By: Dana Terry
XMT216 Organizational Ethics and Social Responsibility
In any organization workers can face ethical dilemmas. On a daily basic people are posed with ethical dilemmas and have to decide to making the correct or the wrong choice. Some may not realize but we make ethical work choices at times and may not even realize it. For instance you are late to work and they have already been given a final warning. When we come in no one is there to notice that you are late. Do you get in and start working as if you were on time, or do you clock in where your time will be documented and recorded that you were late. This situation is one that my fellow coworkers face on daily basics. I have noticed that when posed with this ethical choice they choose to do what is correct for them, not necessarily what is correct by the organization. We may see if as covering our own behind, but it actually violates ones business ethics.
What some may not realize is that business ethics and personal values mirror each other very closely. In business they ask the same as society, no lying, stealing or cheating. Take responsibility and do what is correct, make the correct decision. The only question is who do you make the correct decision for, you or the company. In that situation most have choose to look out for self. When it comes down to making ethical choices that may put one self at risk people chose themselves over the business. This is when personal values may come into play. To do correct by whom, yourself or the company that you work for? In most personal value one would say to always look out for self first. So in their book the decision to not let anyone know that they were late does just that. Moral concepts are very similar to values, its one innate ability to do what is correct with in. The same is with virtue, Virtue-based ethical theories place less emphasis on which rules people should follow and instead focus on helping
Cited: Cline, A. (n.d.). About.com. Retrieved June 20, 2010, from About.com:agnosticism / atheism : http://atheism.about.com/od/ethicalsystems/a/virtueethics.htm