Utilitarianism is one of the most exciting consequentialism theories to analyze. Specifically, it is a doctrine that the useful is good and that determining the proper conduct should be the usefulness of its consequences (Mariam-Webster, 2021). Moreover, this theory may be effectively integrated into the decision-making system to maximize the effectiveness of specific individuals. However, despite its helpfulness in the business matter, utilitarianism has some considerable drawbacks that disable people from using it permanently without analyzing, such as equality issues and malice.
Firstly, it is important to consider the “equality disadvantage” from the business perspective. While deciding, a businessperson is considered to maximize the effectiveness of the taken choice. However, in some cases, the “equality” of different individuals may confuse taking the right decree. Thus, when an executive tries to define the most effective verdict, they may ignore the value of certain individuals due to the lack of “uniqueness” in the utilitarianism theory. For instance, when choosing the appropriate manager to develop an IT project, the director ignores the candidates’ level of knowledge in this sphere due to their equality in this question (Woolbridge, 2019). Following this, an executive will consider the respective value in terms of price of labor, effectiveness history, and the overall individual rating. In this case, the candidate who is the most effective in management and has a lower wage per hour but with no knowledge about the IT industry may fail the project.
Secondly, malice is also a significant obstacle in decision-making for businesspeople. To illustrate the negative effect, it is crucial to present the specific situation. For example, a sales manager in a car market works for a “percentage wage.” In this case, the manager will maximize his salary by offering the clients the most expensive cars with the highest margins. As a result, the company may lose many clients expected to buy a qualitative car for a fair price.
Overall, even if utilitarianism is an important category in the ethical system, it has significant drawbacks such as misleading “equality” and malice which cause great harm to companies. Firstly, the inappropriate due diligence from an executive side may be caused by ignoring the essential disparities between possible candidates. On the other hand, if a worker earns the wage for his utility, then he might organize his effectiveness only from his perspective and ignore the company’s priorities at the same time.
References
Merriam-Webster. (2021). Utilitarianism. In Merriam-Webster’s Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary. MerriamWebster.
Wooldridge, B.M. (2019). Utilitarianism: Pros and Cons., Introduction to Ethics: An Open Educational Resource. N.G.E. Far Press.”