Three approaches to business ethics contemplation include the Conventional Approach, discussed in my last column, the Principles Approach and the Ethical Tests approach. Today, we will discuss the Principles Approach to ethical thinking. The principles approach to business ethics is based on the idea that businesspeople need to compare their proposed actions, decisions or policies with certain principles of ethics. This raises the question of what a principle of business ethics is and how it might be applied.
A principle of business ethics is a guideline or rule which if applied when you are faced with an ethical dilemma, will assist you in making an ethical decision, that is, doing the right thing. Business philosophers and ethicists have focused primarily on the “Big Three” moral guidelines for business which include the Rights Approach, the Justice approach, and Utilitarianism. Today we will discuss the Rights Approach to ethical thinking.
The Rights Approach follows the principle of rights which holds that employees, consumers, and citizens have certain legal and moral rights which should be honored. Legal rights are clearer than moral rights and attorneys are quick to come to your aid if one is violated. A moral right or ethical right is defined as an important, justifiable claim or assertion that is based upon a strong normative argument. Various legal rights and claimed moral rights today include civil rights, minorities’ rights, women’s rights, disabled people’s rights, older people’s rights, religious rights, privacy rights, children’s rights, animal’s rights, gay rights, transgender rights, victim’s rights and right to free expression. People often claim certain rights that are not always protected by law.
An important aspect of the Rights Approach is that a right can only be overridden by a more basic or important right. Legal rights are those that some governing authority (the constitution, federal or state governments) have formalized as rights. Moral or ethical rights are important, argued claims or entitlements that may be asserted by individuals and are subject to more debate. The principle of rights expresses morality from the point of view of the individual or a group of individuals and the central question that is not always easy to answer is “what constitutes a legitimate right that should be honored and what rights or whose rights take precedence over others.”
A special problem arises with the Rights Approach when the situation is not a clear right versus wrong but is more nearly a right versus right. This represents the special case of dealing with the dilemma of competing rights. Some examples of this situation include the following: property rights vs. community or environmental rights; individual privacy vs. public safety; or freedom of speech vs. protection from harm or hate. In a dilemma involving competing rights there are no easy solutions. Two general approaches are to (1) eliminate the conflict by reframing it or (2) decide what is “righter” after weighing all the factors. These situations call for democratic deliberation and ethical debate about what best represents the common good. Ethical concepts just as justice, fairness and respect for human dignity are often employed in such situations.
In my next column I will address the Justice Approach to ethical thinking and decision-making.
Professor emeritus, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, USA. Dr. Carroll received his three academic degrees in management (1965; 1966; 1972) from the College of Business, The Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida USA). He is founding author and now co-author of BUSINESS & SOCIETY: ETHICS, SUSTAINABILITY & STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT (2023), 11th edition, with Jill A Brown; Co-author of CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY: THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE which won the 2014 BEST BOOK AWARD at the Academy of Management--Social Issues in Management Meeting; and Author of BUSINESS ETHICS: BRIEF READINGS ON VITAL TOPICS. Carroll won the first Lifetime Achievement Award in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from the Institute of Management, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Management, International Association for Business & Society, and the Southern Management Association. He has published over 100 articles, and his citations exceed 100,000 according to Google Scholar Citations.