Kohlberg's Six Stages Of Moral Development

Exam One
1.
a. Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development are complex yet very applicable ideas in moral development. The whole point of his six stages is to set the foundation for one’s ethical behavior with a psychological approach. The first stage of moral development is the “punishment/obedience orientation”, which refers to how people will only focus on the consequences of certain actions. For example, when a student in elementary school brings a toy weapon to school after being told not to just to show a friend, he or she will be suspended as well as punished by the parents. The child learns from this experience to obey the school rules and will fear to do so again to avoid punishment. The second stage is called the “rewards or
I believe Kohlberg’s model can aid managers in maintaining an ethical corporate culture because even the most corrupt person has experienced all six stages. Ethics revolve around the respect of people’s rights, and in a business environment a manager has to comprehend each person’s differences with moral reasoning. A manager knows there is a lot at stake when making decisions because it is not only about taking into account yourself, but others as well. For example, a company manager has the option to fire one hundred employees by the end of the week or increase costs of production. The manager will take into account not only the punishment from firing the employees, but their rights, the obedience to authority, and the rewards each option would give. These are all parts of Kohlberg’s model, and based on the manager’s past experiences. He or she will make the decision that seems most ethical to them. Maybe he or she will choose to increase costs because the last time they fired employees it turned into a lawsuit. But this does not only apply to managers. Any employee in the business world will be maintained ethical by a manager because each employee knows their limits, the rewards, the punishments and the rules of the firm. If they do act unethically, they know they need to provide their reasoning for acting so or else they may be fired or not paid. Kohlberg’s model is very applicable to the business world because most individuals have ethical behavior based on their
Our world has created a notion that there are different types of ethics, but I believe there is only one type of ethics and we all base our judgment on it. There is too much contradiction to “doing good” if there is business ethics, family ethics, global ethics or whatever it may be. For example, if my brothers were to commit a crime and the police are after them, I can either turn them in and ethically do the right thing for society. Or I can ethically not turn them in because they are family. If there is the existence of two types of ethics, some would argue this is both global ethics and family ethics, but I argue it is just ethics. I will not turn them in because I morally stand for my family. I was taught to always put family first, and that will be the right thing regardless. My values and morals will not change and are the reason for my ethics. It ultimately came down to what I stand for. I believe everyone bases their actions on what they stand for, and apply those ethics throughout their lives in whatever the situation. Therefore, I argue that it is ridiculous that there is evidence of multiple types of ethics. Something you do with business ethics like fire people would be globally unethical and this is very contradictory. Most people believe there are multiple types of ethics because they act differently in certain situations, but the reality is that if they evaluate their actions in the situation it all leads back to their morals. They would act the same way