Utilitarian typically helps in the provision of a vision for ethical behavior. Such an ethical behavior gives a common interest of humanity since it is used in the process of making a certain moral decision. In a bid to ascertain whether or not engaging in sharing of information relating to a particular client from the server is a moral action or not, the key stakeholders of the company who will be affected should be identified (Costa et al., 2014). Such stakeholders include employees and clients. There are two courses of action which can be taken via the utilitarian analysis.
Option 1.Engage in selling clients’ information from the server
Option2.Dismiss the idea and keep clients’ information confidential
The above course of actions each has their consequences and outcomes. The option which is to be selected and used using the utilitarian analysis will entail the computation of the amount of profit that each of the actions will generate for the company. The course of action which will generate the highest amount of profit will then be selected (Greco, Figueira & Ehrgott, 2016). The process of determining the amount of profit for each of the actions can be carried out using a unit of profit table. The equation will determine the net profit of the courses of action;
Net profit=profit –loss
Table of Profit
-$150m +$150m
|
Option 1 |
Option 2 |
|
|
Stakeholder1 |
-$50M |
-$12M |
|
Stakeholder2 |
+$100M |
+150M |
|
Total |
$50M |
$138M |
Option one of the courses of action indicates that the employees are unhappy about the issue since it will reduce the amount of profit to be generated in the company. Such a reduction in the profit will result to non-performance of certain activities in the firm. The clients, on the other hand, will be unhappy too since, their information which should be confidential will now be used for purposes which are against the public policy (Greco et al., 2016).
Analyzing option two, it is clear that both the clients and the employees are extra happy about the idea of not engaging in the selling of the clients’ information from the server for profit generating purposes. This is attributed to the fact that information of an individual should be kept confidential and inaccessible to any other third party. As the CEO of Facebook, therefore, I would select option two which is the most ethical action. From the information in the table, it has the highest net profit, and therefore the moral action is option two.
The Kantian Ethics has been considered as a significant example of the deontological moral theory. Based on the theory, the right course of action which is taken by a particular individual depends on moral law and not the outcome of such an action. It has been considered as the most essential technique used in evaluating the moral values of codes of ethics. Further, it is vital during the formulation of the policy of the ethical codes (Everett, Pizarro & Crockett, 2016).
In the application of the Kantian ethics, a generalized statement is created to explain the action.
When the company engages in selling the clients’ information from the server, it will lose most of its customers.
When the clients’ information from the server is sold, customers will stop using Facebook leading to loss of clients and hence low profits.
Everette et al., (2016), argues that the maxim is then tested against the categorical imperative. Such a test will be carried out using the Kantian’s formulation. The first formulation will entail testing of the maxim to prevent the contradiction in the will. Additionally, the second formulation is that the client information should not be used for any profit-generating activity and therefore the second formulation will be used.
Based on the method, it can be concluded a rational decision which is to be made is that the company will not engage in the selling of the clients’ information from the server since it against the public policy (Paquette, Sommerfeldt & Kent, 2015). It, therefore, means that the employee has made an irrational decision which is contrary to the code of ethics in business and hence it can be proven that both the maxim and action fails.
One rule or guideline cannot be used in making certain key decisions. The virtue ethics is typically a technique in which a person’s attributes are used as the critical aspects of ethical thinking. It is therefore used towards ethical situations. Moral decision making is consequently determined using the virtues. An individual’s virtues are generally based on how they are taught and how they are raised by their family. Vice is considered the opposite of having a virtue. Based on the virtue ethics, the primary objective of any individual is to live a happy life, and this is usually attained by being a virtuous individual in the society (Vaughn, 2015).
In the case which entailed a hearing where Zuckerberg, CEO Facebook was being interrogated on why the company was used to interfere with the US election by the Russian government. However such allegations were against what Zuckerberg believed in including his virtues. The virtue for Zuckerberg is integrity while the vice is unreal. Facebook as the company aims at promoting integrity and thus colluding with the Russian government to interfere with the US election would be against their virtue (Bright, Winn & Kanov, 2014). Zuckerberg as the CEO, therefore, will not be fulfilling a virtuous life since such actions would be contrary to his traits. He apologies to the Senate on behalf of Facebook when asked about the failure of the company to protect the vital information of their clients. Zuckerberg, therefore, did the right thing by apologizing to the Senate about the operation failure which had occurred in the company, and this has enabled him to fulfill a happy life even though the mistakes already made will take some time to rectify.
According to Peters (2015), the Kohlberg’s Theory of Development provides reasons why certain individuals make various decisions. It also explains how individuals think of the decisions they make. Such thinking on the decisions to make is a process which entails three stages, that is pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional stages. Zuckerberg was at a dilemma on whether to admit that there was a collusion between his company and the Russian government in US election. However, he chose to admit that there was a failure by the technicians even though such mistakes would take some time to rectify. Based on the theory of moral development, Zuckerberg was in the third stage of the decision-making process, and this is attributed to the fact that he upheld his virtue of integrity (Lind, 2017). He, therefore, used the thought process of making such a moral decision.
References
Bright, D. S., Winn, B. A., & Kanov, J. (2014). Reconsidering virtue: Differences of perspective in virtue ethics and the positive social sciences. Journal of Business Ethics, 119(4), 445-460.
Costa, A., Foucart, A., Hayakawa, S., Aparici, M., Apesteguia, J., Heafner, J., & Keysar, B. (2014). Your morals depend on language. PloS one, 9(4), e94842.
Everett, J. A., Pizarro, D. A., & Crockett, M. J. (2016). Inference of trustworthiness from intuitive moral judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(6), 772.
Greco, S., Figueira, J., & Ehrgott, M. (2016). Multiple criteria decision analysis. New York: Springer.
Lind, G. (2017). The Theory of Moral-Cognitive Development A Socio-Psychological Assessment. In Moral Judgments and Social Education (pp. 25-48). Routledge.
Paquette, M., Sommerfeldt, E. J., & Kent, M. L. (2015). Do the ends justify the means? Dialogue, development communication, and deontological ethics. Public Relations Review, 41(1), 30-39.
Peters, R. S. (2015). Moral Development and Moral Education (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.
Vaughn, L. (2015). Doing ethics: Moral reasoning and contemporary issues. WW Norton & Company.
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