LinkedIn Fake Profiles (2022)

Pictured: LinkedIn profile pictures recognition for better results.

Ethics Case Controversy

LinkedIn is one of the country’s biggest and most helpful online services when it comes to seeking employment and professional networking. They are known to bring users to real employers and help them with career success in a very safe way. At the beginning of 2022, this changed drastically when it was found that many profiles that were being used on LinkedIn were fake accounts. Not only do these fake accounts violate LinkedIn’s policies, but it also makes it an unsafe environment for users who can have their identity stolen and tricked into thinking they are legit accounts. LinkedIn is now taking action to delete many accounts and has removed more than 15 million since the beginning of 2021 (Bond, 2022). This is just one step further to removing all these accounts and LinkedIn is working hard to try to delete them all, but new technologies are making it more difficult.

At the beginning of 2022, a veteran researcher, Renee DiResta, had noticed something off from one of the profiles she had gotten a message from on LinkedIn. The first thing she noticed is that the profile picture looked like it was very fake. For example, the profile that went by the name of Ramsey had a picture that was missing an earring on one side, had hair blurring into the background, the placement of the eyes was exactly centered, and the background was blurry. With a combination of all these details, it showed DiResta that she was dealing with a computer-generated AI profile picture. DiResta told one of her colleagues, Josh Goldstein, about her findings and worked with Stanford researchers on an investigation to find more fake profiles. After doing this they ended up uncovering more than 1,000 LinkedIn profiles using what appeared to be faces created by artificial intelligence (Lusina, 2022).

LinkedIn has acknowledged and has been committed to removing these accounts. They have done so and have removed millions of fake accounts from when the problem arose. Although they made great efforts to remove the accounts from the Social Networking website some accounts have now adapted and are relatively genuine and difficult to decipher from a true user. There are some common things that LinkedIn Consultants Trainers (Goodman) tell the users to look out for. Particularly things that include, profile pictures that look too good to be true, receiving multiple invitations from the same company, a suspicious work history (Look for endorsements from the employers or employees they may work with), and profiles with too many connections can be too good to be true are all possibilities and things to look out for. Many users receive messages that they are qualified for the offers.

Pictured: Users receive a message that the sender has an offer for them.

After more research about the fake accounts was done, it became prominent that the technology being used to generate the fake profile pictures are Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). This technology uses real pictures to create fake AI humans which can be indistinguishable from real humans. Out of the 1,000 accounts discovered by DiResta that used GAN, 70 of these accounts linked back to real companies (Slater-Robins, 2022). When they reached out to these companies to ask about the fake profiles, many of them had no clue about them and stated that they hired other companies to help with finding potential customers. One of the companies that had accounts was called RingCentral. They had many fake profiles that said they worked there but the company claimed that they never worked there. RingCentral said they had hired other people to help with finding potential customers and one of these companies used GAN (Bond, 2022). Many other companies had the same response showing that this is a big issue that LinkedIn must find a way to deal with.

There are a lot of CEOs for companies that are unaware of the fake accounts saying they are associating with the company as they believe they are truly real accounts. They believed that they were real people and that they were just trying to connect with the company to obtain opportunities, not deceive the real users trying to obtain opportunities. A lot of fake accounts have become skilled and advanced in deception. Many people as stated by NPR have said the fake accounts seemed to be of someone familiar not knowing that the photo was generated by a computer and is completely fake. Many people don’t even know they are connecting with these fake accounts and are under the assumption that they are truly real. “LinkedIn removed more than 15 million fake accounts in the first six months of 2021, according to its most recent transparency report. It says the vast majority were detected during signup, and most of the rest were found by its automatic systems before any LinkedIn member reported them.” (Bond) LinkedIn is committed to trying to keep its Social Networking platform safe and accessible to all users. But AI is becoming so advanced that it is making it difficult to detect all of the fake accounts they have been plagued with over the years.

Stakeholders

There are various stakeholders in this case of the LinkedIn profiles which the fake accounts are affecting. Beginning with the actual user. It is a security risk to the everyday professional who is just trying to build their network and create opportunities for themselves down the road. It is difficult to do so when those networks are manipulated and taken advantage of by fake accounts. Next would be employers trying to access new connections. Employers need to be careful as they may be connecting with fake accounts and that may hurt their reputation. Those fake accounts could deceive and manipulate someone who is truly interested in working for the company. There are about 645 million users who are currently seeking job opportunities, and most of them are LinkedIn stakeholders. Whenever someone creates a new account on LinkedIn, he or she is actually investing his time to create a profile and putting his or her personal information so the employers can see their information and contact them or based on their skills and experience. If one person experiences getting into fraud by the fake users on the social media platform, he or she will be afraid to use that platform. Ring Central’s image was also hurt by this, having they were exposed for authorizing the use of fake LinkedIn profiles to get into contact with consumers and misleading the users of LinkedIn. Air Sales and Renova Digital were talked about in the article as well, being they were just two of the many different companies using fake profiles.

Individualism

The ethical theory that will be discussed for this ethical based issue is Individualism. This includes Friedman’s Theory and Machan’s Individualism. Friedman’s individualism theory is, “The only goal of business is to profit, so the only obligation that the business person has is to maximize profit for the owner or the stockholders within the law or the rules of the game.” (Salazar 11:10) Friedman’s Individualism theory explains that businesses need to do just what needs to be done to keep the business running so long that the business profits. This view is extended to if any action is taken without considering profit, then that is stealing from the owner of the company. It is a very persuasive view. Overall, the points of view are outdated and not aligned with today's social and ethical norms. Next is Machan’s Individualistic theories. His theories involve, “The only direct goal of business is to profit, and the primary obligation of the business person is to maximize profit within the law, but: 1. The direct goal of profiting may need to be met by indirect goals not aimed at profiting. 2. Business people may have other goals and those goals may at times be prioritized over the goals of profit-maximizing.” (Salazar 24:00) These goals are aligned slightly differently from Friedman’s point of view. Friedman’s focus is profit, whereas Machan has a slightly different approach in which the main goal is profit but this may be by completing indirect goals. This can include social-economic or environmental goals that can improve the image of the company as well as bring in profit for the company.

         How does Individualism apply to the issue that LinkedIn is focusing on maybe a little tricky to decipher? From Friedman’s perspective, LinkedIn may be operating for a profit which is against the law and the rules of the game. The lack of user privacy would be the factor that is being violated in an individualist’s mind. These fake accounts are a danger and risk to professionals across the world. The individualistic approach would look at this case to be impermissible. This is because the company is not doing everything, it possibly can to protect the privacy of its professionals. This is hurting their image as these fake accounts continue to deceive and mislead the professionals trying to make a living and open new doors or opportunities. “A recent study found faces made by AI have become "indistinguishable" from real faces. People have just a 50% chance of guessing correctly whether a face was created by a computer — no better than flipping a coin.” (Bond) It is almost impossible for those just looking quickly at the profile to distinguish it from real or fake. Most people’s minds will gravitate towards believing that it is a truthful account or maybe even someone that looks familiar to them. The Machan Individualist would look at this the same way. LinkedIn cannot get a good read on what accounts are fake and what ones are real because of how advanced Artificial Intelligence is getting. They try to detect all the fake accounts they possibly can at the creation of the account. But because AI is so advanced now it is difficult for them to detect all the fake accounts. To a modern individualist, LinkedIn would be ethically responsible for wasting money by not doing enough to protect their user’s privacy, as well as portraying a bad image and losing important relationships with their professionals on their Social Networking website.

Utilitarianism

A utilitarian would view LinkedIn’s way of handling the situation as a good, ethical way to do so. In utilitarianism, it states, “Happiness or pleasure are the only things of intrinsic value” (Salazar, 6). This means that from a utilitarian point of view if whatever is being done creates happiness, then that is the right thing to do. On the contrary, if something makes somebody not pleased or unhappy then it is the wrong thing to do. In this case, happiness is in the process of being maximized for mostly all the stakeholders.

LinkedIn (Company): After this case is resolved and LinkedIn takes care of all the fake profiles and accounts then they will be both negatively and positively impacted from a utilitarian point of view. Now they are most likely making users unhappy which causes them to also deal with the stress of making the website safe and living up to the policies they have. Once all of this is dealt with then they will be happy again to have gotten rid of the false information and fake accounts.

LinkedIn Users: Similarly, to the company, LinkedIn users are most likely upset and negatively impacted at the moment because they are getting a lot of spam accounts and messages. They also must deal with the risk of accidentally getting their information leaked and their identity stolen. Currently, this situation goes against a utilitarian point of view, but once LinkedIn continues to delete accounts and make its platform safe again, this will ultimately make the users happy again as well.

Companies Using Fake Profiles: Currently, these companies are very happy with being able to use many fake profiles. This gives them a lot of advantages such as saving money, reaching out to more customers, and getting a boost in sales. This could change once LinkedIn deletes more accounts because then they might be held accountable for using these fake profiles even if it’s because they hired a company that set them up for them.

Future Shareholders: Depending on how this situation unfolds and how LinkedIn handles it can affect how the future shareholders stand on the situation. For example, this could well with utilitarianism because if LinkedIn fixes the situation fast and shows that it is a reliable company, more people might trust it again and join which could help improve the stock. On the contrary, if more and more spam and fake accounts start to exist then this could negatively affect LinkedIn which would also cause unhappiness among the shareholders.

Future Prospective Employees: In the state that LinkedIn is in the future prospective employees might be unhappy because of how difficult it is to find jobs using the platform. Also, they must avoid any fake accounts and make sure they do not leak their information. Once things are resolved they will become a lot happier.

    It is evident that LinkedIn’s actions were ethical in a utilitarian view. Many of the stakeholders are either happy at the moment or will be happy once everything is finally dealt with. Fake profiles are an apparent thing on most applications and websites of this nature. The way that LinkedIn is currently dealing with it shows promise of not letting this happen again and how they really follow all their policies and want to guarantee safety and real people on their platform.

Kantianism

Kant’s ethical theory is based on his conceptions of human worth. Kant believes that everyone has the right and his own decision to make not just himself happy, but others feel the same way as well. When we apply Kant’s ethical theory to the LinkedIn fake profiles, Kant’s theory will go against this because Kant thinks that when you decide what to do, you should act in a way that your audience can accept your decision and agree with you. Treat others as you want yourself to be treated by others. In Kantianism, when you never want to hurt yourself, your decision can also be not based on principles that can hurt others. If others accept your will, you are good in the eyes of Kant. Kantians will see that fake profile creators have been raised to long for the short-term rewards of response on their posts, but not to show the truth and reality to others from their own will, but to get others' likes and become famous in the eyes of others. When you lie on social media by either creating fake profiles or giving wrong information, lying is wrong whatever reason you have for the lie in Kant’s point of view. Trusting your communication and building relationships are supported by Kant.

When LinkedIn officers provided many statements to prove themselves correct that their company has many policies against the users who break their policies, but the policies are not implemented practically. They have breakage in their system that they hide from social media, so their consumers are not reduced because thousands of professionals have premium memberships that they pay monthly fees. LinkedIn did not help the public detect the scammers, but to keep their profits growing. “There are still ways by which you can reduce the magnitude of the risk” (Kumari). Identification of the thefts on any social media platform is very crucial as people have their personal information uploaded on those platforms. Security for any platform is very necessary to keep the audience engaged and trustworthy. Many of the videos can be watched on other platforms to keep yourself protected from those fake profile creators and scammers.

There are many social media platforms that have complaints about the creation of fake profiles and giving false information to users. When the right actions and the right people are hired to detect the scammers, the illegal actions can be reduced. When you will not give your personal information to anyone regardless of the social media platform, a number of cases of spam can be detected. LinkedIn has to implement its policies on its largest professionally growing platform to help consumers safely contact and remain engaged with their employees or digital community. Kantians do not act inconsistently in their own actions, so based on the formula of humanity, Kantians will respect others as they respect themselves. When Kantian will look at the fake LinkedIn profile accounts, he will complain to the officials because he does not want others to be scammed as it is the formula of humanity in the eyes of Kantians.

Virtue Theory

Virtue Theory essentially can be determined based on whether it works or not. For example, do fake profiles work in what needs to be accomplished? You would have different answers depending on which side of the situation you are on. The people who are being contacted by the false profiles would say that it does not work, while the other side, the people who are hiring the fake profile bots, would say they are successful in obtaining the requested information. Virtue theory is limited based on our perspective on what the purpose is. Virtue theory comes down to 4 virtues of character: courage, temperance, justice/fairness, and honesty. The virtue of courage means that a person is ok with taking a risk and is willing to take a stand for the right ideas and actions. For example, if employees of the companies that were using these false profiles knew about them and their shady practices, in order to be considered courageous, they would be the ones who would take a stand for the company to stop using them. The next virtue of character is honesty, an honest person is someone that is truthful to others. “The virtue of honesty certainly does have instrumental value, since others will trust an honest businessperson and be more likely to do business with him”(Wittmer and O’Brien) For example, if a company wants to be considered honest and want to gain trust with their consumers, they would not be using false LinkedIn profiles to lure in potential customers. The next theory of character in business is justice or fairness, which means that individuals should be treated the same unless they differ in ways that are relevant to the situation. For example, LinkedIn users should not have to try and differentiate real people from AI, while the blame can be put on the companies that are using the false profiles to obtain personal information, as it is not fair to the consumer to have their data being collected without their knowledge. The final virtue is temperance, temperance essentially means to do things in moderation, for example, if the company that is hiring these false profiles uses them to collect thousands of people’s data, this is not showing temperance, as they are overusing the services that are unethical in the first place. If a business wants to be considered virtuous, it must be willing to have all 4 of these characteristics. The virtue of character that is most in question in this article is honesty. Are companies that use this method of an advertisement being honest with their consumers? A company that has to lie to potential consumers to get their data is obviously doing something wrong, whether they are lying for the potential benefit of the consumer does not matter as being honest to the consumer is a large part of operating an ethical and virtuous business.

LinkedIn User: As a LinkedIn user, you expect to use the website for authentic business connections, and when a fraudulent account connects with you and takes your information, this is not what you intended to happen. This is considered a vice, a vice is something that is lacking virtue, and having your information taken for an unknown purpose is not what the consumers intended. If consumers wanted to give their information to these companies, they would not be using LinkedIn, especially if they knew they were being misled. Honesty is one of the main components of virtue, and when we are being tricked into believing that the other person is real, how could we ever choose to trust the business?

Fake Profile Purchaser: As someone that wants to increase their marketing, a fake profile would seem like the way to go. You could reach a certain area of people by searching what job they currently have and using fake profiles to get information like their names, phone numbers, and emails. You could then use this data collected to further market your product. From this side of the Virtue Theory, you could almost argue that it is acceptable, being that it satisfies your goals. The main goal of the false profiles is to collect data, so you are able to market your product to people of a certain demographic. But it is not virtuous, as you are conflicting with one of the main virtues of character, honesty. Being dishonest with your consumer base is not how you want to attract them to your company, as they will have reservations about your intentions from the start.

Overall, Virtue Theory would assess the use of false identities as morally impermissible, as it goes against one of the main virtues of character, honesty. If companies were to hire real people with real names and real jobs to promote their product, that would be considered permissible, but until then they should stop hiring these artificially created people to try and promote their product. The workers of the companies that are using these false profiles need to be more courageous and speak up and take a stand against their companies for using artificial intelligence, as this is considered morally impermissible. The companies also need to be more temperate, and not be greedy with their data collection. These AI can collect thousands of users’ data very efficiently, but they are not doing this in moderation, they are trying to get as much data from consumers as possible, while the morally correct way would be not using fake people and collecting the data a normal way through ethical resources. Finally, this is not justifiable or fair to the consumer, as these companies are misleading their potential customers from the very first point of contact, their consumers are being led on and not being given the facts. If the business that uses these false profiles were to work on these 4 virtues of character in business, they would be considered morally permissible, but until they change what they are doing, using false profiles will continue to be morally impermissible and should be stopped by both LinkedIn and the companies that are using the software.

Action Plan

The current issue at stake that LinkedIn is dealing with is that many fake profiles are being used on their platform which violates their terms of service and can potentially affect the current users. There have always been some fake profiles but recently they have gotten a lot harder to notice if a user did not know what to look for and a lot more have arisen. Many users have noticed that these fake profiles use profile pictures that are generated by a computer software program called Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). Not only do these fake profiles violate LinkedIn’s terms but in some cases also steal users’ information. To resolve this current issue LinkedIn should keep track of every account to check and balance the movements of users. When people search for other users, LinkedIn should know why the users are searching for them. Many users with fake profiles send others offers to steal their personal information for any reason. Some ways that LinkedIn as a company can remain profitable is through the implementation of such strict policies for all users, the creation of new softwares, and hiring people with high cyber security skills will diminish the fake profile of users. If LinkedIn is able to rid its website of all fake profiles, it will appeal safer and become a better overall platform. All users should provide their identification cards to verify their identity when creating a new account on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is committed to trying to keep its social networking platform safe and accessible to all users.

Pictured: U.S. security agencies issue advisory on Russian cyberattacks on infrastructure.

Authors

Evan Langille

Connor Crump

Shazal Zaheer

Timothy Restall

References

Bond, S. (2022, March 27). That smiling linkedin profile face might be a computer-generated fake. NPR. Retrieved April 14, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/2022/03/27/1088140809/fake-linkedin-profiles

Lusina, A. (2022, March 29). Researchers say linkedin is overrun with fake, ai-generated profiles. PetaPixel. Retrieved April 14, 2022, from https://petapixel.com/2022/03/29/researchers-discover-more-than-1000-ai-generated-linkedin-profiles/

Goodman, Melanie. “How to Spot Fake Profiles on Linkedin.” LinkedIn, LinkedIn, 5 July 2021,

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-spot-fake-profiles-linkedin-melanie-goodman/

Slater-Robins, M. (2022, March 28). LinkedIn has a problem with fake profiles. TechRadar. Retrieved April 14, 2022, from https://www.techradar.com/news/linkedin-has-a-problem-with-fake-profiles

Salazar, H. Individualism and Business Ethics. N.d.

Salazar, H. Utilitarianism and Business Ethics. N.d.

Kumari, R. (2020, April 10). LinkedIn has fake profile problem AND So do you. LinkedIn’s Mission Statement. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-has-fake-profile-problem-so-do-you-rakhi-kumari/

Wittmer, Dennis & O’Brien, Kevin (2014). The Virtue of “Virtue Ethics” in Business and Business Education. Journal of Business Ethics Education 11:261-278.

ESSCA, https://ethique-des-affaires.essca.fr/en/the-role-of-the-virtue-of-temperance-in-business-ethics

Amazon: Pro-Union Smalls Fired at Amazon for Starting Union (April 2022)

 The Case:

Amazon is one of the world’s largest online retailers and continues to be one of the fastest-growing companies in the world. With massive fulfillment centers strategically placed throughout the country, they pride themselves on the ability to provide next-day or 2-day delivery for almost all items. Being established nearly 28 years ago has provided them with the ability to learn and experience new ways of doing business. While Amazon has changed and or modified their operations to adapt with modern day needs, they still have areas that require improvement. Although they do provide employees with above minimum wage pay, healthcare coverage and free tuition for college, many employees feel that this is not enough. One area of improvement is how they treat their employees as expendable objects. Having this mentality has created a major push for unionization of workers within fulfillment centers.

For years Amazon executives have stopped any attempts at unionization by implementing anti-union posters and pamphlets in warehouses. Employees and well recognized labor unions like the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) have tried to establish themselves within Amazon for years but have been unsuccessful (Solon NBC NEWS). RWDSU representatives have claimed that workers voted against unionization, due to the fact that they were victims of intimidation by Amazon associates. Seemingly every time a new laborer movement tries to unionize, there’s always a lack of voters or corruption in the voting process.

            As the COVID-19 Pandemic began to spread throughout the US, many people feared the outcome due to the unpredictability of the virus. With grocery stores running low on food, various stores and restaurants shutting down, retailers like Amazon were deemed as an essential business. This meant that workers were forced to meet their daily quotas while also trying to accommodate COVID-19 safety protocols and procedures. Christian Smalls, a supervisor in an Amazon fulfillment location in Staten Island, New York, was fired in March of 2020. After noticing the harsh working conditions and lack of safety protocols he decided to protest by organizing a walkout over the lack of worker protections (Selyukh NPR). At this time, he was suddenly discharged from the company for violating their safety protocols. This departure from the company was a shock to Smalls as he was only trying to improve the safety standards for himself and the employees during the start of the pandemic. The sudden departure reassures the fact that the company treats its employees as expendable objects.

            Smalls knew that he was fired as a result of his walkout just hours prior. The actions on behalf of Amazon did not sit well with Smalls as he knew he needed to stand up against the massive e-commerce. A short time after being fired he formed the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). Smalls did not have a huge financial backing or support like the RWDSU, so he utilized GoFundMe to generate support for his message. Using his personal experiences within the company and generated funds, he hosted informational events at bus stops and locations near the facility. These events allowed him to steadily attract members to his “grassroots union drive”. Smalls and his organizers “demanded higher wages, longer breaks, paid sick leave and paid time off for injuries sustained on the job” (Hsu NPR). While Amazon completely disagrees with the idea of unionization, Smalls and his supporters in the ALU argued, this needs to happen as they’re one of the richest retailers in the world.

Amazon completely opposes any unionization in their facilities as they have noticed the negative effect that a union can have on a business’s profitability and production. They feel that for 28 years they have produced jobs that allow for their employees to live a decent life, while having enough money to buy the things they want. Heather Knox an Amazon Spokesperson provided the companies reasoning for opposing unionization; “Our employees choose to work at Amazon because we offer some of the best jobs available everywhere we hire, and we encourage anyone to compare our total compensation package, health benefits, and workplace environment to any other company with similar jobs” (Hartmans Business Insider). Although they provide some of the best compensation for their workers, many employees like Smalls feel that the risk of working in the warehouses is not worth the reward. That is why Smalls is so adamant about establishing a union.

       On Friday, April 1, 2022 Smalls and fellow workers in the Staten Island facility voted to demonstrate that a majority of employees agreed with unionization. When the results were tallied it was clear that Smalls and his supporters were successful in their pro-union push. Miraculously, they established the first ever union at Amazon; The Amazon Labor Union. Currently the ALU includes 8,300 workers within the Staten Island warehouse. As a result of the union forming there are eight immediate changes that the workers are advocating for: (Health and Safety, Pay, Promotions, Overtime, Working Conditions, Transportation, Time, and Union-Busting), (Amazon Labor Union). These changes will alleviate some of the economic impact and current wage gaps in the company. 

Stakeholders:                                                                                      

The stakeholders in this specific case include the current employees, future employees, general public, top executives, and shareholders. Amazons’ reputation and future success can be affected by the actions of the ALU. Together these stakeholders play a critical part in the fulfillment center operations. The current employees are affected as they can face repercussions for wanting to join in voting for a union. While the current employees at the Staten Island fulfillment center won’t experience any issue, due to the fact of being in a union. Other warehouses across the country may experience issues as their employees are not in the ALU and therefore not protected by the rules and regulations of the union. Future employees can also be affected as a result of the union being formed. With the formation of a union at the Staten Island location, many new workers might apply for employment there as they see the benefits of working in a union. Being a part of a union is favorable as it allows employees to negotiate for better working conditions and benefits. 

The general public and top executives can be affected by the outcome of the ALU in the future. For example, if workers in the ALU and Amazon's executives are unable to agree upon safety standards, pay or benefits, there can be delays in production as a result of union workers striking. The shareholders of Amazon are at risk in the pro-union movement, as there seems to be uncertainty as to what can happen within other fulfillment centers across the country. One fear is that other fulfillment centers across the country will also unionize, resulting in a massive unionization movement throughout the whole company. Shareholders may view this change as good or bad if they disagree with the direction the company is heading. This can result in shareholders buying more shares of Amazon stock or selling off their shares, all depending upon if they see the company continuing to grow exponentially or decrease in size.  

Individualism:

Based on the ethical theory from Milton Friedman known as Individualism, theorizes that a company or owners sole ethical responsibility is to increase profits for owners or stockholders as long as they are obeying legal responsibilities. Tibor Machan took Friedman’s theory and included the statement that in order for Individualism to be ethical the actual goals of the business must not be to make a profit. (Salazar)

The reaction of Amazon for Chris Smalls trying to develop a union was not unethical according to Individualism. It was not necessarily illegal for Amazon to fire Smalls for starting the protest outside of the Staten Island facility since he broke protocol that Amazon set into place. Federal law states that “working time is for work, so your employer may maintain and enforce non-discriminatory rules limiting solicitation and distribution”(NLRB), so firing Smalls without the pandemic protocol would still be legal since he led chaos within the facility during working hours. Amazon tends to be “anti-union” because they feel it is in the best interest of the customers, shareholders, associate companies and it has been mentioned that they feel a direct employee to employer relation is better than a union, therefore according to Machan, their reaction to unions are not unethical as well. The lack of unions in the workplace potentially increases profits since the union can reduce production output on a day to day basis, ultimately diminishing the profit the company can make significantly.  By firing Smalls and attempting to prevent the unionization from occurring, from Amazon’s viewpoint they were protecting profits and eliminating an area of concern that would bring them down. From an Individualistic standpoint, the actions taken by Amazon were perfectly ethical and the right thing to do as long as the termination was legal. The leaked information about how they would use the publicity of the firing of Smalls’ to their benefit to prevent the talk of unions in the news as well as the workplace seems to have malicious characteristics for both Smalls’ termination as well as their anti-union tactics. The leaked information reveals unethical actions from an Individualistic approach because it is illegal to fire an employee for simply spreading union information and for personal gain motives.

Utilitarianism:

A utilitarian would view the outcome of the pro-union movement as the most ethical and beneficial outcome. Based upon the belief of a utilitarian, “a businesses actions should aim to maximize the happiness in the long run for all conscious beings that are affected by the business actions” (Salazar 17). Until the formation of the ALU a utilitarian would not view the actions as impermissible. The reason being that employees in the fulfillment center were not treated properly and faced consequences whenever they tried to bring attention to the issues they faced. On Amazon's behalf these actions were unethical from a utilitarian stand-point and unsafe from the perspective of the workers.

         Although a utilitarian views the actions as unethical, the executives and shareholders believe they’re providing excellent opportunities for their employees to maximize happiness without being in a union. Amazon continues to oppose unions and argue against them as they feel they do not have their employees’ best interests in mind. They feel that “Unions could lead to less collaborative relationships between employees and their supervisors, and could favor employees with seniority over new employees” (Hartmans Business Insider). With a union creating a divide between the workers and management, this would disrupt the principles and foundations that Amazon was founded upon. Many executives do not want an outside organization interfering with their internal business operations. They also fear that participating in a union will cost them more money than they can afford, thus limiting the high hourly rate and benefits employees are currently paid. This is the reason why some executives and shareholders oppose fulfillment centers from unionizing like the Staten Island fulfillment center did. 

Unlike the executives at Amazon a utilitarian would see the actions of the ALU as permissible. These actions are accepted as they will maximize the pleasure of the employees and minimize any pain and suffering that resulted from working in the fulfillment centers. With the little time and experience Christian Smalls had, he was able to create a union movement in one of the world’s largest e-commerce.

Shortly after establishing a union in the Staten Island fulfillment center, Smalls began to receive letters and emails from across the globe. Many of the letters came from current employees encouraging him to take the ALU to more fulfillment center locations. In an interview with National Public Radio Smalls stated; “the world is definitely paying attention now and these workers are paying attention now, which is the best thing possible because that’s exactly what we plan on doing…we want to spread like wildfire across the nation” (Selyukh NPS). By following through on his goal to establish a union that acts in the employee’s best interest, he was able to maximize happiness and promote the ideas that utilitarianism was founded upon.

A utilitarian would also agree with the pro-union movement as it results in long-term benefits for the workers. This unionization movement is just-in-time as currently there is a larger wage gap than ever before. The additional wages and benefits for union workers would take effect immediately, preventing any future cases similar to what Smalls experienced. By allowing unionization throughout all the fulfillment centers, Amazon would be making themselves a more attractive company for future employees and stockholders. Allowing employees to have a greater voice in the company, they must realize that employees will take their union agreement seriously as it maximizes their happiness in the long run. The pro-union movement may also result in more shareholders feeling inclined to purchase Amazon stock, as they know the company will operate with their employees’ interests in mind.  

Kantianism:

For this case, there were both positive and negative aspects when viewing it through the lens of Kantianism. One scenario that would be viewed as particularly negative was how Chris Smalls acted when he was trying to make a change within the company. He organized a protest in which many rules that Amazon had specifically put in regarding the pandemic were violated. Rules that had to do with social distancing, gathering during a quarantine, and size of the groups were all specific rules that were violated. A Kantian would not necessarily be pleased with Chris smalls because a key part of Kantianism is rational decision making. “Don’t act inconsistently in your own actions or consider yourself exempt from the rules.” (Salazar 5). It could be viewed that Smalls interpreted it as okay to exempt himself from the rules on the day he organized the protest which caused him to be fired initially.

  Another belief that Kantians have is to, “be motivated by Good Will, seeking to do what is right because it is right.” (Salazar 5). Smalls had good intentions with what he was attempting to do. He may have just not gone about it in the best way. He believed that how the company was handling their protocols with the COVID-19 pandemic was morally wrong. One of his major concerns was with how employees were being notified about quarantine and exposures within the work environment. In Smalls’ case, he had an exposure to someone with COVID-19 on March 11, 2020. Amazon failed to notify him about having to quarantine for nearly two weeks. They finally told him he was required to quarantine on March 28, 2020. This came so long after his exposure that the incubation period for the virus had actually ended. He wanted to make a change and he was motivated to help make a change for a better, safer work environment for him and his employees because it is the right thing to do which is something that follows along with Kantian ethics.

Looking at how the company handled the situation from the point of view of a kantian, Amazon did a very poor job with how they handled their protocols. Smalls was just one employee that stood up to them but he was not alone and was doing it for many employees within the company. The principle of Kantianism that Amazon did not follow was, “Respect people, their autonomy, and individual needs and differences”(Salazar 5). The pandemic was something that was new to everyone. People had all different ways of going about it and the top priority was making sure that everyone felt safe. There were a variety of ways in which this was accomplished but Amazon did not seem to care at first even though their employees tried to display their unhappiness. Amazon expected the rules they put in place to be done a certain way without taking into account any other ways of doing it. Many companies were able to respect people's individual needs during this time by ways of working on zoom or careful tracking of exposures, but Amazon failed to do things that way which is why it would be viewed negatively by Kantians.

Virtue Theory:

The virtue theory is an ethical theory that entails people shouldn’t focus on rules to follow but to instead focus on what your core values and personality traits would tell you to do (Ethical Theory, 2018). For example, if you are a person who is generally a compassionate person, act with compassion in all decisions you make. Virtue theorists believe that the way to truly find who you are as a person is to, “suggest that once you can imagine what a good person is like, you should behave in any situation as you think such a person would behave.” (Ethical Theory, 2018). Other ways to find yourself is to realize what characteristics truly make you flourish and to act off those. 

With this case regarding ALU vs. Amazon the virtue theorist would find most of what the ALU is doing as morally required. When Smalls led the walkout, it was because he acted based off who he was all about. Determination is what drove Smalls the most. His relentless determination is what led to all his decisions that he made in this case. After being fired by Amazon Smalls could’ve just given up and found a different job but instead stood his ground because that was just the type of person he was. He decided to start the bus stop barbeques and the GoFundMe because he was determined to see Amazon own up to their issues. Yes, the styles were unorthodox, but he needed to find a way to get to the workers and that was the only effective way he found. Based on the virtue theory Smalls made actions off who he was as a person which in this case is determined. He did what he thought was right and ran with it. He was even arrested by Amazon earlier this year for trespassing while they were delivering food and union materials to the warehouse parking lot. It doesn’t matter if somebody else thinks it wrong according to the theory because he was doing what he thought was right. According to Smalls, “Amazon doesn't become Amazon without the people, and we make Amazon what it is.” (Hsu & Selyukh, 2022) That quote alone explains his thought process and explains what his personality traits give off. What Amazon is doing on the other hand is impermissible according to the theory. Amazon’s slogan is Work Hard, Have Fun, Make History. That is what Amazon’s core principle values are supposed to be. According to the workers on the other hand Amazon is not actually acting according to those values. Two of three values are being instructed but one is not being hit at all according to employees. There is no fun to be had at Amazon. Not once has Smalls expressed how he’s had fun working at Amazon he only has ever talked about the tough work environment and how unfair the wages were. Apparently, he can’t be lying with over 2,000 of his colleagues being behind him. The virtue theory in this case would be in favor of Smalls and would be against Amazon.  

Action Plan: 

Amazon fulfillment centers across the nation are facing issues with employees being treated poorly and they need to implement actions to fix this problem. A labor union is an organized association of workers that is formed to protect the further rights and interests of the workers. The US has hundreds of labor unions operating in different industries throughout the country, however most people don't realize that unions are critical to creating equality and fair wages for employees. Not having a union established is unfair and unethical to the employees who want one and would benefit from having one at the world's largest online retailer. Without access to a union employees are affected as their wages, compensation plans and benefit packages are not enough. They are often inadequate as no one is there to fight or negotiate for the employees. The current issue is that Amazon does not act in favor of their employees and put their billion dollar profits before their employees. This is wrong because without the employees, the fulfillment centers would be unable to meet the current demand. Listening to the voices of the employees is critical as a union will meet their employees needs, while also operating ethically and being profitable for the company. 

Amazon's current mission statement is “we strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience’’ (Amazon). It’s obvious that the current mission statement is completely customer focused and mentions nothing about their employees. A new mission statement is needed in order to guide the company into a new era of employee focused improvements. We recommend that “Amazon devotes its resources and technologies to improving working conditions and resources for their employees, by allowing them to join the Amazon Labor Union”. This new mission statement still follows their original idea of providing customers with the best possible experience. But also provides their employees with the best possible care and benefits, as they are focused on their employees and strive to provide the best for them. 

As the Staten Island fulfillment center is now a part of the ALU several values they should abide by are: well-being for employees, trust, constant improvement, and teamwork. 

• Well-being for Employees - The safety and livelihood of their employees is more important than meeting production deadlines or daily quotas. Instead of treating employees as replaceable objects, they need to treat them as human beings with emotions. Amazon is responsible for the health and safety of their employees and they need to address this issue more than ever.   

• Trust - Creating a relationship between executives and employees allows for trust to be established. Allowing employees to freely communicate their concerns or observations to the fulfillment center managers / executives  allows for a connection to be made. 

• Constant Improvement - As new technologies and ways of doing business are constantly improving, this new to be considered in the workplace. Thus improving upon and limiting the strenuous or labor intensive activities employees do on a daily basis.   

• Teamwork - Communication between executives and employees allows for ideas and responsibilities to be shared throughout the company. This helps to reduce the stress some employees feel when they are given meticulous tasks. 

To ensure ethical productivity and monitoring of ethics at fulfillment centers across the nation, they need to take actions similar to how the ALU was formed by Christain Smalls. Having a union established and union representatives like Smalls allows employees to approach them with issues and or recommendations for improvements. The ALU also prevents executives from abruptly firing an employee, similar to what smalls experienced. 

Hiring someone that is experienced with ethical behavior or experienced in business ethics is critical to Amazon flourishing after the ALU movement. The person hired could use their knowledge and determine if tasks are unethical or how to improve these processes for employees. Hiring a production manager / analyst would allow them to make recommendations based on what they observe. They can also be critical in determining if a task should be substituted with a robot, this would prevent employees from doing monotonous or physically demanding tasks.

To promote having union workers in fulfillment centers, Amazon can advertise on boxes saying “This package was packed by union workers”. They can also create advertisements saying that they agree to increase the number of union workers or unionize a majority of fulfillment centers by 2028. To create a better relationship between the executives and employees they should also allow for employees to freely express their ideas and or protest whenever an agreement cannot be reached.     

Moving forward they will need to add upon their existing values to incorporate the ideas of their employees. Also new and current employees should not be threatened or forced to do things outside of their union agreement. Adhering to the union agreement established between the ALU and executives will promote greater business profits and productivity for the company. In turn more people will want to shop at Amazon as they agree with the idea of unionization and feel that employees are treated fairly. This plan conforms to the original mission statement because the company will still be producing great products that many people can enjoy, without violating the ethics and values of their employees. 

Authors:

Daniel Doyle 

Dominic Gallant

Andrew Huta

Logan Paranto

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