Ethical Principles in Business

Dr. Slamet S. Sarwono (FE-UAJY)

Four Basic Kinds of Moral StandardsUtilitarianismRightsJusticeCare

1. UtilitarianismJeremy Bentham (1748-1832)sometimes called as consequentialistright action is the one that will produce the greatest net benefits or the lowest net costs, oran action is right if it produces the most utility for all persons affected by the action.

Utilitarianism (pros)government/public policies - projects that will provide the greatest benefits for the societyintuitive criteria - benefits or harms of the actionexplain why certain activities are generally wrong (lying) or right (telling the truth)economic perspective - human being always attempt to maximize utilitycost-benefit analysis efficiency (input-output)

Utilitarianism (cons/problems)difficulties to measure utility, benefit, and cost - how can utilities of different actions have for different people be measured and compared?benefits and costs cannot be reliably predicted and adequately measured violate some peoples rights (on the other hand - beneficial to most people)involve social justice

2. Rightsan individuals entitlement to somethinga right when a person is entitled to act in a certain waymay derive from legal system (legal rights) - limited to the particular jurisdiction within which the legal system is in force or a system of moral standards (moral rights) - universal, the rights of all human beingsenable individuals to choose freely whether to pursue certain interest or activities

Rightsrights identify those activities or interests that the individuals is empowered to pursue, or must be left free to pursue, or must be helped to pursue, as he or she chooses, and they protect the individuals pursuit of those interest and activities within the boundaries specified by the rights

Three Features of Rightsare tightly correlated with dutiesprovide individuals with autonomy and equality in the free pursuit of their interestsprovide a basis for justifying ones actions and for invoking the protection or aid of others

A Basis for Moral Rights: Kants Categorical Imperative - and that requires that everyone should be treated as a free person equal to everyone else. Everyone has a moral right to such treatment, and everyone has the correlative duty to treat others in this way.

A Basis for Moral Rights: Kants Categorical Imperativean action is morally right only if you would willing to have everyone act the same way in a similar situation (universal and reversible).people should never be treated only as a means to an end but as ends themselves.

Problems with Kants Categorical Imperativedifficulty in trying to determine whether or not one would be willing to have everyone follow a certain policythe limit of each rights and how each rights should be balanced against other conflicting rights.

3. Justice and Fairnessconcerned with the comparative treatment given to the members of a group when benefits and burdens are distributed, when rules and law are administered, when members of a group cooperate or compete with each other, and when people are punished for the wrong they have done or compensated for the wrong they have suffered

Justice and FairnessDistributive justice - fair distribution of societys benefits and burdensRetributive justice - just imposition of punishments and penalties upon those who do wrong (a just penalty is one that in some sense is deserved by the person who does wrong)Compensatory justice - the just way compensating people for what they lost when they were wronged by others.

Distributive JusticeJustice as Equality: EgalitarianismJustice based on Contribution: CapitalistJustice based on Needs and Abilities: SocialismJustice as Freedom: LibertarianismJustice as Fairness: Rawls

4. Ethics of Carean obligation to exercise special care toward those particular persons with whom we have valuable close relationship, particularly relationship of dependency (p. 122)identify of the self - who I am - is based on the relationships the self has with other selves

Problems: Ethics of Carenot all relationships have value and so not all would generate the duties of care (relationships that are characterized by violence, disrespect, oppress, domination)demands of caring sometimes in conflict with demand of justice