Ethical Behavior

Ethical Behavior

As far as the article on virtual morality; I do not think that using your computer for personal use is unethical. Anymore than I believe using a company phone, or taking a smoke break, or even just a 5 minute walk away from your desk, your work, moment to yourself is unethical. Sometimes it's necessary to take a few minutes away from what you are working on and do something different. Breaks from work have never been considered unethical. I don't think it matters that some people may take a break to send personal emails or to do a little online shopping or to just simply go grab a snack.

That being said, I do believe there are appropriate and inappropriate things that are acceptable on your work computer. Anything of the pornographic nature is not acceptable. Also, job searching is also not acceptable during work hours. However, I don't think that using a computer on lunch hours or after hours is necessarily unethical. As long as it is not an embarrassment to the company, I don't see it as unethical. There are so many things that company's do that are seen as "a way of doing business". I see this as the same thing, kind of a way of life and human nature. If it's done the right way, and not taken advantage of, then there should be no problems.

As far as "the boss knowing where you're clicking", I see nothing whatsoever unethical about this. Most companies even acknowledge to their employees that they will track the sites that employees are visiting. If you want to use your computer for personal activities, you must be able to deal with the consequences of what you are doing on it.

With the Ford Pinto case, I believe that Ford was indeed ethically and morally wrong for not correcting the vehicle when they realized the impact it could have should there be a collision. I believe that they were completely at fault for allowing, based on how much money it would cost them, those vehicles to continue to be manufactured. This wasn't something that should have been based on money. Ford took the chance with people's lives, which was morally, ethically, and just plain wrong. Nothing can be justified by saying that the amount of money they could lose over lawsuits.

The question of whether someone at Ford should have come forward with the risks involved with the Pinto's is a little harder. While I absolutely think that anyone should step in when it could save a life, I understand