Ethics in hospitality

Question 1

Two Key Branches of Ethics

Answer 1

• Descriptive ethics involves describing, characterizing and studying morality “What is”
• Normative ethics involves supplying and justifying moral systems “What should be”

Question 2

‘loyal agent’s argument’

Answer 2

a situation, when an employee is loyal to his/her manager, maybe working not only according to job description but serving in the manager’s interest and considering it as a duty.

Question 3

Prisoner’s dilemma

Answer 3

a classic situation, when you have to make a decision, one the one hand is self-interest and on the other collective interest.

Question 4

Mitigating circumstances

Answer 4

a circumstance 1) they you are unclear or uncertain about our actions, therefore your responsibilities on it will be lessen (i.e. you add an ingredient to food which the customer is allergic to and eventually kill the customer);

2) when it’s difficult to do correctly and morally; (when the woman was raped and she defended herself and injured the person)
3) when your involvement in the wrongdoing is minimum. (following the order of the manager but not aware of harming somebody)

Question 5

Gut reaction

Answer 5

the reaction on decision-making based on the feelings, sometimes this decision is not moral as emotions are not something stable

Question 6

ethics theories

Answer 6

• Utilitarianism: looking at the social benefits and costs
• Kantian ethics: rights and duties
• Fairness and Justice ethics: giving to each other what is his or her due
• Aristotelian ethics: virtues and vices

Question 7

Utilitarianism

Answer 7

• greatest good for the greatest amount of people
• consequense-based
• Jeremy Bentham - Pleasure and Pain
• John Stuart Mill - quality of happiness
• criticism: don’t care of individuals, taking off the basic human right in slavery

Question 8

Act utilitarianism

Answer 8

“greatest good” according to individual act

Question 9

Rule utilitarianism

Answer 9

moral rules of conduct (respect human rights, build a fair treatment to others).

Question 10

Kantian Ethics (Duty Ethics)

Answer 10

• people owe moral duties. Milton Friedman
• Golden rule
• Deontology’s universal rules are based on two important principles:

Consistency – all cases are treated alike with no exceptions.

Reversibility – the actor must abide by the rule he or she uses to judge the morality of someone else’s conduct. (never use a person for own purpose)

• A criticisms: 1) it’s hard to apply in practice 2) it may lead to conflicts with each other Kantian duties 3) ignoring consequences

Question 11

Ethics of Justice

Answer 11

• Aristotle: distibutive justice (euality), retributive justice (punishments), compensatory justice
• John Rawls
• Principle of equal liberty
• Principle of fair euality of opportunity
• Difference principle
• criticisms: people in original position won’t choose this principle

Question 12

Virtue ethics

Answer 12

• judgements through character, morality>actions
• Golden Mean: vice of deficiency and vice of excess
• Courage, Temperance, justice, prudence
• criticisms: it opposites some universial virtues based on religions and traditions 2) virtue fails to give any practivcal guidance
• Intellectual and moral virtue

Question 13

3 Models of Management Ethics

Answer 13

• Immoral Management—A style devoid of ethical principles and active opposition to what is ethical.
• Moral Management—Conforms to high standards of ethical behavior.
• Amoral Management

Intentional - does not consider ethical factors

Unintentional - casual or careless about ethical considerations in business