Essays on Act Utilitarianism

Introduction

“Ethical Leadership is defined as "the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement and decision-making" [and] the evidence suggests that ethical leader behavior can have important positive effects on both individual and organizational effectiveness”

Background

Ethical leaders encourage their followers to model their behaviours by communicating their standards and use rewards as well as discipline to promote suitable and unsuitable behaviours. Brown et al. (2005), who first quoted the above definition for ethical leadership, had implied implicitly that, the leader’s intent is never ...

One of the most common moral philosophies in the world today is utilitarianism. It was developed by John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism seeks to determine the moral stand of actions by looking at their effects and consequences (Mill 43). There are two different types of utilitarianism, act utilitarianism, and rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism focuses on specific individual actions, for example, the murder of a political figure. Rule utilitarianism, on the other hand, focuses on the action as a whole such as murder (Mill 44). According to the utilitarian’s, morality is supposed to better life by increasing ...

According to the utilitarianism ethical theory, all actions are right if the can promote the greatest happiness or greatest good to the greatest number of individuals. Therefore, the utilitarian urges people to make all decisions that are based on the greatest happiness of the greater population in their minds, regardless who may be worse off in the course of utilizing this approach. According to Pojman, the theory of utilitarianism has two main strengths. The first strength is that it promotes the action-guiding principle that can be applied on every occasion as long as the person's actions enhance the most ...

Part 1

Ethic in business is a crucial thing. In these paper Halliburton company is said to have been involved in corruption scandals shall be evaluated. At the same time the Wal-Mart company that has been exploiting people shall be evaluated from different perspectives as outlined.

Utilitarianism takes two dimensions, the act utilitarianism and the rule utilitarianism. The act utilitarianism has it that consequences of a single act be measured depending on how right or wrong the course of action was. The basic rule in this case is exercising the probable benefit. In this case the point of reference in every action that ...

Introduction

The topic euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide remains to be a topic of concern across various settings all around the globe. Speaking of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, this connotes to the deliberate instigation of death of an individual for the sole benefit of that individual. The scope of physician-assisted suicide can be traced back to the close of the year 1990, when Dr. Kevorkian Jack, retired pathologist utilized assisted suicide to help one of his patients (Gorsuch 24). Since this episode, the topic on assisted suicide has evolved into one of the most equivocal topics. In fact, this topic has evolved ...

Is it wrong for Advertisers to Target Children?

The debate on advertisements targeting children has raged on for some time. Companies use advertisements to make the public aware of their products in the market. The type of advert aired may have both positive and negative influence on the child. Nowadays, many children get exposed to a variety of advertisements on the different media like radio, television, the internet, and the print media as well. As a matter of fact, advertisements are available for people of all ages. However, the children have become more susceptible and in most instances, the advertisers targeting children customize their messages to influence the children. ...

‘The offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his or her public or legal undertakings’ is the legal definition of bribery. China is ranked position 80 out of 178 countries in terms of corruption; this vice is rampant and pervades way for the fast growing economy of the country. China is one of the most developed countries and it’s on its way to achieving the super power status and high economic growth in the next one decade. However, if bribery and corruption ...

Part 1.1

The title of the EPA audit policy is “Incentives for self-Policing: Discovery, Disclosure, Correction and Prevention of Violation”. The policy is developed to empower and sensitize the organizations about the need for policing themselves and earn benefits relation to environmental regulations.

Part 1.2

There are four incentives announced by the EPA for self-policing. 1. Elimination of gravity-based penalties, 2.Reduction in gravity-based penalties (75%), 3. No recommendation for criminal procedures, and 4. No routine requests for audit reports. With these benefits the organizations can be proactive in protecting the human health and environment and earn goodwill among the government agencies.

Part 1.3

Penalties proposed ...

I. Introduction There are various ethical issues that can arise in one’s workplace. For IT companies and their employees, privacy is one of the most pertinent issues that we face today. Maintaining Privacy both at the individual and company level is highly sought for, but is hard to realize. This is because it is a common scenario that the efforts by the companies to protect company information have adverse effects in the privacy of their employees and vice versa. Employees are usually concerned with the privacy of their information and personal communication within and outside the workplace. ...

Article Analysis

In this concept I will be analyzing an article by Josh Spiro titled as How to Write Code of Ethics for Business it was published in 2011. The article talks about how to write a code of ethics but firstly it starts by defining a code of ethics as a pool of principles and various practices that are believed by a business to be good and struggles to conform and live by them. Before writing a code of ethics, priorities have to be set first so as to know what the firm will expect, where to cross the line or not. Then the next ...

Introduction

The process of decision making faces ethical dilemmas that require the application of relevant theoretical foundations. The most common theoretical foundations of ethics include utilitarianism, Kant’s categorical imperative, justice as fairness and altruism. Utilitarianism theories require decisions to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people (Johnson, 1952, p.154). Kant based his theory of categorical imperative on the premise that decision makers should focus on right decisions regardless of their costs (Johnson, 1952, p.158). The proponents of the theory of justice as fairness propose that decision makers should guarantee equal rights and opportunities even in the ...

As the authors point out in the opening chapter of Moral Issues in business, "Stories of business corruption and of greed and wrongdoing in high places have always fascinated the popular press, and media interest in business ethics has never been higher" (Shaw et alt, 4). Part of this fascination must stem from humans interest in "bad new" of disasters terrorism and threats to peaceful living. Some of the interest might be a self defense mechanism that seeks to guard against unwanted circumstances that could happen in people's lives through protection themselves of the knowledge of what has happened to ...

Social psychology implies by its name that it jumps from the focus being on the individual to how the individual functions within the confines of a society. Morality, or a set code of personal conduct and defined and agreed upon notions of right and wrong are at the center of any societal concern. Kohlberg categorized moral attitudes as “the basic building block of the social psychological theories” (Kohlberg, 1963). Kohlberg agrees with psychologist McDougall that “the fundamental problem of social psychology is the moralization of the individual by the society.” This essay endeavors to explore Kohlberg’s theory of moral development ...

The ‘means and ends’ formulation of the Categorical Imperative

Immanuel Kant, the great moral philosopher, established logical principles that serve as guidelines for one’s moral actions. These guidelines are in the form of three formulations of the categorical imperative. The second of three is the “means and end” formulation, which shall be discussed in this paper.

The ‘means and end’ formulation sets the guideline for how we should treat other human beings – that is, to treat them with respect for their dignity as persons and respecting their rights in the process. This implies therefore that every human person must be treated as an end in himself and ...

Background of the Case

In 2007, Peoples Company acquired a large manufacturing plant from Lexington, Inc. The new manufacturing plant was run by one of Peoples' subsidiary companies, Choice Manufacturing LLC. They built upon the acquired management team, diversified the client base and made significant investments in the plan. Choice Manufacturing LLC has consistently exceeded expectations for Peoples Company. Since acquiring the new plant from Lexington, they have been able to attract new non-Lexington types of manufacturing. They also considered taking the company public. Choice Manufacturing was the premier business until they ran into a cash flow crisis two and a half years later. They sought ...