PHILIPPINE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

BUSINESS ETHICS
QUARTER 3 – MODULE 4

INTRODUCTORY MESSAGE

Welcome to the Business Ethics, Module on the Business Beyond Profit Motivation!
This module was designed and developed to assist the teacher in helping the learners to meet the
standard set by K to 12 curriculum while overcoming personal, social and economic constraint in
schooling. This was also designed to provide the learners with fun and meaningful opportunities for
guided and independent learning at the teachers and learners’ pace and time. They will enable to
process the contents of learning resources.

This module has the following parts and corresponding icons:

What I need to know This will give the students an idea of the skills or competencies they are expected
to learn in the module.

What I know This part includes an activity that aims to check what you already know about the lesson
to take. If the students get all the answers correct (100%), they may decide to skip this module.

What’s in This is a brief drill or review to help the learners link the current lesson with the previous
one.

What’s new In this portion, the new lesson will be introduced to the learners in various ways such as
a story, problem opener, an activity or a situation.

What is it This section provides a brief discussion of the lesson. It aims to help the learners discover
and understand new concepts and skills.

What’s more This comprises activities for independent practice to solidify the learners understanding
and skills of the topics.

What I have learned This includes question or blank sentence/paragraph to be filled out to process
what the learners learned from the lesson.

What I can do This section provides an activity which will help the learners apply their new knowledge
or skills into real life situations or concerns.

Assessment This task aims to evaluate the learners’ level of mastery in achieving the learning
competency.

Additional Activities In this portion another activity will be given to the learners to enrich their
knowledge or skills on the lesson learned. This also tests their retention of learned concepts.

What I need to know

As we immerse ourselves in the Business Beyond Profit Motivation, it is necessary to know some aspects
and topics that pertain in the study of doing business with the purpose that builds a brand’s reputation,
draws customers, appeals to clients, motivates and retains employee - quite simply gives everyone in
the ecosystem a solid reason to work with a company. The module shall discuss the following:

The importance of doing business beyond profit motivation. Introduction to the notion of Social
Enterprise (meeting a given social objective resolving a real social problem while making ends meet) for
poverty alleviation. Most Essential Learning Competencies after going through this module, the learners
are expected to:

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 1. explain the importance of establishing and sustaining business enterprises as source of job
opportunities and financial freedom
2. encourage employees to play active roles as decision makers in the business enterprise
3. suggest innovative ways of developing new products and service

Learning outcomes

1. Make a personal action plan in order to assist an existing small business enterprise to practice
codes of ethics and social responsibility in their business operation.
2. As a member of an organization, association or church, the learner can play an active role as a
decision maker.

Pretest:

Answer the following questions on a separate paper.

1. Explain the importance of establishing business enterprise as a source of job opportunities.

2. What is a profit motivation?
3. Explain the six reasons why business must look beyond profit?
4. Discuss the six reasons not to use profit as a primary purpose in business.
5. What is the meaning of profit is an output, not a purpose?
6. Suggest innovative ways of developing new product or service.

What’s in

The learner can choose two small business enterprises like sari-sari stores where he buys his groceries
regularly. Then compare the profit gained by Sari-Sari Store A and Sari-Sari Store B in 2018 and 2019
through personal interview to the store owners. The learner can analyze and evaluate the
performances of the two business enterprises.

What’s new

The Covid 19 pandemic that we face right now affects the profitability of the business enterprises in the
Philippines Now, the Filipinos are jobless and under employed. They work for two or three days a
week, therefore, there is a decrease in their monthly salaries. There are reports that we have now Sars
Covid 19 as experienced in UK, Singapore, Hongkong, Japan, Australia and Sabah. How can we help to
ease this problem?

What is it?

BUSINESS BEYOND PROFIT MOTIVATION

Why have purposes beyond profit business strategy?

Developing a purpose beyond profit business strategy has been gaining momentum in the business-
world, with both positive and negative attention. For decades, enterprise had “mission statements”,
“vision statements”, and “values”. Check almost any corporate website and you’ll find these “drivers” of
the business buried deep down and many clicks away from the surface. Despite having taken on these
important steps to say what their business is all about there’s often a big difference between what they
intend, and the effect they have. The fact is, these tools of business have rarely gained much.

Defining Purpose

A purpose is a more powerful and effective tool because it engages in a way that matters to a wide
range of people across an organization. It is not dry, administrative, and full of corporate jargon. It
doesn’t set a goal that feels irrelevant. Rather it is an idea that touches upon a quest for meaning and
purpose that is universal in appeal, while at the same time relevant to the business. People connect to a

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purpose. Within the purpose they see room for themselves to do something meaningful with their work
lives. They feel closer to, more aligned with, and willing to help the business. A good purpose can
radically alter the customer experience as well, as the brand gradually starts to live to its purpose and
make life better in meaningful ways. As such, products evolve to embody greater meaning, the changing
attitudes and character of the staff leads to more meaningful service, and every experience with the
brand more clearly separates what it does from its competitor is. Think of purpose as a “North Star” for
your organization, not as a marketing message. Let it help share, guide, and align the attitudes, beliefs,
and behavior of your people. Let the energy that new spirit generates create a beacon that attracts new
customers, job recruits, partners, and others to your brand.

Profit is an output, not a purpose

A business must have reason to exist beyond that of making money and maximizing shareholder’s value.
Profit cannot be the goal, vision or the purpose of an organization. An organization that posts great year
end results doesn’t automatically earn the title of being a great company.

Seeking profit as a primary business purpose is like building a house of cards or building a house on sand
– it will eventually lead to collapse (ably demonstrated by many financial institutions over the previous
months. Profit is too temporary to guide a business.

If a business’ main purpose is to make a profit, this will both lead to a lack of strategic direction and
reduced staff motivation. For employees, once they have earned the company enough to cover their
salaries, they make money for the owner of the business. That’s not a real purpose!

7 good reasons not to use profit as your primary purpose

1. Profit is an output and a symptom of success, not the cause.

2. Profit is temporary and can be wiped out in an instant.
3. In tough times, profit can be hard to come by.
4. You need more purpose than profit to make it through.
5. Profit doesn’t motivate the salaried staff who make success happen.
6. Customers don’t appreciate being seen just for their revenue.
7. Consumers are increasingly focusing on values and contribution to society when choosing who
to do business with.

Why look beyond profit?

The most powerful purpose statements look beyond profit. This means they talk only of the good the
brand seeks to create without stating the obvious goal of every business profit. It is within the context
of profit making that goodness makes a difference. People always remember the profit orientation of a
meaningful brand, but it is the meaning the brand conveys that leads people to appreciate and prefer
that brand. While it may seem counter-intuitive to not include the profit motive – after all what will
shareholders think? – the benefits are clear. Having a purpose is not about forgetting about profits, it’s
about changing how you think about the positive outcomes that happen when you make profits.

A true vision for a business rests on foundations of both purpose and values. The people within the
business have to be passionate about what they do and why they do it. The business’ goals must then
align with this foundation. Without a clear foundation, a business will never by truly strategic.

Values

A business’ core values are defined internally through a process of introspection and discovery, and are
based not on the outside but on what lies within. Core values do not change with the seasons but are
deeply held values already embedded within the DNA of an organization.

To give you some examples, core values held by a variety of well-known organizations include:
imagination; product excellence; great customer service; respect for the individual; quality; market
focus; teamwork.

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Your organization does not have to hold these values but will need to discover its own. Core values are
the handful of values that, even when push comes to shove, your business is not prepared to sacrifice to
get ahead.

Purpose

The core purpose of a business is also discovered by introspection and discovery. A business’ core
purpose is its most fundamental reason for being. By stripping away the layers of what a business does
and what motivates it, any company will discover a deeper purpose that unifies and motivates. In
essence, to discover your business’ core purpose, you could ask, “Why does this business exists?”

Again, to give you an example, the core purpose of my wife’s tutoring business is to “Help people realize
their full potential.”

Why does your business do what it does? What is the bottom line about why you make the products
you make or deliver the services you deliver?

6 good reasons for your business to look beyond profit

1. Purpose and values motivate and unify management and staff.

2. Purpose and values give a company a solid foundation from which to make decisions.
3. Purpose and values provide a navigational compass to all elements of the business.
4. Customers will have more to buy into and engage with.
5. Purpose and values encourage loyalty of both staff and customers.
6. Purpose and values encourage a strong culture and ethos within a business.

What is Profit Motivation?

Organizations can be categorized as either for profit businesses or nonprofit organizations. The first are
set up with the purpose of earning a profit through running commercial enterprises, while the second
are set up to accomplish objectives that are unrelated to earning a profit. Although both kinds of
organizations share similarities, such as receiving revenue and incurring expenses, businesses are
distinguished from nonprofit organization by “profit motivation,” meaning that they are run to earn
more revenue than expenses incurred.

Tip

Profit motive is the intention to make money from the transactions a business enters into.

The Basics of Profit

Revenue is the sum that a business earns through selling its products to its customers. In contrast,
expense is the sum that a business spends both to acquire the product that it sells and to run the
operations needed to sell the product. Revenue minus expenses equals the business’ income, meaning
the change in that business’ financial holdings. If income is positive, then it is called profit, if income is
negative, it is called loss.

Profit Motive

Profit Motive is sometimes also called “profit motivation.” It refers to the economic statement that
organizations need incentives to be persuaded to relinquish resources that are invested into operations.
Simplified, this means that organizations must expect to receive something that is worth more than
their investment before they are willing to invest. In most cases, this means that the organization
expects to earn a profit on its transactions and investments.

Profit Motive in Relation to Individuals

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Individual persons are similar to organizations in that they need sufficient incentives to be persuaded to
put their resources up for use by others. If no such incentives exist, then the individual conserves his
resources and use them for his personal benefit. For example, an employee must be compensated with
wages/salary and/or other forms of compensation, such as job benefits and experience, before being
willing to provide his labor.

Profit Motive in Relation to Businesses

Profit motive defines businesses, meaning that it is one of the core premises upon which businesses are
set up and operated. Businesses endeavor to earn the highest possible revenue at minimal expenditure
to produce the highest possible profits to be distributed to their owners and/or investors. Profit motive
is not the only guiding principle behind businesses, and it is not always the most important objective in
the short term. For example, a business might be willing to absorb lower profits and even losses in the
present to strengthen its position and increase its market share so that it can earn higher profits in the
future.

Disadvantages of a Profit Motive

Profit is the basic motivation for any business, but it has to be tempered with humanity, respect and
ethics. There is a real danger for allowing businesses to run purely based on the idea that more is
better. Without ethical regulation of companies, they can cause environmental disasters, human rights
violations and the sacrifice of worker safety. The history of the labor movement in this country has been
based, in large part, on the disadvantages of allowing businesses to thrive with a pure profit motive.
Today, companies are being inspected for their global actions, watching how they treat their employees
and the environment worldwide while doing business.

What’s more

Recall your experiences about what you have done in the past in relation to any of the following
activities.

A. Research in the internet about the subject matter like beyond profit, business core values, and
profit motive.

B. Group discussion about 6 good reasons not to use profit as primary purpose. The learner may share
their ideas.

What I have learned

Fill in the blanks. Choose the answers inside the box.

1. ________ A ____ vision for business rests on foundations of both purpose and values.
2. ________ are defined internally through a process of introspection and discovery.
3. ________ is more powerful tool because it engages in a way that matters to a wide range of
people across an organization.
4. ________ is the intention to make money from the transaction a business enters into.
5. ________ is the sum that a business earns through selling its products to its customers.
6. ________A business must have reason to exist beyond that of making money. Profit cannot
be the goal, vision, or the purpose of an organization.

CORE VALUES PURPOSE PROFIT MOTIVE

REVENUE TRUE CORE PURPOSE PROFIT IS AN OUTPUT, NOT A PURPOSE

What I can do

Call five students to explain the following statements:

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 1. The profit is an output and symptom of success, not the cause,
2. Profit is temporary and can be wiped out in an instant.
3. You need more purpose than profit to make it through.

POST TEST

Answer the following question on a separate sheet.

1. Why do you look beyond profit?

2. What is profit motivation?
3. Discuss the basics of profit.
4. Explain the profit motive in relation to individuals.
5. Explain the profit motivation in relation to business.

Resource Requirements:

Power Point Presentation on the subject matter and Case Problem

References:

Chandler, David, and William B. Werther Jr. Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders,
Globalization, and Sustainable Value Creation, Third ed. (Manila: SAGE Publishing, 2013).

Das Gupta, Ananda. Ethics, Business and Society: Managing Responsibly. (Manila: SAGE Publishing,
2010).

Maximiano, Jose Mario B. Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. (Manila: Anvil Publishing,
2007).

McNavara, Carter. Business Ethics and Social Responsibility. 2016 Free Management Library
http://managaemaenthelp.org/businessethics)

Prepared by: Checked by: Submitted to:

Belinda Millan Estrelvira Francisco Mr. Angel Alfonso

Teacher Coordinator Principal