The Concept of Virtue Ethics - Essay Example

? Essay, Business: Business Ethics and Virtue Ethics Teacher: December 21, Ethics includes the required acts or non-acts in any given situation. The study will scrutinize virtue ethics. The study will scrutinize deontology and utilitarianism ethics. Virtue ethics focuses on implementing what is morally right. Virtue ethics Virtue ethics focuses on complying with moral ethics standards. Ethics focuses on doing what is right or correct and avoiding what is wrong or incorrect. Of the virtues, one virtue is justice. According to Immanuel Kant, justice virtue is included in his famous methaphysics of morals. The justice virtue ethics can be applied to each sweatshop operation. Kant’s morals include the individuals’ compulsory obedience to the established laws. Even if the government orders the individuals to violate the laws, the individuals should implement all tenets of the laws, without exception. The failure to implement the nation’s approved law provisions should be meted the corresponding penalties. The penalties include fines, incarceration, or even death. Kant insists that the people must implement their ethical duty to obey approved statutes, ordinances, policies, and other established standards. The penalties are meant to deter future repetitions of the immoral acts or non-acts (Hill, 2012). Second, another virtue is fairness. Fairness virtue includes refusing implement any act or non-act that will unduly create unfair disadvantage to other individuals. Fairness can be likened to the golden rule. The golden rule reiterates that one should not do any act or non-act on another person that one does not want replicated by the other person. For example, the individual should not kick an innocent third person if the individual does not want to be kicked in the same way (Fischer, 2012). Third, Mattel implements compliance generosity virtue. The generosity virtue includes generating abundance resources. The abundant resources are used to accomplish the company’s established goals and objectives. The goals and objectives are presumed to be complying with virtue ethics’ morality doctrines. The goals and objectives are designed to make most of the people feel happy. Mattel can small children. However, the company allocates the scarce resources to ensuring that the company’s sales targets, production targets, and other benchmarks are achieved with the allocated time period. Generosity does not equate to spending unwisely. Generosity does not include cutting down expenses on certain avoidable acts or non-acts. For example, the company should purchase nontoxic paint (Russell, 2009). The generosity virtue includes allocated more than enough funds for accomplish Mattel’s organizational goals and objectives. Application of virtues to Mattel Toys Of the virtues, one virtue is justice. Justice includes improving the sweatshop production environment in some outsourcing environments. The company implemented compliance with the virtue ethics for some time. However, the financial constraints of continuing the policy were draining the company’s profits. Several Mattel field officers reduced and even postponed the required virtue ethics policies. Consequently, the company was forced to stop prioritizing implementing the virtue ethics’ emphasis on improving the sweatshop production facilities’ work environment. Second, another virtue is fairness. Fairness includes avoiding or stopping business commitments and partnerships with erring business partners found violating Mattel’s virtue ethics policies. The company will stop engaging in the buying the erring suppliers’ products. The erring suppliers include those that implement substandard work conditions. The erring suppliers include current and future suppliers’ polluting their production environments, water, air, land, and other natural resources. On the other hand, Mattel will buy products suppliers who comply with Mattel’s established virtue ethics standards. Mattel will not deal with suppliers that pay their employees below average wages. Mattel will not communicate with suppliers found violating smoke pollution and water pollution regulations. Each global Mattel supplier must comply with the local government’s environmental laws, labor laws, and other local government regulations (Mizzoni, 2009). Third, Mattel implements generosity virtue. Generosity includes implementing the correct policies. The correct policies include complying with pollution protection laws. The company ensures that its production facilities do not pollute the air with hazardous exhaust fumes. The company strictly ensures that the company’s global operations do not pollute the community’s pristine rivers, lakes, scarce land resources, and air. The company introduced high smoke stacks and other production rehabilitation improvements. The improvements reduce water pollutants, air pollutants, land pollutants, and other pollutants of the earth’s natural resources (Mizzoni, 2009). Three Related Ethics Mattel should focus on virtue ethics as the useful ethical concept. It is more realistic to institute virtue ethics compared to both deontological ethics and utilitarian ethics. Deontology states that murdering innocent civilians is morally wrong. Deontology dictates that cheating during exams is morally wrong. On the other hand, there are disadvantages in implementing purely deontological ethics. Deontology ethics mandates that an individual should do what is morally right and avoid what is morally wrong. Deontology reiterates that some acts are morally wrong by themselves alone. The acts include telling a lie, killing, and noncompliance with one’s preset promises. Immanuel Kant is one of the proponents of Deontology Ethics (Mizzoni, 2009). Further, moral duties are based on what the group’s god commands. One disadvantage is that the Islam religion requires the members to kill for the sake of Jihad. Jihad equates to violence and war (Bonner, 2008). The Jihad activities include the September 11 2001. Islam’s founder, Mohammed crafted the word Jihad to inspire his religious members to wage wars against the Catholics, Protestants, Greek Orthodox Buddhists, and other religious groups. Jihad has been continuing since the time of Mohammed, during the 1800s. The September 11, 2011 attack hit Washington D.C., and New York (Kroll, 2005). Consequently, the innocent non-Muslim residents fall victims to the implementation of the Islamic moral law. In the Mormon faith, there was a time when it was morally right for males to marry as many women or girls as they want. During July of 1843, Mormon’s founder, Joseph Smith stated that their ordered the Mormon member to have more than one wife. Joseph Smith had 48 wives at one time. This would be unfair to the non-Mormon individuals who prefer not to marry more than one wife. Consequently, Joseph Smith was killed in 1844. Many Mormon members practiced having many wives. The non-Mormon members considered more than one wife as adultery (McEleveen, 1997). Likewise, there are disadvantages in implementing purely Utilitarian Ethics. Fundamental Utilitarian ethics dictates that the individual must perform an act that will precipitate to a favorable outcome. Applying Utilitarian ethics to the Jihad principle, it is morally wrong to implement Jihad on the innocent civilians. Performing suicide bombings in a public place to perform Jihad would kill many innocent civilians. Likewise, the Mormon member’s marrying more than one wife would be morally wrong under the morally wrong under Utilitarian ethics. Adultery would violate the moral laws of other religions, including the Christian religion. Marrying 30 wives would also violate U.S. law on adultery (Mizzoni, 2009). There are examples of the disadvantages of utilitarian ethics’ strict implementation. For example, the student is allowed to cheat in exams in order to achieve a favorable passing grade. The child fears that failing the exam will result to his parent’s refusal to continue the student’s schooling. Consequently, the child low mental capacity forces the student to cheat in order the pass. The robber is allowed to kill in order to have the money needed for the robbers’ emergency cancer medical operation. The competitor can spread false rumors maligning the competitor’s products in order to capture the competitors’ current and future customers (Mizzoni, 2009). Analyzing the substance of the above discussion, ethics includes the mandatory acts or avoidance of acts in any given situation. The study shows the many merits of virtue ethics. There are disadvantages in Deontology ethics and Utilitarian ethics. Without any doubt, Mattel Toys is right in implementing virtue ethics’ implementing policies that are morally right. References: Bonner, M. (2008). Jihad in Islamic History. New York: University Press. Fischer, D. (2012). Fairness and Freedom. Oxford : Oxford University Press. Hill, T. (2012). Virtue, Rules, and Justice: Kantian Aspirations. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kroll, L. (2005). History of Jihad. New York: AuthorHouse. McEleveen, F. (1997). The Mormon Illusion. New York: Kregel Press. Mizzoni, J. (2009). Ethics: The Basics. New York: J. Wiley & Sons . Russell, D. (2009). Practical Intelligence and Virtue. Oxford: Oxford University . Read More