Chapter 3 Applying Moral Philosophies to Business Ethics

Moral Philosophy… refers to principles or rules that people use to decide what is right or wrong presents guidelines for determining how to settle conflicts in human interests guides businesspeople in formulating strategies & resolving specific ethical issues

Moral Philosophy Perspectives Teleology – Egoism – Utilitarianism Deontology The Relativist Perspective Virtue Ethics Justice Perspectives – Distributive – Procedural – Interactional

Teleology… considers an act morally right or acceptable if it produces some desired result such as pleasure, knowledge, career growth, the realization of a self interest, or utility assesses moral worth by looking at the consequences for the individual

Categories of Teleology Egoism – right or acceptable behavior defined in terms of consequences to the individual – maximizes personal interests Utilitarianism – conduct a cost/benefit analysis – determine behavior on the basis of principles of rules that promote the greatest utility rather than on an examination of each situation

Deontology… focuses on the rights of the individual, not consequences believes in equal respect and view certain behaviors as inherently right individuals have certain inherent freedoms rule deontologistconformity to general moral prinicples

The Relativist Perspective… defines ethical behavior subjectively from the experiences of individuals & groups a positive group concensus indicates that an action is considered ethical by the group acknowledges that we live in a society in which people have different views and many different

Virtue Ethics… what is moral in a given situation is not only what conventional wisdom suggests, but also what a “moral” character would deem appropriate elements include: truthfulness, trust, self control, empathy, & fairness negative virtues include: lying, cheating, fraud & corruption

Three Types of Justice… Distributive justice-an evaluation of the outcomes or results of a business relationship Procedural justice-based on the processes and activities that produce the outcomes or results Interactional justice-based on an evaluation of the communication processes used in business relationships (often based on the