Be punctual (on time) at 9 AM:= An Ethical Leadership Model.
ALL STUDENT GROUPS MUST PRESENT for this PROJECT.
An Overview:
For Who (Stakeholder Management) -
1. Organizations consist of many interwoven webs of relationships, rights and responsibilities. Many individuals and groups have a "STAKE" in how an organization performs, apart from just the shareholders and members of the board.
2. Organizations thus need to first identify relevant stakeholders and then have a moral obligation to discover their VIEWS. Discovering their views is not always easy. For example: "the COMMUNITY" is a very vague term - who is included here? Will everyone in the community have the same views? Can they all realistically be consulted?
3. Nevertheless, a company may, with the best of intentions, obtain a partial view of the wishes of its stakeholders although it may not capture all the VOICES of several other relevant diverse groups.
Virtue Theory or Virtue Ethics:
1. Virtue ethics stresses on "BEING GOOD PEOPLE" rather than aiming to identify the qualities of good acts, or principles based on reasonings as in deontology or utilitarianism.
2. Virtue ethics suggests that neither good intentions (deontology) nor outcomes (utilitarianism) will necessarily ensure "GOODNESS". Instead, the effectiveness of an ethical system depends on the NATURE OF THE PEOPLE who employ it.
Deontology:
1. Also known as duty ethics.
2. Immanuel Kant aimed to establish a set of ABSOLUTE MORAL RULES developed through the application of REASON. He put forward an ACID TEST for evaluating the QUALITY of MORAL RULES and this is termed the CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE - which is: do as you would be done by (the Law of Reciprocity).
3. Immanuel Kant further stated: Act in such a way that you always treat HUMANITY never simply as a MEANS, but ALWAYS at the same time as an END. The defining CHARACTERISTICS of this approach are the UNIVERSAL APPLICABILITY of PRINCIPLES to all HUMANITY, and basic RESPECT for HUMANS. A key notion for Immanuel Kant was that of INTENTIONALITY. It might well be that the OUTCOME of an act leads to very bad consequences for people, for example: the closure of a site and subsequent job losses - but if one's AIMS and INTENSIONS are good, then the act is a MORAL one. It is all about MOTIVATION and MEANING.
4. The development of ETHICAL CODES within organizations and professional associations stems from the DEONTOLOGICAL approach.
Utilitarianism:
1. Also known as consequentialist approach to business ethics.
2. Its main premise suggests that the morality of an act is determined by its CONSEQUENCES; people should do that which will bring the GREATEST UTILITY (which is generally understood to mean whatever the group sees as GOOD) to the GREATEST number affected by a given situation.
3. But be cautioned: What exactly is UTILITY? it is short-term or long-term? These perspectives may lead to different conclusions. People may vary in their PERSPECTIVES and REQUIREMENTS. What is the MAJORITY? Can we accept a situation where the BENEFITS of the MAJORITY might mean the EXPLOITATION AND SUFFERING of the MINORITY, in order to MAXIMIZE the benefits of the majority.