Ethical Theories And Doctrines That Affects Companies ...

Organisations operating within a community are increasingly being recognised to include individuals and groups as its stakeholders in the long-term security and success of the organization. Therefore, it is important to include these community groups in the corporate and communications strategy to build a positive relationship. A frequently used term to define this strategy is corporate social responsibility (CSR) that is defined by Tench (2013) as how organisations plan and manage their relationships with key stakeholders. Although organisations are not a state, country or region, they are part of the infrastructure of society and thus, they must consider their impact on it. There is a significant debate whether companies should choose to†¦show more content†¦Philosophers describes cognitivism as ‘the belief that there are objective moral truths which can be known and consequently that a statement of moral belief can be true or false’ (Theaker 2003). Non-cognit ivism on another hand is described as the belief that morality is subjective or culturally relative, which means in regards to moral right and wrong, there are only beliefs, attitudes and opinions. However, business ethics and the concept of corporate social responsibilities had a significant impact especially from the cognitivist perspective such as utilitarianism, Kantianism and ‘rights’ theories (ibid) From the consequentionalist theory, utilitarianism stresses the consequences to society as a whole – the greatest good for the greatest number (Curtin and Boynton, 2001, cited in Heath 2001). It is a notion that ‘an action is right only to the extent that it causes more good than ill to be produced’ (Somerville 2003). In simple words, an action is considered ethical and right if it leads to a positive effect. However, utilitarian critics note that it is difficult to know the consequences of actions before the fact as not all things can be calculated. It also requires promotion or maximization of ‘goods’ such as economic growth in order to achieve utility that allows the sacrificing of individuals and minorities ‘for the greater