Phil/215 Case Study

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Case Study Paper- PHIL 215 It is now two and half months since Francine began her role as adjunct-professor at Mogwai University. She remains unfazed by the lack of compensation and has been performing exceptionally well thus far. She is now faced with an ethical situation as her employer has been erroneously paying her twice the contracted amount for the past two months. She believed that this was Mogwai’s policy of compensating four months worth of work during the first two months of service, however it is now past two months and she is still being overpaid. As the Human Resources Consultant, I will advise her on how to resolve this issue. In analyzing this situation, I’ve arrived at two plausible options: 1) Informing Human Resources…show more content…
Put another way, if every employee reported all inconsistencies in agreed and actual compensation, all employees will be paid in a fair manner. The maxim definitely passes the “mere means test”, as employees are not treating the employer merely as a means by “stealing” money that they have not worked for, but are now being compensated for the work actually done at the negotiated rate. Employers are treating them as a means to an end in themselves. Finally, in applying the “motivations test”, Francine is reporting the excess income not because it is the right thing to do, but rather because if caught, the incident may tarnish her career and chances of attaining a tenured position. In essence, the maxim relating to Francine’s admission fails the motivations test and thus seen as unethical under the Deontological…show more content…
I arrived at this conclusion through evaluating the consensus of results from each ethical theory. Each theory (aside from Deontology, where both options failed) pointed towards Francine reporting the error as the ethical solution. As a Utilitarian, the career and University-related benefits (yielding 14 utile’s) far outweighed the extra compensation she would have earned had she not reported the error (only 2 utile’s). As a Virtue Ethicist, reporting the error is the only decision that coincides with the Francine’s virtues (honesty, loyalty, ambition). When taking a Rawlsian perspective, reporting the error is the only rational and fair policy with respect to compensation of all Mogwai University employees and both options failed to pass the deontological

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