Could someone help me with a reply to my class mate response. Here is the questi
ID: 360612 • Letter: C
Question
Could someone help me with a reply to my class mate response.
Here is the question
Learning Activity #2
Often times, making the ethical decision, is not always the "easiest" one. When faced with making an ethical decision in the workplace, what type of approach do you feel works best? Make sure you support your answer.
My Reply: Ethical decision making at first may seem straight forward but there are different approaches to make those.(Kevin Benz, 2012) First one is Utilitarian approach which suggests that a decision is ethical if it makes more good than harm to the society. That is, all the decisions possible must be evaluated on the basis of the amount of good and harm and the decision which makes more good than harm is the ethical one. Another approach is Rights approach. In this method, the individual's rights must be preserved, and the decision that makes this happen is the ethical one. Another approach is, the fairness approach suggests that the decision which treats everyone fairly and equally is the ethical one. Another approach is the virtues approach. In this approach, the decision which is made by considering all the virtues like honesty, faithful etc and the one which is done by considering the benefits of the society is the ethical one.
Virtue approach is the best one as far as I am concerned because it is more about the character of the decision maker.(capsim, 2017) One good person can spread a lot of virtues to others. His decisions would be altruistic and ethical dilemmas are solved for the benefits of others as well.
An ethical issue, as an example, could be the product of an organization. The organization can make the product cheaper by using less quality materials to improve sales. But if the organization is ethical, by virtue approach, it would want to make the product more qualified for the customers because this approach is all about honesty and truthful. This is completely valid approach to this decision because it solves everyone's problems and organization would get benefited in the long run.
Their response:I find it quite interesting that you chose the Virtue philosophy. I wish that the world would follow more of that particular mindset. Sadly when you have individuals like Martin Shkreli who bought Daraprim and then raised prices for the medication over 5000%, we don't have that mindset.
Explanation / Answer
Making the ethical decisions at the workplace or at a general place is certainly a challenging task as it needs good rationale and logical characteristics to arrive at the justifiable conclusion. Though there could be multiple philosophies to support or defend a particular ethical decision, but out of all the existing approaches, Virtue philosophy is certainly a better-placed approach as it intends to benefit the common people by and large. Certainly, in the current era, a lot of people are indulging in unethical practices and despite that, they are earning a huge sum of money but this cannot defend or justify the wrongdoings which are being done by such type of people. Anyone's success can not be measured by wealth or property that particular person has amassed during the years, but what really matters or rather makes a person successful, is his or her behaviour and good practices.
Hence Virtue philosophy can be treated as the strongest pillar of any ethical decision which not only ensures that customers or people connected with that particular business are properly benefitted but also it disseminates the good brand value of that firm or product, which in turn assures the commercial success of the venture or product in a long run.