How to Face an Ethical Dilemma
An ethical dilemma or moral dilemma is a situation in which a person attempts to resolve an action or course of action against her moral or ethical values. In the workplace, an ethical dilemma could be an accountant employee that reimburses another employee for an ostensible company expense such as a business lunch. The accountant overhears a telephone conversation later in which the reimbursed employee thanks his girlfriend for a wonder dinner. The dilemma is to report the fraud and have the employee fired or keep it to yourself but waste company money.
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Instructions
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Identify and divorce your own personal feelings. Focus on acceptable mores and standards. For instance, stealing is considered to be against standard ethics.
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Evaluate the consequences. Consider who will be helped, who will be hurt and what benefits or disadvantages will occur. Also consider the monetary consequences, if applicable, as well as the length of consequences. Determine the short- and long-term consequences.
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Analyze all possible actions. Put aside the identified consequences and ask yourself what actions are commensurate with respect, privacy, honesty, fairness and the vulnerability of the people involved. Choose the action which is the least problematic.
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Make a decision based on your evaluations. Compare and reconcile the identified consequences and actions.
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References
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