Balancing the Legal and Ethical Duties of Care.

In this assignment, you will evaluate the nature and scope of the employer’s ethical duty of care owed to an employee against the employer’s legal duty of care owed to the company.

Velasquez discusses the Duty of Care: “…an ethic that requires caring for the concrete well being of those particular persons with whom we have valuable close relationships, particularly those dependent on us.” (pgs. 119-126) He’s talking about your employees. That duty must co-exist with your legal fiduciary duty to the principal – the company. As a fiduciary, you owe the company your loyalty. You have no legal duty of loyalty to your employees. Again, you face the dilemma of balancing two concurrent duties.

This raises a fundamental question: What is the nature and scope of “care” you are ethically obligated to give your employees?

Compose a three- to four-page paper discussing the following questions:

1. What is the nature and scope of “care” you are ethically obligated to give your employees? Specifically, what are the characteristics of that duty? To what extent should you “care” about your employees? Use examples to clarify and justify your point of view.
2. How will you respond when that ethical duty conflicts with your legal duty to care for the principal?

Submit this assignment using the Dropbox following your facilitator’s instructions.