t, it is apparent that the bank’s officers did not know that the employees were not happy or that there were any problems. They were bewildered at the momentum of the union effort. The principle of virtue ethics must be addressed in this instance. Virtue ethics are important because we often use them as reasons to think that a given decision is a good one or not so good. Ethical principles implies fairness and impartiality in ones dealings with other people. It requires that one’s own personal likes and dislikes not count as reasons to think something is right or wrong, or ought or ought not to be done. As is stated in the textbook, the virtue of benevolence inclines one to maximize people’s happiness; the virtue of respect for others inclines one to exercise consideration for the rights of individuals; the virtue of fairness inclines one to behave according to the principles of justice; and the virtue of caring inclines one to live up to the tenets of care.Perhaps, key to this whole thing is the bank’s total disregard for human resource management. This key element affected all of the above mentioned virtues. There had never been a full time personnel manager before Johnson was appointed to the position of vice president of human resources. The fact the he had no prior training or experience as an HR person reinforces the notion that the bank did not take employee resource management seriously. This was a lack of fairness because the bank owed it to the employees to have an experienced HR representative. The officers were clearly out of touch with what they perceived to be the most important issues on the minds of the workers. This conveyed a lack of the virtue of respect for the employees. In addition, as Johnson soon realized, most of the employees knew little about the bank’s wage and benefits policy. It had never occurred to anyone that an employee handbook explaining the various benefit plans would he...
