness efficiently.
3. Smith’s analysis wrongly assumes that human just motivated by a “natural” wants to get profit. In The wealth of nations from Adam Smith assume that in their activities just to get profit.

The Keynesian Criticism
The most influential criticism of Adam Smith’s classical assumptions came from John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), an English economist. Smith assumed that without any help from the government, the interaction market abilities would ensure usefulness efficiently of all economic resources including labor. If amounts resources used, so the cost will be down and entrepreneur will try to adding commodity output with using cheaper resources.
Government, according to Keynes, able to influences trend to saving or cutting down on, here turn down of demand and creating unemployment. Government can prevent over cutting down with influence interest rate with way adjusted money inventory: higher of money inventory, and also lower loan rate. Second, government can influence directly the total that got of household with way increase or decrease taxes. Third, government expenditure can cover the different between the total demand and total inventory with way increasing the demand of households and businesses.

Criticism Marx
Karl Marx (1818-1883) is critical that struggle and most influential of the inequalities that formed by private property institutions, and free markets.
According to Marx theory that capitalism produces 4 form of worker alienation from what should they owned, that is :
1. Capitalist society gives authority of the products that workers produce to others.
2. Capitalism alienates the workers from their activity.
3. Capitalism alienates workers from themselves by installing in them wrong views of what actually they needs and wants.
4. Capitalist society alienate human from each other by separated them into antagonistic and unequal social classes and destroyed community and caring relationships.

The function of Government
In Marx’s view, societies can analyzed Consist with by two main component : substructure and superstructure of economic. Economic substructure is a society Consist of the materials and social control used by societies to produce economic goods, and superstructure Consist of the government and famous ideologies. Marx claimed that authority class formed by economic substructure unquestionable to control superstructure.

Impoverishment of Workers
Marx also claims that so long as production in economic modern is not planned, but is left to depend on private ownership and free markets, the result no more as combinated disasters that all tend to make loss the working class. This claim based on 2 characteristic as base of modern capitalist.
1. The productive assets held and controlled by owner that just want adding their assets in free market competition with another owner that have same wants.
2. Mass produced commodity in factories with workers group, if they want to life, must working in factories own by entrepreneur that just preference they own.
According to Marx, as a contradiction that unquestionable will be creating 3 preference stimulatingly would to impoverish the workers:
1. Concentration of industrial power will be more centrally to the few hands of people.
2. Capitalist society will repeated downturns cycles or crises. Because of the product in producing is very organized, so the owners able to surplus produce in big amounts
3. Marx said the position of the worker in capitalist society gradually will be worsening. These worsening consequents by owners want to add their assets with bargain away their workers.

Conclusion: The Mixed Economy
Unification among government’s rules, partial free market, and limited private property is what generally called The Mixed Economic. The Mixed economic retains market systems and private property but depend on government policies to solve their inability. Governments transfers used to omit the bad aspects of unequaled with way attract money from richer group in form income taxes and distributed to poorer group like wealth subsidies. The rules about minimum wages, working safety, workers party, and another rules used to protect the workers from exploitations. The monopoly adjusted, nationalization, or with no permitted. Monetary and fiscal policies of government focused to ensuring creating the working chance. Monitoring institutions of government have purpose to controlling the company in order to do not the actions that make the society loss.

Property Systems and New Technologies
Intellectual properties are Consist from abstracts objects and nonphysical. Private property of intellectual properties gives an incentive that required to working hard to creating intellectual inventions.

Minggu, 23 November 2008

Wild Collected Video in Ministry of Education

The video recorded when the contractor want get Letter of Working Contract and Letter of Command Working (SPK), they the money to the Activities of Technical Operation (PPTK) as a The Operational Project Responsibility in APBN 2008 in Ministry of Education. The money must paid amount Rp 1,5 billion for that project. If not, the letters very hard to be done. the Secretary of Ministry of Education said that the money was “Thanksgiving“ from the contractor about the fast service to them. The consequence is the contractor can or only can to build with lower project standard, like in 2007, where bad result of many projects of new schools building.
I think, this is a general condition in Indonesia especially in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD). At the beginning, that is real thanksgiving money about the project working successfully. But the real condition now is so different, eventhough still thanksgiving money that have standard. How can the giving have standard ?
In Utilitarianism Theory aimed to benefit and cost. The socially responsibility action is the action able to give high benefit or low cost to society. Based on this statement, Never mind if the contractor deals to pay the money appropriate with PPTK request but the contractor must do the project very well. The Real condition, that impossible because Rp 1.5 billion is not little money. So the contractor can not the best. So, that is wrong way because can retain the contractor to the best, either to them or society.

Minggu, 09 November 2008

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ACTIVITIES OF MALAYSIAN PUBLIC LISTED COMPANIES

REVIEW paper from international conference on regional networking 2008-Banda Aceh
Researcher : Baihaqi and Saiful (The University of Bengkulu)

Several theories as a foundation of this research are Masley (2000) as cited by Van Der Valde, Vermeir & Corten (2005) described that the current investment trend is the investors will take into account the social, environment, and ethical issues in investment selections process. Webley and More (2003) supported that the investors value more highly companies that are less exposed to social, environmental, and ethical risks. In Malaysia, the private sector has been pressured to accept social responsibility since 1980s. However, previous studies have found that the level of corporate social responsibility at Malaysian PLCs remain low. Chamber et al. (2002) showed that, there are fewer corporate social responsibility companies in the seven selected Asian Countries (India, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines) as score of 41% which is under half the score for the United Kingdom (98%) and Japan Companies (96%).

Corporate social responsibility disclosures include detail of the physical environment, energy, human resources, product, and community involvement matters (Ho, 1990; Hackston & Milne, 1996). CSR can be defined as the provision of financial and non-financial information relating to an organizations interaction with its physical and social environment, as stated in corporate annual reports (Guthrie & Mathews 1985). Bhimani and Soonawalla (2005) have shown that corporate conformance and corporate performance are linked. The more the companies conform to the best practices of corporate governance; the beter will be the disclosure of their corporate responsibilities. Coffey and Wang (1998) found that the ratio of insiders to a outsiders on the board was positively related to charitable contributions and the percentage of stock owned by insiders is positively related to charitable giving. Longo et al. (2005) demonstrated that ethical motives of top management of small medium enterprises will influence corporate social responsibility disclosure. Abdul Rashid and Ibrahim (2002) found that family upbringing, traditional beliefs and custom, common practice in industry, school, and university training, conduct of superiors, religious training, and conduct of peers are important factors that drive the orientation of Malaysian executive and managers toward corporate social responsibility.

This research has several purposes that are to investigate the level of corporate social responsibility activities of the five themes, practiced by the Malaysian PLCs, the level of importance, awareness, knowledge, behavioral, and impact of the corporate social responsibility activities of the Malaysian PLCs, the groups that influences that Malaysian PLCs to participate in the corporate social responsibility activities, and the relationship among the corporate social responsibility activities.

The samples of this research are Malaysian companies that are listed on the main board of bursa Malaysia using stratified proportionate random sampling at 6 industries (construction, consumer product, industrial product, plantation, properties, trading and service). Data collection used primary data through questionnaires, were sent to 200 PLCs listed in Bursa Malaysia as at 2005. Only 9 questionnaires were received and then collect 62 more responses through follow up. The questions are adapted from Hackston and Milne (1996) and Adebayo (2000).

This research found several conclusions that the relationship among CSR activities perceived and characteristic board of directors (ethnics, qualifications, religion) influence CSR activities especially in term of community, product, and human resources. And also director’s perceived on CSR activities are influenced by intern and extern corporate as well. This research finding imply that CSR activities will increase when intern and extern corporate be able to play important role in pushing directors to well perform CSR activities.

The limitation of this research are the scope just at the year end January to December 2005 and the sample size too small because of poor interest rate from companies, thus the sample size not reflect the whole situations in Malaysian corporate scenario.

Jumat, 07 November 2008

DUE CARE THEORY

Due care theory does about company owe it to customers based on ideas that buyer and customers not a parallel connection and that customer interests very susceptible to company purposes what in this mean have knowledge and ability that customers have not. Because of producer in the good position, they necessary to give warranty that customer interests not losses by the product that their offering.

The viewpoint of due care said that customers must be depend on producer ability, so not only necessary to give the appropriate product with they claimed, but also necessary to aware in retain in order to not making other hurt by the product eventhough the company explicitly reject to responsibility like this and buyer accept that rejection. Company assumed set at defiance or fobbed of this duty if they failed give attention that should be and require doing to retain in order to others were not losses by used the product. Attention also must be including in the product design, making process, quality control process that used to test and control the production. End then caution, label, and instruction that patched in the product.

The viewpoint of due care sure based on principle that agent have moral owing it to not making others losses. This principle based on the point that somebody must to attends others that have the relationship with him, particularly interdependence relation, like between son and his mother. Moreover, this ethics force that somebody must working hard to know needs and characteristics from others that related with him, to make sure that the attention aimed at needs and qualities from the others.

Minggu, 02 November 2008

ETHICS IN THE CONFERENCE

In the International Conference four days ago, perhaps many ethics cases there. According to my opinion, I saw two cases of the conference participants. First case, local participants often to come in and out at seminar rooms holding the hand phone like showing they are very busy and they tend to sits at the last row chairs. However, several participants that active to attend the speaker and tend to sits at the first row chairs.

Compared the foreign participants, they were no problem where they sit but they saw enjoy followed and understand what the speaker said. Nonetheless, they have not the behavior that needs explanation like why they often not to attend the speaker, if the speaker come from same nationality ?

They said : “Because we often hear what the speaker said“.

Lets we see from ethics side, like my opinion two weeks ago, ethics is the translated about behavior based on the believed of the foundation of behavior pattern good or bad. From that definition can we underlined the translated about behavior word, that logically that have interactions with others there not only explicit explanation but also implicit explanation like body language. Flashlight they (foreign participants) answer is true. But they should not come in and out, they can read the other materials, tracing the paper, or etc. So, many participants show the less ethics behavior, because can disturb the speaker that conveying materials, the moderator, and the active participants of that conference.

Second case, several students that invited by their lecturer to following the conference with prize one block attendance list. Badness, they just absent but not follow that conference. Flashlight can we see the students ethics is not wrong, they just lucky because the lecturer can not teach them like usually and must be a speaker on that conference.

However the students have responsibility with their parents to follow the study, even though in the different situations. And the lecturer also does not want his students do that because of the responsibility to teach them. If he wants, he can give command to his students to sign all blocks attendance list without studies. That is not given because his responsibility as a lecturer. So, he have initiative invited his students to follow that conference. Even though, the materials are not relevance with the subject. But, all of that did in order to the students can get knowledge, minimal little from the conveyed materials.