This week, imagine that you are the CEO of a mid-sized manufacturing corporation for which you wish to draft a proposal for identifying and implementing a program of social responsibility. What sort of a program would you put together? Describe it in detail, including an ethical assessment of the program's focus. Would it be at all similar to the one you described from last week? Why, or why not? How would you model Ethical Leadership in your manufacturing company and what difference would you expect that kind of leadership to make? What program of social responsibility will you adopt - or will you not adopt one?
As you discuss these issues, please continue trying to frame the discussion in the terminology we've been looking at, under the 3 main ethical theories. We will add an additional element here, that of community versus individual interests. You will want to think through how each of the 3 ethical theories would tend to handle conflicts between individual as opposed to community "good".
Learning Activity #2 - A colleague at work, Randall, has always been thin. Recently, however, she appears emaciated. She doesn't eat at lunch time, insisting she'll "grab something" later. She's constantly running, instead, or otherwise working out in the corporate gym. Last week, she passed out after running up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. She seems distracted and has been making mistakes, which reflect on the department as a whole.
You're concerned about Randall's health, and suspect that she may be suffering from an eating disorder, anorexia, perhaps, and/or bulimia. When you try to discuss the matter with her, she angrily denies that she has an eating disorder. She insists that you never bring it up again and threatens to sue you if you discuss the matter with anyone else. She demands that you respect her right to privacy. Your immediate supervisor seems uninterested in any "personal" matters. She has made it clear that as far as she is concerned, LMN Corp. concerns itself only with LMN Corp. business, and what you do on your time, is your business.
What do you do? Why?
In answering this question, you will want to identify the ethical issues that are presented by this fact scenario, as well as to think through how those issues would be addressed under Kant's deontological ethical theory, the Utilitarian teleological theory, and under Virtue Ethics - which is teleological, but which looks at a different telos or end goal than does Utilitarianism. Please also incorporate any new ideas you have encountered in this week's course materials about ethical leadership, corporate ethics and corporate culture.