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Utilitarianism in Leadership
Erica Gomez
South Texas College
ORGL 3332 KV1 Behavior, Ethics, and Leadership 2
DR. Micah Bailey
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Honesty. ability to delegate, exceptional communication, confidence and commitment are

just some of the many traits that reflect a good leader. The traits of a leader enable them to carry

out their daily job duties and guide employees towards reaching goals. The fact that the decisions

that a leader makes impact the live of followers, requires leaders to subscribe to a certain ethical

theory in order to ensure that they are not taking acting unfairly. One of the most prominent

ethical theories guiding the leaders of today continues to be utilitarianism. John Stuart Mill

subscribed to the theory of utilitarianism, which maintains that the actions of a an individual if

they promote happiness and wrong when they produce the reverse of happiness (). Therefore,

leaders that subscribe to utilitarianism measure their decisions based on their promotion of

happiness within the organization. Ultimately, utilitarianism must be measured in terms of its

strengths or shortcomings in order to understand if its adoption and implementation will be in the

best interest of the organization and all its members.

History of Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill believed in the theory of utilitarianism first proposed by Jeremy

Bentham. The theory holds that, that actions of an act or decision are right in the proportion as

they tend to promote happiness, and wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

"intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of

pleasure” (Mill, 2002)

A leader that subscribes to the ethical theory of utilitarianism would base every decision made in

relation to is ability to promote happiness or promote unhappiness. The theory of utilitarianism is

often based on concept of “creating the greatness good for the great number”. In this form of
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utilitarianism, the greatest good would be the number of happy employees produced by a

decision.

Strengths of Utilitarianism

When leaders adopt utilitarianism within their organization, the provide clear and easy

guidelines for employees to follow. Leaders that reflect utilitarianism within their organization

serve as role models to employees that ethicality must be maintained within the organization to

preserve the goal of maintaining everyone happy. Organizational leaders that employ

utilitarianism avoid making decisions that are immoral and unethical for the organization,

because these will ultimately lead to unhappiness in others. As a result of this, these leaders can

constantly withhold from making decisions that violate ethical codes. Annually several leaders

and organizations are held liable for violating ethical codes of business conduct. These leaders

and their organization not only gain a bad reputation, but often they suffer a great deal of loss in

terms of financial assets and other resources. Not to mention, these leaders maintain integrity in

all their products, services and business relationships in order to maintain happiness. Most

important, utilitarianism leaders are known to treat their employees with respect, often allowing

them to participate in group making decisions processes and rewarding them for a job well done.

As a result of this leadership style, employees boost their job performance as well as gain a since

of loyalty towards their leader and organization. By that same token utilitarianism leaders are

known to follow democratic principles, which give everyone a vote in the proposed decisions or

changes. Ultimately, employees in organizations led by utilitarianism leaders have a lower rate

of job turnover. High turnover is extremely costly to an organization and significantly diminishes

the level of happiness present within an organization, since other employees will be expected to
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pick up the slack for employees that have left. By treating employees with respect, utilitarianism

leaders ensure that their organization is performing efficiently. However, is with all other ethical

principles, the principle of utilitarianism has its shortcomings.

Weaknesses of Utilitarianism

First, for a leader to be truly utilitarian, it would require that every decision or action be

measured regarding its promotion of happiness. In the long run utilitarianism could prove to be

costly, since it requires that time and resources be utilized for every single decision within the

organization. Moreover, the theory of utilitarianism in the business world and the real world is

simply unrealistic. Society cannot be the only driving force when attempting to decide or follow

through with an act. Leader within organizations need to meet numbers and ultimately engage in

decisions and acts that will be beneficial to the company. Often these decisions are met with

great disdain. Leaders have an obligation to their organization to run it efficiently and ensure its

profitability, which supersedes the need to maintain happiness. Furthermore, society in general

does not rely on happiness alone when making choices. Ethics is a moral compass that helps

individuals recognize what is “right” or “wrong” however elements of making choices often

need to be examined in order to determine whether a decision or act are genuinely “right” or

“wrong”. Utilitarianism leaders often make decisions regarding their employees based on the

outcome of one decision or act. For example, let us assume that one employee misses a quota

which results in other employees not being rewarded and a critical goal not being met. The

leader proceeds to terminate the employee who has been loyal to the organization and up to that

point has always met quota, because of the level of unhappiness it produced. The terminations

taking place within an organization may increase as a result of adopting this very “black” or

“white” utilitarianism principle. Moreover, outcomes of a decision or act can sometimes produce
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unhappiness, because thy are unpredictable and stray from expected outcomes. Most importantly,

happiness is subjective and can never be effectively measured, which causes a great deal of

confusion when attempting to make important leadership and business decisions.

At its best, utilitarianism in leaders can serve as a basic framework for making some

decisions, but not all. There are many aspects of effective leadership that utilitarianism does not

support. However, utilitarianism theory does provide an ethical standard for which to further

build upon. Ethical theories such as utilitarianism help to guide leaders when attempting to

promote the overall efficiency and integrity of their organization and come with their designated

strengths and shortcomings.

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References

Does the utilitarian recognize other values besides happiness? (2015). Utilitarianism, 139-

153. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315683560-8

Mill, John (2002). The Basic Writings Of John Stuart Mill. The Modern Library. p. 239.

Utilitarianism: maximizing the good consequences of business. (2015). Ethics Theory and

Business Practice, 54-87. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473910034.n3