Question

This is for marketing Class: Be as brief as you could please

Throughout our lives and careers we must make choices that pose ethical dilemmas. These decisions are difficult to make and require careful deliberation.

In this exercise you will envision an ethical dilemma. The dilemma can be a situation you have already encountered or one you learned about from someone else. How would you or did you resolve this dilemma? Remember ethical dilemmas generally do not have right or wrong answers.

Step 1: Write a brief description of an ethical dilemma about which you have knowledge.

Step 2: What are the key ethical issues in this dilemma?

Step 3: How would you resolve this dilemma? Why would you or did you choose this resolution?

Answer 1

I strongly believe that every individual will at least once in lifetime face a situation of ethical dilemma. Some people find ways to overcome the difficult situation with their presence of mind and wise decisions, whereas some people find it difficult to handle the situation tactfully. I personally have faced many situations of ethical dilemma, both in my personal life as well as professional life. Most of the time, I was able to overcome the dilemma with wise decisions taken myself or with the help of other. However, there were situations when I was not able to overcome the situation, and I still regret those situations because when I look back to those situations, I strongly feel that I could have overcome those situations if I had thought about those in a different way, and acted tactfully. I would like to discuss a situation when I faced an ethical dilemma, but could overcome it well:

Step 1: Here I am explaining my own experience of ethical dilemma that I faced couple of years back in my professional life. I was working as an HR professional then with the organization, and I happened to notice that the Admin who was my friend too, was allocated with more work than he was supposed to do. One day, the Manager, who was also the CEO of the organization, called me up and asked me to collect negative reviews about the Admin from the team leaders, and submit in a week's time, since the Manager did not want the him to continue in the organization any more as he failed to complete a task provided in time. As a subordinate, I was not supposed to question his decision, and had to do what he asked me to, without hesitation.

Step 2: I was clearly aware that what I was going to do was totally unethical, as it was the result of my Manager's instantaneous emotional reaction. The ethical issues faced in this dilemma were that on one hand I was supposed to do what my Manager asked me to do since I reported to him and he is the CEO which made it difficult for me to discuss the issue with any other Manager who could talk to the CEO, and on the other hand I personally and professionally knew the behavior of Admin, and I understood that there was some kind of misunderstanding that happened between the Manager and the Admin, but I was not supposed to talk about this to the Admin either. According to me, it is ethically wrong to fire a person for unwanted reasons, and I strongly feel it is really important to give a second chance to everyone.

Step 3: I somehow wanted to make my Manager move back from the decision of firing the Admin, but I knew talking to him right away wouldn't help because that could even worsen the situation hurting his emotions even more, and that could even result in him developing a negative impression on me. I brainstormed regarding how to solve the situation not harming either the Admin or the Manager, and I thought I would talk to him the next day or the other, when his mind is free and he is not too busy, in order to let him know the work overload for the Admin, and if possible ask about the task he failed to complete in time. I worked overtime on that day, collecting the required data regarding the work allocation for Admin during the last couple of weeks, the completed tasks, and the prioritization he followed for each task. The next day morning, I received a positive comment from the Manager regarding my work, and I thought it would be the right time to discuss the Admin's matter with the Manager. I started off tactfully by inquiring the task failure that happened since the Admin's reporting Manager was not aware of the priority task provided by the CEO. He said that he did not send a mail since he did not have time to do so, but spoke to the Admin in person regarding the task and its priority to be completed the next day itself. The Admin was stuck up with a power failure task and totally forgot about the task given by the CEO a day before. No one else including the Admin's reporting Manager was aware of this since no email communication was present so that no one could follow up the matter with the Admin. I explained these to the CEO, and handed over the Admin's work overload report, including the tasks completed by him working hard even without catching a sleep one night. The Manager understood the situation and asked me to see what can be done about this, and I gave a solution of each and every task/ticket to be sent as an email communication copying the Admin's reporting Manager as well so that he could prioritize the tasks allocated to him and complete them in time. I also spoke to the Admin regarding the work allocation and asked him if he wanted someone in his team to help him with the allocated tasks when there is hike in task volumes. Ultimately, I was happy that I could handle the situation of ethical dilemma tactfully so that none of the parties involved was hurt in any way, and that I could facilitate making a new policy making everyone in the organization aware of the importance of email communication. If I did what my Manager initially asked me to do, the Admin would have lost his job for a cause that I could rectify, and this would haunt me throughout my professional and personal life.