Business law and ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business law and ethics - Essay Example Within such a framework, it is the understanding of the law that these stakeholders may have a less biased and more realistic interpretation for the means whereby a given firm or business can seek to maximize their own profits. Comparatively, within the United States, the manager or management of the firm has a high degree of latitude with regards to the actions and decisions that he/she can take to protect against a potential hostile takeover of his/her firm. As a means of explaining these key differentials to a greater and more complete degree, the following analysis will attempt to compare and contrast the means whereby managers within the United Kingdom and the United States are constrained by the rule of law to exhibit only certain levels of behavior in the event of a potential hostile takeover of their firm or business entity. Within the US system, the managers of the respective firm are allowed and encouraged to actively engage with regards to seeking to delineate the key bene fits and drawbacks that a potential takeover may have upon the viability of the company. By comparison, UK law specifically refuses the right of the manager to engage in such decision making strategy; rather, it places the onus of such a choice squarely upon the shoulders of the shareholders. Yet, this should not be understood to mean that takeovers in the United States are somehow shareholder â€Å"unfriendly†. ... option allows for a manager to engage in an active defense of the company’s stock if a potential takeover is denoted by the acquisition of 10-15% of a company’s stock by a hostile firm/individual. By comparison, managers within the United Kingdom are not allowed to take any â€Å"frustrating action†. This is due to the fact that the United Kingdom delineates a much more powerful focus upon the needs and rights of the respective shareholders as opposed to the United States approach which places most of the power and decision making ability upon the manager. As such, any â€Å"poison pill† option is implicitly forbidden under UK law. In short, â€Å"frustrating options†, defined as a means by which a manager of a firm can seek to disrupt the rate and extent to which a potential takeover might take place. However, what should be understood is that the strict laws that govern the level to which a firm in the United Kingdom can respond to a takeover only apply once the potential takeover is the horizon. As such, it is well within the law for the firm or entity to seek to entrench itself in a rather unassailable position prior to any of this taking place; thereby making its position much stronger and less likely to result in a predatory takeover of any sort whatsoever. Q2) Although ethics is broadly understood, the fact of the matter is that there are five traditional approaches to this topic which must be engaged with and understood in order for the student or the analyst to approach the topic with a firm level of understanding. As such, the following brief analysis will discuss each of these five traditional theories of ethics and define why each of these is important to understand and appreciate from the business perspective. Due to the fact that different points of