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Kant defined duty as the necessity to act in accordance ethiCS GUiDe Ethics and Professional Responsibility 57
with the categorical imperative. Perfect duty is behavior that
must always be met. Not lying is a perfect duty. Imperfect duty
is action that is praiseworthy but not required according to
the categorical imperative. Giving to charity is an example of
an imperfect duty.
Kant used the example of cultivating one’s own talent
as an imperfect duty, and we can use that example as a way
of defining professional responsibility. Business professionals
have an imperfect duty to obtain the skills necessary to accom-
plish their jobs. We also have an imperfect duty to continue to
develop our business skills and abilities throughout our careers.
We will apply these principles in the chapters that fol-
low. For now, use them to assess your beliefs about Figures 1
through 3 by answering the following questions. Source: Pressmaster/Fotolia

DiSCUSSion QUeStionS

1. Restate Kant’s categorical imperative using your own 5. Change roles. Assume now you are a member of the
words. Explain why cheating on exams is not consistent executive committee. A junior marketing professional
with the categorical imperative. presents Figure 1 to the committee, and you object to
2. While there is some difference of opinion, most schol- the lack of labels and the scale. In response, the junior
ars believe that the Golden Rule (“Do unto others as you marketing professional says, “Sorry, I didn’t know. I just
would have them do unto you.”) is not equivalent to put the data into Excel and copied the resulting graph.”
Kant’s categorical imperative. Justify this belief. What conclusions do you, as an executive, make about
3. Using the Bateson definition (discussed in Q5) that infor- the junior marketing professional in response to this
mation is a difference that makes a difference: statement?
a. Explain how the features of the graph in Figure 1 6. Is the junior marketing person’s response in question 5 a
influence the viewer to create information. violation of a perfect duty? Of an imperfect duty? Of any
b. Explain how the features of the graph in Figure 3 duty? Explain your response.
influence the viewer to create information. 7. If you were the junior marketing professional, which
c. Which of these graphs is consistent with Kant’s cat- graph would you present to the committee?
egorical imperative? 8. According to Kant, lying is not consistent with the cat-
4. Suppose you created Figure 1 using Microsoft Excel. To egorical imperative. Suppose you are invited to a seasonal
do so, you keyed the data into Excel and clicked the Make barbeque at the department chair’s house. You are served
Graph button (there is one, though it’s not called that). a steak that is tough, overcooked, and so barely edible that
Voilà, Excel created Figure 1 without any labels and you secretly feed it to the department chair’s dog (who ap-
drawn out of scale as shown. Without further consider- pears to enjoy it). The chairperson asks you, “How is your
ation, you put the result into your presentation. steak?” and you respond, “Excellent, thank you.”
a. Is your behavior consistent with Kant’s categorical a. Is your behavior consistent with Kant’s categorical
imperative? Why or why not? imperative?
b. If Excel automatically produces graphs like Figure 1, b. The steak seemed to be excellent to the dog. Does that
is Microsoft’s behavior consistent with Kant’s categor- fact change your answer to part a?
ical imperative? Why or why not? c. What conclusions do you draw from this example?