Essays on Virtue Ethics

Ethics & Corporate Responsibility at the workplace and the World

All companies big or small have a responsibility towards its stakeholders for ethical execution of its operations so as not to hurt their interests or trust in the company. These responsibilities exceed beyond the workplace and must focus on improving the working and living conditions of its workers and other stakeholders. This paper is an attempt towards addressing the issues in Ethics and CSR with reference to a pharmaceutical company, PharmaCare with its Head Office at New Jersey. It is reputed to produce life saving and life improving drugs and is ethically inclined towards poorer sections of society to ...

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a sensitive topic in the society. This is because although it is one of the most common situations, it is also one of the least discussed or reported to authorities (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2007). This phenomenon is based on the negative perceptions of those who undergo IPV under the judgmental eye of society, associating this unfortunate situation to their physical or moral standing (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2007). Even though IPV rates have drastically reduced in the present society, these demeaning perceptions have still maintained their presence among those affected by IPV, for both genders. Nurses are ...

Ethical Issues

Human trafficking is a worldwide problem. For all practical purposes, this activity is nothing but a form of modern slavery. Every year, about 21 million people are caught up in human trafficking from about 130 countries around the world. Without a doubt, this is a serious issue given that it violates human rights that the United Nations takes very seriously - and should. While this pertains mostly to women who are sold into prostitution while also involving children and young boys as well who are coerced into forced labour as well. Given the atrocities around the world, the purpose ...

Georgia recognizes the doctrine of employment at will. Employment at will means that in the absence of a written contract of employment for a defined duration, an employer may terminate an employee for a good cause, bad cause, or no cause at all, so long as it is not an illegal cause . An employer cannot terminate an employee for discriminatory reasons, a breach of employment contract, or in retaliation for exercising their employee rights. Discriminatory reasons include race, color, sex, religion, national origin, etc. In order to better understand how at-will employment works, I will provide three different scenarios ...

Introduction

Business leaders across the globe have value statements that guide them throughout their lives. Core values are characterized as things of worth and serve as guideposts for associations on initiative and basic leadership (Browning, 2009). Core values speak to the center needs of a person’s or an organization’s way of life. At its most fundamental, a value statement depicts the general motivation behind the individual or group. It reveals insight into a person’s values and sympathy toward other people and activities for survival. The value statement is a convincing portrayal of the state and capacity of ...

BON-APN Prescription Case Analysis

Identification of the appropriate statements from Rule 221.13 Core Standards for Advanced Practice that relate to this case 221.13 (a) 221.13 (c) 221.13 (2) (A) 221.13 (2) (B) 221.13 (2) (E) 221.13 (e) (Texas Board of Nursing, 2016)

Identification of the appropriate statements from Rule 222.4 Minimum Standards for Carrying Out or Signing Prescriptions that relate to this case

222.4 (a) (1) (A) 222.4 (a) (1) (B) 222.4 (a) (2) 222.4 (a) (3) (b) 222.4 (e) (1) (Texas Board of Nursing, 2016)

Identification of the appropriate statements from Rule 217.12 Unprofessional Conduct that relate to this case

217.12 (1) (B) 217.12 (1) (D) 217.12 (1) (E) 217.12 (3) 217.12 (4) 217.12 (5) 217.12 (6) (A) 217.12 (6) (G) 217.12 (6) (H) 217.12 (8) 217.12 (10) (A) 217.12 (10) (B) 217.12 (10) (E) 217.12 (11) (B) ( ...

Virtue Ethics

The essence of Virtue Ethics is based in its antiquity and the fact that almost all ancient civilizations having endorsed some form of this principle. This is one form of Ethics that can directly be applied to professional and managerial situations. The reason for this is the ‘character-based’ nature of Virtue Ethics, wherein one evaluates an action in terms of specific ethical goals. In a sense, Virtue Ethics answers questions for managers better as compared to the Teleological or Deontological Ethical thoughts that are more consequence or duty based respectively. This essay would proceed to describe Virtue Ethics and ...

The primary theme of the book revolves around the intriguing concept of modern-day European philosophy to come up with a novel analysis of the human mind. Navigating the significance of actuality and intellectualize upon the world of ordinary human involvement, John Russon has presented a delighting point of view in respect to neurosis. Giving an objective contention and rationale to flatten the merciless and cliché perspective of despondency, Russon publicizes the commonality of the neurotic human ways. He reveals the center of personality in the heart of the human model, social life, family and actions, for example, strolling, eating, ...

German Philosopher Immanuel Kant views of morality were centered on the principle of good will. Kant defines good will as “the concept of a faculty of action according to a conception of universal law” (Deontology pg 9). This encompasses the belief that one’s motive is the determining factor in whether or not an individual possesses good or bad morals and, not the outcome of his actions. Thus, an individual who possesses good will shall only make decisions that they believe to be morally worthwhile regardless of the gains to be had or the possible outcomes. This is what ...

Ethics

Introduction Moral decisions will require moral deliberation and reasoning, which usually take place with particular perspectives, three of which are critically important. These are: virtue ethics, deontology, and utilitarianism. One similarity of these three principles is that they are required for moral decisions making.

Virtue Ethics

Virtue ethics majorly focuses of what makes the character traits of individuals (Slote, 2006). It dictates that a person will act in a certain way not because of the consequences that may come later but rather because it is what a virtuous person is expected to do. Here, the person is responsible for the decision-making ...

The moral point of view refers to people’s perspective on an issue based on whether the issue is deemed morally applaudable or morally right or wrong. So it involves the resolutions or laws created based on a larger perspective about what is right or wrong, one that affects or impacts more than merely one person, and therefore doesn’t take a person’s self-interest into account. The point of view can be identified by two characteristics: a best practice of deferring to reason; in other words, the resolutions should be the outcome of thoughtful sound reasoning, rather than ...

Mini Case page 147. "Is body language protected activity?"

1a) & b) The following could be the possible reasons why the three nurses were fired: The nurses had expressed their dissatisfaction with the manner in which the Heartland Hospital was being managed Yes, the right to free speech is protected by section 7 of the Wagner Act and thus, punishing these nurses merely based on expressing their views on conditions of work is against the provisions of this Act. The Hospital’s management under Barbara Young failed to listen to the nurses’ concerns about the shortage of staff aides and the quality of healthcare services rendered to residents Yes, ...

VIRTUE ETHICS AND ABORTION

The theory of virtue ethics focuses on an individual’s character and personality as a contributing factor to moral or ethical thinking. This theory does not look at the rules that have been put in place which require an individual to act in a particular way in accordance with those rules so that a positive consequence is produced. Instead, it looks at character, i.e. whether one portrays the required virtues of moral philosophy. Aristotle was the major contributor to this theory. He stated that for an individual to be virtuous, he/she must have individual traits within themselves that portray ...

Aristotle’s virtue ethics has been vividly explained in his book. The objective of this paper is to clearly define what makes the Aristotelian virtue ethics different from the traditional or basic one as known by experts in the field of philosophy. In order to do so, a brief background of both must be provided. Virtue ethics is a theory or a philosophical approach to studying ethics (the study of right and wrong) that focuses on an individual’s character and or his individuality when it comes to determining the key element of ethical thinking. This highlights the concept ...

Introduction

Corporate executives are required to maximize shareholder revenue while avoiding agent-principal conflicts, enhancing the reputation of the companies, and conforming to the regulatory standards. The situation in Enron indicates the corporate irresponsibility and managerial negligence that resulted in investor outrage and multiple lawsuits. The shareholders demanded legislation reforms, managerial accountability, and corporate power. The scandal in Enron encircled unethical and illegal activities punishable by law. This essay attempts to evaluate the virtue ethics that apply to the case of Enron.

Body

When it comes to the concept of virtue ethics, the postulates shift from individual, agent-centered, and action-oriented. The theory ...

Introduction

Virtue ethics are the theories that gives importance to our moral values that effect our mind and our character. It not only helps us to decide what is rightness or wrongness in our decision but also provides a guidance to be a good person that we wish to achieve .Virtual ethic was prevalent from the time old civilizations started. The philosophers always guided the rulers and the common people to follow the path of virtue ethics. Among the famous philosophers whose ethics are followed till date are Aristotle, father of Greek philosophy and Confucius, father of Chinese philosophy. Virtue ...

Business Ethics

Ethics can be defined as the code of moral values and principles that govern how an individual or a group relate to what is good or bad. It constitutes parts of a corporate culture that deal with inside principles. As to decision-making and conduct, ethics sets standards as to what is wrong or right. In addressing moral and economic legal concerns, ethical business decision making plays a vital role in balancing both corporate and social responsibilities. This essay is going to discuss the considerations and the criteria for the process of ethical decision making in business. In addition, it ...

Issues in Law, Ethics and Corporate Governance: A Case Study of PharmaCARE’s Activities in Colberia

Issues in Law, Ethics and Corporate Governance: A Case Study of PharmaCARE’s Activities in Colberia As the PharmaCARE case scenario reveals, a number of multinational companies have more often than not found themselves being heavily vilified globally for their failure in social responsibilities, corporate governance and ethics. This has particularly been the case with mining companies in oil and other mineral rich countries in Africa whereby these companies have exploited the vulnerability of the local populations to their business advantage. Their business activities have led to serious environmental destruction and pollution, raising major concerns about the health and ...

Introduction

PhamaCARE is a top tier pharmaceutical manufacturing company with programs that aim at solving medical problems for poor people through discounts and partnerships. Based in New Jersey, PhamaCARE has operations across the world, and presence in an African country, Colberia. Most people in Colberia live below poverty line, and they are ready to do anything for a living, no matter how lowly it pays.

Scenario and Stakeholders

PhamaCARE has struck a deal with traditional healers in Colberia that will get them exchanging knowledge about their medical herbs with the company. The arrangement has opened opportunities for thousands of people, who rummage in ...

Business Final Essay

Abstract Global warming is a serious issue that is facing the world today. Despite the tireless efforts put across by various nations to reduce the effect, it remains an issue to be addressed urgently. Many scholars have conducted research with an aim of determining the causes of global warming and have concluded that it is subject to environmental pollution by human beings. Human beings actions such as cutting down trees, burning forests, industries gas emissions, and emissions from vehicle exhaust fumes to the environment are some of the main human actions that accelerate the issue of global warming. This ...

Questions

Ethical egoism is an ethical theory which holds that agents should always act in their best self-interest. From the perspective of ethical egoism, the company executives are behaving ethically. They are putting their own interests and those of the shareholders and board members that appointed them ahead of those of the public by maximizing profit rather than focusing on reducing pollution. The Kantian perspective in ethics is one which promotes the “categorical imperative” or “formula of universal acceptability”. According to this formula, the company executives are not behaving ethically. Were all water companies around the world, or even all ...

Business

Stakeholders Stakeholders are people or organizations who have an interest in or are affected by any policy or action of an organization. Stakeholders have a number of key characteristics. They may be characterized by their interest or stake in the company. They may also have the potential to contribute to the successful conduct of business for an organization. They can further be characterized by the decision making power they have on the activities of the company (Schmeer, 1999). Stakeholders in the case of PharmaCare are discussed in following paragraphs. Shareholders. The shareholders in PharmaCare would be interested in profits, ...

Recognizing other options for approach to ethical decision making, I would like to explore the Virtue Ethics principle and apply it to the different dilemma scenarios.

Virtue Ethics (Character Based Virtues)

Virtue Ethics focuses on the virtue or moral character of an individual instead of focusing on the ethical duties and rules or on the consequences of an action or decision. Virtue Ethics is an important principle to use in a dilemma situation as it centers on motives and how it plays a major role in moral issues. Moral decisions require a virtuous act that derives from the right motivation. “It is concerned with ...

Introduction

The purpose of this report is to analyze the different social responsibilities and ethical responsibilities of businesses to the society. Apart from the main objective of maximization of profits, businesses should have other objectives that ensure that their practices promote the welfare of the society. In this report, Walmart is analyzed. Walmart is an American multinational company considered to be the largest employer with 2.2 million employees (Walmart.com). Apart from the United States, it has branches in United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Mexico, and India. It usually operates general chains hypermarkets, grocery stores, and discount department stores. The company’s ...

Discussion Question Journal

Chapter 14: The Social Contract Tradition Problems and Prospects Is it immoral to be a free rider? Is it irrational? Does the existence of free riders raise a serious problem for contractarianism? Why or why not? Take for instance a borehole constructed in an arid region by villagers. All member are to participate in contributing cash for this purpose. The water will serve the interests of the villagers. If say one or a group of members chose not to contribute but still got to use the water once the borehole was made, they would be referred to as free ...

The questions on whether or not States should legalize abortion has been a debatable issue among policymakers, scholars, and theorists as well, the same applies to the notion of mercy-killing or Euthanasia. Evidently, religious doctrines and existing codes of ethics forbid the ending of human life, from the point of conception to that of old age. To that end, States endorse laws that dictate the ideal punishments for murder; by that logic, even those who opt for suicide break the law but the fact that they are dead makes it impossible to have them serve a jail term. Thus ...

The film our group watched to complete this assignment was the 2006 crime drama The Departed, starring Leonard DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen and Jack Nicholson (The Departed). Beginning in the first few minutes and continuing to the end, our group found a number of ethical issues and dilemmas. One of the most significant ethical issues that our group found was the decision by the seemingly moral and ethically strong police officer Qeenan to persuade the new police recruit Billy Costigan to infiltrate the local mob. Qeenan’s recruitment of Costigan, presents a number of interesting ethical questions such ...

Utilitarianism is a theory that describes the expected behavior or conduct of an individual for the achievement of the best outcome possible. It entails distinguishing an action as right or wrong depending on whether it results in happiness or sadness respectively. The theory was developed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham and his economist counterpart John Stuart Mill around the 18th and the 19th century. The theory, in contrast to ethical theories which determine the rightfulness or wrongfulness of without considering its outcome, states that an ill-motivated action can breed a fair result. Mill believes that an act should only ...

Introduction

In his writing of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses the issue of pleasure and pain. Scholars have not come into agreement the reason why Aristotle used the word Nicomachean Ethics; however, most of them believe that Aristotle’s son and his father were both called Nicomachean. Aristotle’s son must have edited the book after the death of his father hence renaming the book to show that this was his edition. According to Aristotle, happiness is the greatest good, and it is the only reason why we undertake various activities. For example, when a person decides to go for grocery ...

Introduction

Ethics is a subject that has attracted a lot of attention especially, in the current global setting. The concept is regarded as a set of standards that helps people to distinguish what is right from wrong. The idea generates individuals who impact positively to society, conduct themselves in an accepted way and act in a fair way or uphold certain virtues that are morally accepted. A person who is considered to behave in an ethical manner refrains from some behavior such as murder, rape, assault among others. Moreover, ethical standards have to oblige to some set standards such as ...

Ethical Principles

Frank, and many like her have helped me to mold my ethical stance, that being virtue ethics. I believe upholding a strong character, demonstrating compassion, temperance, and wisdom, while exemplifying ethical decisions in all I do is most important. If I lead by example, I am able to show others how rewarding virtue ethics, as a stance, can be. Moreover, if I am able to show others that acting ethically is profoundly rewarding, more individuals will act with high ethical character, and begin to avoid normal vices that often tempt us from ethical actions, like selfishness, retribution, and greed. ...

Introduction

Owing to the fact that policy implementation is essential to the development of a company, Turner Constructions needs to embrace an influential ethical decision making framework. This is largely accredited to the fact that the current system is rather inefficient and is not centered towards the welfare of the employees. The current system does not ensure equality in the employee compensation due to the wide salary margin between field engineers and project managers $54,522 and $130, 893 (Payscale, 2016). Additionally, the newly employed personnel do not get a good conducive environment for growth due to the inadequacies of ...

Ethical Analysis

Introduction The task of a project manager is often not easy considering that they encounter a number of dilemmas when it comes to making decisions that are vital for the successful completion of the project. Therefore, project managers are required to know many things, and carry out a large number of tasks on a regular basis with substantial responsibility. The question on what should project managers do when they come across tough dilemmas depends on a number of issues including the theory that the results are of more value than the actions. This paper will analyse the scenario where ...

Facts of the Case

Luke has been working for the company on a project which involves developing a recently purchased land by the company in order to build an entertainment store on the land. Luke believes that as soon as the announcement for this project will be made, the real estate prices in the area will go down. Luke’s brother Owen lives in the neighborhood of the land. Owen recently told Luke that he got an average offer for his house recently. Owen is not sure about the offer and has asked Luke whether he should sell his house or wait for ...

Analysis

The plan of ABC Company to build an adult entertainment retail store in the newly acquired land raises an ethical issue. The ethical issue arises from the fact that Owen is Luke’s brother who works for the company and has been assigned to develop the land for the construction of the entertainment facility. The construction of the facility would reduce the market price of the estate. Owen intends to sell the land and, therefore, Luke is concerned that the land belonging to his brother will deteriorate in price. Luke considers telling his brother Owen about the construction to ...

Bioethics in a Changing World

Bioethics is defined as the study of morality and ethics in biomedicine and addresses some issues related to the medical field and their potential impact on the community. Its practice dates back to the Greek Hippocratic Oath and has evolved based on development in new bioethical guidelines (Goldim, 2009). This practice utilizes various tools to define solutions to morality issues. Five major theories applied in bioethics include deontology, utilitarianism, justice theory, virtue ethics, and care ethics. The Deontology theory entails W.D. Ross and Immanuel Kant. According to Ross, actions are right because they fulfill duties. Kant supports this by ...

Utilitarianism and Kantianism

Utilitarianism, Virtue ethics and Kantianism are examples of normative ethics. In these theories, there are three components which characterize every action: the consequences of the action, the action itself (which also include the motive of the action), and the agent (the doer). Utilitarianism deals with the consequences of the action. On the other hand, deontological theories (Kantianism and divine command theory) are concerned with motive/action. Virtue ethics, however, is concerned with the doer/agent (Stewart, 2009). Utilitarianism and Kantianism Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is derived from the word utility. In utilitarianism, an action is deemed right only if its outcome is to ...