Question

Describe an ethical dilemma you have encountered in your own life.  Provide enough information so we can understand your situation, but please change details to protect the innocent (or the guilty).  Why did the situation present a dilemma for you?  How did you resolve it?

I once worked for a company where I was in one department and that department reported to another department. There was a top manager in that other department who was over all the departments. I had a co-worker who decided to leave the company. That co-worker then wanted to come back to the company. They also wanted to go and work directly with that top manager in the other department.

There was going to be a very high level meeting that was to be attended by most of the people in my department, as well as that top manager and a few who reported directly to that top manager. The top manager also wanted to bring the co-worker who was not an employee to the meeting. Highly proprietary confidential information was to be discussed at this meeting. I was in a dilemma as I knew that by having the non-employee attend this business meeting was against company policy. There were written guidelines specifically on this matter. I was expected to attend this meeting. "What should I do?", I thought. If I did not attend the meeting, I could get fired, yet if I did attend the meeting, and the ethics department found out, I too could be fired.

I decided to go to my two managers within my department and explain the situation and explain to them that I would not be attending this meeting. I stated company policy on why I could not attend this meeting. A week before the meeting was suppose to happen, the top manager of that department was fired. I do not know all the details on why that top manager was fired, but I have my suspicions.

I believe if the top manager was not fired, all those who were going to go to the meeting would have been fired including myself. It would have wiped out a whole department. The reason would be discussing highly confidential information with a non-employee of the company. It was a very difficult position to be in, but I knew the stakes were very high and that I needed to do the right thing, even if it meant that I lost my job. Through my actions, I believe I saved some people their jobs, including my own. No one knows why that manager was really fired. There is only a lot of rumors as to what really transpired. It pays to know and follow corporate policy and guidelines, especially when it comes to ethics.

I believe the following quote out of our text book applies to me.

"Although we believe there are many practical benefits to being ethical, many business people make decisions because they believe a particular course of action is simply the right thing to do as responsible members of society." (L. Ferrell, O.C. Ferrell, Fraedrich, 2015)

What do you agree from this give explaination ?

Answer 1

According to me, this was a correct decision as it was taken only for the benefit of the organization, the other employees as well as the person itself, and not for causing any trouble to the manager. The person need not feel bad or guilty for complaining against his manager, rather he could feel satisfactory as he had stood for his organization's policies.

The ethics are principles that regulate a person's behaviour. It is very important for everyone, that we follow the ethics which are laid down by the organization or any Government authorities.

In the above situation, the manager had committed a error by disrespecting the organization's ethics which might have lead to the spread of confedential informations from the organization and the company might have got in to trouble and the other empoyees of that department might have also got affected.

As a top level manager, he should have been more concerned regarding the organization's ethics, because he is the person whom other employees would look up to. He must serve as a role model and guide his employees, and if he himself is not responsible, then necessary actions must be taken to avoid the repetition of such incidents in the organization.