A Look at Ethical Perspectives While it would be nice to think that it is easy to make decisions and all come to the same conclusion, this is not always the case. Unfortunately, even regarding ethical decisions where you may think a right and wrong way exist may not be easy to determine. Since everyone has different backgrounds and therefore, different perspectives, we may not agree on what the best course of action is to take in a difficult decision. While I believe that character is the most important, someone else may think that as long as the majority is satisfied that their decision is best. An exercise created by the Williams Institute for Ethics and Management looks at four different perspectives which are referred to using …show more content…

This can also be referred to as utilitarianism which can be described as determining if an action is good based on the consequences (Weiss, 2006). Calculations are made and as long as the greatest profit is achieved from the lowest costs, this perspective will assume that the best decision was made. An example of this could be if a restaurant determined that they were going to serve food that has passed its expiration date. While the food may still be good and not cause any harm to someone, a person who is character driven would see this as immoral because there are laws set to prevent companies from serving expired good. Even though it may seem that no harm was done, does not make it the correct decision.
Equity
The final part of CORE is equity which could be described as the most risky of the four perspectives. This presents the idea that each individual sets his or her own standards on determining the correct choice in an ethical situation (Weiss, 2006). Many times this is determined on self-interests and not what is better for others. An employee may determine that they have completed as much work as possible for the day so they can go ahead a leave early even though they will still be paid for extra time that they are not there. There would be no harm as they would just be standing around for a few minutes and they can leave without their manager finding out. This does not show good character however, and if other employees see