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Ethical dilemmas
Ethical decision making and behavior
Ethical decision making and behavior
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James Liang, a member of a team of Volkswagen engineers in Germany, assisted in the creation of a “clean” Diesel engine for sale in the United States. During the development of the engine, the engineers discovered they could not design an engine to meet the US Clean Air Act and satisfy customer needs. Liang and the engineers decided to create a “defeat device” (Shoenberg, Naughton, & Butters, 2016) in order to cheat the emissions testing process. Liang and his team then tried to cover up their device when US officials noticed and inquired about the discrepancies between test results and actual performance of the engines. Liang recently pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding the US government and agreed to cooperate with investigators working on this case (Tabuchi & Ewing, 2016). This ethical analysis will focus on Liang’s actions throughout the course of this scandal. This paper addresses moral questions concerning loyalty to one’s company and fractured responsibility from a viewpoint of Kantian ethics.
Kant’s ethical theory states that an act is good only if one performs the act with good intentions. An individual’s will governs good intentions, the force that animates the individual’s body and actions. In order to determine if the will is good, Kant proposed the creation and testing of a
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Therefore, defense attorneys can make the argument that Liang is not responsible for the entire scandal because a team of engineers defrauded the US government. This argument represents a use of the fractured responsibility principle. Liang, however, stated in his guilty plea that he did have knowledge of the fraudulent actions of the engineering team. Regardless of his physical involvement in the effort to bypass the Clean Air Act, Kant’s theory shows Liang acted unethically in lying about his knowledge of the team’s
This case involves the explosive nature of the Ford Pinto's fuel tank when involved in a rear-end collision. The flawed fuel tank’s structural design, led to a lawsuit and later to over one hundred civil suits as well. Engaging the examination of many concerns, most of which focused on Ford’s use of their cost-benefit analysis, showing it was less expensive to pay the court costs of the claims expected, some $49.5 million, instead of fixing the issue on each car after production, at a cost of $137 million. Leading to public disputes as to the ethics encompassing its corporate judgment to follow the internal cost-benefit.
He would start out by saying that since Liang’s intentions were to benefit himself and his company, he did not act on his good will, and did not act according to his duty of respecting the moral law. If everyone in the world did what Liang did, lie and act selfishly, then the world would cease to exist because no one would trust each other and nothing would ever get accomplished, improved, or function as it should. Utilitarian views would see Liang’s actions as morally right since the consequences of his actions provided more pleasure than pain for himself and the company that he represents. When confronted about the issues, and Liang lied to the government, he was doing so to prevent more panic and consequences on himself, while also making the company look better. If he were to tell the truth right away, which is what Kant believes is always the right choice, he probably would have been fired right away and sent to prison for fraudulently tampering with governmental data and breaking the law. Even though these things did end up happening to him eventually, utilitarians would say that since the consequences of lying and creating a device that tampered with the true results of a test made himself and the company look better than they would have if the results showed the truth, the pleasure was more than the pain and therefore was a morally right decision. One could also say
Kant conveys his beliefs by introducing the idea of a moral law. He believes there is a moral law that is to be upheld by everyone. The moral law is an unconditional principle that defines the standards of right action. Good will is a form of moral law because it’s a genuine attitude behind an action. Anything that is naturally good is morally good which sums up to be good will. Actions of good will do the right thing for the reason of simply being the right thing to do. There is no qualification, benefactor or incentive its good will and no personal gain, inclination, or happine...
Ethical behavior is behavior that a person considers to be appropriate. A person’s moral principals are shaped from birth, and developed overtime throughout the person’s life. There are many factors that can influence what a person believes whats is right, or what is wrong. Some factors are a person’s family, religious beliefs, culture, and experiences. In business it is of great importance for an employee to understand how to act ethically to prevent a company from being sued, and receiving criticism from the public while bringing in profits for the company. (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvardt, 2010) Business ethics is when ethical behavior is applied in an business environment, or by a business. There are many situations that can arise in which a person is experiencing an ethical dilemma. They have to choose between standing by their own personal ethical standards or to comply with their companies ethical standards. In some instances some have to choose whether to serve their own personal interests, or the interest of the company. In this essay I will be examining the financial events surrounding Bernie Madoff, and the events surrounding Enron.
...es show that self-interest was perused in business but not goodwill. The Executives of these companies performed unethical behavior that deliberately harmed consumers. I believe the legal system should take into consideration deliberate ethics violations based around the Kantian model suggested previously. There are many more examples including the KeySpan Energy Corporation in which companies violate ethics but the Untied States does not currently have exact laws to punish that behavior. If laws were based around theories of Kant’s rationality of goodwill and the maxims of the categorical imperative I believe that some of these violations could be punished as such and no laws would need to be reviewed or rewritten. This would serve as a deterrent to future violations and stands to benefit society. In short, it is ones duty to conduct business ethical manner.
Kant explores the good will which acts for duty’s sake, or the sole unconditional good. A good will is not good because of any proposed end, or because of what it accomplishes, but it is good in itself. The good will that is good without qualification contains both the means and the end in itself. People naturally pursue the good things in life and avoid the bad. Kant argues that these good things are either means to a further end or good ends in and of themselves.
As the turn of the 21st Century evolved, it appeared as if Adelphia Communications Corporation was on a direct path of success; unbeknownst to their investors and the public, they were in reality on a direct path of destruction instead. Unfortunately, Adelphia is not the first major company in the history of the United States’ business world to lose the trust of the American public, but it is certainly one of the most notable ones to do so. As the events surrounding the Adelphia scandal unfolded in full view of the public eye, a multitude of media outlets were there to broadcast the destruction and distrust to the masses leaving many wondering if the term “business ethics” was actually nothing more than just an oxymoron. Throughout this paper, we will discuss the events surrounding the rise and fall of the Adelphia Communications Corporation and identify two of the ethical problems associated with the scandal while applying them to the deontological framework and Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative.
Kantian ethic is based upon the well-known teaching of the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant. According to Kant, an action has moral worth only if the action is done with the right intentions out of a “sense of duty.” I believe that Kant’s formulation of humanity requires for us human beings to not thread merely as a means to an end. As the saying goes “do unto others as you would have them do unto you. “For Kant, individuals are intelligent beings who has the mental capability to think for themselves and make choices” Despite our choices made, they should be done with a motive right intention, not to appease yourself, or for a reward (MacKinnon).
Immanuel Kant, Kantian deontology, is considered a fundamental figure of modern philosophy. Of his many principles, one of the most interesting by far is that of his take on moral law and duty ethics. It is Kant’s belief that an act of duty does not stem from personal ideals, but that it should come from respect for the moral law. There is no place for personal beliefs in these values. As will later be discussed in detail, Martin, Meaningful Work, disagrees with this opinion; Martin believes personal ideals and morals play a large role. This paper will explore not only both sides of this argument, but also exactly what an act of duty is, what would be required to make an act moral, how good will plays a part, and just how important autonomy is when the laws of morality are involved.
Recall the tale of an impoverished man who steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. In the instance when two moral obligations collide, the only way to comply with one is to violate the other. No matter which course is chosen, the other must be ignored.”(Freeman, Engels & Altekruse 2004) Stealing and breaking the law challenges the philosophy of breaking the responsibility of caring for one’s family. Accountants need to think clearly, challenge the possibilities, understand the options, and acknowledge the consequences. The choice to steal bread will vary from one person to another, but as Christians, dying of hunger is more of a reward than a consequence. Accountants can learn from examples of people and companies who have been faced with pressing ethical dilemmas. Accountants can learn from Bernard Madoff and his $61 billion ponzi scheme that ruined thousands of people’s life savings (Freshman 2012), or Enron “circumventing the rules, temporarily changing or suspending the rules, and outright thievery to achieve his objectives” (Gini 2004). Knowledge about the past will lead people to make wise ethical decisions. The world can clearly see the consequences that these people and firms have undergone and do not want to follow in that path. There are responsible businesses, like Frito-Lays who have a major go green campaign. They have a better business by reducing their natural
Kant believes the morality of our action doesn’t depend on the consequences because consequences are beyond our control. According to him, what determines the morality of action is the motivation behind the action and that is called will. Kant states that there is anything “which can be regarded as good without qualification, except a good will” (7). He suggests other traits such as courage, intelligence, and fortunes and possessions such as fortune, health, and power are not good in themselves because such traits and possessions can be used to accomplish bad things if the actions are not done out of goodwill. Thus, the good motivation is the only good that is good in itself. It is the greatest good that we can have. Then, the question that arises is how do we produce good will? Kant claims that our pure reason
Overall, Kantian ethics are based on duty, and the duty is to perform universally good actions. For this form of ethics, good will is defined as the good. Kant highlights that “a good will is good…[because]
When codes of ethics are breached, positive outcomes are rare. An illustrative case is the now defunct Enron Corporation. In the movie, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the room, (Gibney A, 2005) We observed how Enron traders sham...
Both Kantian and virtue ethicists have differing views about what it takes to be a good person. Kantian ethicists believe that being a good person is strictly a matter of them having a “good will.” On the other hand, virtue ethicists believe that being a good person is a matter of having a good character, or being naturally inclined to do the right thing. Both sides provide valid arguments as to what is the most important when it comes to determining what a person good. My purpose in writing this paper is to distinguish between Kantian ethics and virtue ethics, and to then, show which theory is most accurate.
Deontology is the ethical view that some actions are morally forbidden or permitted regardless of consequences. One of the most influential deontological philosophers in history is Immanuel Kant who developed the idea of the Categorical Imperative. Kant believed that the only thing of intrinsic moral worth is a good will. Kant says in his work Morality and Rationality “The good will is not good because of what it affects or accomplishes or because of it’s adequacy to achieve some proposed end; it is good only because of it’s willing, i.e., it is good of itself”. A maxim is the generalized rule that characterizes the motives for a person’s actions. For Kant, a will that is good is one that is acting by the maxim of doing the right thing because it is right thing to do. The moral worth of an action is determined by whether or not it was acted upon out of respect for the moral law, or the Categorical Imperative. Imperatives in general imply something we ought to do however there is a distinction between categorical imperatives and hypothetical imperatives. Hypothetical imperatives are obligatory so long as we desire X. If we desire X we ought to do Y. However, categorical imperatives are not subject to conditions. The Categorical Imperative is universally binding to all rational creatures because they are rational. Kant proposes three formulations the Categorical Imperative in his Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Moral, the Universal Law formulation, Humanity or End in Itself formulation, and Kingdom of Ends formulation. In this essay, the viablity of the Universal Law formulation is tested by discussing two objections to it, mainly the idea that the moral laws are too absolute and the existence of false positives and false negatives.