An Ethical Leader's Response paper - Essay Example

The Utilitarian Approach was pioneered by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill in the 19th century, according to their approach ethical decisions are the ones that provided the greatest balance of good over evil. Following this approach, individuals or specifically managers or leaders at work goes step by step; they first organize their thoughts by making out the different courses of actions that are available to them and then raise questions themselves about which actions or alternatives selected will result in the greatest good and the least negative consequences to the parties at stake.

The ethical action is one that provides the greatest good for the greatest number1. The Rights Approach; Immanuel Kant proposed this approach and suggested that people are free to do as they wish; it tells about their right to choose for themselves and not being forced by others in direction which is against their wishes and if this happens it will be a clear cut violation of the human dignity. Some of these basic rights include the right to privacy, truth, the right not to agree, the right of not being injured etc.

When making decision using this approach managers or leaders should ask them whether anyone's rights are being hurt to make sure that rights of all are respected. The Fairness or the Justice Approach was initiated by the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle. This use of this approach makes sure that decisions made are not discriminatory or biased in any way. In fact, the question is whether they treat every one equally. The favoritism and discrimination are seen as unjust and thus any decision taken on such grounds are not at all justifiable.

The Common Good Approach unlike the rights approach looks for the benefit for the society or the community as a whole; from this approach emerges the concept of institutions and policies that favor the society as a whole rather than individuals in particular. The Virtue Approach leads to creations of ideals and role models who should be followed. These ideals represent the people we want to become. Virtues are the characteristics of a personality that leads one to act or behave in a certain manner.

An individual when making decision though is affected by the approach he follows, but there are certain factors that influence the decision making; these factors include individual differences, situational factors and lastly the issue related factors2. Personal factors influence one's ability to make judgments and also differs in respect to how much a person is sensitive to a particular issue at hand. One's cognitive moral development affects the personal factors; it depends on which stage of moral development a person is in.

There are three stages of cognitive moral development- the pre conventional, conventional and the principled level. At the pre-conventional level, which is the lowest level an individual is affected most by the societal responses that the decision will foresee, the degree of ethical involvement is determined by the desire to avoid the punishment or to receive any reward. At the intermediate level that is the conventional level, the concern for society is increased and decisions are made on the basis how they will affect others.

At the last, the principled level, a person has already developed strong moral and ethical standards that have been shaped over the years and then selects from the approaches that we