Ethical Theories

Assignment 3 Suggested Length: 1400 to 2000 words

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

You are to consider, discuss, and evaluate all ethical theories and then choose the best one on which to base your recommendations. Explain why it is the best choice. You may reuse your facts and issues from Assignments 1 and 2.

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?

*****

For assignment 3, prepare a memo, setting out your analysis and recommendations, that

considers all 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.

Remember that Assignments 1 and 2 are considered “drafts” for Assignment 3. In other words, you

may revise and reuse parts of Assignments 2 and 3 (facts, issues, description of the ethical lenses)

for Assignment 3, but please make sure that you make improvements where indicated.

Your analysis for Assignment 3 will be different since you’re incorporating all four theories

into your analysis. But you may reuse other elements of assignments 1 and 2 (facts, issues,

description of the ethical lenses) if they are written as well as you can write them.

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