LESSON 2 RESOLVE ETHICAL DILEMMAS

Understand Workplace Ethics
Workplace ethics involves more than following laws. Learn why ethical dilemmas—situations where there's more than one 'right' answer—are among the toughest decisions you'll face as a manager.

What is workplace ethics?

Ethics is based on morals—personal values that help individuals determine right and wrong.

Workplace ethics is how a person applies morals to professional situations.

Workplace ethics has a practical focus—ethics in action—as opposed to general philosophical inquiry into "what is good." As such, workplace ethics can be learned.

Why ethics matter?

An ethical workplace relies on each employee’s ability to distinguish between right and wrong. A solid ethical foundation rests on two actions:

• Obey the law

• Follow your company’s published code of conduct *

When employees make correct right-versus-wrong choices, everyone benefits. For example:

• The company builds a good reputation for fair employment practices, social responsibility, and fiscal integrity. Customers (whether individual consumers or other businesses) want to buy from companies with good reputations. And suppliers want to do business with them.

• The company avoids the high costs—lengthy government investigations, staggering financial liabilities, loss of morale—that come with getting caught in serious wrongdoing.

• Investors benefit because the more customers buy from the company, the better its financial performance—thus the greater the return on investment.

• Employees take pride in working for a reputable company. They also trust one another to "do the right thing," so they share more information and ideas—which drives innovation.

• Society is better off, because economies thrive on trust.

What is an ethical dilemma?

In right-versus-wrong situations, the correct and incorrect actions are evident. For example, it's obviously wrong to steal from your employer. Unfortunately, the resolution to many workplace problems isn’t as clear.

An ethical dilemma is a situation in which a manager has to decide between two or more correct courses of action, each of which could harm someone or something (such as the organization, the environment, or society at large).

These quandaries are known as "right-versus-right" dilemmas. They are difficult to resolve because the particular situations:

• Have no rules or codes of conduct spelling out what to do and what not to do; thus there are no clear right and wrong answers.

• Require you to choose between several potential courses of action that all seem ethically valid.

• Force you to weigh options and potentially sacrifice one value for another.

• Are complex—you need to consider potential consequences for many different stakeholders. It's difficult to identify and weigh all the possibilities. And it's nearly impossible to please everyone.

As a manager, many of your toughest situations will involve right-versus-right decisions.

When faced with an ethical dilemma, consider how your action could:

• Violate someone's rights—such as a right to safety, privacy, or equal treatment in the workplace

• Erode conditions that are important for the common good (everyone's welfare)—such as environmental health or opportunities for education

Call into question your own virtue—your ability to act according to the highest potential of your character and on behalf of your deepest values

Right versus Right

Monica, a single parent on your staff, is falling behind in her work during a time when your department is facing a critical deadline with an important customer. Your manager wants you to fire Monica and replace her with someone who has an excellent track record.

Do you…

• Take this step so your team can meet the deadline?

• Refuse, citing your company's core values, which include "family-friendliness"?

As in any ethical dilemma, there is no one right answer. Any choice comes with both positive and negative consequences.

For instance, if you:

Gut Feelings are not enough

Since ethical dilemmas are complex, many managers rely on instinct and emotion to resolve them. If they use reason at all, they do so after the fact—to justify their instinctual response rather than test their decisions before acting.

Relying exclusively on your first instinct can be problematic. Monica’s dilemma illustrates some of the perils:

• People's instincts differ. What feels like a sound judgment to you might feel otherwise to someone else. Your manager’s instinct is to put a major client’s needs first; your instinct may be to preserve an employee’s job.

• Few people can see all the ramifications of a business decision. It’s impossible to consider all the possible choices if you are relying on instinct—much less all the consequences. For instance, if you replace Monica close to a major deadline, how quickly can the new employee learn the role?

• You may be swayed by emotion. You may be loyal to Monica because you understand her personal circumstances. Since you’ve worked with her successfully in the past, you may be willing to overlook her current underperformance.

• You may be drawn to “the path of least resistance.” It’s very tempting to choose the option that’s easiest, or will create less immediate conflict. If you let Monica go, you will immediately satisfy your manager. But this choice may have long-term impact on your team’s morale.

Instincts are unreliable. To effectively resolve right-versus-right dilemmas, you need to follow a structured decision-making process.