Question

As businesses increasingly emphasize workplace ethics, you may be asked in an interview to tell about a time when you were challenged ethically. One workplace compliance officer advised candidates not to respond that you have never faced an ethical challenge. "You want a candidate," he said, "who avoids misconduct, not someone who lies and says they've never done anything wrong." Do you agree?

Answer 1

We live in a time when our personal morals and values are constantly challenged with the perceptions of others, the grey area of ethics and pressures from various segments of the society such as peers, family, seniors, etc., who may have a lot of expectations from us. This may lead to conflicts of interests in ourselves, while in some other cases; we give in to the situation for the ‘better good’ of the stakeholders who are in impact of such a decision. Therefore, be it in professional life or in our personal life, we do across incidents where we are challenged ethically in one way or the other. In the times when speaking the truth, or being honest, may possibly affect our current positions or comfort zones, we can say that we have been ethically challenged.

Therefore, I do agree with the Compliance officer that the candidates cannot ever claim to not have faced an ethical challenge. The organization shall want an employee who has the courage to deal with ethical dilemmas, and not be in the state of denial that such dilemmas do not exist because the moment such a denial state overpowers an employee, there shall be a room given to unethical practices inadvertently. Therefore, it shall lead to web of lies created by an employee, just to prove a misguided point. As a result, the Company may have to suffer owing to invasion of unethical climate within such an organization, which a Company may not afford.