Leadership Decision-Making Paradigms: A Comparative Analysis of Kantian Ethics and Utilitarian Approaches in Organizational Crisis
Overview
This paper examines different ethical frameworks for leadership decision-making using a tourism industry crisis scenario caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The author analyzes how Kantian deontological ethics and John Stuart Mill's utilitarian approach would guide decisions regarding salary reduction versus workforce reduction, demonstrating the contrasting implications of duty-based versus consequence-based ethical paradigms.
What this essay covers
- Leadership scenario: Human resource crisis in tourism industry due to pandemic revenue loss
- Kantian ethics analysis: Duty-based decision-making prioritizing organizational survival over stakeholder consultation
- John Stuart Mill theory of liberty: Utilitarian approach emphasizing stakeholder involvement and majority welfare
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Decision-Making Paradigm
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Decision-Making Paradigm
Leadership scenario
As a leader, a scenario that will be deeply problematic for me is my juniors disrespecting my decisions and orders because they think it is wrong or inappropriate. Not every person in an organization will like all the decisions a leader makes. It is even worse when they start protesting for the decision made. For example, the coronavirus pandemic has affected the media tourism industry, and it does not receive tourists as it did before. It means the revenues have also reduced drastically. As a human resource manager in a tourism firm, I have two options to save the company from collapsing. One is to cut the human resources in the firm by half, and the second is to reduce their salary by 50 percent. Because of the family, we have built together, I would decide salary is slashed retain all employees. Some employees are likely to protest this decision and demand full payment of their salary.
Kantian Ethics (Immanuel Kant)
Immanuel Kant (1785) believed in reflecting on a decision before making it. Before taking implementing a decision, Kant says one should ask themselves how the decision will affect other people in that circle. He, Kant, argues that a leader should not act if the decision will not please everyone. According to Kant (1785), the decision to move should be entirely out of a leader’s duty without minding the consequences.