Often people think of ethical leaders as those who adhere to the simple rules I’ve mentioned. Nevertheless, utilitarian values can be usefully applied in considering what sort of regulation could help create the greatest benefit for all.Īlthough the autonomous-vehicle case represents a tougher ethical decision than most managers will ever face, it highlights the importance of thinking through how your decisions, large and small, and the decisions of those you manage, can create the most value for society. ![]() So car companies that didn’t prioritize the passenger would be in a weaker competitive position than those that did-and car buyers might well opt for less-safe cars that are driven by humans. ![]() By that calculus, if the car must choose between sparing the life of its single occupant and sparing the lives of five people in its path, it should sacrifice the passenger.Ĭlearly this presents a host of issues-What if the passenger is pregnant? What if she’s younger than the pedestrians?-and no simple utilitarian answer for how best to program the car exists.įurthermore, manufacturers could reasonably argue that people would be less likely to buy a car that doesn’t prioritize their lives. If the goal is simply to maximize value, the automobiles should be programmed to limit collective suffering and loss, and the people in the car shouldn’t be accorded special status. Its logic and limits can be seen, for example, in the choices facing manufacturers of those self-driving cars. But like other philosophies, strict utilitarianism doesn’t always serve up easy answers. In general, the decisions endorsed by utilitarianism align with most other philosophies most of the time and so provide a useful gauge for examining leadership ethics. Even if you are committed to another philosophical perspective, try to appreciate the goal of creating as much value as possible within the limits of that perspective. I’m guessing that you largely agree with these goals, even if you hew to philosophies that focus on individual rights, freedom, liberty, and autonomy. This includes maximizing aggregate well-being and minimizing aggregate pain, goals that are helped by pursuing efficiency in decision-making, reaching moral decisions without regard for self-interest, and avoiding tribal behavior (such as nationalism or in-group favoritism). I generally subscribe to the tenets of utilitarianism, a philosophy initially offered by Bentham, which argues that ethical behavior is behavior that maximizes “utility” in the world-what I’ll call value here. My approach to improving ethical decision-making blends philosophical thought with business-school pragmatism. And my colleagues and I have shown that executives will unconsciously overlook serious wrongdoing in their company if it benefits them or the organization. For instance, we may claim that we contribute more to group tasks than we actually do. If we behave unethically out of self-interest, we’re often unaware that we’re doing so-a phenomenon known as motivated blindness. ![]() These scientists have shown that environment and psychological processes can lead us to engage in ethically questionable behavior even if it violates our own values. More recently behavioral ethicists in the social sciences have offered research-based accounts of what people actually do when confronted with ethical dilemmas. Moving beyond a set of simple ethical rules (“Don’t lie,” “Don’t cheat”), this perspective-rooted in the work of the philosophers Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Peter Singer-provides the clarity needed to make a wide variety of important managerial decisions.įor centuries philosophers have argued over what constitutes moral action, theorizing about what people should do. In my view, leaders answering ethical questions like these should be guided by the goal of creating the most value for society. ![]() The cars’ computers will have to make difficult decisions: When a crash is unavoidable, should the car save its single occupant or five pedestrians? Should the car prioritize saving older people or younger people? What about a pregnant woman-should she count as two people? Automobile manufacturers need to reckon with such difficult questions in advance and program their cars to respond accordingly. This new technology will save lives by reducing driver error, yet accidents will still happen. Autonomous vehicles will soon take over the road.
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