MGT - 305 Ethics case
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School
Texas A&M University, Commerce *
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Course
305
Subject
Philosophy
Date
Feb 20, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
6
Uploaded by MasterWombat3606
Identification of Dilemma The overall dilemma is a group of employees traveling on their personal time, acting in a manner their boss, Mr. Thomas Rex Gibbs aka T-Rex, finds unethical with grounds for termination, per reports received but not witnessed by Mr. Gibbs. Mr. Gibbs has pressured the new Human Resource Manager, me, to take care of the situation immediately. As the Human Resource Manager, I can do an extensive investigation, which will take time, or I can follow the direction of Mr. Gibbs to handle this quickly. If I decide to follow in the same direction all 15 employees will lose their jobs, without a proper investigation, I will have bettered my career and keep my job. If I choose to not follow in the same direction, I could potentially lose my job as well. All people and groups impacted by this dilemma include the 15 employees who went on a personal vacation, outside of work hours. I, the new HR Manager, could not only lose my job but this potentially affect my career, if I do not side with Mr. Gibbs. The BeechNut company itself could get bad reviews based on the employee's actions. And Mr. Gibbs himself.
Ethical Frameworks
Utilitarian The Utilitarian ethical approach “suggests people should do what creates the best benefit for the greatest number of people” (LePine, Fadil, LePine, & Reuer, 2021)
. Although this is the most ethical choice, there are also limitations to this approach. Meaning, it will be difficult to determine whether or not our actions will have a positive or negative outcome. “
For example, assume a hospital has four people whose lives depend upon receiving organ transplants: a heart, lungs, a kidney, and a liver. If a healthy person wanders into the hospital, his organs could be harvested to save four lives at the expense of one life. This would arguably produce the greatest good for the greatest number. But few would consider it an acceptable course of action, let alone the most ethical one” (Business, Utilitarianism , 2018)
. There are two different types of utilitarianism, act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. Although these two types are similar when seeking the best outcome, they differ when determining how to accomplish the greater outcome. Act utilitarianism is targeted at the actions that have the best result for the greatest number of people. In the book, Connect Master Management 2.0
, the authors describe act utilitarianism as a yield sign. This means, you are in control of what your actions are, whether you decide to go through with the action if there’s no reason to hold off or to stop, wait, and think about it. On the other hand, rule utilitarianism is a rule that is already set in stone, to avoid actions or decisions that should not be made that could result in a conflict. “In comparison to the yield, think about rule utilitarianism as a stop sign. The general rule for a stop sign – always stop – is
thought to result in more utility from preventing accidents than it creates from unnecessary stops”
(LePine, Fadil, LePine, & Reuer, 2021)
. Virtue
Virtue ethics is an approach inspired by Aristotle that “focuses on each person and his or her behavior. It is based on the notion that some individual traits are virtuous, such as courage, generosity, and friendliness” (LePine, Fadil, LePine, & Reuer, 2021)
. Virtue behaviors are consistent with who you desire to be. Do you want to be known as someone who is truthful, dutiful, and loyal, or do you want to be known as a person who is resilient, witty, and bad-tempered? Being virtuous is being considerate and friendly throughout any situation because that is who they are, not because they desire to obtain the highest value. Just like all ethical frameworks, virtue ethics has its strengths and flaws. A strength of the virtue ethics theory is that it can encourage and motivate a person to respect and care for others. Also, other individuals can feed off the energy of someone else who is virtuous and pick up new behaviors.
A flaw of this theory is that everyone’s perspective on what is morally right or wrong is different, “This is due to the difference in opinions and perspectives of people who are inherently
different from each other and came from diverse cultures and societies,” (Psychology, 2016)
which can lead to the difficulty in determining what a person’s virtues are. “Virtue ethics helps us understand what it means to be a virtuous human being. And it gives us a guide for living life without giving us specific rules for resolving ethical dilemmas”
(Business, Virtue Ethics , 2022)
.
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Evaluation of Ethical Dilemma
Based on this case, and with the positive feedback from BeechNut previously featured in Forbes magazine, as the new Human Resource Manager it is crucial to handle this in the best way possible. That being said, I believe that the utilitarian approach will best guide us in the direction of how we should handle the unacceptable and disrespectful behavior dispersed by the 15 employees. I chose this ethical framework because this approach will benefit the greatest number of people, which is critical for our second-largest baby food company. After all, we have worked extremely hard to get where we are today. The new leadership team’s core values that were put in place were not only to be followed in the workplace but anywhere outside of work as
well. Planet, one of their core values, states that they should “be responsible citizens that make a difference by helping build and support sustainable communities.” On their flight, they chose to be intoxicated, inappropriate, and demanding, violating that core value. These behaviors are unacceptable, especially for a maker of baby foods. By using act utilitarianism, we can act in the decision that will benefit the greatest number of people, which would be our company and buyers. If we do not handle this problematic situation, and punish those who need to be punished, it could potentially have a negative impact on our company. Whether that means firing all 15 employees or firing those who were responsible for the disrespect and suspending the others. After that decision is made, we can use rule utilitarianism to set up rules that are expected
to be followed inside and outside the workplace, and that can avoid another incident like this one. Positive implications of the utilitarian method would be that we are reducing additional harm that could be done to our company by including a new set of rules for employees to follow that will avoid other incidents. Even if some of those employees were the best of the best, we
can’t risk how far we have come. By firing all 15 employees and learning from having a leadership team full of young recruits, we can start fresh with a new team of diversity and with our new rules set in place. Utilitarianism seeks happiness, positivity, and humanity. Not only does it benefit what and who is within a company, but also benefits those outside.
Negative implications of utilitarianism are unpredictable, we cannot predict the future. By this I mean, yes, the decision will best benefit us as of now, but who knows if that decision will have a negative effect on us in the future. If we were to fire all 15 employees, we would strongly need to rely on and trust everyone to not only do their part responsibly but also follow the new rules set in place. Although the virtue method is another great way to make ethical decisions, I chose not to go in that direction, as I thought it was not quite suitable for our situation. Moderation can be a positive implication for the virtue method because it is flexible, there are no specific rules, and it is established on moral virtues. Another implication can include
making people better, by motivating and encouraging others who do not have virtuous characteristics. A negative implication of virtue ethics is that it could sometimes lead to unclear guidelines because a person’s emotions can affect their judgment. It can also be unclear because everyone's perspective on what is morally right and wrong varies. One other negative outcome is that it does not help to benefit a community or organization but focuses on the individuals themselves.
References
Business, M. S. (2018, December 18). Utilitarianism .
Retrieved from Ethics Unwrapped : https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/utilitarianism
Business, M. S. (2022, August 18). Virtue Ethics .
Retrieved from Ethics Unwrapped : https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/virtue-ethics
LePine, M., Fadil, P., LePine, J., & Reuer, J. (2021). Connect Master 2.0 Managment.
New York: McGraw Hill LLC.
Psychology, F. (2016). 11 VIRTUE ETHICS STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
. Retrieved from Flow Psychology : https://flowpsychology.com/11-virtue-ethics-strengths-and-weaknesses/
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