This A* (35/40) A-Level Religious Studies - Ethics - Business ethics essay is a great revision and learning resource to students. It covers key content and wider knowledge and thinkers on Business Ethics, Kantian Ethics and Utilitarianism, while showing the necessary exam techniques such as analysi...
Ethics Assessment – Lara Machin
‘Kantian ethics provides the best approach to business ethics.’ Discuss.
Kantian ethics is a form of deontological ethics which focuses more on actions rather than
consequences. For Kant, the essence of morality is goodwill, and reason is at the centre of
morality. This means that goodwill must overcome emotion. Furthermore, duty is a crucial
element to the doctrine as it provides moral motivation. The key principle of Kantian ethics is
the Categorical Imperative which has three formulations: universal law, means to an end and
the kingdom of ends. Ultimately, under Kantian ethics one must think of how ones fully
rational self would act. Business ethics concerns corporate social responsibility (CSR),
whistleblowing, globalisation and the relationship between businesses, consumers and
employees and Kantian ethics can be applied to these issues, but with a limited amount of
success due to this ethics’ absolute nature and other attributes.
Due to the nature of businesses and their desire for profit maximisation, Kantian ethics fails
to be the best approach to business ethics due to its strict, absolute nature of its maxims
such as the means to an end. The concept of CSR is that corporations should be held
accountable for their actions and treat their shareholders and stakeholders well. It is in the
firms’ best interest to abide by CSR as they have to thin f their reputation in the industry and
appear as ethical as possible to bring in customers and therefor profit. However, this concept
goes against Kantian ethics as they are then using shareholders and stakeholders as means
to an end, one of Kant’s three categorical imperatives which states that firms should treat
shareholders and stakeholders as people, not as tools to get what they want, therefore,
according to Kantian ethics, businesses should act responsible solely because this is the
right thing to do. Furthermore, CSR can become an issue relating to extrinsic ethics in
business, where firms do the right thing simply to look good and bring in customers, for
example if a baker gives the right amount of change to a young boy buying bread from the
bakery, he may be doing it simply for duty’s sake and because it is the right thing to do,
however he might be doing it in order to make his business look fair and good and bring in
new customers, thus generating increased profit, which is not permitted by Kantian ethics.
Lord Alan Sugar says, “ethical businesses are just using it for marketing”. Kantian ethics
would rightly object to extrinsic ethics as the formulation of universal law would go against
this as this immoral attitude should not be applied to every business decision; but on
balance, Kantian ethics falters when being applied to CSR in business ethics due to its
absolutist nature and the characteristics of a profit maximising firm. It is very hard for this
form of ethics to be applied to business as there is a conflict of interest between ethics and
profit maximisation. This consequently may lead an ethicist to assume that Kantian ethics is
not the best approach when it comes to business ethics.
Kantian ethics can be used to a limited extent when applied to globalisation, a key element
of business ethics. Globalisation is the integration of business, economics, industry and
culture between different countries across the world. When business ethics is applied to
globalisation, some issues arise regarding the fact that some trans-national corporations
(TNCs) abuse the increased communications and transport to low-income countries (LICs)
and hire workers in countries where wages are lower and there are minimal health and
safety measures, this creates issues as to the abuse of power and human rights laws
regardless of the fact that it might generate employment opportunities in the area. A key
example of this would be the Rana Plaza sweatshop collapse in 2013, killing 1000 people
and injuring another 2000. This sweatshop made clothes for notable brands such as Marks
and Spencer and Debenhams and the collapse of the sweatshop highlighted the
maltreatment of workers as they had to work in awful conditions with no health and safety
measurements. When Kantian ethics is applied to business ethics in regard to globalisation,
it has some benefits and can possibly set absolute guidelines to ensure the wellbeing of
employees In LICs. In ‘Business Ethics: a Kantian Perspective’, Norman Bowie suggests
that firms should adopt rules adhering to Kantian ethics such as protecting the autonomy
and rationality of every worker and operating according to the rules of justice. This provides
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