An Ethical Dilemma Faced In The Workplace Or At College/University: Essay.

Discuss an ethical or moral dilemma that you have had to face in the workplace or at college / university. Give as much details as possible within the word limit.

Please include relevant information. The following list is a guide: (You can replace the real names and places with fictional ones)

• Describe the situation
• Whowas involved
• Wheredid the situation take place?
• When did it happenand what was going on? 
• What were the values and norms that were in conflict?
• Describe your thoughts and feeling.
• Describe what you did. (How was the dilemma resolved or what was the outcome?)
• Rate your decision. On a scale from 1-10 how happy were you with your decision? (1 = Very unhappy 10 = Very happy) and state why you thought that.

In this section, you are going to analyze the ethical or moral dilemma described in Part 1 above.

Please include the following:

• Choose three of the normative ethical theories discussed in the course and use those three ethical theories to analyze the ethical or moral dilemma described in Part 1. 

You should include critical thinking in your analysis and write about 500 words for each theory.

In this section, you are going to reflect on the initial decision.

Please include the following:

• Did any of the ethical theories discussed in Part 2 make you happier with the decision you made in Part 1? Why? or Why not?
• Did any of the ethical theories discussed in Part 2 make you less happy with the decision you made in Part 1? Why? or Why not?
• If you were in that same situation again would you make the same decision again? Why? or Why not?

Ethical dilemma defines a complex situation that displays the apparent mental conflicts between the imperatives of moral behavior (Morris and McDonald 2013). In this situation, the individual face difficulties in selecting the appropriate result to obey by transgressing other result. I have gone through one incident that tested my moral behavior at my workplace. I work in a consultancy firm as a senior manager. One of my junior group members returned to her work after a long period leave to care for her old aged mother. She needed to work for full time due to the financial reasons. She faced numerous difficulties in arranging her mother’s home care arrangements. Due to such reason, she had to miss several team meetings, which usually arranged at the beginning of each day. Moreover, she had to leave the workplace early. Even though she was very competent, she had to face more pressure due to her absenteeism. In addition to all such stressful environment, she even faced some offensive remarks from one of her male colleagues. The person commented that the women should stay back at home since their place is in the home. Some of her colleagues started undermining her continuously. She was in great pressure and stressful situation due to their unethical behavior.

By observing such scenario, I needed to take the straightforward and fair decision for each one at the workplace. It is clear that I owe a responsibility to maintain confidentiality to the associated staffs at my workplace. It is my primary responsibility to consider the guidelines, policies, and procedures of the firm. If necessary, I even need to take the legal assistance that suggests the applicable laws and regulations.  The junior member and the staffs were involved in this situation. Furthermore, the personnel department was also affected due to such crucial scenario. However, I was quite worried about this incident.

In order to resolve such issues, I gathered all staffs together and clarified the policies and procedures in a transparent way. In order to retain my moral behavior in a positive way, I started thinking about the possible method of resolving these issues. I found that I could arrange the team meeting during days instead of morning time.  It will be easier for each of the employees to attend the team meeting in the middle of the work. I made a decision to offer the employee work from home until her mother becomes completely well. However, I had to face many questions from other staffs. I made them understand that identifying a proper solution demonstrates the professional behaviour.

I think I made the most relevant decision by considering the situation of each employee at my workplace. I would like to rate my decision number 10, since I am completely satisfied with it. The employee could receive the opportunity to finish her work from home while she can take care of her mother. On the other hand, the other employees at workplace would not suffer for her absenteeism. The decision was undertaken by considering the justified moral behaviour.

Part 2: Analysis

The Normative Theory of business ethics defines the moral behaviour maintained by each one of the employees (Ford and Richardson 2013). The theories will describe the necessary moral behaviou at the workplace

Utilitarianism

According to Neta (2015), utilitarianism is a simplistic form of view that defines the common sense and identifies the wrong or right by presenting a cost-benefit analysis. Decisions are undertaken by identifying the positive and negative consequences. Thomas (2015) argued that the fulfilling the desire is better that thwarting desires. It is noted that every philosopher does not usually approve the “satisfactory consequences”. The “best” action is often considered as the “right” action. However, this view is somewhat compared with the oppressive view (Jackson and Smith 2016). Hoffman, Frederick and Schwartz (2014) described that rational action is considered when it produces good results and neglects the bad result. The utilitarianism theory is aligned with several objections, which are as follows:

• Consequences are not enough to describe the utilitarianism that is promoting the good by eliminating the behaviour of disrespecting others. For instance, one person is killed and the organs are donated to some people for saving others’ lives (Utilitarianism.com 2017).  
• It is exclaimed that the utilitarianism is not sensitive enough to be compared with heroic acts. When utilitarianism is accepted as a process of maximizing good, it becomes one of the most demanding methods.

Hence, it can be stated that the utilitarianism theory describes the right course of action that ensures the effective and fruitful outcomes.

In order to justify ethical and moral behaviour, the application of Stoic Virtue Ethics is also much appropriate. Cohen et al. (2014) opined that the thoughts and moral beliefs tend to lead to justified actions and emotions. The five virtues are defining the stoic virtue ethics.

• Treviño, den Nieuwenboer and Kish-Gephart (2014) argued that the virtue is compared with ultimate value that covers up other core values.
• It is to be specified that people are aware of the preferable responses by comparing the instincts extracted from the universal reasons (Crane and Matten 2016).
• People believe that the incidents occur because God preordained these incidents. Therefore, there should not be the emergence of negative responses (Kouchaki and Smith 2014). It is necessary to work according to the values, which determine the positive emotional response in every aspect.

The first three parts of these justifications are quite reasonable whereas the last part is yet to be accepted in confirming the existence of stoic divinity. The values are often recognized as value of pleasure and disvalue of pain. The stoic value in a moral ethics tends to understand the rational beliefs that are morally accepted (Noddings 2013).  

The deontology theory is mainly depending on the morality on certain responsibilities or obligations. Deak and Saroglou (2016) pointed out that deontology often claims several actions that are intrinsically wrong or right. The moral norm determines the appropriate action that has the right outcome. The deontological view is not appropriately described since the consequences are often different to the expectations (Noddings 2013). In short, the deontological view does not end with the justified means.  

The incident was quite promising for me since it taught me the exact procedure of taking any relevant decision. It was my responsibility to keep the fair attitudes towards every employee. I could understand the struggle of the woman employee who was even competent enough in performing her duty. I had the opportunity to restructure my organizational functionalities that would have been convenient for others as well. The remarks passed by the male employee were also creating enormous pressure on her. Considering such crucial situation, I took the decision of organizing the team meeting at the middle of the working day. In fact, I offered the work from home facility to the employee since she had to take care of her old age mother as well. The decision I made was quite satisfactory.

If I consider the theoretical suggestions, I can exclaim that the utilitarianism theory is completely agreeable for the situations I faced at my workplace. This theory determines the decisions made by determining what is right and what is wrong. This theory even supports the right decisions when the outcome is good. I observed, my decision was fruitful for each of the employees. When I offered the female employee work from home facility, she started completing the official works while taking proper care of her mother. On the other hand, other associated employees were free from the overburden that was created due to her absenteeism. The outcome was quite satisfactory and I feel I made the right choice.

The stoic virtue ethics discussed in the previous section was not quite satisfactory to me. This theory determines the expression of the right emotions that are sometimes negative. I do not believe that the negative emotions can be expressed in a crucial situation when one has to manage both the personal and professional life. The employee was competent enough to perform the organizational functionalities. At the same time, she was unable to perform since she was much pressurized due to her mothers’ condition and the offensive remarks faced at the workplace. In this situation, I showed my right emotion towards her and being a professional person took the appropriate decision regarding such matter. Therefore, I disagree with the theoretical concept presented in the previous section.

If in future I face the similar situation, I would take the similar decision once again. However, this time, I would prefer to discuss the situation with other associates at the first place. Moreover, it will be necessary for me to make the employees aware of the policies and procedures in a significant way. It will help those employees to maintain the proper ethical and moral behaviour at the workplace. I should support my employees properly to keep them motivated.

References

Cohen, T.R., Panter, A.T., Turan, N., Morse, L. and Kim, Y., 2014. Moral character in the workplace. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107(5), p.943.

Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

Deak, C. and Saroglou, V., 2016. Valuing Care Protects Religiosity from the Antisocial Consequences of Impersonal Deontology. Journal of Empirical Theology, 29(2), pp.171-189.

Ford, R.C. and Richardson, W.D., 2013. Ethical decision making: A review of the empirical literature. In Citation classics from the Journal of Business Ethics (pp. 19-44). Springer Netherlands.

Hoffman, W.M., Frederick, R.E. and Schwartz, M.S. eds., 2014. Business ethics: Readings and cases in corporate morality. John Wiley & Sons.

Hoffman, W.M., Frederick, R.E. and Schwartz, M.S. eds., 2014. Business ethics: Readings and cases in corporate morality. John Wiley & Sons.

Jackson, F. and Smith, M., 2016. The Implementation Problem for Deontology. Weighing Reasons, p.279.

Kouchaki, M. and Smith, I.H., 2014. The morning morality effect: The influence of time of day on unethical behavior. Psychological science, 25(1), pp.95-102.

Morris, S.A. and McDonald, R.A., 2013. The role of moral intensity in moral judgments: An empirical investigation. In Citation Classics from the Journal of Business Ethics (pp. 463-479). Springer Netherlands.

Neta, R., 2015. Coherence and Deontology. Philosophical Perspectives, 29(1), pp.284-304.

Noddings, N., 2013. Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education. Univ of California Press.

Sevenpillarsinstitute.org. (2017). [online] Sevenpillarsinstitute.org. Available at: https://sevenpillarsinstitute.org/morality-101/moral-traditions [Accessed 22 Feb. 2017].

Thomas, A.J., 2015. Deontology, Consequentialism and Moral Realism. Minerva: An Internet Journal of Philosophy, 19.

Treviño, L.K., den Nieuwenboer, N.A. and Kish-Gephart, J.J., 2014. (Un) ethical behavior in organizations. Annual review of psychology, 65, pp.635-660

Utilitarianism.com (2017). [online] Utilitarianism.com. Available at: https://www.utilitarianism.com/utilitarianism.html [Accessed 22 Feb. 2017].