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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Professionalism, ethical codes and the public interest

Marlow Group's code of conduct requires staff to report any accepted gift. A sales manager accepts an expensive gift from a supplier, and argues that no one was harmed and the supplier contract was awarded on merit. A colleague replies that the rule must be followed regardless of the outcome because it is a duty that applies universally. Which approach is the colleague's argument based on?

The colleague is using deontological ethics. Under this view an action's rightness depends on whether it complies with a duty or rule that applies universally, not on its consequences. The manager's no-harm defence is consequentialist, which the colleague rejects as irrelevant to the breach of the reporting rule.

  1. ADeontological ethics, where rightness depends on adherence to duty or rulesCorrect
  2. BUtilitarianism, where rightness depends on net benefit
  3. CEgoism, where rightness depends on self-interest
  4. DCultural relativism, where rightness depends on local custom

Explanation

The colleague says the act is wrong because it breaches a universal duty, whatever the consequences. That is the deontological position, associated with Kant. The sales manager's argument about no harm is the consequentialist one.

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