Ethical Theory (Philosophy) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ethical Theory (Philosophy) - Essay Example Unfortunately, despite of the huge popularity of ethics in academia, it has been an observation that individuals informally and even organizations formally have ignored the importance of ethics and its implementation in different procedures intentionally and/or unintentionally, which has resulted in rising of various ethical dilemmas globally. This paper is an attempt to contribute towards the similar debate regarding the role of ethics in understanding and resolving ethical dilemmas in our society. Particularly, focus of the paper will be on ethical dilemma in the business world while an ethical theory Utilitarianism will be under utilization for analysis purpose. In the corporate world, majority or almost every decision involves the factor of profitization, and for this purpose, business organizations develop their own code of ethics to suit their decisions and justifications. As the result, one can observe a conflict of ethical standards when it comes to comparing different organi zations that are resulting in creation of global issues that are directly or indirectly affecting millions of people around the world. Experts believe that â€Å"business ethics is a set of principles and ideologies that offer understanding and methodology to earn fair income in the business organizations† (Crane, 2007, pp. 23-28). Unfortunately, analysis has indicated that there has been a similar understanding in majority of organizations; however, it has remained limited to the level of understanding only rather than implementation (Furrow, 2005). Ethical Dilemma In every business organization, accountancy is one of the major aspects that play a significant role in determining its success or failure. Due to such significance, accountancy includes dealing with sensitive information that results in a very big responsibility on accountants, which at the same time, opens doors for unethical acts and fraudulent behaviors (Kotler & Lee, 2005). Unfortunately, literature has ident ified a number of instances in which accountants and particularly, organizations failed to abide by the ethical code of conduct resulting in heavy prices (Beenen & Pinto, 2009), and the case of Enron Corporation is a very famous example of ethical dilemma in business field. This case resulted in a new debate that now focuses on white-collar crimes and possibility of organizational corruption due to presence of loopholes in organizational setup that then lead to unethical activities globally. The paper will analyze this ethical dilemma in light of non-religious ethical theory of Utilitarianism; however, from analysis of other literature, work pressure has turned out to be the most evident factor that enforces individuals to incline towards unethical activities (Johnson, 2008). Work pressure can be in the form of overload work that results in lesser time for individual to spend at home or out of organization, which creates pressure. On the other hand, work pressure exists in the form of financial pressure that involves using organizational structures and loopholes for personal advantages and success (Beenen & Pinto, 2009). Utilitarianism As earlier mentioned, many philosophers and scholars proposed their theories for explaining the notion of ethics; however, many of these theories faded in darkness but Utilitarianism (Mill,