A Kantian Critique on Management Ethics

Perhaps Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is modernity’s single most important philosopher on ethics and morality (Moralität).106 His deontological ethics defines rights by reference to the good that is commonly achieved through good actions. Kant separated two imperatives that both apply to every rational being, the hypothetical and the categorical imperative.107 Hypothetical imperatives operate as if-then constructions, for example, if management seeks to be ethical, then it needs to do the following. This is a classical hypothetical imperative. Kantian ethics, however, is formulated exclusively in categorical imperatives where ethical statements or moral laws have to be formulated in imperatives that are commands or orders.108 Kantian ethics does not exist in if-then formulas and there cannot be a condition attached to ethical formulas. They are simply a must. In contrast to wishes and desires, categorical imperatives bind us to act ethically. Kantian ethics does not offer management a choice other than to be either ethical or unethical notwithstanding any managerial desires or wishes. There is no middle ground and one’s behaviour, and even more importantly one’s intentions, cannot be both — ethical and unethical — at the same time.