Introduction
The case in quetion concerns Empress Luxury Lines, a world-wide known cruise line. Top management of the company is planning to intentionally damage underground lines to get coverage from the insurance company. The obtained money is expected to be used for the computer system upgrade. Kevin Pfeiffer, a computer technician is against this fraud; he decided to consult with Antonio before reporting Empress to the insurance company.
This paper is going to discuss utilitarian and individualism approach to decision-making as applied to this situation, offer a possible way out of this situation, and future actions on the part of Kevin and Antonio who will be fired in case they report about the fraud.
The Utilitarian and Individualism Approaches to Decision-Making
The situation under consideration may have completely different outcomes, depending on which of the approaches, utilitarian or individualism, Antonio would apply. In case of using a utilitarian approach, the “consequences of one’s interventions become the focus” (Jones & Beck, 1996). The goal of this approach is to make a decision which would be maximally beneficial for each person who this decision touches upon.
The main problem at this consists in accurately assessing “the goodness and badness of outcomes” (Sparks, 1997). In Antonio’s situation, somebody will have to bear losses anyways, because, if he conceals the fact of the fraud, the insurance company will have to give away money for the inappropriate coverage; on the other hand, Empress Luxury Lines will not get the sum of money they need for the computer system upgrade. The losses which the insurance company is likely to bear are not that tangible for it, which means that applying the utilitarian approach, Antonio should “just sweep the problem under the rug” (Daft, 2008), because this would bring more benefits than the opposite decision.
In case Antonio adopts individualism approach to decision-making, he will have to report on Empress Luxury Lines together with Kevin, because individualism as such “is believed to lead to honesty and integrity because that works best in the long run” (Daft & Lane, 2008). This approach is close to Christ’s teaching of “do on to others as you would have them do on to you” (Tozzi, 2004). With regards to this approach, Antonio would realize that short-term interests are not worth taking risks, and if he lets Empress cheat on the insurance company once, the situation will repeat and it will be more difficult to handle it the next time.
Level of Moral Development
Antonio’s position seems to be rather complicated and it requires thorough thinking before making any decisions. Solution to this problem seems to be simple – the problem is likely to disappear if Antonio just pretends that nothing has happened and advises Kevin to do the same. However, on second thoughts, this solution is incorrect, because the consequences it may involve are much more serious for both these people and the company in question.
Insurance frauds take place every day and “insurance-fraud costs have been estimated as $160 billion annually” (Salinger, 2004) this is why the insurance companies keep alert these days. Any insurance fraud is a crime which is punished by the government. Empress Luxury Lines’ fraud may be regarded as demanding insurance for inappropriate coverage; in such cases, fraud perpetrators may be subjected to imprisonment and fines far larger than $500,000 the company will obtain if the fraud works out.
Such a response is at the postconventional level of moral development. As stated by Andriof & McIntosh 2001, “post-conventional reasoning … focuses on doing things ethically because these individuals value the integrity of the system as a whole and because they are reasoning from what they perceive to be universal moral principles” (Andriof & McIntosh, 2001). In this case, the decision to report Empress Luxury Lines to the insurance company will be the most appropriate one because the company “successfully defrauded insurance companies” (Daft, 2008) earlier and the management is fully aware about this fact.
If Antonio refuses to report about the fraud, he will be regarded as an accomplice if the crime is discovered; he would not only lose his job, but will be fined or even imprisoned. In case of reporting, he takes risks to be fired, but this is much better than the variant with imprisonment.
Kevin’s and Antonio’s Future Career
Since no confidential mechanism exists in the company to report about such cases internally, Kevin and Antonio are likely to be fired after they report about the fraud. It is fraught with serious problems they are going to have with employment in future. Resumes will be of their biggest concern, since these papers are expected to present the best features of the applicant. If Kevin and Antonio are fired after reporting on Empress Luxury Line, they will have to decide whether to remove the information about their working for the company, or whether to leave it there and explain the reasons of their dismissal.
This issue will be more controversial for Antonio who had a leading position in the company and who has, apparently, worked there for quite a long period of time; deleting this information will result in fewer years of working experience and lower position in the new company, correspondingly. Since Kevin was still on probation for the moment the problem with fraud appeared, it would be easier for him to remove traces of his employment at the cruise line.
Strange as it may seem, but such qualities as honesty and integrity may not appeal to some of the employers since, as it was already mentioned, insurance fraud is a common case these days. Most of the companies tend to value loyalty above all and the fact that an employee can report the company for misdeeds is unlikely to help this employee in getting a position. This is why deleting the information about the employment in Empress Luxury Lines would bring less problems in future for both Kevin and Antonio.
Conclusion
The analysis of the case has shown that Kevin and Antonio are unlikely to benefit from the existing situation. If Antonio applies utilitarian approach, Empress will get money unfairly and the insurance company will be a victim; if individualism approach is applied, Antonio will face the like problems in future and they may be even more serious. He and Kevin should report about the Empress’s fraud to the insurance company, because if they do, the implications will not be as serious as in case they are arrested for fraud as accomplices. They both are advised to remove the information about working for the company from their resumes, because, no matter how unfair it may seem, their honesty and integrity will not let them get a good job in future.
Reference List
Andriof, J. & McIntosh, M. (2001). Perspectives on corporate citizenship. Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf Publishing.
Daft, R.L. & Lane, P.G. Aise management. London: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Daft, R.L. (2008). Management. Mason, Ohio: Thomson South-Western.
Jones, R.A.P. & Beck, S.E. (1996). Decision making in nursing. London: Cengage Learning.
Salinger, L.M. (2004). Encyclopedia of White-collar & Corporate Crime. New York: SAGE.
Sparks, D.L. (1997). Advances in Agronomy. London: Academic Press.
Tozzi, Vincent. (2004). I already Am. New York: iUniverse.