Ethical_dilemmas_MDI_Gurgaon-Business Ethics Case 1.pptx

Business Ethics Improvement Case

1. Ethical Dilemmas and Ethical Approaches Puneet Arora, MDI Gurgaon

2. Footbridge Dilemma Imagine you are standing on a footbridge spanning trolley tracks You see a runaway trolley is threatening to kill 5 people Standing next to you on the bridge is a railway worker wearing a heavy backpack Only way for you to save 5 people is to push this one railway worker on the track The man will die but 5 people will be saved Legal concerns aside, would it be ethical for you to push a stranger to death to save 5 people?

3. Trolley Dilemma A runway trolley is headed to kill 5 people Only way to save is to hit a switch that changes the track, where it will kill only one man, saving the other 5. Ignoring legal concerns, would it be ethically acceptable for you to hit the lever?

4. Normative (or Prescriptive) Ethical Approaches Consequentialist (or Utilitarian) approach – determines the morality of an action by its consequences (doing the greatest good to greatest number of people) Deontological approach (Emmanuel Kant) – judges the morality of an action based on action’s adherence to rules or duties

5. What would people say? Most people would respond to Footbridge Dilemma from a Deontological approach and not push the worker Pushing the worker would be equivalent to a murder for them! The ends don’t justify the means! Most people would respond to Trolley Dilemma from a Utilitarian approach They would agree to hit the lever and change track, killing only one person and saving 5!

6. Summary Ethical decision-making is not so simple Contextually or based on situation framing, our decisions will change Sometimes giving more thought will also change our decision Sometimes adding a relative in the dilemma will also change our decisions Sometimes knowing about both dilemmas will also change our decisions We will often find inconsistencies in our decisions

7. Conclusion Ethics as a subject is mostly studied from a normative perspective – “How should people behave ?” In Normative approach, we evaluate a situation, set-up standards, norms and rules, judge and give recommendations based on different ethical theories For instance, Utilitarian and Deontological approaches are normative approaches While philosophers argue for providing moral education to kids or ethical education to Business students BUT not much empirical evidence to support that they work! Research shows that even Ethicists (the teachers of ethics) do not themselves do very well on ethical decision-making ! We will take a positive approach! Understanding why people behave the way they do!