Issue of Ethical Dilemmas in the Workplace - Coursework Example

Running Head: BUSINESS ETHICS Business Ethics Name: Tutor: Course: Institution: Date: The workplace is becoming increasingly diverse as the world continues to shrink with each passing day. As a result, ethical issues are on the rise, and members of the public are increasing responsibility as the bar for corporate social responsibility continues to get higher (Daft & Marcic, 2008). Managers need to understand ethical dilemmas and how best to solve them if they desire to beat their competitors. The following paper will explore the issue of ethical dilemmas in the workplace, in reference to various ethical theories. These issues have been explored using authoritative and relevant sources obtained from renowned scholars in business ethics. A description of a work situation in my past employment, which posed an ethical dilemma for me was firstly provided, and an explanation of how the dilemma was resolved given. The virtue theory was used to help analyze the resolution of the ethical dilemma, so as to determine if the method used to resolve it would be judged to be ethical. In a former company that I worked for, I was promoted and became a product manager. There were high stakes in the job, as well as high expectations. Just one week after my promotion, when every family member and personal friend knew of my promotion, my boss called me to his office and handed me strategic documents whose information belonged, to my shock, our closest competitor and leading company in the industry. The documents included pricing strategies, product plans and other strategic documents. Each of the documents was marked “proprietary and confidential.” When I enquired where the documents had been obtained, he confidently explained how he had downloaded all interesting documents off the company’s server after gaining access to their intranet. He stressed that there was nothing wrong with that, since he had just obtained electronic access with the help of a colleague and had not hacked into their systems or broken any passwords. The act seemed okay at first, until I realized that if the press or someone from the competitor’s side knew that we had obtained confidential information about their business processes, this would be disastrous to the company’s reputation. Besides, I was not comfortable about using the information, let alone opening the documents. It was particularly a dilemma because there were no company policies or rules that would offer any guidance. I however knew that using such information was not just illegal but also unethical. It was only one week after my promotion, and I was bound to expect something similar happening again. The information would give us a competitive advantage over the company and we would easily become the best organization in the industry. On the other hand, I was not sure if I would be able to continue working to a company that used such tactics against its competitors. Resolving the dilemma After a long consideration of all of the choices I was supposed to make, my requirements at the company and consequences of each action I would take, I decided to privately confront the boss and inform him that I was not comfortable with how the documents had been obtained. I informed him that I would not be comfortable using them, since they were all proprietary and confidential and were to certainly give us a competitive edge. I also informed him that I was disturbed about what this would say about the organizational culture. Using the information would be jeopardy to the company’s reputation, if the information were to leak to the press. There were numerous legality issues involved with using opening the documents and a breach to public relations. The Virtue theory, Utilitarianism and Duty of Care Using the virtue theory to assess the resolution of the dilemma, I would assert that the manner in which I resolved the issue was ethical. Virtue theory focuses on the character and personal disposition of a person, as well as his or her moral qualities. The development of the moral life is the sole objective of the theory, with the aim of living moral lives whereby it is the good and right behavioral patterns that will emanate from the person. The theory originated from Aristotle, and its starting point is the quest to answer the question: “is there a goal or purpose for human living, a master virtue, which provides a benchmark for the good life?” (Preston, 2007, p. 49). This is the question that guided me in deciding what decisions I would make and the consequential actions. One has to habitually keep doing what is right, a practice that is necessary for human flourishing. Nonetheless, the good life is a life whereby one seeks to be in harmony and cooperation with other people. This is because people are not just rational beings but also social beings, which makes relationships to be very important (Sampford & Lui, 2004). Every human being lives in groups, be it at home or in the workplace; the well-being of the group, according to Aristotle, is more important than that of one person (Jennings, 2008). Choosing to obtain the information from the documents and make use of them was a personal decision made by the boss, without considering the views and opinions of other stakeholders of the company. While it may seem that using the information would give the company a more competitive edge, the risks involved were high. If the information, for example, leaked to the press, it is without a doubt that the organization’s reputation would be bad. This would certainly devastate the performance of the company on not just the CSR ratings and public relations but also in the overall sales. Consumers would avoid buying our products if they learnt of such strategies. In the end, the company’s profitability would go down. Certainly, the manner in which I resolved the dilemma would be judged to be ethical; it was through a careful consideration of these factors that I decided not to use the information. According to Aristotle, the following moral qualities constitute the virtuous life: courage, truthfulness, friendliness, temperance, wittiness, good temper, magnificence, pride, shame and justice (Preston, 2007). I had to gather the courage to confront my boss and share my fears and concerns with regard to the documents. I did this is a friendly manner to ensure that I did not jeopardize our professional friendship. Using the documents was an almost definite guarantee for succeeding in the industry. One of the major developments of virtue theory is promoting internal goods as opposed to external goods such as wealth, fame, status and power (Sampford & Lui, 2004). In addition to achieving the status of the best organization in the industry, power, wealth and status would follow. I, however, chose to avoid the lure for fast success and instead chose to respect legal standards. According to principles of virtual theory, ethical dilemmas should be addressed not as puzzles that require intellectual strategies to unravel but by persons whose interest is to bring qualities that have virtues in them to the ethical challenges before them. However, a virtuous disposition was not enough in making the decisions that I made; sticking to the virtue theory alone would not have been enough to determine the ethical dilemma of my allegiance to my boss or my duty to the good of not just the company but other communities as well. The emphasis of virtue theory is building character. This is critical in the increasingly competitive present day business environment as it can be very useful in everyday morality and in making decisions that can affect the success or failure of a business (Preston, 2007). Utilitarianism This is an ethical theory based on consequentialism principles. The law emphasizes on happiness or utility, asserting that the goal for human choice and action is happiness or utility. It has been summarized in the popular phrase, seeking “the greatest good for the greatest number.” There are two varieties, the act and rule utilitarianism. The former variety seeks to disregard rules, particularly if they are absolute and calculates happiness with regard to the consequences of acts. According to this ethical theory, one should carefully assess the social good as well as the social harm before deciding to act. Duty on care, also known as ethics of care, is the controversial theory of ethics that delves on the feminist side of things. According to this theory, it is always necessary to focus on care, relationships and compassion. The theory seeks for the re-evaluation of the approaches of consequentialism and non-consequenstialism to make them take into consideration of the care or feminist perspective. This concept is important when determining the e, ethics of care, feminist, ethics of an action, either in business, economics or society, with regard to building relationships (Mandal, 2010). In the ethical dilemma I was faced with, it was very difficult to decide against reading the documents, knowing what this would me to the boss. However, my relationships with fellow colleagues, friends and family members would have been changed if I had chosen to go ahead and use the information. A consideration and understanding about the consequences of naïve legalism was also critical when solving the dilemma. Naïve legalism is whereby one chooses to defer moral responsibility for behaving ethically to the legal system. While it may seem as a course of action that is rooted on perfect logic, ethicists argue that the legalistic approach is not the best decision to make. Resorting to the law is a very expensive process to undertake when dealing with ethical issues in the workplace. Courts and law enforcement agencies are overwhelmed. For instance, unless they lead to colossal financial loss, cases that involve ethics are very insignificant for the time that would be taken to deal with them. In addition, the legal system is not effective when dealing with workplace issues. Instead, it is more effective in the criminal arena (McLean & Yoder, 2005). The legal system is also not the best place to solve ethical dilemmas because humans unintentionally undermine the moral justification for our laws. Although the laws of a community are without a doubt important, the laws are just the demonstration of the more important, collective moral requirement. When one exclusively focuses on the law, he is bound to ignore the reason the law was developed in the first place. New situations develop new ethical issues on a daily basis, and legislation is only introduced to tackle them only when they become popular. On a daily basis, therefore, the law is playing catch-up games with our moral principles. It is only in occasional times that the gap between legislation and dilemmas is the result of new technology (Shaw, 2010). In the case of copyrighted materials, for example, it is only after 2000 that people have been empowered to interpret and implement legal guidelines that deal with this situation. Lastly, but certainly not least, naïve legalism makes the assumption that every law is morally correct. Anything else but the law is considered wrong. This is however not always the case. The example of Jim Crows laws, for example, whose intention was to segregate black people from white people in America denying basic rights to African Americans demonstrates that indeed, right is not always what the law says is right (McLean & Yoder, 2005). With regard to the above sentiments about the legal system, with which justice is achieved, I did the morally correct thing by choosing not to involve the legal system and instead privately talk to the boss about the matter. The world is now a melting pot than it has ever been. As people from national origins, different cultures and belief systems come to work together in a single workplace, stereotypes are stirring trouble and ethical pressures escalating. The solution for all the ethical dilemmas businesses are facing today may seem to be easy: hiring a homogenous workforce and not having to worry about ethical issues any more. That is certainly inapplicable in the present-day increasingly competitive business environment, where diversity and discrimination issues have become top priority when assessing how responsible an organization is. The issue of ethical dilemmas requires a careful analysis of the ethical theories discussed above and an analysis of how these can be applied in the contemporary world. References Daft, R. & Marcic, D. (2008). Understanding Management. London: Cengage Learning. Graafland, J. (2007). Economics, ethics and the market: introduction and applications. New York: Taylor & Francis. Jennings, M. (2008) .Business Ethics: Case Studies and Selected Readings. London: Cengage Learning. Mandal, K. (2010). Ethics in Business & Corporate Governance. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. McLean, D. J & Yoder, D. G. (2005). Issues in recreation and leisure: ethical decision making. New York: Human Kinetics. Preston, N. (2007). Understanding Ethics. New York: Federation press. Sampford C & Lui, R. (2004) Australian Media Ethics Regime and Ethical Risk Management, Journal of Mass media Ethics, Vol 19, 2004. Shaw, W. (2010). Business Ethics: A textbook with cases. New York: Cengage Learning. Read More