06 Nov You work in the Ethics Department for ABC Company (ABC). Your department is dedicated to advising its employees about their ethical obligations in the corporate setting. You are an internal

Assignment 3

Suggested Length: 1400 to 2000 words

Ethical Theories to Apply: Utilitarianism, Universal Ethics , Golden Rule, Virtue Ethics

Task

You work in the Ethics Department for ABC Company (ABC). Your department is dedicated to advising its employees about their ethical obligations in the corporate setting. You are an internal consultant who provides advice and most importantly, recommendations for action to employees of the firm. All communications you receive in this capacity are confidential.

Luke, an employee of ABC, comes to you with the following scenario and asks for your advice. He wants to fully consider the situation. Your task is to advise and recommend a course of action based on the specified ethical lenses and facts as given.

Your recommendation must be based on only one of the four ethical theories – not both or a combination of both. In other words, your reasoning must support your choice. Choose one theory only and support it with your reasoning.

Below are the facts that Luke provides to you.

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Luke has been asked to work on a project that involves developing land recently purchased by ABC to build an adult entertainment retail store. According to the plan, the land is located on the corner of the neighborhood where Owen, Luke’s brother, lives.

Luke knows that as soon as the plans for the store are made public, property values for the surrounding neighborhood will decrease significantly. ABC plans to publicly announce the project one month from today.

Luke is concerned about his obligations of confidentiality to his company. However, Luke is also very close to Owen, who recently told Luke that he received an offer to sell his house at an “okay” price given the current real estate market. Owen is considering selling but hasn’t made any final decision yet. He wonders if he might get a better offer a few years from now when the real estate market improves.

What is the ethical issue, why is this an issue, and what should Luke do about it?

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For assignment 3, prepare a memo, setting out your analysis and recommendations, that considers ONLY the following ethical lenses: Utilitarianism, Universal Ethics (i.e., Kant’s categorical imperative), The Golden Rule and Virtue Ethics.

You must choose only one of the four theories to support your recommendations.

(continued) Remember that Assignments 2 and 3 are considered “drafts” for Assignment 4. In other words, you may revise and reuse parts of Assignments 2 and 3 (facts, issues, description of the ethical lenses) for Assignment 4, but please make sure that you make improvements where indicated.

Your analysis for Assignment 4 will be different since you’re incorporating all four theories into your analysis. But you may reuse other elements of assignments 2 and 3 (facts, issues, description of the ethical lenses) if they are written as well as you can write them.

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Facts

Luke who works at ABC Company wants advice based on the recent project he has been given by the company. Luke has been asked to work on the company’s recent land aimed to build an adult entertainment store within his brother’s recent neighborhood. Based on the plan, the land would affect the surrounding neighborhood market price. Additionally, due to the company’s loyalty set up Luke cannot attempt to give the information to the public before the company makes the property public. The company also plans to give the information to the public exactly a month from today. This happens after Owen got an offer to sell his house however, he chooses not to hope that the market rates might increase with time.

Issues

Luke faces great ethical issues in his place of work while trying to maintain the loyalty of the ABC company by not spilling out information to his bother about the upcoming project that would negatively impact the market rates within the community. On the other hand, if he chooses to follow company rules, it ends up that he will have failed his brother and the two might end up having a strained relationship. If he chooses to announce the information to his brother, then it is likely that he will risk his job which creates more issues.

Ethical Analysis

Golden Rule: The rule is a philosophy that guides how people live their lives and suggests many other people should be treated. Fairness and respect are determined by relationships with people. People tend to always act good for others since they would love to be treated in the same way. Hence, the famous saying that we should do unto others what we expect them to do unto us. In this case, while we apply the golden rule, two cases of the incident may exist. The case of Luke and his brother Owen and the case of Luke and his work ethics concerning ABC Company.

Therefore, if we reverse the case and fit in Luke's co-workers with the help of the Golden rule, we find that one must reciprocate what they would wish to be done to them. Luke would not wish his information is disclosed if he worked in the company, the colleague would have messed the company up at large. Consequently, he would not wish the information to be shared. If Luke was still a client at the company and realizes his information is not confidential, it would create issues.

On the other hand, it is through the golden rule that Luke would love to see the same case from his brother's view. If it happens his brother knew the information that his job would be terminated, he will alert him early enough to look for options, however, if Owen would choose not to help him, he would lose.

Virtue ethics

The Virtue of ethics implies a broad understanding of the concept of the role of character and that of moral philosophies that tie around the understanding that one should act in order of their consequences. This means that Luke can choose either to be a good brother or a loyal employee. It all rolls on him, if he chooses to be a loyal employee and not share the information about the company with his brother, he should brace himself for the consequences of the same. His actions would lead to a poor relationship with his brother and might cause an entire turmoil between the two even shortly.

If look chooses to be a good and virtuous brother, then he must also be ready to brace for the consequences that will come with him losing his job and saving his brother to sell his property before the company goes ahead with its plans. This means that the task he was allocated to run the upcoming project will end and his job will come to a stop. All this will affect his financial status at the cost of maintaining virtue ethics and the relationship between him and his brother Owen. This implies that both virtuous sides give a chance for individuals to choose what they feel is most applicable to their lives and what consequences they could take up easily.

Conclusion

Based on the case, being the advisor at the ABC company accredited the responsibility to take care of employee challenges and give the best way forward. The impacts of Virtue ethics and the golden rule play a major role in what people choose to go with. Additionally, I feel that Luke should not disclose ABC company plans on the new project since he always has a chance to convince his brother to sell his house earlier enough citing information that the market price is unpredictable. Later after the company accomplishes its plan, it is time to explain to his brother his deeds and how he intended to help him and maintain his job as well. I choose virtue ethics since it would apply best in this case scenario.

References

Lawrence, J. E., & Manolopoulos, D. E. (2019). An analysis of isomorphic RPMD in the golden rule limit.  The Journal of Chemical Physics,  151(24), 244109.

Papouli, E. (2019). Aristotle’s virtue ethics as a conceptual framework for the study and practice of social work in modern times.  European Journal of Social Work,  22(6), 921-934.

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Analysis and Recommendations

Facts:

ABC plans to build a retail store for adult entertainment on the recently purchased property. The store will be situated in the neighborhood of Luke's brother Owen. Luke worries that the neighborhood's property values will significantly decline if the store's plans are made known. In a month, ABC wants to release the project to the public. Luke is worried about the confidentiality obligations placed on his business, but he is also close to Owen (Hoffman et al., 2018). The real estate market being what it is, Owen recently told Luke that he had an offer to sell his house for an acceptable price. Owen is considering selling, but he hasn't decided yet. When the housing market has improved in a few years, he speculates that he might receive a better offer. Luke, who is close to Owen, wants to support him in making the right choice for his future.

Issues:

The protagonist, Luke, must decide whether or not to tell his brother, Owen, about the upcoming adult entertainment retail store that will be built on the corner of Owen's neighborhood. If Luke tells Owen, then Owen may sell his house before the store is built and values drop, but if he doesn't tell Owen, he risks breaching his confidentiality agreement with ABC. Luke should weigh each option's pros and cons before deciding. On the one hand, if he tells Owen about the store, Owen may be able to sell his house at a higher price and avoid the negative impacts of living near an adult entertainment store. However, Luke would be breaching his confidentiality agreement with ABC, which could lead to serious consequences for him.

On the other hand, if he doesn't tell Owen about the store, he risks Owen's anger and betrayal if Owen finds out later. In the end, Luke must decide what is more important to him: his relationship with his brother or his obligations to his company. If he values his relationship with his brother more, he should tell Owen about the store. However, if he values his obligations to his company more, he should keep the information to himself.

Lens and analysis:

Utilitarian Theory

The utilitarianism theory is based on the principle of maximizing utility or happiness. In other words, the right thing to do is the thing that will produce the most happiness for the most people (Hayward, 2022). When applied to the facts of this case, the utilitarianism theory would suggest that Luke should not tell Owen about the upcoming adult entertainment store. This is because doing so would likely decrease Owen's happiness (by decreasing the value of his property) and would not produce any happiness for anyone else. The utilitarianism theory would therefore conclude that Luke should keep the information to himself.

The pros of the utilitarianism theory are that it considers the happiness of all people involved in a situation. The cons of the utilitarianism theory are that it does not always produce the most ethical results. For example, in this case, the utilitarianism theory would allow ABC to build the store and decrease the happiness of the surrounding neighborhood as long as the overall enjoyment of the people involved is increased.

Kant's categorical imperative

Kant's categorical imperative is an ethical theory that states that an action is only morally good if it is done for the sake of duty. In other words, an effort is only morally reasonable if it is done out of a sense of obligation (Hayward, 2022). This means action cannot be morally good if it is done for self-interest. For example, if someone donates money to a charity out of a sense of duty, that action is morally good. However, if someone donates money to a charity out of self-interest, that action is not ethically sound.

Applying Kant's categorical imperative to the facts of the case, it is clear that Luke has a duty to ABC to keep the plans for the store confidential. However, Luke also has a responsibility to his brother Owen to tell him about the plans for the store. Given that Luke cannot fulfill both duties, he must choose which duty to perform. Kant would say that the only morally good option is for Luke to tell Owen about the plans for the store, even though it means breaking his confidentiality agreement with ABC. This is because Luke's duty to his brother is more important than his duty to ABC. This is because ABC is a company, and companies are not as important as family. Therefore, the only morally good option for Luke is to tell Owen about the plans for the store.

Conclusion:

As an advisory of the ethics department of ABC Company, the utilitarian theory would be the best ethical theory to base the recommendation/conclusion on in the given case. The Utilitarian theory is based on the principle of maximizing utility, which means that the morally right action is the one that produces the most outstanding amount of good for the most significant number of people. In the given case, the ethically right move would be for Luke to tell Owen about the upcoming store so that Owen can make an informed decision about whether or not to sell his house. This would produce the most outstanding amount of good for the most significant number of people because it would allow Owen to make a decision that is in his best interest and prevent Luke from violating his confidentiality obligations to ABC.

Work Cited

Hoffman, W. M., Frederick, R., & Schwartz, M. S. (2018).  Business ethics : readings and cases in corporate morality. Wiley Blackwell. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Business+Ethics:+Readings+and+Cases+in+Corporate+Morality-p-9781118336687

‌Hayward (2022) Utilitarianism, Universal Ethics, Golden Rule, and Virtue Ethics. (2020). Paper per Hour. https://paperperhour.com/utilitarianism-universal-ethics-golden-rule-and-virtue-ethics/

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