Ethical Dilemma Essay

873 Words2 Pages

Taylor faces a predicament regarding her lumberyard business and employees due to competitive pressures. She may have to make a choice to save her business, which would be at the cost of her employee’s welfare. Therefore, in this paper we will explore through the various ethical theories and help Taylor adopt an ethical decision that will save the future of her business and employees.
The main ethical dilemma is that Taylor likes to pay her employees a higher wage so they are able to live a comfortable lifestyle. However, if she continues to employ her employees at a higher wage in comparison to her competitors then she may run out of business soon. This is because her competitors are keeping their lumber prices low by maintaining lower costs in terms of low wages and are able to generate more revenue. Moreover, Taylor can choose between several alternatives in order to deal with the situation at hand. The first option would be to retain her workforce by reducing the wages for her employees to match her competitors. This decision would leave the employees struggling financially but they would remain employed. Another option is to either let go of a few workers or institute part-time jobs and continue paying the rest of the workers a higher wage, which would not only result in unemployment for some but the remaining workers would question their job security. Last option for Taylor is to continue her business the way it is and handle the financial strain herself. Unfortunately, with the given conditions this option could prove to be detrimental for everyone in the long run.
We further analyze the alternatives with the help of the various ethical theories such as, virtue ethics, deontology, cons...

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... no income at all in the future.
In conclusion, if I were in Taylor’s position I would lower the wages and save my business as well as many jobs. This is because even though virtue ethics and consequentialism suggests taking on the financial burden and continuing paying a higher wage that is considered virtuous and would keep the majority happy, it would only last for a short period of time. This approach would be unethical, as it would provide workers with temporary happiness and they would eventually face unemployment with no income. Therefore, by analyzing all the theories I strongly believe that Taylor should protect her own rights as a business owner and save the business by lowering the wages. This would affect the workers initially but would secure them for the future and hopefully once the business has expanded, wages could be increased.

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