Introduction
Ethics can be succinctly defined as the principles or values that influence a person’s behavior. With regards to definition, ethics may seem like a simple and comprehensible concept. Nonetheless, in reality, ethics vary from person to person, while at the same time being universal among humans. Variation is due to the intuitive nature of man’s morality; moral decisions often come as a result of emotional feelings, logical thought and even past experiences. However, ethics and/or morality is universal as different groups of people, even from different regions, still share the same moral reasoning when faced with the same moral issue. As such, even though people have different moral perspectives it is important to assess an ethical dilemma before making a moral decision.
Facts
As an employee of the Ethics Department in ABC Company (ABC) you are tasked with providing ethical advice to other employees. Luke, a fellow employee, has been granted work on a project that would transform one of ABC’s development lands into an adult retail store. Luke believes that once ABC’s plans become public land in the surrounding areas is going to depreciate very quickly. On the other hand, Luke is close to Owen who has been given a substantial offer to sell his house, however, he is not sure if it is still worth it. Therefore, Luke is torn between maintaining the company’s confidentiality and letting his brother lose out on the deal and consequently be forced to sell at a lower price in the future.
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Issue
Luke, like most people, is faced with an ethical dilemma. On one hand, Luke should stay true to the company’s virtues of which confidentiality is a big part while on the other he should not let his friend lose out on possibly the best deal he will ever receive. The issue comes in the form of the decision to either stay true to his duty or do an action that would result in a favorable outcome for his brother. As stated earlier, ethics is primarily difficult in reality when it comes to actual application. For Luke, he is faced with two opposing ethical stances that will each have unfavorable outcomes. If he decides to blatantly tell Owen, he may lose trust in himself and his duty or even worse, he may be fired were someone else to find out and if he decides to not tell Owen, he most likely will get a mediocre offer or be forced to live near an adult retail store which may not the ideal environment to raise children in.
Analysis
There are two opposing ethical theories or guidelines that are at play with Luke’s ethical dilemma. They are the Golden Rule and virtue ethics which will be discussed in this segment. To begin with, the Golden Rule is perhaps the most common ethical statement that people are aware of, however, this does not imply that it is the most commonly used. The Golden Rule simply suggests that we should act in the way that we would like others to treat us (Gensler, 12). Gensler further implicates that will necessitate a person to constantly place him/herself in the other person’s shoes before making a decision that will affect them (45). In the case above, Luke should place himself in Owen’s shoes and thereafter make a decision that he would feel is right if he himself was Owen.
Conversely, virtue ethics is a broad approach to ethics that emphasizes one’s own virtues and values when making ethical decisions as opposed to duty, religion or happiness. Melé suggests that everyone has their own values that guide them, however, logical or senseless they may be (245). In Luke’s case, it is very easy to confuse his dilemma as one that is a result of duty; however, his values are the ones that he is at odds with. It is mentioned that Luke is afraid of his obligations of confidentiality to the company, i.e. he is afraid of going against the confidentiality that defines how he handles his work. Thereby, virtue ethics often ascertain that what is right is that which aligns with our innate values (Van Hooft, 76). As such, if Luke is to follow virtue ethics, then he would have to maintain confidentiality regardless of Owen’s situation.
Conclusively, Luke’s dilemma seems to be a clash between his own perception of Golden Rule and virtue ethics. It is important for Luke to be able to properly evaluate and comprehend the two opposing approaches and their possible outcomes. As such, regardless of the decision, he takes he has to understand its consequences and thereby select the one that is intuitively right according to him.
Recommendation
After analysis of the ethical issue, it has been evident that Luke seems to only have two available options. Although, there is the off chance that there are other alternatives of which Luke is downplaying. Luke can either tell Owen the reason why his house would depreciate in a month or keep the company’s operations a secret as he should. From my perspective, I believe Luke should maintain his personal integrity which would align with him not being vocal about ABC’s plan on building an adult retail store to his brother. Therefore, Luke should give Owen the go-ahead to sell the house without disclosing ABC’s plans; should Owen insist on knowing why Luke can just blame it on his gut feeling.
Works Cited
Gensler, Harry J. Ethics, and the golden rule . Routledge, 2013.
Melé, Domènec. "Integrating personalism into virtue-based business ethics: The personalist and the common good principles." Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 88, no.1, 2009, Pp. 227-244.
Van Hooft, Stan. Understanding virtue ethics . Routledge, 2014.
