Write an essay on the following case. Be sure to first set out what you believe

Question

Write an essay on the following case. Be sure to first set out what you believe the virtue ethics position to be. Second, evaluate whether or not you agree with this solution based upon personal worldview or community worldview tenets. Make your reasons very explicit. Be sure to highlight which virtues you think are at stake and why one will trump the other.

THE CASE:
You are a sales manager at an insurance company. One of your employees, Sally Boyd, wrote a life-insurance contract on a career office worker, Shin Lee. Shin was suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome so Sally signed the application for him in his name. This is contrary to company policy. If the underwriters had known of Shin’s condition, they may have asked for further underwriting information in order to determine whether Shin was an acceptable risk. In fact, shin had an associated condition (known to him at the time) that later required treatment and as a result, went very badly.

The treatment for this condition was such that Shin was hospitalized, and after his operation sepsis set in and killed him. The life insurance money would help his family (otherwise destitute), but there is the issue of possible fraud on the part of Sally. The company decided to pay the claim, but has issued a request for an investigation that now stares you in the face. Sally has worked for the company for 20 years and has never had a complaint before. But now her decision to sign an application for someone else so that it didn’t arouse suspicion has perhaps cost the company $50,000 (the face value of the life insurance policy). What do you do? Turn Sally over to the police (fraud is a crime)? Fire Sally? Admonish Sally so that it makes and impact on her salary? Give Sally a slap on the wrist? Ignore the whole thing? Base your response upon virtue ethics.

Explanation / Answer

In brief if we see Sallly forged someeone else's sign which is a crime so its simple that one would definity hand him to the police.But as a student of psychology one should view all the perspectives and then as a sensible person one should decide his/her desicion.

After reading the whole scenario, one can see that the intensions of Sally was not to harm/cheat or we can say that his intensions were not bad. But what he did that is signing the application to fool the comapny so that Shin and his family could get aid from the insurance money was not a good deed too. If we see Sally as the guy who tried to help his known seems to be a characteristic that one should have as an individual as day by day humanity is losing its essence. But everything is having its own limit too.One should definitly try to help the other but in a much more acceptable way. And thus we can say although the intension of Sally might not be bad but his actions i.e. fordging someone else's sign in the name to help his friend was not ethical according to the company's policy as well as professionally. Sally in the name to help his friend firstly did a fraud and professionally we saw that as employee he was not loyal to his company for whom he had been working for past 20 years.

And as the sales manager of the company i would never cheat with my company but by viewing the intensions of Sally I might have just dismissed him from the company as he had worked for the company for 20years. But being the sales manager and by being quite my company would cost such a big amount of $50,000 and also as a rational human being I would firstly want myself to be in a safer side as here in this situation my reputation is at stake in the company's eyes so I would go and tell the police the truth and let the law decide whatsoever is better. In this way I would be loyal to the position given to me by the company.

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