MGMT2010 Chap.3 Duty, Consequences, Character and Intuition
Duty, Consequences, Character and Intuition
Duty, consequences and character are different reasoning lenses. Duty protects rights and constraints, consequences compare effects across people and time, and character asks what repeated choices make a person or organisation.
This chapter shows how to give each lens independent work, use Pareto reasoning to search beyond a false binary, analyse deficiency and excess in a trait, and treat intuition as a signal to investigate rather than a verdict. The final move is answering the strongest objection from the rejected lens. Duty reasoning starts with the action and intention.
It asks whether a right, promise or boundary constrains what may be done, even when crossing it would produce an attractive total. Precision matters. A claim that a firm has a duty to be ethical supplies no guidance. A claim that a sales team must not create a materially false impression identifies an action, a protected party and a usable boundary. Consequence reasoning widens the map.
List affected people, plausible effects, probability, magnitude, reversibility and time. Immediate benefits are often visible while delayed trust, morale or capability losses remain diffuse. Pareto reasoning adds a creative question: can the proposal be changed so at least one party benefits without another becoming worse off? The search will not always succeed, but it can expose a false binary before sacrifice is justified.
Character reasoning connects the choice to repeated practice. Courage can fail through cowardice or recklessness; loyalty can fail through abandonment or concealment; compassion can fail through indifference or the removal of fair responsibility. Practical wisdom identifies what balance looks like under the facts rather than treating a virtue word as an automatic answer. Intuition enters as information about attention.
Changes in distance, agency or vividness can alter a judgement even when the outcome count remains stable. Write the feature that shifted your reaction and test whether it is morally relevant. This keeps intuition available without giving it final authority. A complete answer triangulates rather than lists.
Let one lens set the initial direction, use another to raise the strongest objection and use the third where it changes a safeguard or reveals a precedent. The conclusion should state why one reason dominates here, what concern remains and how the recommendation responds to it.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Duty and intention
- 02
Stakeholder consequences
- 03
Pareto improvement
- 04
Character balance
- 05
Intuition shifts
- 06
Foreseen side effects
- 07
Strongest objection
Worked example · free
Consent when renewal is preselected
- 2State the duty concerning meaningful consent.
- 2Map immediate and delayed consequences.
- 2Explain the organisational trait and redesign.
Key terms
- Duty Reasoning
- Reasoning from rights, commitments and constraints.
- Consequence Reasoning
- Reasoning from likely effects across people and time.
- Character Ethics
- Reasoning about traits and habits expressed by choices.
- Pareto Improvement
- A change helping someone without making another party worse off.
- Practical Wisdom
- Context-sensitive judgement that balances traits and exceptions.
- Foreseen Side Effect
- An expected outcome that is not the intended means to the goal.
Duty, Consequences, Character and Intuition FAQ
Which ethical lens should come first?
Choose the lens that exposes the central issue. Misleading communication often begins with duty, allocation may begin with consequences, and leadership example may begin with character.
Is intuition irrelevant to ethical reasoning?
Intuition can reveal a value that a simple calculation omitted, but it should be tested. Identify the feature that changed the reaction and ask whether it is morally relevant.
How do I compare the lenses without repeating myself?
Give duty a boundary, consequences a stakeholder and time map, and character a repeated habit. Then use their disagreement to identify the decision's factual or normative hinge.
Exam move
For one scenario, write three questions rather than three conclusions: what must be respected, who is helped or harmed, and what trait is reinforced. Add the strongest objection to your preferred answer and respond with a safeguard, boundary or disputed fact. Build a small table of traits with their deficiency, balanced form and excess.
When intuition shifts, record the changed feature and decide whether it deserves moral weight. Time yourself writing a compact paragraph that gives one lens priority while allowing the rejected lens to shape implementation. Check that each theory changes a reason, safeguard or action rather than repeating the same judgement in different vocabulary. Finish with one owned decision, not a summary of theories.
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