Case Study: Virtue Ethics

Fact:
An employee of ABC Company, Luke is in charge with a project of developing new purchased land. The company is planning to build an adult entertainment retail store which confidently lay near where his brother, Owen, lives. If the plans are announced to the public, the property of the surrounding neighborhood will drop significantly. What concerned Luke is that Owen just told him about the offer to sell his house at a decent price compared to the current real estate market. However, Owen is considering if he should wait for a couple year and sell his house later at a higher price as the estate value may increase.

Issue:
Luke is facing with an ethical dilemma about whether or not he should let Owen know about the project he is working

So, Luke should question himself about what type of person he wants to be or what virtues make him who he is. Since Luke is an employee of a company, we can assume that honesty and trustworthiness are two possible traits from Luke’s character. If Luke believes honest is the most important value to consider in decision making progress, then Luke should be honest to his brother about the upcoming project from his company, and its impacts onto the area. However, if trustworthiness is Luke’s main principle, then his decision should reflect how he can be trusted. As an employee who is in charge of ABC Company’s project, Luke should be reliable for keeping secret about the confidential information regard to the project. He should not reveal to any outsider of the company, even to his brother Owen. When Luke chooses this decision, he succeeds as a trustworthy employee, but fails as an honesty brother to Owen. Luke’s decision help to bring profit to the company, but in the other way it brings loss to Owen. He knew the value of Owen’s property may drop when the project is announced to public, yet he does not inform Owen about this. His silence will damage the relationship between him and his brother as when Owen finds out in the