Deontological and Utilitarianism Ethics - Essay Example

Deontological and Utilitarianism Ethics Ethics is the system or a set of moral principles that influence an individual to make choices based on his or her various motives and the resultant ends of that choices.At first, deontology and utilitarian do not seem compatible as applied in business ethics. These two theories are polar opposite. The theory of deontology states that as business people, we are morally obliged to act in accordance with a certain set of principle or rules regardless of the outcome. Deontology approach to ethics regards molarity as a duty, or a moral rule that ought to be followed. While the theory of utilitarian the approach of ethics there is consequence of the act taken, deontology accounts for the molarity of principle not of consequences. Moreover, deontology resides in reason not in utility-providing feelings. On the other hand, utilitarianism allows individual agents to have moral preferences and to act in the interest of others; it states that when an action toward other people generates a net utility gain for the individual, then that is the best action to take. Utilitarian ethics is not concern with what to do or not to regardless the action yield net utility gain to most of people. According to utilitarian approach, we should take the action that yield the best consequences and the best consequences should be happiness or pleasure. Therefore, an action can be moral or immoral and its morality principle is guided by the consequences. Utilitarianism and Deontology Approach on business ethics Utilitarian approach on business ethics has raised specific ethical dilemma that has arises within accounting leading to development of utilitarian conflict. Utilitarian emphasizes on the greater good to be accomplished by business people as long it yields pleasure of happiness to people hence it has been attributed to explain various dilemma that faces businesses by addressing the idea of maximizing the greatest amount of utility (good) for the largest number of people .The relationship to ethics is applied in the definition where an ethical act performed and majority of individuals are happy and receive a benefit should be the best ethic to practice. Therefore, it is observed that personal responsibility and ethics lose importance it does not put into account many of the principles upon which accounting and ethics are founded. It is therefore, viewed as “incomplete statements of generalized moral commitment thus providing little practical guidance when agents are confronted with difficult issues that decides the outcome of the future (Dubbink 207). It has principles that are subjective and not adequate to form the basis of one’s moral and ethical values hence utilitarianism does not act as a solid system for business use. Additionally, its idea of utility, conflicts not only with fundamental found in accounting but also with the foundations of Christian faith. On the other hand, utilitarianism answers the dilemma facing a business by accounting that the end ultimately justifies the means (Bentham 280). This emphasis rises up various areas of ethical conflict. Utilitarianism is sub-divided into a number of variant forms. Among these forms are act, rule, and negative and preference utilitarianism. a) Act Utilitarianism Act utilitarianism advises us to judge each individual action on outcome or result alone. If there is choice among actions, one should choose the action that yield the most happiness or utility for the most people. b) Rule Utilitarianism It tries to resolve the moral problem associated with Act utilitarianism wrong choice that does to portray justice, freedom or fairness. It is necessarily concern with assessing the utility of a rule for action rather than the individual act. It advises for maximizing the action that maximize utility, happiness and benefit to most people. Contrary, this form of utilitarian is criticized because it advocates following general rule that often decreases happiness for the people directly involved hence failing to meet the basic requirement for utilitarianism. Utilitarian argue that exceptions can be made to the rules where breaking the rule would lead to increased happiness. Therefore, this appears to render the rules meaningless and revert to simple act utilitarianism. c) Negative Utilitarianism Negative utilitarianism acts contrary to other types of utilitarianism that tend to be fixed on promoting the greatest good for the greatest number. Negative utilitarianism focuses on promoting the least number of evil or harm for the greatest number. Most people view this type of utilitarianism a more effective ethical theory because there are more ways to do harm than doing good and the greatest harm have more serious consequences than the greatest good. d) Preference Utilitarianism This type of utilitarianism defines the good to be maximized is in accordance to fulfillment of people’s preferences. It considers the right action as the one that produces the best consequences while the best consequences are those that satisfy personal preferences that include a variety of goods or values besides pleasure. On the other hand, deontological approach to ethics regards morality as a duty or a moral rule that should be followed. Deontological ethics is all about following universal norms that prescribe what people should do how they should conduct themselves and determine what is right or wrong. Deontological ethics locates morality in universal moral rules even when they imply a reduction in utility. As a result, the rule converge economic behavior to enhance negative freedom or to promote positive freedom. Deontological ethics emphasizes that, it is the morality of principle and not their consequences that prescribe the behavior of people in every action. It is therefore, the duty of individuals to reside in reason and not in utility-providing feelings because reason is considered as the source of moral rules expressed through the individual will. Utilitarianism is traditionally more goal and group-oriented than other philosophical views that may be based on theories of justice (Premeaux 576). Research has condemned this attribute from an individual mentality to a group mindset because there are results showing that large corporate have failed as a result of a mix of both individual and contextual factors in comparison to a few individuals who lack ethical values. While utilitarian emphasizes on a certain rule or ethic that everyone has to follow as a mandatory, Christians highly criticizes such believe. Utilitarian acts as a contradiction to the deontology approach of business ethic as it does not harm incentives as people voluntarily follow a universal moral rule. It also emphasizes that morality is a matter of finding the right rule and it should not be affected by desire, weakness of will or laziness. Therefore, contrary to utilitarianism that emphasizes on the end result and not the process to get that result, deontology emphasizes that moral rule should always be followed as a duty or a responsibility and not as a command although there is need to back it up by use of authority. Therefore, following rules does not necessarily lead to disincentives to produce as people are led by the agreed moral rule and not by their desires. Moreover, utilitarian focuses on the future goal or achievement without putting into considerations moral rights and ethics to be used to achieve the goal or objective regardless of whether the ethics portrays justice or not. On the other hand, deontology constrains to moral rule that enhance negative freedom or promote positive freedom where in both cases, moral rules seek to realize some form of justice in the economy either by offering equal participation in the role or duty allocated or by ensuring a decent livelihood for everyone through redistribution (Mill 243). Utilitarianism emphasizes greatly on performing the ethical practice that deems to maximize the greatest amount of utility or good to the recipient without considering the principle of personal responsibility and ethics to everyone. All that matters a lot is the consequences or the result of the ethics that is regarded to result to maximum happiness or pleasure. Contrary, deontological ethics regards morality as a duty or as a moral rule that ought to be followed. It is about following a universal norm prescribed by all people to guide their morality. Unlike utilitarian, deontology resides in reasons and not utility to provide feelings. Reasoning is found to be the source of moral value and not the action where it is based on the morality of principles and not the consequences as it is the case with the utilitarianism. Therefore, greatest happiness of the greatest number of people leaves minorities in any society at a distinct disadvantage. Moreover, deontological ethics views a moral problem as a rational problem that affects every individual and everyone has the obligation to be involved in finding the right moral rule. Contrary, utilitarian approach on ethics is mainly focuses on consequences and results, which is the central to consequentialist theories hence neglects motives and intention. By maximizing what result to have greatest utility and benefit to people it dismisses their significances for determining the right or the wrong action. This theory focuses on the consequences and not the processes that can lead to the consequences and although it is useful to operation of a business since it mainly focuses on the goal or result of something by the effort of a group and not as an individual and it does not practice justice. On the other hand, in case of failure, the failure is associated with the mix of a group and the individual and the individual contribute very little to the operation of the corporate because it is subjected to permitting intuitively wrong acts hence lack of freedom, justice and fairness. An example cited is that of employing child as labors to pay cheap fee so as to realize more profit. This shows the main consequence is to realize profit to appease the owner or other stakeholders without putting into consideration the effect of child labor. This theory does not consider the means to use in order to realize profit. While utilitarianism depends on certain individual or group to make certain vital decisions, Christianity and deontological moral theories place the Lord as the ultimate to make judgments and provide the greatest happiness for everyone in the world. while utilitarianism holds that the greatest good is the one that yield benefits to the most people in the society regardless of whether the action violates the rule of moral ethics issue, deontological ethics consider the highest good as the good will that is morally right action to carry out with a sense of duty or responsibility and practices justice to all people (Humber 177-190). Although deontology and utilitarianism theories of ethics most of the time does not work together, there are some situations where the two theories act mutually to the benefit of a corporate organization. For example, deontological ethics helps individuals in an organization to maintain a high degree of moral and personal responsibility. As a result, through utilitarianism that emphasizes on vision and long-term goals of an organization an organization is likely to achieve its goals through providing a friendly environment to support group functioning. On the other hand, despite the various negative implications that absence of personal moral responsibility caused by the utilitarianism approach ethics, deontological ethics helps the stakeholders of an organization to adhere to strong ethical values that can cause a positive impact to the organization hence can still be able to realize its goals as a result of teamwork. Moreover, since deontological is duty-centered and utilitarianism is result-centered, both work interdependently such that enhancing of employees duty or responsibility will help an organization to achieve positive result such as more profit because the performance of work is enhanced and group work is promoted by the former theory. Additionally, the focal point of utilitarianism is that pleasure and pain are the primary bases for ethical decisions and through deontological ethics, the emphasis of decision making must be done between an individual’s moral values and the greater good that is presented with a choice by the deontological ethics theory. Therefore, an individual has the freedom to choose between doing good or bad according to the maximum utility derived from any of the choice made (Sullivan 132-140). Both deontological and utilitarianism ethics are used in making compact decisions within an organization. The way a business organization treats its employees, consumers and the society are implied the total practice of these two theories of ethics. Issues may be problematic depending on the different feelings that they evoke to people. Therefore, it is important for the business organization to actively include ethical idea to deal with different issues that affects the stakeholders of the organization in order to have controlled reaction. Situations that are ambiguous and uncertain brings a process of sense making and issue construction through which people frame the situational and create a rational accounts that enable them to take an action. Therefore, businesses faced by such situation need to apply both deontological and utilitarianism approach on ethics in order to find a solution that revives cooperation in the way stakeholders relate in the business organization. Works Cited Bentham, Fritzsche, D.J. Personal Values Influencee on the Ethical Dimensions of Decision Making.Journal of Business Ethics, (2007). Dubbink, Snoeyenbos, M. and Humber, J. Utilitarianism and Business Ethics, in Companion to Business Ethics. London: Blackwell Press, (2002). Print Premeaux, Mill, J.S.Utilitarianism.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (1957). Print Sullivan, R.J. Immanuel Kants Moral Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University press, (1989). Print Read More