Module two virtue ethics study, assignment help
Please respond to student below:
Jim
Smith is, obviously, a successful individual. He graduated with a
highly sought after degree and he is regarded as a top performer by his
fellow employees at ABC Insurance. Unfortunately, Mr. Smith lacks
ethical values and no matter how superb his performance appears, his
lack of ethics can lead to company demise.
Virtue
ethics has been around for some time – it’s founding fathers were Plato
and Aristotle (Zalta, 2013). Virtue ethics is understood to be an
approach to ethics that emphasizes moral character. Character traits
such as kindness, honesty, fairness, and self-control would be in this
category. Moreover, it is understood that these traits are infused
within the person (meaning they are believed and followed in a religious
manner) and are not used to promote oneself.
Most
organizations would benefit if all their members or employees exhibited
virtue ethics. How many times have you dealt with a sales person and
been suspicious of the information you were being told? Sales people
would not embellish the truth, would they? Unfortunately, we all know
that greed is also a powerful trait.
I
think that Jim Smith’s willingness to report inaccurate information is
wrong. Furthermore, his actions are in direct contrast to what virtue
ethics stands for. More importantly, though, if he is willing to stretch
the truth in this area (completely ignoring the virtues being
discussed), what else would he be willing to do? Would he be willing to
put profit above properly taking care of a person’s insurance claim? His
actions make me think he would.
Companies
that allow or foster these types of actions are gambling with the
future of their business. Assuming that this fraudulent activity could
be exposed on a wide scale, the allegations could be catastrophic.
References
Zalta, E. N. (2013). Virtue ethics. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall Edition), Retrieved from
