Philosophical Foundations of Business Strategy: Ethical Dilemmas in Decision-Making Processes

In this paper, we investigate the philosophical basis of business strategy and analyze the decision making dilemmas that it brings up. It seeks to shed light on how ethical theories such as utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics and Rawlsian justice affect the strategic choices of businesses. The study highlights the major ethical challenges encountered when trying to reconcile profit maximization with moral and social responsibilities. The study is qualitative in nature and it presents case studies of both the technology, automotive as well as consumer goods industries. These cases provide real ethics information that is reflected in ethical theories and have implications for strategic decision-making within a firm. It also includes a review of the literature from scholarly journal articles that focus on business ethics, strategy and corporate governance to develop a theoretical model of ethical decision making in business. The study suggests that the philosophy provides useful guidance to business ethics, but it needs not be explained away and that 'ethical dilemmas' in strategy may be complex issues of profit-based self-interest versus social responsibility. For example, the utilitarian methodologies may take decisions that maximize utilities for majority and ignore minority stakeholders. Deontological ethics require that things be open and fair, but companies frequently face cases in which these requirements conflict with commercial imperatives. The case studies highlight the need for ethical leadership and frameworks to help decision makers’ balance these competing values.