Business Morality
AIU Online
In an ever growing fast paced society with businesses popping up and flourishing comes the question to what is important, the people who work for and support the businesses or the money? For most businesses success is gauged based on product or services output and profit. This brings the question to what means brings the success? Does the business value morals? Does it display the type of ethics people expect? Businesses should operate with upstanding ethics and morals that show they value their employees as well as the consumers who are essential to the success of a business.
Do businesses have an obligation to be moral? To ask that question one is asking ...view middle of the document...
d.). Consequentialists believe that the action that provides the most positive outcome for the most people is the right action (Mohn, 2015). Others may have more of a deontological belief. Deontological ethics, or duty-based ethics, are the beliefs that people’s actions are based on rules about right and wrong. People with deontological ethics do not believe that people should weigh the outcome of their actions when they make decisions; instead, they should do what is right, no matter the consequence (Mohn, 2015). While both belief systems are normative ethical beliefs, the differences come down to the consequences of the outcomes.
Utilitarianism, the belief that an action is morally right if the overall good is greater than the overall bad, is a type of consequentialism. Notable philosophers who held this belief were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill (Board, 2015). The problems that arise with this belief are that it implies that it can sometimes be morally right to harm people if the outcome is positive and beneficial to even more people. In terms of business if one was to have utilitarian beliefs when making business decisions brings the possibility to overlook or harm employees underneath them. Things of this nature could be upsetting to overall business production. For example, management may push for higher sales or production making more profit, yet not compensating the employees for their hard work and effort. This can bring down morale affecting employees drive to produce, therefore affecting quality and quantity which affects the consumer.
Notably known for his deontological ethical theory Immanuel Kant believed that the human will is the only thing that can be good in and of itself, and is always good without qualification (Board, 2015). Kant’s theory believed that a good will would act ethically through a sense of duty. With the focus on duty Kant was able to...
