The recent business environment is marked by increased integration and enlargement. In the media and TV industries, mergers can be seen as a natural process that helps companies to create a unified network of activities and information exchange. The changes should be allowed because they will improve the productivity of the company and allow DWI to compete on a global scale. DWI employees should recognize that rapid technological changes are about to make their media products obsolete. In terms of moral philosophy, the consequences of mergers would benefit the company and its employees. Utilitarian ethics is known as consequentialism. This ethics considers an action s being morally right or wrong based solely on the outcomes that result from performing it. Mergers can be seen as the right action that brings the best consequences. The implied assumption is that the financial costs and benefits of mergers are measurable on a common numerical level and can be added and subtracted from each other (Bentham, 2000).
Following FCC regulations, further consolidation of the market will threaten the position of smaller companies and their products. Thus, the interests to consider when choosing an action are the nonegoist and unselfish ways that consider the most utility for all the employees affected by an ethics. Ethics audit allows to say that mergers and changes in telecommunication industry are permutable as they benefit media companies and allow greater flexibility of resources. It is important to note that the giant corporations in media industry have direct and indirect control over smaller companies, so FCC changes will legalize their ownership and allows the state to control their real business activity (Kotler and Lee, 2004). The business practices that violate the rule but result in beneficial actions are still considered wrong. Sherman Anti-Trust Act prohibits trusts and other forms of conspiracy cooperation considered as illegal. In this case, agreements between media companies and conspiracy relations are considered as unlawful and will be punished. To avoid such situation, the sources of the regulations and ethical principles could be either theological in the sense that the actions are stipulated as moral by a religion, or public in the sense that they are the result of a social agreement as to whether they are right or wrong. Because of the limitations of these two approaches, principles of media regulations have been adopted based on either the consequences of adopting a particular set of moral rules, or our supposed faculty of moral intuition (Donaldson et al 2002).
The legal case, Red lion Broadcasting vs FCC, shows that fairness in broadcasting should be the main priority of corporations. Thus, it is critically important for an acquiring corporation to determine the real reasons and motivations for owners to sell. Many media companies have been misled by their own wishful thinking as to what is really going on within the companies they wish to acquire. In terms of the deontological approach, the mergers in the media industry are morally wrong as they violate the rights of employees (Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC 1969). Thus, it would be morally right to allow companies to expand their business and deliver the best possible products to the end consumers. Telecommunications Act (1996) stipulates the main principles of business conduct and imposed additional obligations on media companies. The outcome of this approach is overall good and happiness, as increased productivity will benefit both the company and employees. Broadcast is governed and licensed by the government, so changes in FCC are crucial for the overall success of media companies on the international scale. Employees of the company have obligations and duties before the company, so they should perform only professional activities during business hours. In this case, mergers are the only possible way to control the market (Kotler and Lee, 2004).
In sum, mergers should be permitted by the law as they benefit the end consumers and allow companies to globalize their activities. Mergers do not mean the absence of control and legal responsibilities of the media companies. The nature of the ethical and moral decision in each of these roles evolves from the best outcomes approach either to the truth as coherence or a pragmatic view of truth in most of the other roles that recognize the nature of ethical decision-making.
References
- Bentham, J. (2000). Deontology; or, The Science of Morality. BookSurge Publishing.
- Donaldson, T., et al. (2002). Ethical Issues in Buandess, 7th edn, Upper SaddlePrentice-Hallrentice Hall.
- Kotler, Ph., Lee, N. (2004). Corporate Social ResponsibilityBeste Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause. Wiley; 1 edition.
- Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 395 U.S. 367 (1969)