FACTS Luke, an ABC employee, is working on a land development. He has information not known to the public yet, but will become public in a month. The land development is an adult entertainment store, that will certainly drive down the property values of the surrounding neighborhood. Owen, Luke’s brother, who happens to live in the affected neighborhood, is considering selling his home to an offer that is at a reasonable current market value. ISSUE Should Luke give his brother, Owen, information about the land development? With the information of the land development, Owen can decide to sell his land now and take the current market value. Without it Owen might miss out in selling his land at a reasonable price and be forced to sell at a significantly …show more content…
Universal Ethics Universal Ethics, or also known Kant’s categorical imperative theory, is fundamentally would I be okay with someone doing it to me? Would it be okay for all of us to be helping the people inside our group even though it is at the cost of someone else’s misery? If Luke is okay with giving out this inside information for personal gain would he be okay with someone else down the line doing the same to him? Utilitarianism Utilitarianism is the theory of deciding and acting by evaluating everyone affected and then maximizing the greater benefits for majority of the people or entities involved. By Luke deciding to withhold the information from his brother, he risks hurting his brother’s financial gain and possibly his trust. However, if Luke decides to tell his brother, Owen might gain financial benefits. However, Luke would be hurting the other person who purchased the land not knowing the information that they had about the soon market value drops of the home. Not only would be hurting the other person he will also be hurting himself and the company he works for. If word got out that he gave nonpublic to information to his brother for financial gain, the might view him as corrupt or untrustworthy. The image of the company can also be damaged the same way he damaged himself, as outsiders might view him as a representation of how the company handles itself. For a company image means a lot and this could cost Luke his job or the very least future projects that the company assigns him