WEEK 3 ASSIGNMENT: Ethical Theories and Your Moral Position
Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Chapter 4: The Corporate Culture – Impact and Implications and Chapter 5: Corporate Social Responsibility in your textbook (Hartman et al., 2021), and Chapter 16 in A Companion to Business EthicsLinks to an external site. (Frederick, 1999). In addition, you may wish to review Chapter 25 in A Companion to Business Ethics.
In this written assignment, you will continue your study of the case that you began in Week 1. You will also continue to build your argumentative essay writing skills. To begin, you will need to briefly summarize the ethical issues from the case study in your assignment from Week 1, concisely presenting the important and necessary information while incorporating instructor feedback. You will then apply an ethical theory to your case, choosing among utilitarianism, deontology, or virtue ethics as your ethical perspective for this assignment.
You will analyze the case according to the theory you chose, and argue an ethical conclusion. Additionally, you will address the strongest counterargument to your proposed solution, using your chosen ethical theory. You can either use an existing counterargument found in your research or create your own. You should be very clear and detailed in making your arguments, thoroughly illustrating how and why you reached your ethical conclusion. The ethical theory that you apply should be a central and framing aspect throughout the entire assignment.
In an argumentative paper of at least 1,200 words (excluding title, abstract, and reference pages) and citing at least three scholarly, peer-reviewed sources in addition to required readings, address the following:
- Summarize your case study and your ethical position. Briefly introduce and summarize the case study and your moral position from your Week 1 assignment. Be sure to incorporate instructor feedback while limiting your summary to the necessary information. At the end of this section, in a thesis statement, state the ethical theory that you will apply in this assignment, your main arguments, and your conclusions.
- Apply your ethical theory to your case. In the next section of your paper, explain at least two aspects of the ethical theory you have chosen. These aspects should be used to highlight ethical components of your argument that support your conclusion. While you can incorporate more aspects of the theory through the assignment, you should begin in this section applying the main constructs of the theory to particular details of your case. In the next two paragraphs, construct two arguments about how the ethical theory supports your ethical conclusion about the case. You should convincingly expand your argument, supporting your ethical conclusion. The more detailed you can be about the ethical theory and its link to aspects of your case, the better your argument will be.
- Formulate and respond to a counterargument. In this section, you will anticipate and respond to a counterargument. Either with the aid of one of your scholarly, peer-reviewed sources or through your own critical reasoning, identify a counterargument to your application of an ethical theory and defend your ethical argument against this objection. At the end of this section, you should explain how your position identifies weaknesses in the counterargument. Alternatively, you could determine that the counterargument challenges your position, in which case you should revise your argument. Be sure to continue incorporating your ethical theory in this section.
- Conclude your ethical argument. In this last section of the paper, you should highlight the key points of your paper, stating your ethical conclusion.
Tutorial for Ethical Theories and Your Moral Position
