Utilitarianism Case Study

form of consequentialism; meaning that when deciding if an action is right it is entirely based on the consequences that the action will produce, relative to the consequences of other “alternative actions” (Driver, 2012). One of the most persuasive normative approaches in the history of philosophy is Utilitarianism (The History of Utilitarianism, 2009). Utilitarianism attempts to identify the morally right decision by finding the one that creates the most “happiness” for all those affected (Shaw, 2011:53).

There are two forms of Utilitarianism namely Act utilitarianism and Rule utilitarianism, the former being applied on a case-by-case basis and the latter by a utility of rules (Shaw, 2011:55). Act Utilitarianism is directly applied to each alternate act, and the right act is the one which consequences do more good than harm to those affected, directly or indirectly, by this act (Utilitarian Theories, 2002). In the case of the Million-Dollar Decision, we are applying Act utilitarianism: we will measure up the consequences of the decision that Tom Oswaldt (“Oswaldt”) has to make of whether he should or should not “bribe” the Chinese officials to get business, then we will weigh up the consequences and see which action “maximises the total well-being” (Bykvist, 2010:78).

Oswaldt has two alternative actions regarding his business, bribing Chinese authorities to get licenses or not to bribe the Chinese Authorities, and both these actions may have long-term and short-term affects ánd positive and negative consequences (Hackworth & Shanks, 2007).

If Oswaldt makes the decision to pay off the Chinese Authority to get a licence to do business in that country, it will have the following positive and negative consequences:

The positive sh...

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... for one, no one for more than one” therefore the one of the measures will be the amount of people affected (Bykvist, 2010:16). In Enron the employees strived to reach the short term goals at any cost, any this led to the detriment of the company (Brinkman, 2003). When a company follows a long term approach, it is more concerned with the various asepects of sustainability, and as seen before (Enron) there is a “correlation between short termism and the cutting of ethical corners” (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, 2010). The hedonic calculus was introduced by Bentham, for calculating the “pleasure and pain” caused by the consequences, they are distinguished from each other through quantitative differences (Shaw, 2011:54). However, this will not work as seen in the Ford Pinto case, human life doesn’t have a specific value attcahed to it (Shaw, 2011:83).