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ETHICAL DILEMMA – Example format Situation You are a manager of a retail store. You are given permission by the owner of the store to hire a fellow classmate to help out. One day you see the classmate take some clothing from the store. When confronted by you, the peer laughs it off and says the owner is insured, no one is hurt, and it was under $100. “Besides,” says your acquaintance, “friends stick together, right?” What would you do? Example of Analysis: Moral Judgment: Report the friend and have him fired. Rules: One should always follow the law. One should be honest. One should not be an accomplice to a crime. One owes a duty to one’s employer. Ethical system (choose one of the many we have learned): Ethical formalism:

1. Do one’s duty (protect the store’s assets). 2. Act in such a way that you will it to be a universal law: no one could agree that

everyone should let friends steal from stores. 3. Treat each person as an end and not as a means: the friend was using you (that is

wrong); you would be using your position and your boss, by implication, to protect your friend.

Check to see if the moral rules are consistent with the ethical system chosen—in this case ethical formalism would obviously compel you to do your duty as a manager. Egoism: Egoism might allow you to protect your friend, but not even egoism would justify a cover up if it came at a risk to self. Utilitarianism: Might be a solution? If there is any way that utilitarianism might support covering for the thief. Since utilitarianism is concerned with the “greater good,” the theft might be justified under this system if the friend explains that he was taking the clothing to give to a battered women’s shelter, for instance. Ensure you fully explain your thoughts per Rubric…