©1998. Traditional ethical normative theories - non-consequentialist vs. consequentialist ethics offer a certain rule or principle which one can apply to any given situation The first one, consequential ethics, states that outcomes determine ethical decisions. Consequential Ethics. You have a goal of ethical action, and the actions themselves that are means to that goal. 3.0 Business Ethics MGT503 MAIN THEORIES OF NORMATIVE ETHICS • Normative study • An investigation that attempts to reach conclusions about what things are good or bad or about what actions are right or wrong. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. The utilitarianism approach requires that you decide what course of action needs to be done and evaluate the outcomes of each action. ISSN 1052-150X. Descriptive ethical theories are based on scientific evidence describing how people tend to behave in a particular context. The virtue theory puts people in boxes based on their reputations at one point in time. Business Ethics Quarterly, Volume 8, Issue 1. They include the stockholder theory, the stakeholder theory and the social-contract theory. Broadly speaking, normative ethics can be divided into the sub-disciplines of moral theory and applied ethics. Business ethics is the written and unwritten principles and … (See the Bioethics Center for an example of activities in the area Medical Ethics). Claims that government intervention and regulation in business will promote ethics have become a common argument. Ethics of care, also called care ethics, feminist philosophical perspective that uses a relational and context-bound approach toward morality and decision making.The term ethics of care refers to ideas concerning both the nature of morality and normative ethical theory. Business ethics is a two-part notion. Normative leadership theories explain to leaders how to manage their different responsibilities, raise the moral performance inside the working group, address community needs, avoid manipulative operations and concentrate on the requirements of the followers. the idea that there are many theories about what is "right" and "wrong" (moral norms) which may be incompatible and/or incommensurable with your own personal moral norms. The three leading normative theories of business ethics are the stockholder theory, the stakeholder theory, and the social contract theory. This theory states that individuals and firms will follow ethical principles that are commonly found in society, hence the term normative, or standard, ethics. “Ethical theories in relation to business “ ASSINGMENT-1 … Slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. In scientific theories these assumptions represen… Three normative ethic theories include stockholder, stakeholder, and social contract theories. Explain the value of the data, the responsibilities of the company, and how the normative theories of business ethics are applied. Explain the value of the data, the responsibilities of the company, and how the normative theories of business ethics are applied. We distinguish moral principle from moral value: Moral value consists in respecting the principle of morality by intentions and actions. All theories (whether scientific or ethical) are built upon basic assumptions. 254-255) from your text answer discussion question 1 (p. 255). Whilst ethical theories are the rules and principles that determine between right and wrong for any given situation, Normative ethical theories propose to prescribe the morally correct way of acting. Preliminaries. Many people engaged in business activity, including accountants andlawyers, are professionals. Thus, it is an attempt to figure out what people should do or whether their current moral behavior is reasonable. 2: Using Case Study 11-1 (pp. Business ethics typically follow a normative theory. Types of Teleological Ethical Theories. Normative ethical theories are philosophical theories based on reason that tell individuals how they ought to behave. 19–42 THE NORMATIVE THEORIES OF BUSINESS ETHICS: A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED 1 John Hasnas2 Abstract: The three leading normative theories of business ethics are the stockholder theory, the stakeholder theory, and the … A Brief Definition of Business Ethics. Normative- standard, guide: P 69—Read and note the guidelines for handling obligations, ideals, effects. Numerous books and web-sites are devoted to topics such as Business Ethics, Computer Ethics, and Engineering Ethics. However, such government actions have consequences that provoke an equal, opposite negative reaction which negates any positive effects. Utilitarianism is a moral theory that implements fair choices in an effort to ensure the least amount of harm is done to all parties involved. Normative Theories of Ethics “A defensible moral judgment must be supportable by a sound moral principle”. Obligation- binding, contractual, duty to do certain things and avoid doing others Ideals- morally important goal Effects- consequences 1. Therefore, the result of a … Consequentialism splits normative ethics into two independent parts: a theory of the good, and a theory of right action. Hence, normative ethics is sometimes said to be prescriptive, rather than descriptive. These four theories fall into one of two categories. Business Ethics Wayne Norman “Business ethics” is a concise, but in many ways misleading, label for an interdis- ... normative analyses related to trade, wealth, or what we might anachronistically call ... theory of the right or the theory of the good has priority; and virtue ethicists reject B Business owners and managers can use an ethics theory they deem most appropriate for use in their operations. Ethical Egoism: The ethical egoism is a teleological theory that posits, an action is good if it produces or is likely to produce results that maximize the person’s self-interest as defined by him, even at the expense of others. Having a basic understanding of the major ethical theories will help us toward an ethical resolution learning how to articulate and justify the decision. What determines the moral standards that underlie particular theories are their basic assumptions about ethics and ethical behavior. Normative Ethics The category of normative ethics involves creating or evaluating moral standards. These basic assumptions, while themselves seldom proven, nevertheless provide the conceptual foundations that, through logical analysis, theories build their explanations upon. Normative assumptions (of a theory) determine the hierarchy of goods/values and, in this way, specify the normative morality. The theories discussed in this book are normative. 1. One of the most popular theories of normative ethics is utilitarianism. 2 The present paper is only concerned with a narrow conception of normative ethics, and it does so only from an immanent, philosophical perspective, not from a religious, transcendent one. person or group that can affect or is affected by a business organization By focusing on the outcome of each action, utilitarianism demands that you decide on what course of action based on the benefits or harm of the actions without regard to the cost of the action. Simply stated, this theory argues that what is right and wrong can be determine by utilizing a “cost-benefit” analysis. The nature of normative ethics permits individuals to rationalize the degree to which conduct, such as the silent protest by the 49ers backup quarterback, is good or bad according to standards. Business ethics refers to implementing appropriate business policies and practices with regard to arguably controversial subjects. 254-255) from your text answer discussion question 1 (p. 255). Part 2 adds in ethics—the set of moral principles that guide decisions about what is good for individuals and their society. In an effort to establish some ethical guidelines for business, three normative ethical theories have evolved in Western capitalist societies. Business ethics theories include the moral principles or codes a company implements to ensure that all individuals working in the company act with acceptable behavior. However, on certain versions of the meta-ethical view called moral realism, moral facts are both descriptive and prescriptive at the same time. Part 1 defines business—the combination of stakeholders organized to seek some objective. Normative ethics in a narrow sense, understood as moral philosophy, is part of a more comprehensive philosophy of ‘the good’ or of practical philosophy. Normative ethics is a theoretical construct to explain the appropriateness of Colin Kaepernick’s decision to conduct a silent protest before NFL games. As such, they are bound by codes ofconduct promulgated by professional societies. A few different business ethics theories exist, such as the utilitarian, rights, justice, common good and virtue … pp. 2: Using Case Study 11-1 (pp. The stakeholder theory, in contrast, is widely accepted, and the social contract theory appears to be gaining increasing adherents. 5. Many firms also havedetailed codes of conduct, developed and enforced by teams of ethicsand compliance personnel. If ethics is widely regarded as the most accessible branch of philosophy, it is so because many of its presuppositions are self-evident or trivial truths: All human actions, for example, serve some end or purpose; whether they are right or wrong depends on an actor’s overall aims. This section will explore various concepts and problems concerned with meta- and normative ethical theories. When learning how to resolve ethical dilemmas, it is important to be able to articulate a justifiable rationale for why we believe one decision seems right and another seems wrong. The goal is some state of the world, or some state of human minds, that does not itself involve human actions. Currently, the stockholder theory is somewhat out of favor with many members of the business ethics community. (Crane and Matten, 2010). 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