Use the 'Big 3' & Ethical Leadership & Rawls 'Liberty' & 'Justice/Difference' principles to answer as a corporate responsibility to society.
You are the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of XYZ Corporation (XYZ Corp). XYZ Corp is a family-owned publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. In fact, the company has existed in the family for 220 years passing down the CEO position to the eldest child of the previous CEO, regardless of gender. Now, you have been carrying the family banner for the company, as the CEO, for eight – hard but enjoyable - years. XZY Corp and you have weathered the last ‘family-value’ related issue within the past five years, most notably, same-sex marriage. Not only has XYZ Corp and you weathered this challenge, but the XZY Corp has become the number one company in the entire world – XZY Corp and Chick-Fill-A are one and two in all reportable statistics on the New Your Stock Exchange. Thus, the ties between the XZY Corp, your family, and your family’s church have strengthened ten-fold.
As you already know, you have a fiduciary duty to the other C-Executive officers, having replaced four from the last family-value related crisis five years ago, the Board of Directors, its stockholders/shareholders, and as you see it, the 10,000+ employees, 2000+ that you have replaced from the last crisis informing your middle managers to ‘only hire’ those who espouse a core set of family values as the XYZ Corp lives, and society as a whole, as preached by your Father and Grandfather to you throughout the years.
Similarly, the make-up of the 'C-level' & other 'important' people in XYZ Corp are as follows:
CEO - you
CFO -Chief Financial Officer (your oldest brother)
COO - Chief Operating Officer (your Mother’s 4th Cousin from marriage)
CTO - Chief Technology Officer (your brother-in-law)
CMO - Chief Marketing Officer (your oldest first cousin)
CCO - Chief Creative Officer (your ex-brother-in-law from you sister)
CRO - Chief Risk Officer (your youngest brother-in-law from your wife’s side)
Chairman, Board of Directors (your great-aunt's husband)
Vice-Chairman, Board of Directors (your oldest second cousin)
President (your 2nd cousin’s youngest daughter – maybe your 3rd cousin)
Vice-President (your third cousin’s middle daughter)
Executive Vice-President (your shirt-tail relation but not sure how)
XYZ Corp has certain 'family 'values imbedded into its charter & company constitution. On the eve of the 43nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, church and state have met another divide in the General Election season in your state. In fact, your church is lamenting the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade, that, according to your church, deprives the most vulnerable members of our society their fundamental right to life. Personally, you are heartened by the most recent progress made towards the protection of the unborn child.
Today, your church is profoundly mourning the over fifty-six (56) million unborn victims since the court’s 1973 decision. Yet, you are encouraged by the decline in the number of abortions in your state each year. Often in the face of great opposition, including a growing faction within the XYZ Corp C-level directors, shareholders and employees, new pro-life laws are passed and pregnancy centers across your state continue to provide counseling and support for mothers in need. You remain hopeful as state witnesses, through efforts of your church ministries, those who experience a conversion of heart and come to treasure the unborn child.
As such, the XZY Corp’s law firm reminds the C-level directors and the board of directors at last month’s meeting, by its legal acceptance, “abortion dehumanizes the unborn child” and contributes to what Pope Francis has termed a ‘throwaway culture” that does not view life as a gift, but as a dispensable object only of value when useful to us. As a result, those populations who are most vulnerable outside the womb are also most vulnerable inside the womb. However, yesterday, the XZY Corp’s press team released a statement, saying in part” …all human life, whether in- or outside the womb, is sacred…One’s worth cannot be determined by gender, race, health, age or financial status…”
Likewise, you personally believe, that too often behind an abortion is a story of a woman who feels terminating the life of her unborn child is her only option; she does not believe she has a choice. It’s a decision void of authentic freedom built on fear and vulnerability. The XYZ Corp’s policy on this subject amounts to a statement in the Corp’s charter stating “…When faced with an unplanned pregnancy, adoption is a beautiful life-giving alternative…” Additionally, your Father and Grandfather imposed their belief that ‘yes’ to life is an act of love that demonstrates the great courage and hope of a birthmother and the generosity of the adoptive parent(s).
Equally, you and your spouse, as parents, believe each abortion affects not only a woman who may be suffering, but involves a man who may be experiencing grief and guilt. As the family’s patriarch and CEO of XZY Corp, you have stated in implicit fashion in the past that “Jesus Christ longs to extend his abundant mercy and love to these women and men, and the Church is here to assist them both in the process of healing and finding this peace.” Your family has always believed the reconciliation that so many experience is a source of joy.
Similarly, as Saint John Paul II urged, we must continually work to spread the culture of life. In fact, in 2020, two bills were signed into law by the governor of your state, who is your younger brother, to protect unborn children in your state. One of the bills restricts abortion after viability, which limits abortions performed on children able to survive outside the womb. Additionally, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (UVVA) provides that an act of violence which causes injury or death to the unborn is a criminal offense separate from the offense against the mother. While the UVVA doesn’t restrict abortion, it recognizes the inherent value of unborn children from conception and provides added protection for their mothers.
Now, XYZ Corp’s two biggest buyers of your company’s products, accounting for over $2 billion dollars of worth of business each of the last five years, have threatened to ‘take their business elsewhere” if the company does not change its stance by month’s end.
Moreover, you, as the CEO of your family's 220-year-old business, deeply believe for the benefit of supporting the continuation to fight for life always to triumph over death, in general, for society and the common good.
Thus, you have been told directly and indirectly, that your youngest son and his wife of two years, three of XYZ Corp ‘C-level' officers, six of the fifteen Board of Directors, and approximately 4,000 of your 10,000+ employees in your state, plan on partaking in a pro-choice rally outside XYZ Corp’s headquarters in two days. Not only but also, your son and his wife have terminated all communication with you and your spouse – your son’s mother - over this matter causing very deep, and maybe irreconcilable, divides within the family.
What do you do? How does your belief on the matter affect XYZ Corp bottom line? Use the Utilitarian test/Virtue Test/Corporate Responsibility to Society as a whole/ethics/leadership, and Rawl’s liberty or justice principles to answer the post in 2-4 paragraphs.