Immanuel Kant Essay

Morality is an important concept that has always generated interest when dealing with business organizations. Some of the business organizations argue that morality in business is important as it ensures that the needs of the customers are fully satisfied. However, with the increased focus on profitability, morality the concepts of morality is no longer considered in most organizations. According to the descriptive sense, morality refers to personal or cultural values, norms or codes of conduct while the normative sense refers to anything that may be right or wrong depending on values of a particular culture (Harris, 2010). The paper this discusses the concepts of morality and its application in business in order to identify its relevance. Utilitarianism: Conduct should be for the purpose of promoting the greatest happiness of the greatest number of persons. Categorical Imperatives: Evaluating motivations for actions. Process Philosophy: Metaphysical reality with change and dynamism. Moral relativism: Similarities in terms of the moral concepts. Moral absolutism: Human conduct is right or wrong in any context. Ethical relativism: Nothing is objectively right or wrong due to the differences in terms of the moral judgments across cultures. Moral objectivism: What is morally wrong or right depends on what someone thinks. Deontological ethics: Duty of obligations based on ethics. Teleological ethics: Moral obligation from what is desirable as an end to be achieved. In any given time and place, morality is what appeals to most people while immorality is abhorred. This is mainly based on the concepts of right and wrong. Businesses on the other hand can have moral standards although they are not moral agents because the businesses are more focused on profitability and sometimes the issues of morality are overlooked for the sake of making profits. However, it is not true that the bottom line of business is profit and profit alone. Businesses have to benefit the society and create opportunities to improve the social lives of the people. Serving the customers and ensuring that they are satisfied is an important aspect of business as focus on profitability alone will end up being exploitative to the customers (Churchland, 2011). Other tangible goals are also present in a business as opposed to profitability alone. Meeting the demands of the customers and impacting positively on the society is also a goal of a business. As individuals, it is important to be moral for the purpose of doing the right thing. Doing what is right will always be beneficial to the entire society. A corporation or organization should be moral for the purpose of ensuring that it impacts positively on the lives of the people. Morality will also ensure that the corporation is sensitive to the needs of the employees and hence avoiding exploitations which is oppressive to the employees. On the other hand, morality will ensure that the corporation is not only focused on profit making but also environmental issues, compensation and pension packages of the employees. In the first formulation, Kant argues that is important to act only in that maxim whereby at the same time you can will that it should become a universal law without contradiction (Rachels, 2011). The first formulation also brings a bout the concepts of perfect and imperfect duty. This can be applicable in business as it is aimed at ensuring that the business people are able to act in a way that they cannot be blamed for deliberately failing to perform their duties. In the business environment, it is important to ensure that the focus is not only in profit as this may lead to actions that are not moral. The executive compensation should not be too high as it will impact negatively on the payment of the other employees. The services offered to the customers should also be of high quality and standard. Cheating or misleading the customers for the purpose of benefiting the profits should also be avoided. According to the deontological ethics concepts the businesses should ensure that that they fulfill their duties through observing the ethical issue as opposed to profit making alone. The business people should also ensure that the means and the end are desirable which will prevent them from using immoral means to achieve profits. This is in accordance with the concepts of teleological ethics. In terms of moral objectivism, the business should be conducted in a manner that is moral and ethical. The concepts of tolerance should also be embraced in business due to the diversity in cultures in terms of defining what is right and what is wrong. This is in accordance with the theory of moral relativism. It is thus important to ensue that concepts of morality ate incorporated in a business for the purpose of ensuring that the customers are satisfied and the business is beneficial to the society (Shane, 2010). In conclusion, it is evident that the concepts of morality are for the purpose of ensuring that the right things are always done. In business, morality is essential in terms of promoting the right practices which is aimed at benefiting the customers and the society. References Harris, S. (2010). The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values. New York: Free Press. Churchland, P. (2011). Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality. Princeton, N. J. : Princeton University Press. Rachels, S. (2011). The Elements of Moral Philosophy (7 ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill. Shane, M. (2010). â€Å"A functional imaging investigation of moral deliberation and moral intuition†. Neuroimage 49: 2707–2716.