Ethical Theories: the Makeup of Ethical Decision-Making

Ethical Theories: The Makeup of Ethical Decision-Making

The composition of ethics has been a philosophical question for thousands of years and in the last few decades; they have become a point of corporate concern as well. The lack of ethics in corporate America has become a major area of analysis in the business world, due to very public and wide spread unethical, illegal, and fraudulent business practices. However, business ethics do not simply stop at what is deemed legal. An analysis of what ethics are, the different philosophies, ethical theories, and ethical guidelines is important to truly implement ethical decisions in the organizational behavior of our business and personal practices.

There have been many different ethical theories provided by scholars trying to immortalize what it means to be “ethical”. Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvard, (2010) presented four theories which are among the most important: “Rights theory, Justice Theory, Utilitarianism, and Profit Maximization theory” (p. 93- 97). These four theories all have their unique different advantages and disadvantages in implementing ethical behavior.

Rights theory, as viewed by the philosopher Immanuel Kant, stated ethical behavior as being behavior which when performed would become “universal law” and judging it based on its merit as universal law (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvard, 2010, p. 94). These views have been modified to account for the fact that some ethical dilemmas are more imperative or take precedent over others. For example, speeding is illegal and would be wrong if made a universal law. However, speeding on the way to the hospital with a mortally wounded individual would conceivably take precedent over the ethical need to obey the speed limit. Rights theory, while protecting fundamental rights, falls short in distinguishing between which rights are protected and the order of importance regarding various rights and ethical dilemmas (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvard,...