Ethics and HRM
What do we mean by Ethics?
Ethics have to do with virtues (i.e. morals), values, norms, and practices that are productive of the
common good (i.e. produce the common good). They ask the perennial (i.e. everlasting, constant,
continuing, never-ending etc.) questions: How shall I live? How shall we live?
(Source: Owen Flanagan ‘The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material World’)
How do you know?
Divine Command: A way of Ethics
Divine command is probably the most popular way of knowing what is right or wrong (evident by the
number of religions and people who are religious).
The thought, central to the divine command moral theory, is that morality itself – what is right and
wrong, good and bad – depends on God’s commands. It is God’s act of commanding that we avoid
certain types of action that makes those actions wrong.
(Source: Mark Timmons ‘Moral Theory: An Introduction’)
So, they just have to listen.
Deontology
Deontology is ethical theory based on duty or moral obligations. It proposes that the outcome is not
the primary issue; rather, decisions must be based on the morality of the act itself. In other words,
certain actions are always right or wrong regardless of circumstances. Deontologists would argue
that destroying any foetus is wrong, whether done to save others or not, because killing is immoral.
(Source: Barbara Kuhn Timby ‘Fundamental Nursing Skills and Concepts’)
Example: Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Kant’s 'categorical imperative' is a rule that is true in all circumstances.
The categorical imperative comes in two versions which each emphasise different aspects of the
categorical imperative. Kant is clear that each of these versions is merely a different way of
expressing the same rule; they are not different rules.
• Moral rules must be universalisable
o Always act in such a way that you would be willing for it to become a general law
that everyone else should do the same in the same situation.
• Moral rules must respect human beings
o Act so that you treat humanity, both in your own person and in that of another,
always as an end and never merely as a means.
(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/duty_1.shtml)
What do we mean by Ethics?
Ethics have to do with virtues (i.e. morals), values, norms, and practices that are productive of the
common good (i.e. produce the common good). They ask the perennial (i.e. everlasting, constant,
continuing, never-ending etc.) questions: How shall I live? How shall we live?
(Source: Owen Flanagan ‘The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material World’)
How do you know?
Divine Command: A way of Ethics
Divine command is probably the most popular way of knowing what is right or wrong (evident by the
number of religions and people who are religious).
The thought, central to the divine command moral theory, is that morality itself – what is right and
wrong, good and bad – depends on God’s commands. It is God’s act of commanding that we avoid
certain types of action that makes those actions wrong.
(Source: Mark Timmons ‘Moral Theory: An Introduction’)
So, they just have to listen.
Deontology
Deontology is ethical theory based on duty or moral obligations. It proposes that the outcome is not
the primary issue; rather, decisions must be based on the morality of the act itself. In other words,
certain actions are always right or wrong regardless of circumstances. Deontologists would argue
that destroying any foetus is wrong, whether done to save others or not, because killing is immoral.
(Source: Barbara Kuhn Timby ‘Fundamental Nursing Skills and Concepts’)
Example: Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Kant’s 'categorical imperative' is a rule that is true in all circumstances.
The categorical imperative comes in two versions which each emphasise different aspects of the
categorical imperative. Kant is clear that each of these versions is merely a different way of
expressing the same rule; they are not different rules.
• Moral rules must be universalisable
o Always act in such a way that you would be willing for it to become a general law
that everyone else should do the same in the same situation.
• Moral rules must respect human beings
o Act so that you treat humanity, both in your own person and in that of another,
always as an end and never merely as a means.
(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/duty_1.shtml)
