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. 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 him on all perspectives on the situation. Below are the facts that Luke provides to you.
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?
FACTS
The land that ABC has purchased for the adult entertainment retail store is in Owen’s neighborhood. This means that the store will be located close to where Owen lives, and he will likely be directly affected by its presence. According to the information provided, the plans for the store are expected to decrease property values in the surrounding neighborhood significantly once they are made public. This could have a negative impact on the value of Owen’s house, which could affect his decision about whether to sell it. ABC plans to publicly announce the project in one month, which means that the information about the store will be made known to the public relatively soon. Owen recently received an offer to sell his house and is considering the offer, but he is also considering waiting a few years for the real estate market to improve. This means that he is weighing the pros and cons of selling his house now versus waiting until the market conditions might be more favorable in the future.
ISSUE
The ethical issue in this case is the conflict between Luke’s duty of confidentiality to ABC and his loyalty to his brother, Owen. Luke is facing a difficult decision about whether to disclose confidential information about the adult entertainment retail store project to Owen. On the one hand, Luke has an obligation to keep the information about the project confidential, as he works in the Ethics Department for ABC and is responsible for advising employees about their ethical obligations in the corporate setting. This means that he is expected to keep the information about the project private and not share it with anyone outside of the company. On the other hand, Luke is very close to Owen and wants to protect him and potentially help him make a better decision about selling his house. He is aware that the plans for the store could decrease property values in the surrounding neighborhood significantly, and he is concerned that this could affect Owen’s decision about whether to sell his house now or wait until the market conditions improve. In this situation, Luke is faced with a dilemma about what he should do, as he wants to fulfill his duty of confidentiality to the company while also being loyal to his brother.
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Write to the Ethics Department file that considers ONLY the following four theories – Utilitarianism, Universal Ethics (i.e., Kant’s categorical imperative), The Golden Rule and Virtue Ethics. answering the following questions:
– Describe the conflicting choices for Luke clearly: why it is so difficult for Luke to make a decision here?
– How the end effects you talk of will come about as a result.
– Bring out the sum of ALL the consequences (societal harms and benefits) if Luke divulges the information, or if he does not do so
– Consider the criticisms of the 2 theories for a more balanced analysis.
– Make a preliminary recommendation: what does this theory tell Luke to do?
– Considering the difficulty in applying either of the 2 theories above, Luke would be faced with a dilemma about what would be the right choice to follow in this case.
– What should Luke do, that everyone else could also follow universally?
– what’s the more important role Luke is playing in this scenario? How has he come to be in possession of this information? Does he owe an obligation for that?
– What would the world be like if everyone in Luke’s position shared confidential company information outside with the others?
– The final recommendations for Luke need to be supported by arguments made towards the application of the 2 theories to case facts.
– Make a clear recommendation to Luke. Should he tell Owen or not?
– Develop your arguments such that they are logical and convincing to the reader.
– Make a specific recommendation based on the application of either or both of these theories; not from outside the scope of these theories.
Use the following format of headers for the essay:
1. Analysis (note- this is where you may want to use additional headers to further organize your thoughts)
1.1 Utilitarianism
1.2 Universal Ethics (i.e., Kant’s categorical imperative)
1.3 Golden Rule
1.4 Virtue Ethics
2. Recommendation
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Kant & Categorical Imperatives:
Utilitarianism:
VIRTUE ETHICS:
GOLDEN RULE: