Question

Ethics is choosing to do what is right. Different cultures may have a different opinion of what is right and wrong. Have you ever been (or heard of) a situation where there is a cultural conflict of what is right or wrong? How did you approach it? Explain it using the teleological, utilitarianism and deontological approach.

Answer 1

Culture is set of beliefs and behavioral characteristics shared by a group of people. Culture demonstrates the way of thinking of a group. Culture can be based on shared ethnicity, gender, customs, and values. It is very tough to declare what is right or wrong especially when the things are taking place in two different cultural avenues.

Example of cultural conflict can be made clear by the following incident:

• In America people wear black in sad occasions (funerals) and white clothes in happy moments whereas in India the process is totally opposite. People in India wear white during mourning and black at other occasions. Thus, it would be a cultural conflict for an American to wear black in mourning in India and for an Indian to wear white in America.
• In China staring at others in public is ok but in USA it is not.

Cultural shock is the right term to define the difference in cultures. One needs to be very attentive in order to best handle the differences by not ruining the repo.

Teleological approach: Focuses on the consequences of the actions made by any person. For example, any benchmark practice which leads to the best outputs for any process.

Deontological approach: According to deontological theory (duty-based) ethics is what people do and not the consequences of their actions.

For example, a person refuses to tell a lie in the court to save his friend who is accused of murder. In this case the person most likely refuses to lie because it was not right. However, it is the duty of person to save the friend, but principle says a lie should not be spoken under any circumstance.

Utilitarian approach: Doing what is good for the maximum number of people.

Utilitarian theory can be seen as an extension of teleological approach. Thus, both are considered to give same results in terms of cultural conflict.

According to these theories, one should decide to choose from deontological approach and utilitarian approach when faced with ethical conflict.

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An example which I faced personally, is to accommodate a Muslim worker a space and time for his religious prayers during the noon on Fridays. Though the worker could do productive work in this slot, he was assigned a free time and space to complete his religious proceedings. The time used was compensated by the employee at later hours.

It is necessary to accommodate religion if it does not affect the work. People feel motivated when they are given religious accommodations. This motivates other people as well to trust the organization. Hence, a deontological approach was used to determine the course of action.