DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICAL THEORY: (KANT)

Deontological (duty-based) ethics are concerned with what people do, not with the consequences of their actions.
• Do the right thing.
• Do it because it's the right thing to do.
• Don't do wrong things.
• Avoid them because they are wrong.

Duty-based ethics teaches that some acts are right or wrong because of the sorts of things they are, and people have a duty to act accordingly, regardless of the good or bad consequences that may be produced.

Someone who follows Duty-based ethics should do the right thing, even if that produces more harm (or less good) than doing the wrong thing:
People have a duty to do the right thing, even if it produces a bad result.
So, for example, the philosopher Kant thought that it would be wrong to tell a lie in order to save a friend from a murderer.
• This is a non-consequentialist theory.
• The motivation or principle is important.
• An action can only be deemed right or wrong when the morals for taking that action are known.
There are three key maxims, or tests, for any action: an action is morally 'right' if it satisfies all three.
• Consistency: Act only according to that maxim by which you can, at the same time, desire that it should become a universal law. o The action can only be right it everyone can follow the same underlying principle.
• Human dignity: Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only.
• Universality: Act only so that through its maxims could regard itself at the same time as universally lawgiving. o Would an action be viewed by others as moral or suitable ?

Employees who exhibit a duty-based ethic usually justify their behaviors in terms of honoring company policy or satisfying their customers. Although there are more than a dozen major ethical paradigms, the duty-based