Ethics – Employee Theft From the Workplace
Description of an Unethical Situation
An example of unethical behavior is employee theft from the workplace. One of the most common unethical practices in a lot of workplaces is stealing company property for personal use. For instance, cleaning equipment in an office can be bought in excess. When some employees see the extras lying around, they take some of them home for personal use, which is an unethical practice. This act is unethical because it causes an unnecessary upsurge in the company’s expense reimbursements and is also a reflection of negative values of dishonesty and lack of integrity. If an employee is caught, this act can also qualify as a criminal offense.
Analysis of the Scenario Using Different Ethical Schools of Thought
Many ethical decision-making models have been developed in the past to help in determining the morality of a given situation and the right choices to make when faced with a dilemma. Some of the common schools of thought include utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics.
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is one of the most common ethical theories and approaches to normative ethics. This school of thought places the morality of an action on its consequences. An action is considered to be ethical when it maximizes utility (Weiss, 2014). Utility is defined in many ways but it is mainly used in terms of the level of harm an action has to people. An action that maximizes utility is one that maximizes the positive effect on most people (Mill, 2016). According to this theory, this is the action that would be considered ethical.
If the scenario above is judged using the utilitarian school of thought, it would lead to the stealing employees performing an unethical act. When stealing from any business, the employee is aiming at getting personal gain through the acquisition of free things but they increase the expenses of the company on the stolen product. Such an action has a negative effect on the financial performance of the company as a whole. Therefore, the negative effect of the action is larger than the possible gain the employee is getting from the action. This makes the action immoral, according to utilitarian theory.
Deontology
Deontological ethics is another common ethical school of thought that places the morality of an action on the duty rather than on the consequences of an action. For this ethical theory, the end does not always justify the means (Paquette, Sommerfeldt, & Kent, 2015). Even if the action may lead to positive results for a large number of people, it is considered to be unethical if it does not follow the duty of the person who performs the action (Chakrabarty & Bass, 2015). This theory emphasizes following rules rather than depending on the resultant effects on an action to determine its morality.
In the scenario above, deontological theory would find the action to be unethical. It is the duty of the employee to respect the rules of the organization and legal requirements on theft. By stealing the property from the business, they do not follow this duty, which makes their action immoral.
Virtue Ethics
Virtue-based ethics is a normative ethical school of thought that places morality of personal principles and values. This theory argues that an ethical action is one that is a reflection of positive moral values (Hursthouse, 2013). For instance, an action will be considered to be ethical when it follows positive values of honesty and integrity. In the scenario above, the action can be considered unethical because it reflects negative values. Stealing from the company is a demonstration of dishonesty, lack of integrity, and deception.
Discussion and Conclusion
Each of the ethical approaches analyzed above leads to the same conclusion that stealing from a company is unethical. Utilitarian theory concludes that it has the least utility, deontology shows that it foregoes the expected moral duty, and virtue ethics reflect the negative values in the action. The ethical approach that I would choose to make the best decision in such as situation is virtue ethics. Focusing on personal principles almost always leads to the best decisions. Using utilitarian and deontological approaches may lead to poor decision-making in some special situations.
References
Chakrabarty, S., & Bass, A. E. (2015). Comparing virtue, consequentialist, and deontological ethics-based corporate social responsibility: Mitigating microfinance risk in institutional voids. Journal of Business Ethics, 126(3), 487-512.
Mill, J. S. (2016). Utilitarianism. In Seven Masterpieces of Philosophy (pp. 337-383). Routledge.
Hursthouse, R. (2013). Normative virtue ethics. ETHICA, 645.
Paquette, M., Sommerfeldt, E. J., & Kent, M. L. (2015). Do the ends justify the means? Dialogue, development communication, and deontological ethics. Public Relations Review, 41(1), 30-39.
Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
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Question 
Employee Theft From the Workplace
Submit two (2) FULL pages maximum, APA format, 12-point font, with 1-inch margins.
b. In your work, describe a situation that is or could be unethical. Determine why it is or why it could be unethical.
c. Take three (3) ethical schools of thought and apply each school to this situation. What are the likely outcomes for each one? Be sure to discuss each school of thought completely. Which school of thought would you choose and, very importantly, why? Be complete. Do not write less than the full two (2) pages required.