Inspired both by the start of a new school year and Groucho Marx’s timeless saying “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… I have others,” this posting briefly considers how using the principal schools of ethical reasoning can help address C&E risks.
There are, of course, three predominant schools of thought in the business ethics field: utilitarianism (associated with Jeremy Bentham), which views the ethicality of actions by reference to their consequences; deontology (associated with Immanuel Kant), which is concerned more with the inherent nature of an action itself than its consequences; and virtue ethics (associated with Aristotle), which emphasizes moral character. Like Groucho, the C&E officer can be said to offer her organization a choice of different ethical reasoning approaches but – as an expert in the field (and presumably unlike Groucho) – she can also ensure that the selection is made in an informed way.
See full Article.
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