Golden Rule Case Study

Facts ABC Company has recently purchased land to begin building an adult entertainment store. One of their employees, Luke, is assigned to the project. Luke has access to confidential information about the project, including the effect the new store will have on the nearby public property. This is sensitive information to Luke because his brother, Owen, lives close to the future location of the store and is currently considering selling his home. Luke knows that Owen has no idea that the public announcement of ABC Company’s plans will significantly decrease the value of his home.

Issue Luke is facing a situation in which he must choose between keeping his company’s information private and maintaining an honest and open relationship …show more content…
“Treat others as you wish to be treated,” is an ethical theory that is extremely hard to live by, but very successful if implemented. Most of the time people can be hypocritical and have certain expectations for people when they themselves do not live up to these expectations. In this instance, if Luke were to disclose the company’s confidential information of the new plans to build the entertainment store to his brother, he would ultimately expect his brother, Owen, to be honest with any future information he may have. On the other hand, if Luke does not tell Owen, Owen may not be honest with Luke out of vengeance. The Golden Rule can be very complex because people tend to be inconsistent with it. For example, Luke is more likely to tell Owen the company’s confidential information because he is his brother and trusts him more than he would the typical person. But according to the Golden Rule this is unfair and not ethically …show more content…
In this case, if Luke values loyalty to his family, he will most likely tell his brother about the company’s plans because he will want him to benefit before anyone else or the company does. But if Luke values his career more, he will remain loyal to his company by keeping the company’s plans private. This can be conflicting, however. If Luke prides himself in being loyal, he must decide whether he wants to be loyal to his family or his company. Either way, one of them will suffer. In either situation Luke may be trying to choose the more ethical course of action, but even so he will still fail. In the event that Luke values himself as a honest person, he will most likely disclose the plans to Owen because he wants to maintain that characteristic. However, this is dishonest with the company’s Non-disclosure policy set in place. These policies are a contract between company’s and their employees to not share the company’s private plans with those outside the company. Because these contracts are enforced by the law, Luke may be dishonest with his brother and risk damaging their relationship rater than potentially being fined or sent to