Ethical Theories in Business
Every day people are faced with making decisions. Employees working for an organization operate individually and for the benefit of the company. Based on some of the readings this week, several ethical theories applied in the business environment include studying the consequences of decision making to abiding by a company’s code of conduct in order to maximize the companies’ long-term growth within the confines of obeying the law. Whether a manager is forcing their associate to do something illegally or unethically, the decisions that the associate chooses will depend on the level of concern and the consequences that the associate may be faced with. Manager John Doe may inform his accountant Tom Doe to boost the figures in the companies’ financial statements in order to gain shareholder investments. This is a felony charge that disguises the companies’ real profits while reaping investments. Obviously, this is an unethical business practice that has serious consequences. In this paper, several business ethics theories will be explained. In addition, Brady and David Hart (2007), authors in the Journal of Business Ethics, explores the psychological development of business ethics, which uncovers an additional theory known as the Axiological Theory, which “regards ethics as neither duties nor goals, but as values.”
The first ethical theory is the Teleological Theory, which focuses on outcomes that are based on decisions. The theory suggests that consequences or the “end” is what should be focused on. Decisions that benefit the overall goal and or objective is collectively believed as a way to justify what is right or wrong. For example, if John Doe bribes his customer by offering incentives in order f ...