Week 3 Discussion

What Philosophical principles did Google’s managers adopt when deciding that the benefits of operating in China outweighed the cost?

Google’s managers used the utilitarian philosophy, which is, in its most basic definition, weighing good versus bad. Utilitarianism is committed to the maximization of good and the minimization of bad. Utilitarianism weighs carefully the social benefits and cost of a business action and to purse only the actions where the benefits outweigh the cost. Google’s managers evidently saw good margin for profit and it outweighed all other issues that may arise.

According to the case study on page 154, China is a huge internet market with over 100 million users and still growing. Google decided to use self censorship into order to get into China. Google had to follow Chinese regulations that block some political sensitive topics. Google agreed to do this because of the profit potential, which seems to be an example of the Friedman doctrine. Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman states that business should behave in an ethical manner and not engage in deception and fraud. The only social responsibility of a company is to increase profits as long as the company stays within the rules of law. All of this does however go against Googles mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally acceptable and useful.

In addition, Google managers adopted other straw man approaches, including cultural relativism, naive immoralist, and righteous moralist. As mentioned previously, Google’s objective is to allow people to access all of the information in the world. However, in order to enter China market, Google has to follow Chinese regulations, which some political sensitive topics should be blocked. After weighing benefits and costs, Google agreed with Chinese regulations while entering China in 2006.  

Reference:

Hill, C., (2011). International business: Competing in the global marketplace. (8th ed.). New...