Deontology Should Govern Decision Making in Business

accede OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2 2. Decision qualification in condescension 2 3. Characteristics of deontology . 3 4. Arguments in favour of applying deontology in business 4 5. Arguments against applying deontology in business 6. Conclusion 9 References 9 Deontology should command closing making in business. Discuss. 1. Introduction Boylan (2000 2) refers to morals as the science concerning the dear and incorrectly of human action. Teleology and deontology be the two major schools of thought that dominate respect able closing-making in the background of business.Teleology refers to consequences and is founded on the article of belief of utility maximisation. This concept judges behaviour by its effects on the boilersuit welf atomic number 18 of all stakeholders. Deontology, on the other(a) hand, views consequences as secondary. Under this philosophy, decisions and acts be evaluated in ground of their essential worth. Deontology is more demanding than teleology, beca practice it rates decisions and acts in absolute terms. For example, even if a decision or action satisfies the tower of the majority, deontology would reject that articular option if, as a result of it, a minority of stakeholders argon likely to suffer. 2. Decision making in business When business firms argon charged with infractions, and when there is legal investigation on the managers of those firms, there is a concern raised about moral behavior in business. Hence, the direct of trust, which is iodine of the foundations of the business environment, is threatened. In fact, managers often save to make decisions under economic, professional and affable pressure. The decision-making surgical procedure entrust al shipway present ethical challenges. Is this the right thing to do?This question is the essence of the ethical dilemma for any decision manufacturer in todays corporations. A collection of factors go out be taken in consideration in answering to this question . Is it right for the company? Is it right for the shareholders? Is it right for the auberge? For the customers? For the decision maker himself? Indeed, business people arrive many sources of ethical theories to choose from when making decisions. Each moral system gives a unique perspective on different situations. Managers and business owners use these guidelines to act in fair and socially responsible ways.The ground rules about which a decision maker will care are hence highly dependent on the moral approach. 3. Characteristics of deontology Deontology bases itself on the unalienable worth of the decision or act. No allowance is made for unethical conduct under this philosophy. A business manager, who accepts deontology, will hold that some moral principles are binding, regardless of the consequences. Deontological morality is the opposite of important ethics. The moral person does his craft regardless of the consequences.If a manager takes a deontological approach to ethic s, he defines his duty by asking What is the universal principle to be followed? Deontological ethics refers to an established source of ethics guidance, such(prenominal) as industry standard or an official code of company conduct. In fact, Immanuel Kant refined deontological ethics and posited that the nature of morality is to do stars duty even when we are not disposed(p) to do it, and not because we are afraid of the consequences of not doing it. Kant referred to deontology as the categorical commanding.Under this principle, a moral imperative essential be categorical or absolute, providing a lasting motive to adopt a incident course of action, categorized as right or ethical. The rationale after part the principle of deontology is that each action has intrinsic worth and unconditional value. Ferrell et al. (2008) refer to deontology as non-consequentialism, ethical formalism, or ethics of respect-for-persons. The principle of deontology states that decisions should be judg ed on the circumstances in which they are made, rather than by their consequences.Deontology is the study of duty. In philosophy, it heart and soul specifically ethics based on duty regardless of consequences. Deontological ethics refers to rules stated in terms of other features of the courses of action, notably whether they represent fulfillment of an agreement or other duty or right, and/or involve the treatment of others with due respect. Since human beings have free will and thus are able to act from laws required by understanding, Kant believed they have dignity or a value beyond price. frankincense, one human being cannot use another simply to satisfy his or her own interests.This is the core acumen behind Kants second formula of the categorical imperative Always treat the humanity in a person as an end and never as a means merely. What are the implications of this formulation of the categorical imperative for business? 4. Arguments in favour of applying deontology in bu siness The deontological theory states that people should bond to their obligations and duties when analyzing an ethical dilemma. This means that the person will take into consideration his obligations to other people involved and the society at large when taking a decision thus fulfilling his duty which is considered ethically correct.A deontologist will never break a promise made to other parties. He will never to do something that is against the law. Thus a deontologist will be very consistent in his decision making which will be based on duty of the individual. Deontology get outs the basis for special duty towards other individuals like your family members. For example, older children have a special duty of protection and care for their younger siblings, in the absence of parents older children are expected to take due care of the younger ones preventing them in doing things that may cause harm to themselvesDeontology similarly praises those who do an act of supererogation t his is when someone exceeds his duties and obligations towards other persons or the society at large. For example, in case of a make off in a building, someone may go inside the building on fire risking his own life to save the lives of others. His duty would have been to call the fire services where fireman are equipped to handle this situation but instead of waiting for the firemen , he exceeds his duty by save other people himself. It should be pointed out that the respect for persons principle does not prohibit commercial transactions.No one is used as merely a means in a voluntary economic supercede where both parties benefit. What this formulation of the categorical imperative does do is to put some constraints on the nature of economic transactions. Another concern about contemporary business practice is the extent to which employees have very express mail knowledge about the affairs of the company. In an economic view, a Kantian approach to business ethics terminology, t here is high information asymmetry amid concern and the employees.Wherever one side has information that it keeps from other side, there is a severe temptation for abuse of power and deception. A Kantian would look for ways to reduce the information asymmetry between perplexity and employees. In practical terms, a Kantian would avow the practice known as open keep back management. The adoption of practices like open book management would go far toward correcting the asymmetrical information that managers possess, a situation that promotes abuse of power and deception. Open book management lso enhances employee self-respect. For a Kantian, meaningful work * is freely chosen and provides opportunities for the actor to exercise autonomy on the job * supports the autonomy and understanding of human beings work that lessens autonomy or that undermines rationality is immoral * provides a salary satisfactory to exercise independence and provide for physical wellbeing and the satisfa ction of some of the workers desires * enables a worker to develop rational capacities and * does not interfere with a workers moral development. . Arguments against applying deontology in business Management, by definition, is the planning, leading, organizing and controlling available resources to extend to goals and objectives. Hence, one of the basic functions of management, controlling, is harmonize to Harold Koontz, the measurement and correction of performance in order to make sure that enterprise objectives and the plans devised to attain them are accomplished. Consequently, it is largely based on outcomes and accountability of the business.Managers are therefore required to be accountable towards achieving their objectives and one of the ways to achieve this is by analyzing whether their actions are in line with expected outcomes and henceforth shift their future decision making process accordingly. In fact, this function is considered as one of the fundamental construct ion of management and deriving from this will give rise to a major shortcoming in management decisions. Relying on universalism and good will of managers will not be enough in management decision making to achieve the vision, goals and objectives set by the organisation.Deontology requires that managers decisions be based on duty instead of consequences and must be followed for its own sake irrespective of the outcome. Such stance is considered as inflexible. It should be noted that norms spay from culture to culture, society to society and even people to people. Consequently having a rigid stance in respect of decisions may not be the best initiative for managers. The definition of right and wrong will depend on the culture, individual or historical period.Decisions taken in particular societies might be considered as ethical while in others as non-ethical. In this context, it is easier to understand why, when faced with the requirement to consume a model of how we ought to live our lives, many people choose the supposition of ethical relativism, where that ethical principles are defined by the traditions of their society, their personal opinions, and the circumstances of the present moment. The idea of relativism implies some degree of flexibility as opposed to strict black-and-white rules.From this perspective, it is better for managers to base their decision as a result of interactions with individuals and social institutions. Moreover, by definition an administration comprise a group of people with common objectives. No organization would be able to survive without its people such as owners who risk their money in the business, employees who provide the mental and physical efforts required for successful working of the business or managers who are involved in the daily operations of the organization.Managers know that without its people there wont be any organization. Hence, recognizing the bet of such stakeholders is sometimes fundamental for the su rvival of the company. Sticking to a rule based approach as proposed by deontology might not help in certain cases where human resource for instance is involved. economic aid based-theorists seek solutions to ethical challenges on a case-by-case basis. To do otherwise means applying a vocal instrument across all situations (Hovland & Wolburg, 2012).They recognize that their approach requires stepping out of a comfort zone of inerrant rules, but because it is grounded in human relationships, their approach is more likely to find solutions based on forthrightness (Hovland & Wolburg, 2012). Care-based theorists assume that humans are interdependent and need others for survival (Tronto 1993), that moral reason involves the interplay between emotions and reason (Noddings 2003 Held 1993), and that moral solutions must work for people within the context in which they live (Slattery et al. n press). In 1970, Nobel Prize winning economist, Milton Friedman published an article under the p rovocative title The social responsibility of business is to increase profits where he posited that the managers fiduciary responsibility is to make profits since it is the main reason behind the setting up of firms. He added that distancing from such objectives would simply mean a theft towards shareholders(Crane and Matten 2004).Hence, he smartly favoured the philosophy that firms should only(prenominal) aim towards profit maximizing and any other responsibility can only be considered if firms achieve their main objective. If we look at the ethical egoism principle which stipulates that it is necessary and sufficient for an action to be morally right that it maximize ones self-interest, we can see that there is link between these two philosophies. Egoism differs in content from deontological theories such as Kantianism which give weight to the interests of others (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2012).Abiding to deontology in decision making and favouring any other considerations than t hat of the shareholders own interests would simply mean drawing away from ethical egoism and hence would considered as a theft out of their pocket. On the other hand, Edward Freeman, who was one of the founding fathers of the stakeholder theory, challenged the idea of Friedman that the main responsibility of business was to maximize profits without any considerations for the interests of all those affected by the business, including customers, suppliers, employees, and, of course, stockholders.There are two principles underlying the stakeholder theory (Crane and Matten 2004) * Principle of corporate rights which requires that a corporation should not violate the rights of others to achieve theirs and * Principle of corporate effect which requires that business should be accountable of the effect or impact on other parties. However, if we analyze the second principle, it is clear that it is drawn from the utilitarianism philosophy which considers morality on the basis of consequences of actions and the maximization of good to all sections of the society (Greenwood and De Cieri, 2005).Based on this principle of corporate effect, making decisions only on a sense of duty or universal principles may not necessarily give rise to the sterling(prenominal) good to the greatest number of parties and will be in contradiction to the Stakeholder Theory. 6. Conclusion The perceived weaknesses of deontological theories have lead some scholars to consider how to eliminate or at least reduce those weaknesses while preserving deontologys advantages. 1 way to do this is to embrace both consequentialism and deontology, combining them into some kind of a mixed theory.Given the differing notions of rationality underlying each kind of theory, this is however a difficult task. References Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Center for the Study of phraseology and Information, StanfordUniversity, Stanford,CA94305 http//www. bio. davidson. edu/people/kabernd/indep/carainbow/Theorie s. htm http//atheism. about. com/od/ethicalsystems/a/Deontological. htm http//www. ehow. com/about_6686029_role-business-ethics-decision- king. htmlixzz2AatMlvUJ