How Important is the source of ethical standards in business decision making?
A large portion of the study of ethics deals with the approach or source of the principles or standards to be used for ethical decision making in business. A number of schools of thought have developed that include the following approaches (in no specific order): • Utilitarian • Moral rights • Universalist • Cost-benefit • Fairness or justice • Common good • Virtue • Deontological (based on study of moral obligation) • Theological • Contextualist • Principle-based • As well as others The good news is that, in general, most approaches will lead to similar choices for most decisions involving ethics. There are obvious and sometimes notable exceptions, but these often involve ethical dilemmas that can only be addressed in the context of the specific decision being made.
