Ethical Dilemmas in Workplace
Ethical Dilemmas in Workplace
Personal values may conflict with ethical decision making if those personal values are different than the organizational norms of the business or institution. Constructing, and maintaining personal ethics in the workplace rests with the individual, and how willing he or she is in assimilating to the evolving cultural dynamic of the corporate world. Many times a person find their personal, cultural and/or organizational ethics conflicting and must reconcile a course of action that will mitigate cognitive dissonance. In order to be a productive member of society, in small groups and globally, one must reconcile these conflicts on a daily basis and continually move forward while maintaining personal integrity and balance.
Ethics are thought of by many people as something that is related to the private side of life and not to the business side. In many businesses, having ethics is frowned upon or thought of as a negative subject. This is because business is usually about doing what’s best for number one, not about what’s really the right thing to do. Ethical conduct is influenced by moral intensity, ethical sensitivity and situational influences. Since behaviour depends not just on motivation, but also on ability, role perceptions and situational contingencies.
Since ethical problems involve making value judgements, making an ethical decision is difficult due to the ethical dilemma of subordinating one or more of our values. Problems arise when employee’s personal values are misaligned with company’s values resulting in decisions that conflict with organisational goals and employees experience higher levels of stress and turnover.
In this paper I will focus on some ethical issues at workplace that illustrate how possessing good ethics can have a positive effect in the workplace, and how the inverse can have a negative impact. These cases are real life situations dealing with ethical dilemmas that I encountered in my past 10 years of
Personal values may conflict with ethical decision making if those personal values are different than the organizational norms of the business or institution. Constructing, and maintaining personal ethics in the workplace rests with the individual, and how willing he or she is in assimilating to the evolving cultural dynamic of the corporate world. Many times a person find their personal, cultural and/or organizational ethics conflicting and must reconcile a course of action that will mitigate cognitive dissonance. In order to be a productive member of society, in small groups and globally, one must reconcile these conflicts on a daily basis and continually move forward while maintaining personal integrity and balance.
Ethics are thought of by many people as something that is related to the private side of life and not to the business side. In many businesses, having ethics is frowned upon or thought of as a negative subject. This is because business is usually about doing what’s best for number one, not about what’s really the right thing to do. Ethical conduct is influenced by moral intensity, ethical sensitivity and situational influences. Since behaviour depends not just on motivation, but also on ability, role perceptions and situational contingencies.
Since ethical problems involve making value judgements, making an ethical decision is difficult due to the ethical dilemma of subordinating one or more of our values. Problems arise when employee’s personal values are misaligned with company’s values resulting in decisions that conflict with organisational goals and employees experience higher levels of stress and turnover.
In this paper I will focus on some ethical issues at workplace that illustrate how possessing good ethics can have a positive effect in the workplace, and how the inverse can have a negative impact. These cases are real life situations dealing with ethical dilemmas that I encountered in my past 10 years of