The Different Normative Ethical Theories commonly used in Business decision making
Module 2
Lesson Structure:
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
The Machiavellian Principles
Utilitarianism
The Principles of Rights and Virtues: The Kantian Ethics
Lesson Structure:
John Rawls’ Principle of Justice
The Moral Positivism of Hobbes
Divine Command Ethics
Learning Objectives:
Describe the Different Normative Ethical Theories Commonly Used in Business
Understand the Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
Identify the Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
Learning Objectives:
Explain the different stages of Kholberg’s Moral Development
Describe The Machiavellian Principles
Define Utilitarianism
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development states that we progress through three
levels of moral thinking that build on our cognitive development.
Kohlberg identified three levels of moral reasoning:
pre-conventional,
conventional, and
post-conventional.
Each level is associated with increasingly complex stages of moral development.
LEVEL 1: PRE CONVENTIONAL
At the pre-conventional level, we don’t have a personal code of morality.
LEVEL 1: PRE CONVENTIONAL
Instead, our moral code is shaped by the standards of adults and the consequences of
following or breaking their rules.
• Stage 1. Obedience and Punishment Orientation. The child/individual is good in order to
avoid being punished. If a person is punished, they must have done wrong.
• Stage 2. Individualism and Exchange. At this stage, children recognize that there is not just
one right view that is handed down by the authorities. Different individuals have different
viewpoints.
Level 2: Conventional
At the conventional level (most adolescents and adults), we begin to internalize the
moral standards of valued adult role models.
• Stage 3. Good Interpersonal Relationships.
The child/individual is good in order to be seen as being a good person by others. Therefore,
answers relate to the approval of others.
•Stage 4. Maintaining the Social Order.
The child/individual becomes aware of the wider rules of society, so judgments concern obeying
the rules in order to uphold the law and to avoid guilt.
LEVEL 3:Post-conventional
Individual judgment is based on self-chosen principles, and moral reasoning is
based on individual rights and justice.
LEVEL 3:Post-conventional
According to Kohlberg this level of moral reasoning is as far as most people get.
• Stage 5. Social Contract and Individual Rights.
The child/individual becomes aware that while rules/laws might exist for the good of the
greatest number, there are times when they will work against the interest of particular
individuals.
• Stage 6. Universal Principles. People at this stage have developed their own set of moral
guidelines which may or may not fit the law. The principles apply to everyone.
The Machiavellian Principles
Machiavellianism is the use of the general principle of 'the ends justifying the
means'.
This means the Machiavellian person considers their goals to be of prime
importance and that any method may be used to achieve them.
The more extreme the Machiavellianism, the greater the harm the person will be
ready to indirectly (or perhaps directly) inflict on others to achieve their own goals.
Niccol Machiavelli (more fully, Niccol di Bernardo dei Machiavelli) wrote 'The
Prince' (Il Principe) in 1513, during the turbulent days of the Renaissance Medicis,
as a set of pragmatic instructions to a new prince on how to gain and retain power.
Machiavelli separates public and private morality.
People in public office often need to appear to have high morals, yet to succeed they
may have to use questionable methods.
What is described now as Machiavellianism is more about individual action rather
than that of a person in political office, although politicians are often still described
as being Machiavellian.
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism hols that an action is judged based on its overall consequences.
Tracing its roots to the 18th and 19th century social and political philosophy founded
by Jeremy Betham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), it is just as
relevant in the 21st century.
In Utilitarianism, the ends of an action justify the means taken to reach those ends.
Utilitarianism is also called the consequentialist approach to ethics and social policy
– that each one should act in ways that
produce better consequences or results, regardless of the means taken to reach those
results.
“Better consequences” are results that promote human well-being such happiness, dignity,
health, integrity
freedom, and respect of all the people involved or affected.
This approach also upholds the following principles:
1. A decision is morally right if it promotes the greatest good for the greatest number of
people.
2. It is morally right if the net benefits over costs are greatest for all people affected,
compared with the net benefits over costs of all other possible choices.
3. It is morally right is its benefits are greatest for each individual and if these benefits
outweight the costs and benefits of alternatives.
Two Types of Utilitarianism
Rule-based Utilitarianism
- General principles are used in making in decision on the greatest benefit that can be
achieved from an action.
Act-based Utilitarianism
-the decisions is based on the likelihood of achieving greatest utility or good by analyzing
particular actions or behavior.
The Principle of Rights and Virtues: The Kantian Ethics
Considering the greatest good in decision-making is definitely an ethical way of
arriving at a decision, but it is also important to consider principles and not just
consequences
This explores the relationship between – legislative role creates policies and
regulations based on utilitarian principles, while judicial role enforces these laws to
achieve justice and fairness.
The second framework in this ethical philosophy is that some decisions are needed
to be made based on principles rather than consequences.
Virtue Ethics
- Can be described as the character traits that would constitute a good and
meaningful life.
Virtue Ethics
- Being happy, friendly, joyful, and calm; preserving integrity and dignity; having good
relationships; and possessing modest things are a few of the characteristic of having a
meaningful life.
Virtue Ethics
- Is grounded on character traits and emphasizes moral character in contrast to moral
rules (ideontology) or consequences of actions (consequentialist approach in Utilitarianism)
It has roots in ancient Chinese and Greek philosophy and is recognized to have been
established by Plato and Aristotle.
It focuses on the type of person you want to be, grounded on good character,
motives, and core values, and not on the actions that should be taken.
The Kantian Ethics
-These compares and contrasts rule-utilitarian and Kantian thinking about what moral
rules should be accepted and what exceptions they should allow.
It offers four considerations for thinking that the Kantian way of assessing moral
rules is more plausible than the rule-utilitarian way.
The fundamental problem is that rule-utilitarianism gives an inadequate account of
relevant moral reasons even if it does not clearly lead to counter-intuitive
conclusions.
Kantians and rule-utilitarians will no doubt agree that one should not in general
commit murder to prevent a comparable murder, but arguably this is not simply a
matter of the utility of accepting moral codes permitting or forbidding it.
John Rawls’ Principle of Justice
Rawls argues that self-interested rational persons behind the veil of ignorance
would choose two general principles of justice to structure society in the real world:
1) Principle of Equal Liberty:
- Each person has an equal right to the most extensive liberties compatible with similar
liberties for all. (Egalitarian.)
2.) Difference Principle:
-Social and economic inequalities should be arranged so that they are both (a) to the
greatest benefit of the least advantaged persons, and
(b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of equality of opportunity.
What does the Difference Principle mean?
It means that society may undertake projects that require giving some persons more
power, income, status, etc. than others, e.g., paying accountants and upper-level managers
more
than assembly-line operatives, provided that the following conditions are met:
The Moral Positivism of Hobbes
The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is best known for his political
thought, and deservedly so. His vision of the world is strikingly original and still
relevant to contemporary politics.
His main concern is the problem of social and political order: how human beings
can live together in peace and avoid the danger and fear of civil conflict.
He poses stark alternatives: we should give our obedience to an unaccountable
sovereign (a person or group empowered to decide every social and political issue).
Otherwise what awaits us is a state of nature that closely resembles civil war – a
situation of universal insecurity, where all have reason to fear violent death and
where rewarding human cooperation is all but impossible.
Religion or Divine Command Theory
-Religion is often considered the most widely used system to make ethical decisions and to
conduct moral reasoning (Pollock, 2007). Throughout the world, people rely on a variety of
religions to help them determine the most ethical action to take.
-While divine command theory is widely used throughout the world, there are differences:
the application of the theory may differ from religion to religion, and it may differ within
each religion.
-One of the basic tenets for divine command theory is to use God as the source for all
principles.
-One of the basic tenets for divine command theory is to use God as the source for all
principles.
-In this way, to rely upon divine command theory, a person must believe that there is a
willful and rational god that has provided the direction toward an ethical outcome.
-It is from God’s commands that actions are determined to be right or wrong and, because
of this, divine command theory provides an objective assessment of what is ethical or
moral.
According to Pollock (2007), there are four assumptions of divine command theory:
There is a god.
God commands and forbids certain acts.
An action is right if God commands it.
People ascertain what God commands or forbids.
Divine command theory also provides an explanation of why ethics and morality are
so important.