...ethics tries to come up with solutions to handle problems that arise within the business environment. On the contrary belief, one should not be confused with the meaning of morality and ethical theory. Morality has got to do with principles or rules that are used by people to decide between wrong and right (Jennings, 2008). Meanwhile, ethical theory tends to provide guidelines that justify an action to be right or wrong when settling human conflicts. This paper is going to discuss five different ethical theories. They consist of the utilitarianism, Kantian deontology, justice, rights and ethical relativism theories. After that, these ethical concepts will be used to identify some of the ethical issues that are presented in the article entitled ‘News of the World: What was it like on the inside?’ Finally, this paper is also going to come to a conclusion regarding the effectiveness of business theories and practices. Part A Ethical theories Utilitarianism: The utilitarian theory insists that an action is considered to be right or wrong based on the consequences of the action and its effects on majority of the people .This means that an action or practice is ethically correct when it produces more positive consequences in comparison to negative ones to those who...
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...behind Absolutist and Relativist ethics. The Absolutist theory is that certain actions are right or wrong from an objective point of view; it doesn’t change according to culture. People are considered to have rational and self-determination – it means they are capable of making choices and acting upon them. So, someone who looks at something from a absolutist point of view doesn’t look at the result or the consequence of an action but the action itself, (they disregard the context of the act) actions are fundamentally right or wrong which means they are right or wrong in themselves. This approach to ethics is known as ‘deontological’. This has often been based on two different ethical theories Kantianism; the view that the only intrinsically good thing is a good will and utilitarianism; that the morally best action is the one that makes the most overall happiness. Religious views of ethics often come from an absolutist view. Moral absolutism may be understood in a strictly secular context, as in many forms of deontological moral rationalism. However, many religions have morally absolutist positions as well, regarding their system of morality as deriving from divine commands. Therefore, they regard such a moral system as absolute, (usually) perfect, and unchangeable. Many secular philosophies also take a morally absolutist stance, arguing that absolute laws of morality are inherent in the nature of human beings, the nature of life in general, or the universe itself. For example...
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...Source: CHRYSSIDES, GEORGE D. and KALER, JOHN H. (1993). An Introduction to Business Ethics. London: Chapman and Hall. Pages 79−106, 143‒146. [The text is derived from a publisher’s proof, and may differ slightly from the finished book. If quoting, it is best to cite the relevant WOLF page.] CHAPTER THREE ETHICAL THEORY In the previous chapter we looked at the role of values in business and considered how business ethics was becoming part of the professionalization of business. But what exactly are ethical judgments, and how do we justify them? At first appearance this may seem a needless difficulty. After all, is it not obvious what is happening when we make ethical decisions? Do we not do so almost every day of our lives in fact? It is one thing to engage in an activity, but often quite another to state what exactly is going on when we do it. For example, someone may have a tremendous gift for selling goods to people, but may not necessarily be aware, until he or she is taught, exactly what is going on when a successful marketing strategy is put into operation. One can instinctively put into operation the classical ‘three Ps’ of marketing (attention to Product, Price and Packaging), but yet be unaware, until this is pointed out, that these are the key features of selling. In a similar way, we can make moral judgments, but yet find some difficulty in explaining exactly what is taken place when we do so. In the case of ethical judgments, the situation is...
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...for a person’s suffering, and responsibility to his medical profession. Considering these things, the doctor is clearly left in a conundrum, with his virtues giving him no clear decision to make. In another situation, a German man hides a stranger being hunted by Nazis during the Holocaust era in his home. When approached, does he stay true to his virtue of honesty and give the wanted person up? Or does he lie to keep with his virtue of non-maleficence, protecting the person in hiding from physical harm or potentially death? Then, adding even more confusion to the mix, do his patriotism and loyalty to his country override all other factors and persuade him to release the innocent stranger? Any sort of ethical approach, be it utilitarianism, Kantianism, or virtue theory, leaves a remarkable gray area from which the doctor and German each must construct what he believes to be the most ethical decision. Of all the theories, though, Aristotle’s virtue theory presents the most conflicting decision-making process of them all. Virtue theory deals more with the character of what it is to be human, than the difference between right and wrong, and furthermore, aims to answer the question “what sort of person should I be?” As with any approach to ethics, Aristotle’s theory has its critics who would say that this theory is a failure for not providing a clear solution to the conflict where other approaches would be able to more efficiently and concisely resolve the issue. Determining which...
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