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Marketing Ethics
• Ethics has to do with right and wrong
• Business ethics - right and wrong in a
business setting
• Kohlberg’s three stage model of ethical
decision-making
Kohlberg’s Psychological Model
of Ethical Decision making
STAGE
Motive
Pre-conventional Child Like – self
Conventional
Post-conventional
Explanation
Do right thing to avoid
gratification. Fear punishment. Little
of pain, punishment or awareness for others.
Selfish, external moral
authority
standards.
Adolescent. Group Right decided by norms
of the group regardless
loyalty & norms.
Concern for law, order. of consequences
action defined by
Adult. Concern for Right
universal moral
others & adherence to principles that apply to
universal moral
all persons.
principles
Other Ethical Perspectives
• In addition to Kohlberg’s model, there are
other ways of viewing ethics.
• Situation Ethics
• Relative versus Absolute ethics
• Pluralism
Situation Ethics
• Morality determined by the situation in
which things occur rather than by adherence
to absolute moral rules. For example “Thou
shall not kill” may not apply in all
situations.
Absolute Ethics
• There are universally valid moral standards
for deciding right and wrong which apply to
all moral decisions.
• This view presents the ideals of certainty,
universality and rationality
Relativism
• This view argues that there are no
universally valid moral standards.
• Right and wrong depends on the decisions
of individuals, groups or culture.
Pluralism
• Relativism (individual, group & culture
based notions of right & wrong) and
Absolutism (universal law of right and
wrong) are at extreme ends of the moral
spectrum.
• Pluralism holds that there are different
ethical theories for guiding moral decision
making.