Ethical Theories

Each day the Project managers have to face various ethical issues during the course of managing the project. Companies encounter decreased efficiency of team members due to ethical issues related to workplace. These ethical issues may revolve around our working relationship with other team members which may vary from one culture to the other since they are solely based on the norms, values, thoughts and beliefs of the individuals. There are no set rules or procedures and fast rules for dealing with ethical issues which requires both entrepreneurial and leadership skills in order to tackle ethical problems while performing tasks of project management.

The ethical theories are based on ethical principles. Each theory emphasizes on different aspects of an ethical dilemma and lead to the most ethically correct resolution according to the guidelines within the ethical theory itself. Generally, people base their individual choice of ethical theory upon their life experiences.

Deontology

Deontological theory states that people should abide to their obligations and duties when studying an ethical dilemma which means that a person will follow his or her obligations to another individual or society as upholding one’s duty is considered ethically correct. So, a deontologist will always keep his promises to a friend and follow the law. People following this theory will produce very consistent decisions since they will be based on the individual’s set of duties. Deontology acts as a basis for special duties and obligations to specific people, such as those within one’s family.

For instance, an older brother may be under the obligation to protect his younger brother when they cross a road together. The theory also appreciates those deontologists who exceed their duties and obligations, which is called “supererogation”. For instance, if a airplane is hijacked and it is asked that one person would have to die in order for the rest to live, so the person who volunteers to die exceeds his or her duty to the other students and performs an act of supererogation.

Even though deontology contains many positive attributes, some of the fallacies associated with this theory are,

There is no rationale or logical basis for deciding an individual’s duties.
Sometimes a person’s duties conflict and that deontology are not concerned with the welfare of others.
Scenario of conflicting obligations does not lead us to a clear ethically correct resolution nor does it protect the welfare of others from the deontologist’s decision.
Deontology is not based on the context of each situation; it does not provide any guidance when one enters a complex situation in which there are conflicting obligations.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarian ethical theory is based on the ability to predict the consequences of an action. For a utilitarian, the choice that produces the maximum benefit to the most people is the choice that is ethically correct. One of the benefits of the utilitarian ethical theory states that the utilitarian can compare similar predicted solutions and use a point system to determine which choice is more beneficial for more people. This point system provides a logical and rationale argument for each decision and allows a person to use it on a case-by-case basis.

Types of utilitarianism

Act utilitarianism – Act utilitarianism abides exactly by the definition of utilitarianism e., a person performs the acts that benefit the most people, regardless of personal feelings or the societal constraints such as laws.
Rule utilitarianism – People following rule utilitarianism considers the law and is concerned with fairness. Rule utilitarian seeks to benefit most people but through the fairest means available. Therefore, rule utilitarianism values justice and includes beneficence at the same time.

Like all ethical theories, both act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism have some drawbacks

It has a flaw associated with predicting the future. Even if people can use their life experiences to attempt to predict outcomes, no human being can be certain that his predictions will be true.
The uncertainty in the theory can lead to unexpected results making the utilitarian look unethical as time passes because his choice did not benefit the most people as he predicted.
One of the drawbacks in the assumption of a utilitarian to compare the various types of consequences against each other on a similar scale. Because, comparison of material gains like money with intangible gains like happiness is next to impossible since their qualities differ
It does not allow for the existence of supererogation or heroes. That is people are obliged to constantly behave so that the most people benefit regardless of the danger associated with an act.
According to this theory an individual’s rights may be infringed upon in order to benefit a greater population.
Another fallacy within the act utilitarianism is that when a utilitarian faces one set of variable conditions and then suddenly experiences a change in those variables that causes to change the original decision. For instance, that an act utilitarian could be nice to you one moment and then dislike you the next moment because the variables have changed, and you are no longer beneficial to the most people.
A source of instability for rule utilitarianism is that there is the possibility of conflicting rules. For instance as a rule utilitarian, a person believes that he should follow the law because this benefits an entire society, but at the same time, he believes that it is ethically correct to be on time for his meeting because it is a state government meeting that also benefits the society. In this case, there appears to be no ethically correct answer for this scenario.

Rights

According to the rights ethical theory the rights set forth by a society are protected and given the highest priority. Here, rights are considered to be ethically correct and true since a large or ruling population endorses them. Even individuals may also impart rights upon others if they have the ability and resources for the same. For instance, a person may say that her friend may borrow the car for the afternoon, now in this case the friend was given the ability to borrow the car now has a right to the car in the afternoon.

One of the major problems of this theory on a larger scale is that one must decipher what the characteristics of a right are in a society. Here the society has to determine the rights it wants to uphold and give to its citizens. Therefore, in order to determine what rights the society wants to enact, it must decide what the society’s goals and ethical priorities are. Therefore, in order for the rights theory to be useful, it must be used in conjunction with another ethical theory that will consistently explain the goals of the society.

Casuist

Casuist ethical theory is based on the premise that that compares a current ethical dilemma with examples of similar ethical dilemmas and their outcomes. Therefore it allows to determine the severity of the situation and to create the best possible solution according to others’ experiences. Ideally, the casuist theory holds paradigms that represent the extremes of the situation so that a compromise can be reached that will hopefully include the wisdom gained from the previous illustrations.

One of the fallacies in this ethical theory is that there may not be a set of similar examples for a given ethical dilemma. Also, a casuistical theory also assumes that the results of the current ethical dilemma will be similar to results in the examples. This may not be necessarily hold true and would majorly impact the effectiveness of applying this ethical theory.

Virtue

The virtue ethical theory is based on the concept of judging people by their character instead of their action that may deviate from his normal behavior. This theory takes into account a person’s morals, reputation and motivation into account when rating an unusual and irregular behavior that is considered unethical. Let’s illustrate by taking an example, for instance a person performed an action that was later detected by his peer, the peer who knows the person well will surely understand the person’s character and will be able to judge the friend. Where on the other hand a person who has a reputation for misconduct is more likely to be judged harshly because of his consistent past of unethical behavior.

Weakness of the Virtue ethical theory is,

It does not take into consideration a person’s change in moral character.
Any change from moral to immoral character may go unnoticed until a significant amount of evidence mounts up against him or her.