what is utilitarianism 
utilitarianism is a theory of morality that advocates actions that foster happiness or pleasure and oppose actions that cause unhappiness or harm when directed toward making social economic or political decisions a utilitarian philosophy would aim for the betterment of society as a whole utilitarianism would say that an action is right if it results in the happiness of the greatest number of people in a society or a group understanding utilitarianismutilitarianism is a tradition of ethical philosophy that is associated with jeremy bentham 1747 1832 and john stuart mill 1806 1873 two british philosophers economists and political thinkers utilitarianism holds that an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce sadness or the reverse of happiness not just the happiness of the actor but that of everyone affected by it at work you display utilitarianism when you take actions to ensure that the office is a positive environment for your co workers to be in and then make it so for yourself the greatest good for the greatest number is a maxim of utilitarianism from the founders of utilitarianismjeremy bentham describes his greatest happiness principle in introduction to the principles of morals and legislation a 1789 publication in which he writes nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters pain and pleasure it is for them alone to point out what we ought to do as well as to determine what we shall do 1john stuart mill had many years to absorb and reflect on jeremy bentham s thoughts on utilitarianism by the time he published his own work utilitarianism in 1863 the key passage from this book utilitarianism s relevance in a political economyin liberal democracies throughout the centuries the progenitors of utilitarianism spawned variants and extensions of its core principles some of the questions they wrestled with include what constitutes the greatest amount of good how is happiness defined how is justice accommodated in today s western democracies policymakers are generally proponents of free markets and some base level of government interference in the private lives of citizens so as to assure safety and security although the appropriate amount of regulation and laws will always be a subject of debate political and economic policies are geared primarily toward fostering as much well being for as many people as possible or at least they should be where there are disadvantaged groups who suffer income inequality or other negative consequences because of a utilitarian based policy or action most politicians would try to find a remedy utilitarianism s relevance in the workplacemost companies have a formal or informal code of ethics which is shaped by their corporate culture values and regional laws today having a formalized code of business ethics is more important than ever for a business to grow it not only needs to increase its bottom line but it also must create a reputation for being socially responsible companies also must endeavor to keep their promises and put ethics at least on par with profits consumers are looking for companies that they can trust and employees work better when there is a solid model of ethics in place on an individual level if you make morally correct decisions at work then everyone s happiness will increase however if you choose to do something morally wrong even if legal then your happiness and that of your colleagues will decrease utilitarianism s relevance in businessutilitarianism holds that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number as such it is the only moral framework that can justify military force or war moreover utilitarianism is the most common approach to business ethics because of the way that it accounts for costs and benefits the theory asserts that there are two types of utilitarian ethics practiced in the business world rule utilitarianism and act utilitarianism an example of rule utilitarianism in business is tiered pricing for a product or service for different types of customers in the airline industry for example many planes offer first business and economy class seats customers who fly in first or business class pay a much higher rate than those in economy seats but they also get more amenities simultaneously people who cannot afford upper class seats benefit from the economy rates this practice produces the highest good for the greatest number of people and the airline benefits too the more expensive upper class seats help to ease the financial burden that the airline created by making room for economy class seats an example of act utilitarianism could be when pharmaceutical companies release drugs that have been governmentally approved but with known minor side effects because the drug is able to help more people than are bothered by the side effects act utilitarianism often demonstrates the concept that the end justifies the means or it s worth it quantitative utilitarism vs qualitative utilitarismquantitative utilitarianism is a branch of utilitarianism that was developed out of the work of jeremy bentham quantitative utilitarians focus on utility maximization that is maximizing the overall happiness of everyone and use a hedonic approach to determine the rightness or wrongness of actions bentham defined as the foundation of his philosophy the principle that it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong qualitative utilitarianism is a branch of utilitarianism that arose from the work of john stuart mill qualitative utilitarians categorize pleasures and pains in a more qualitative manner depending on the level of their consequences and disregarding any quantifiable proof of their importance qualitative utilitarianism argues that mental pleasures and pains are different in kind and superior in quality to purely physical ones quantitative utilitarianism argues that mental pleasures and pains differ from physical ones only in terms of quantity 3the limitations of utilitarianismin the workplace though utilitarian ethics are difficult to achieve these ethics also can be challenging to maintain in our business culture where a capitalistic economy often teaches people to focus on themselves at the expense of others similarly monopolistic competition teaches one business to flourish at the expense of others so although utilitarianism is surely a reason based approach to determining right and wrong it has obvious limitations 