Abstract

The aim of this study is to demonstrate that Kant’s ethics provides an excellent deontological approach to business ethics, capable of militating against the moral decadence currently obtaining in business. Kant’s ethics is centred on the transcendental precepts of good will, reason, duty, autonomy, self-legislation and universalisability. These moral precepts provide a valiant moral toolbox for self-examination, self-legislation and self-governance in decision making. Mainstream business has long struggled to model ethical behavior as evidenced by scandals such as the Enron Crisis (2001), Financial Crisis (2007-2008), Cashgate Scandal in Malawi (2013-2014), The Gupta state capture allegations in South Africa), the Zuneth Sattar corruption allegations in Malawi, the Affordable Input Program (AIP) scandal in Malawi, money laundering, shady cryptocurrency business and commercial surrogacy among other vices. Arguably most of the ethical challenges cannot be solved from experience but through a priori knowledge. The study is of the view that Friedman’s stockholder and Freemans’s stakeholder theories of Corporate Social Responsibility have failed to respond to the emerging changing scope and nature of social responsibility. The moral erosion and the attendant reputational carnage and moral vacuum in business bear testimony to the shortcomings of these two theories. Friedman is faulted for promoting avarice in business, while Freeman’s ‘one-size fits all’ approach is faulted for ‘socialising’ the corporation. In addition, Corporate Social Responsibility itself has become somehow ‘enforced’, cosmetic and a tool for ‘image laundering’ or ‘image cleansing’. It is against this background that the study seeks to demonstrate that Kant’s ethics can provide a moral reset and a solution to the shortcomings of the stockholder and stakeholder theories. Kant’s ethics can ‘moralise’ the corporation, advance shared universal values in business to avert an acute ‘moral failure’ in business. The study becomes critical given that trust and confidence are essentially pivotal in business. Furthermore, there is growing acknowledgement that the values of business are also increasingly becoming the values of society.

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School	: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Issued Date	: 2024

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