Jun 25, 2007 04:34 PM
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The success or failure of a business depends upon the decisions taken by the management.in making decision a manager often has to choose between alternatives. However in many cases the choice is more difficult and this situation results in ethical dilemma, where no matter which alternative one selects, one has to make some sort of a compromise.
Both the employer and the employees of an organization face dilemmas at work.
The most common ethical dilemma in business is related to:
Power, Authority and trust Secrecy, confidentiality and loyalty Resolving dilemmas
A Manager view:
Manager generally justify their behavior in resolving the dilemma rationalizations. They are
Their action is in legal limit and hence they are neither illegal nor unethical Their action are aimed at the organization best interest Their action will not be disclosed and hence there is no danger to his company
The term rationalizations refer to the fundamental reasons that lie behind the manager unethical behaviors. Instead of rationalization the mangers need to develop the skill and experience for coping with ethical dilemma.
Nash has developed a list of questions to help manager to take ethical action. They are
Have u define the problem accurately How would you define the problem if u stood on the other side of the fence How did the situation occur in the first place To whom and to what do u give your loyalty as a person What is ur intention in making the decision How does this intention is comparable with the probable result Whom would ur decision or action injure Can u discuss the problem with the affected parties before u make ur decision Are u confident that ur decision will be valid over a long period of time as it is now Would u discuss without doubt your decision with ur boss, your ceo, the board of directors, ur family and socity as a whole What is the symbolic potential of ur action if understood, if misunderstood Under what circumstance would u allow exception to stand.
Employee’s View:
In many a organization beliefs and values are not been made public, which make employee to be in dilemma for accepting action and more offen then not they indulge in unacceptable practices.an organization should identify and clearly state its value, train their employee to deal with ethical dilemmas
Training employee to resolve ethical dilemmas
Believe is one approach of resolving ethical dilemma.
Background: state the background of the case including context, origin and other important detail.such as who is involve?any missing information that is needed to solve the problem.
Estimate: make the intial estimation of the ethical dilemma present.what are the core issue?what is the main ethical conflict?
List: list the possible solutions to the problem
Impact: consider the likely impact of each of the solutions.
Eliminate: eliminate the totally unacceptable solution i.e those that will significantly harm people.
Values: with the remaining possible solutions, assess which values of the company are upheld or violated by each solution.
Evaluate: the evaluator should ask himself why is one solution better then the other one?
is there any other solution that hasn’t been considered?
