Ethics and CSR Dilemma: Analyzing CEO Succession Planning

This case study delves into an ethical dilemma faced by a CEO regarding succession planning. The CEO must decide whether to appoint John, a highly competent employee, as his successor, despite learning about John's serious heart condition from another employee, Brian. The analysis considers deontological ethics, particularly Kant's theories, and virtue ethics to navigate the dilemma. It questions the ethics of Brian's privacy breach in obtaining John's health information and emphasizes the importance of basing decisions on John's merits and contributions to the company. Ultimately, the study concludes that the CEO should prioritize John's capabilities and past performance, adhering to ethical principles and avoiding manipulation based on potentially unreliable and unethical information.

Running head: ETHICS CSR DILEMMA
Ethics CSR Dilemma
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
The problem statement for this particular case is whether the CEO of the mid size
company will select John as his successor or not after getting to know the health related
problems of John from Brian, another employee of the business organization. in the given case
study it is seen that the CEO of a business organization is retiring and thus he is looking for
suitable replacement for his post. However, John is the primary choice of the CEO of the
company as he has seen John taking up extra burden of work for the best interest of the
company, though he takes some planned long leaves in a frequent manner. In this regard, it
should be mentioned that John never takes leaves beyond the limit that has been set for him. The
dilemma arised when Brian another junior employee of the organization informed the CEO of
the company that John is dealing with heart disease and anytime John’s heart can give up and he
may die instantly. Brian has been able to gather this information by application of sophisticated
analytics generated by the Apple watch of John. The purpose of this essay is to solve the ethical
dilemma that the CEO of the company will go through after getting the information regarding
John’s health from Brian.
Discussion
To define ethics it can be said that ethics gives a set of standards for behavior that can
help the individuals to take decisions or take action under a variety of situations. Precisely it can
be said that ethics is all about making choices and along with that providing valid justification
for the choices that an individual make1.
1 Thines, George. "Phenomenology and the science of behaviour: An historical and
epistemological approach." (2015).

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Deontological ethics can be explained as the normative ethical position that can judge the
morality of an action taken by an individual based on the rules2. It can be explained as obligation,
duty or rule based ethics as the rules can bind an individual’s actions with duties. Deontological
ethics is generally contrasted with virtue ethics, censequencialism and pragmatic ethics. In this
context it can be said that action has more importance than consequences3. It can be said that
relying on the deontological ethics under consideration, moral obligation may invoke from
internal or external sources, such as universal set of rules, personal or cultural values or religious
laws.
In this context, it should be mentioned that Kant’s theory of ethics can be followed while
taking the necessary decision regarding whom to give the position of the CEO in the given
situation. In his theory, Immanuel Kant argued to act in a moral way and the individuals should
obey their duties. Secondly, Kant stated that motives of individuals behind a course of action can
determine whether the action is right or wrong and never can the consequences of an action can
make the act right or wrong. According to Kant, to act in a moral way an individual should act
from the duty that initiates with an argument. The argument is that the highest good should be
both good without qualification and good in itself. Kant also stated that intelligence; pleasure and
perseverance are thought to be goods and fail to be good without qualification or intrinsically
good. According to Kant, act of willing’s consequences cannot be utilized to determine whether
2 Thines, George. "Phenomenology and the science of behaviour: An historical and
epistemological approach." (2015).
3 Kagan, Shelly. Normative ethics. Routledge, 2018.

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an individual has a good will, and good consequences may invoke from a motivated action where
the motivation behind the action was to harm a innocent individual. On the other hand, bad
consequences may also arise after an act where the motive behind the action may have been
good4. Thus, in this regard, Kant stated that when an individual acts with a good will definitely
he would act out of the respect for the moral law. According to Kant, individuals at times act out
of respect for the moral law when they act in some way as they have duties. Thus, it can be said
that the only thing which can be said good in itself certainly is the good will, and good will is
only good when the individual decides to do something as it falls under that individual’s duty.
Three major formulations of Kant of the categorical imperatives are
 Act is such manner so that a person always treat humanity whether in their own person
or in the person of any other, never simply as a means but always at the same time as
an end
 An individual should act according to that maxim by which he or she can alsi will that
it may become an universal law
 Every rational individual should act as if he were through his maxim always a
legislating member in the universal kingdom of ends.
In this regard, it is worthwhile to mention that deontologists like Immanuel Kant are
moral absolutists and they have faith that specific actions are either absolutely right or wrong and
that is regardless of the moral agent or the consequences of the action committed by an
individual5. In this context, Kant stated that good will can be the absolute good thing and thus the
single determining factor can be the motive of the person who is taking an action; or whether an
4 Shafer-Landau, Russ. "The fundamentals of ethics." (2014).

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action is morally right should have a good will behind the action. Thus it can be said that if an
individual is acting on a bad maxim for an example, “I will lie’ the action of that person can be
classified as wring even if some good consequences of the action is experienced later on.
According to Kant’s theories regarding deontology, it can be said that,the individuals as rational
being makes the moral laws universal6.
Virtue ethics is considered to be one of the three major approaches in the normative
ethics. It can be identified as one that focuses on the moral character or the virtues contrasting
with the approach that sheds light on rules, duties and on the consequences of the actions7. For
an example, if someone needs to be helped, a utilitarian approach will point out that consequence
of helping out an individual will maximize the well being of that individual8. While doing so, the
5 Jayawickreme, Eranda, et al. "Virtuous states and virtuous traits: How the empirical evidence
regarding the existence of broad traits saves virtue ethics from the situationist critique." School
Field 12.3 (2014): 283-308.
6 Segon, Michael, and Chris Booth. "Virtue: The missing ethics element in emotional
intelligence." Journal of Business Ethics128.4 (2015): 789-802.
7 Jayawickreme, Eranda, et al. "Virtuous states and virtuous traits: How the empirical evidence
regarding the existence of broad traits saves virtue ethics from the situationist critique." School
Field 12.3 (2014): 283-308.
8 Arpaly, Nomy. "Moral Worth And Normative Ethics." Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics 5
(2015): 86-104.

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person who is helping the other person will act according to the moral rule ‘Do unto others as
you would be done by’ and a virtue ethicist to the fact that helping an individual shall be
benevolent or charitable9. There are four major forms of virtue ethics and those are Platonistic
virtue ethics, target centered virtue ethics, eudaemonist virtue ethics and lastly exemplarist or
agent based virtue ethics10.
For this particular case study the CEO is undergoing a dilemma regarding choosing the
person who will fill up the gap in the workforce after his retirement after getting to now the
medical status of John from Brian in a confidential meeting. The main reason behind choosing
John over other candidates for the post of CEO is, John is hardworking and at times when
needed, his commitment towards the company is commendable. In a frequent manner, John takes
up huge responsibility and helps the management of the organization to complete the tasks. Thus,
John became one of the most eligible person for the post of the CEO being an effective senior
employee of the organization. The only flaw John ha is that he takes frequent leaves though he
takes leaves within his holiday entitlements. Under this circumstances, when Brian, a junior
employee of the firm came to the CEO and disclosed that from the readings of John’s Apple
watch he got to know about John’s health and John is suffering from a dangerous heart disease
and he may die suddenly due to a heart attack or something like that.
This drove the CEO of the company under an ethical dilemma that whether he would
recommend John as becoming the next CEO of the company or not knowing the medical status
9 Kagan, Shelly. Normative ethics. Routledge, 2018.
10 Shafer-Landau, Russ. "The fundamentals of ethics." (2014).

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of the person. In this context, it is a matter of fact that John is certainly the most eligible person
for the post due to excellent track record of his in the business organization and his mentality to
get the job done while taking full responsibility. This positive mentality of John has made him
the automatic choice for the CEO of the company to choose him as the next CEO.of the
company. Following the ethical theories of Immanuel Kant, it can be said that consequences of
the action would not justify the motive of the action11. Thus, to ensure the best interest of the
company, the CEO should consider John as the most eligible person for the post of next CEO
after his retirement considering John’s effort to establish and sustaining the gradual growth of the
business organization. In accordance with that, it can be said that the information the CEO
received regarding the health issues of John that he got from a different source Brian. Brian
acquired the knowledge by going through the reading of John’s Apple watch and that is
somewhat a breach of privacy within the office premises. Thus, depending on an unfair action of
an employee of the concern, the decision of the CEO should not get manipulated and thus John
should have handed the role of the CEO of the company after the existing CEO retires.
What Brian did is just peeping through the documents generated by the Apple watch of John and
got the medical information of John; which is not ethical. Brian in a confidential manner
approached the CEO of the company and informed him regarding the medical status of John.
There are no evidences that can back up the statement of Brian and thus by following the
virtuous ethics, The CEO of the company should overlook what Brian is trying to portray, and
select John as the upcoming CEO of the company. According to the ethics of virtue, individuals
11 Arpaly, Nomy. "Moral Worth And Normative Ethics." Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics 5
(2015): 86-104.

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should take decision that will be virtuous and thus in this case John should be chosen as the next
CEO of the company. According to the ethics of virtue, the CEO of the organization should
follow the moral obligations and the case study clearly backs up the cause of John, he being the
most eligible person to get the post of the CEO.
Conclusion
Thus to conclude, it can be said that apparently it looks that John would not be the perfect
choice for becoming the CEO of the company due to the medical issues he is dealing with and a
sudden demise of a CEO would definitely negatively impact on the productivity and profitability
of the company. In this context, it is worthwhile to mention that the information the CEO
received regarding John’s health was from a third party (junior employee of the concern), and
there are no valid prrof that can back up the statement o Brian health issues of John. Not only
that, the way Brian acquired the medical details of John is breaching John’ privacy, which can be
penalized. These, sudden growth of interest not only regarding John’s health and subsequently
providing these information regarding John to the CEO of the company when John is on the
verge of becoming the next CEO of the company is somewhat suspicious. Thus it can surely be
said that abiding by all the ethical norms, the present CEO should choose John as the next CEO
of the company due to his excellent track record as an employee of the organization.

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References and bibliography
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Arpaly, Nomy. "Moral Worth And Normative Ethics." Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics 5
(2015): 86-104.
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perspective in virtue ethics and the positive social sciences." Journal of Business Ethics 119.4
(2014): 445-460.
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ethics education." Science and engineering ethics 21.2 (2015): 441-460.
Jayawickreme, Eranda, et al. "Virtuous states and virtuous traits: How the empirical evidence
regarding the existence of broad traits saves virtue ethics from the situationist critique." School
Field 12.3 (2014): 283-308.

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Kagan, Shelly. Normative ethics. Routledge, 2018.
Segon, Michael, and Chris Booth. "Virtue: The missing ethics element in emotional
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Shafer-Landau, Russ. "The fundamentals of ethics." (2014).
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Hauerwas. Routledge, 2017.
Thines, George. "Phenomenology and the science of behaviour: An historical and
epistemological approach." (2015).
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