Virtue Ethics Case Study

FACTS Luke is an employee at ABC Company. Luke’s managers asked him to work on a new project to develop land bought by ABC. The company plans to use this land, which is located on the corner of his brother’s neighborhood, for an adult entertainment store. Luke’s brother, Owen, asked his opinion on whether he should sell his home to a buyer who had offered a decent price or keep it and wait for a better offer. Luke wants to tell his brother, but he is obligated to hold the information about the store in confidence until after the announcement about the store in a month. ISSUE Should Luke inform his brother about the store, which could lead to his home value declining, or should he stand by the confidentiality agreement? Luke
Virtue Ethics asks the decision maker how the people affected by the decision can achieve happiness. This value states that there is no formula to find a correct decision, but the decision maker should consider what behaviors their virtues require in the situation and what impact their behaviors will have on their virtues. Luke must make a decision based on whether telling his brother about the development or keeping the information confidential will uphold his virtues and ensure the happiness of the majority.
When evaluating how Luke’s decision would impact his Company, Luke should choose to keep all information confidential. It can be assumed that since Luke has hesitations and concerns about telling his brother that he has the virtue of honesty and trustworthiness. He promised that he would remain loyal to his company by keeping all of the information they divulged to him confidential. If he were to release the information to his brother, he would go against his virtues and as an effect, potentially skew his virtues for the future. If this were to happen, it could potentially mean that Luke would no longer value the honesty and trust that he once did. Thus, it may lead to him falling into a cycle of creating excuses/ reasons to go against these virtues. This could cause Luke to be demoted or even lose his job because of the lack of trust ABC Company would have in
The Golden Rule requires the decision maker to consider how they would want to be treated in the situation. This theory encourages the decision maker to thoroughly consider how their actions will positively and negatively affect those involved and then make a decision based on how they would like to be treated if they were in the other person’s shoes. Here, Luke must make a decision based on how the other two parties would like to be treated. When looking at the effect Luke’s decision would have on his company, he should choose to remain loyal. The Golden Rule would require Luke to ensure that he is acting how he would want his company to treat him. Thus, he must refrain from releasing the information to his brother because it may end up putting the company in jeopardy. For example, releasing the information to one person may lead to a widespread leak and eventually massive strikes within the community that may delay development and cause the company a large amount of money. If Luke were in ABC Companies position, entrusting all of their confidential information to a group of employees, Luke would want his employees to follow his request and keep all details from the public until the official announcement is