Théorie d'Eddy Malou

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EGOISM : An action is morally right is it serves the interests of the actor.

For the egoist a decision is morally right if it serves the perceived interests of the agent taking the decision.

UTILITARIANISM : An act is morally right if it creates happiness and reduces pain to a greater extent than alternative acts.

Judges types of action according to the greatest happiness principle. Rules benefiting the majority

Two forms of utilitarianism : ACT Ut and Rule Ut

Ethical dilemmas can ony be resolved by calculating the benefits and harms generated by the alternatives and then acting on the best alternative.

Non consequentialist ethics

DEONTOLOGY : Argues that ethics involves identification of invariable duties which the agent is required to undertake.

Kant’s Categorical imperative

Maxim 1 : Consistency (coherence)

Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law (rules out lying because unlike truth-telling one cannot lie all the time

Maxim 2 : Human dignity

Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only (rules out manipulation and coercion)

Maxim 3 : Universality

Act only so that the will through its maxims could regard itself at the same time as universally lawgiving (everyone must be able to do this

Ethical dilemmas are rare in deontology – designed to understand the duties that they should undertake to be ethical.

RIGHTS AND JUSTICE :

Rights : Inalienable natural right should be respected and protected in every human action

Justice : The faire treatment of all individuals with the result that all receive what they deserve. The only inequality if profits the poorest.

A commitenment to human rights and justice requires the applications of …

VIRTUE ETHICS :

Requires the development of virtuous character that enables people to make better decisions rather than the application of general rules or techniques.

Striving for excellence

POST MODERN :

Criticises the idea that morality can be rational or universal.

And the seventh is FEMINISM

Ethical practice rooted in the requirements of particular relationships. Replaces abstract formulae with the practice of care and responsibility learned throught experience.

Feminist approaches to business ethics take inspiration of …

Using Ethical Theory

Crane and Matten (123-124) show that ethical dilemmas can be seen through through the ‘lens’ of a single approach to ethics:

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Lecture 3 : Descriptive ethical theories

Descriptive Ethical theory ‘describes how ethical decisions are actually made in business, and explains what factors influence the process and outcomes of those decisions (Crane and Matten, 135

These theories are not about how descisions should me made but rather how they are made. Largely based on quasi-eperimental data.

What is an ethical decision ?

ED comprise situations in which :

• Decisions are likely to have a significant effect on others (e.g. employees/consumers/suppliers)

•There are available alternative courses of action with relatively clear and different results

•The decision is perceived as having an ethical dimension (though our ability to perceive issues as having ethical dimensions is itself an aspect of decision-making

Ex : relocating production facilities // Promoting harmful products

General motors & fuel : do not reposition fuel tanks

Models of ethical decisions making

Formal models of ED making propose a rational process with identifiable and separate stages. Rest’s model (1986)

1. Recognise an ethical issue

2. Make a moral judgment on that issue (using normative theory)

3. Establish an intention to act on that judgment

4. Act according to that judgment

Research has shown that wheter decisions maker use normative standars to dertermine their decision making is influenced by two broad categories of factors:

(i) Individual factors

Demographic influences on individuals. (National culture -> individualism, authority

Education and employment

Psychological factors

a/ Cognitive Moral Development Stages (Kohlberg 1969)

-Pre-Conventional: Individuals concerned with reward and punishment

-Conventional: Individuals do what is expected by others

-Post Conventional: Individuals make decisions based on normative principles (see Crane and Matten 154 for detail)

Most business people (and others) operate at the conventional level: ‘They look up and around to see what their superiors and peers are doing and saying, and they use these cues as a guide to action’ (Treviňo and Nelson 2007 cited in Crane and Matten: 146)

(ii)Situational factors