Ethical Decision Case Study

Ethical Decision
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Ethical decision
It is of great importance to create ethical governments and organizations, and make the society in general ethical in how it treats everybody. Ethics is essentially understood as standards of behaviour which spell out the way that people should behave in situations wherein they find themselves – as citizens, businesspersons, professionals, educators, children, or parents (Velasquez et al., 2009). In this paper, the ethical dilemma in the scenario is analyzed and what I would do in such a situation is discussed. In making the decision, several theories are applied. The results using the three theories are compared and contrasted, and the result that I consider to be the best solution of the ethical dilemma is chosen, with an explanation provided for it.
The identified ethical dilemma
In the scenario, the ethical dilemma is what Jill Jones should do; that is, whether or not Jill Jones should give a positive recommendation that will result in Henry being placed in the position of CEO in the family owned, mid-sized Candy Corporation. Jill Jones may not be objective about Henry. There are conflicting thoughts in her mind. Jill Jones is in ethical dilemma because of two main reasons. On the one hand, Henry is the eldest son of William Potter, the company’s head and he has performed an outstanding job with the company’s Miami branch as the head there. On the other hand, Henry has previously made Jill Jones’ life miserable and if Henry is placed in the position of the company’s CEO, there is possibility that her life would be awful.
Applicable theories
Utilitarian approach: proponents of this theory stress that the ethical action is that action which does the least harm or provides the most good. In other words, an ethical action is one which creates greatest balance of good over harm. Therefore, the ethical corporate action is essentially the action which does the least harm and produces the greatest good for everybody affected for instance shareholders, clientele, members of staff, the environment, as well as the community (Velasquez et al., 2009). The utilitarian approach, in essence, is focused on the consequences as it attempts to decrease the harm done and to increase the good done (Keskin, 2013). Basing upon this theory, the decision of whether or not to recommend Henry for the CEO position should be founded on whether his role as the CEO would provide the most good and do least harm, or whether it would not do this. Bearing in mind that Henry was previously the head of the company’s Miami branch and he did a great job there, there a possibility that he can also be a great CEO of the company; he has a proven track record. Therefore, the best decision is to recommend him for the CEO position as this would be good for the entire company – provides the most good – although it may bring some harm to one person; Jill Jones. This decision is the same as that reached basing on the virtue approach, but different from that reached basing on the rights approach.
Rights approach: according to this theory, the ethical action is that action which best respects and protects the moral rights of th...