Question

1-Is it appropriate for an individual to act on personal ethical beliefs (e.g., pro-life beliefs) in a work organization? For example, would it be appropriate to picket your company for offering health care benefits for abortion?”

2.  Describe a situation from a television show or a film in which an unethical behavior occurred.  Who was involved?  What were the results to others of the unethical behavior?  Have you seen this kind of situation before in other shows or films?  Does this represent "art imitating life" or "showing what sells?"

Answer 1

Answer -

1. Everyone has personal beliefs on ethics, some of which may be aligned to your workplace ethical policies some may be contradictory. An ethical dilemma occurs when the individual needs to choose to follow either personal ethical belief or organizational. I believe, an individual should surely stick to belief that he considers moral and ethical and should not take part or support unethical activities anywhere including his own organization. However, the execution of the protest should be decided based on the situation. in the scenario given in the question, I may not picket my company for offering healthcare benefits for abortion, something that I consider unethical, but I might stay discuss the concern with my superiors and suggest and understand why the company is taking part in this thing and in what ways ethical principles can be applied. I would go through collective bargaining rather than act rigorously to prove my belief.
2. A television show used to depict that dark complexion girls are of no use to society and should be abandoned or mistreated. I believe this was unethical to display in national television, as media plays an important role in shaping society's mindset and displaying such content results in influencing people to preach the same thing. Such type of unethical content is seen quite often in television which is aired on TV to gain popularity from this criticism. Hence this represents the concept of 'showing what sells'.