Major ethical systems in philosophy include deontological and consequentialist ethics: the example of the latter is utilitarianism. Deontology is also called duty-based ethics: it states that ethical decisions should follow the set of rules connected with the situation. An example of such an ethics is the Kantian categorical imperative, which prompts everyone to ask themselves if they want to live in a world where everyone will act in a certain way in a specific situation. This way of acting should be prohibited if the answer is no (Halbert & Ingulli, 2021). On the contrary, utilitarianism states that ethical decisions should be based only on the consequences of those decisions. If the consequences lead to an increase in the good, then the initial actions are good too. The statement that business ethics should rely on deontology rather than utilitarianism means that following explicit rules is required for business development.
In my opinion, the ethics expert who proposed this view was concerned with possible wrong actions which businesses can perform, justifying that those actions will lead to good consequences. An example is the IBM corporation, which bases its manufacturing plants in countries where the labor force is cheaper than in the U.S. This action can be considered good from the utilitarianist position because a cheaper labor force enables the production of more goods, making more people happier. Still, it means that U.S. qualified workers will lose their job at IBM (Halbert & Ingulli, 2021). In addition, it also means that IBM is using the cheaper labor forces in other countries, not contributing to their development. The usage of deontological ethics can, in theory, prevent those situations by implementing clear rules which will not allow making decisions similar to that one.
However, I cannot entirely agree with this statement, and I would prefer the better-developed utilitarianism ethics over the deontological one. Utilitarianism should be concerned not only with personal good but with common good too. If a company’s actions lead to workplace reduction, it should ensure that the workers will find another workplace that will be no worse than those that the worker is about to lose. If the company decides to offshore its manufacturing to another country, it should see the possibilities to stimulate the development of the country’s life quality. Such usage of utilitarianism, in my opinion, leads to an increase in the common good and is right and ethical.
Reference
Halbert, T., & Ingulli, E. (2021). Law and ethics in the business environment (6th ed.). Cengage Custom Publishing.