Teleology, deontology, chocolate chip muffins, iced buns and social media

Bear with me kids, the title is proper odd but there’s a point buried in my oddity (anyone who knows me, knows this to usually be the case…)

When I was studying ethics as a philosophy student, I was taught a useful analogy to understand teleological and deontological views of morality:

• Teleological morality is based on finding an inherent (moral) purpose imbued in the universe; as such, teleological morality is like a chocoloate chip muffin in that one finds morality in the universe in the same way one finds chocolate chips in the muffin
• Deontological morality is based on governing rules imposed on the universe; as such, deonotological morality is like an iced bun in that there is a layer of moral rules for the universe in the same way there is a layer of icing over the bun

The point here is that in a teleological – chocolate chip muffin – ethical system, morality is incorporated in the universe and based on consequence (or purpose) that we can discover, whereas in a deonotological – iced bun – ethical system, morality is an independent layer based on absolute rules that we can learn.

Stripping away the moral and ethical bits, I think a similar confection-based analogy can be applied to how organisations incorporate social media in to their various business functions:

• Organisations can treat social media like chocolate chips in a muffin and incorporate social media throughout the various areas of the buinsess at different levels
• OR, organisations can treat social media like the icing on an iced bun and add a layer of ‘social media’ to the various areas of the business

Fairly unsurprisingly, we at RMM think organisations should adopt a chocolate chip muffin approach to planning social media: it allows for greater social media involvement in the planning of activities across the buiness, making for a more flexible approach to social media (and as a result a more ‘social’ organisation). Trying to add a layer of social media to activities across the business that have already – in the main – been planned makes for a less flexible approach to social media (and as a result a less ‘social’ organisation).

Just a little thought that struck me the other day – hopefully now you see why the lesson in ethics and bakery was necessary!