Peer-reviewed article
Child Labour Ethics through the Prism of Utilitarianism and Deontology
Krummel Daniel, Patrick Siegfried ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This academic paper examines child labour through ethical frameworks, specifically utilitarianism and deontology, to understand how different moral theories evaluate the practice. The author uses literature review to analyze existing research and applies stakeholder theory to identify groups involved in child labour. The paper concludes that deontological ethics rejects child labour categorically, while utilitarian ethics might justify it if benefits to others outweigh harms to working children. The findings are intended to help companies make ethical decisions about their supply chains.
Key points
- Deontological perspective: child labour can never be ethical and should always be rejected
- Utilitarian perspective: child labour could be ethically justifiable if beneficiaries outnumber suffering children
- The paper integrates stakeholder theory with ethical frameworks to identify actors involved in child labour
- Findings are designed to inform corporate decision-making in supply chain development
- The study uses forward and backward citation analysis on Web of Science and Google Scholar literature
Limitations
This is a theoretical ethics paper based on literature review with no empirical data on actual child labour outcomes or interventions. It does not evaluate real-world programs or measure impacts on children's well-being.
Abstract
Purpose: Grounded in the theoretical concepts of utilitarianism and deontology, this paper aims to evaluate the issue of child labour from an ethics perspective.By linking utilitarianism with normative stakeholder theory, relevant stakeholder groups are being identified in order to examine their influence on and role in the occurrence of child labour allowing for a practical reference.The findings may serve companies in particular as a basis for decision-making in the development of their value chains.Design/Methodology/Approach: The author uses a literature review in order to analyze the findings of existing literature on the topic of child labour in an ethics context, thereby drawing on literature, indexed in Web of Science and Google Scholar by employing forward and backward citation analysis.Findings: The investigation of child labour in terms of ethics yields conflicting results.From a deontological perspective, child labour can never be ethical and should always be rejected as it is not wanted to become a general law.In contrast, according to a utilitarian sentiment, child labour is ethically justifiable as long as the beneficiaries of the labour are greater in number than the children working or suffering.Originality/Value: The examination of child labour from the perspective of deontology and utilitarianism in conjunction with normative stakeholder theory constitutes a novelty in the ethics literature.The integration of theoretical findings into a practical business context provides additional value for managers and global supply chain managers.