Ethical Dilemmas: The Mysterious Roses Scenario

The activities in class this final week helped each student further practice ethical decision making. The EthicsGame Dilemmas provided the class with a couple of additional unique scenarios that invoked more thought and decision-making principles.
The first dilemma that required action was The Mysterious Roses scenario. This particular issue involved a couple of different things. Based on several different perspectives that were shared by employees it seemed as though one of my team members was on the receiving end of some unwanted attention. The issue was possible sexual harassment and it required action. As the supervisor of the employee who believed she was being harassed I had a responsibility to her and the company to make sure that
nothing inappropriate was going on. If there was something happening then I had to make sure I addressed the issue accordingly in order to protect all parties.
The first step in the decision making process was to identify what the actual problem was. We know that all actions will have impacts for all parties but we need to begin with those closest to the problem when we are going to research the best solution to an issue. For this scenario the problem was that an employee was feeling uncomfortable about some unsolicited attention she was receiving in the way of excessive floral deliveries in the office. The two employees closest to the center of the issue were Bill, the accused, and Gayle, the victim. Both needed this issue addressed fairly and Gayle wanted it to be handled in a confidential manner. For this scenario I followed the Rights and Responsibilities lens which aided me in answering what my responsibilities were as a leader.
I understood who my stakeholders were and what the specific issue was that I needed to solve. This lens helped guide me to my ultimate decision to honor Gayle’s request for a confidential meeting. I wanted to preserve the trust relationship between her and her leader and I also made a decision to guide her in what she should do if her concern was indeed harassment. My decision had a moderate risk to the company because there was a chance that Gayle would not act on her
situation.
This particular simulation is one that plays out often in my current business occupation as a manager in healthcare services. I feel better about my ability to handle such a situation because I better understand the impacts of certain decisions. I realize that I need to be ethical but I also need to protect my employer at the same time.
The second scenario the class had to address was that of The Cold Feet. This situation involved the question of integrity and falsification of data. After I had conducted an initial assessment of data, the follow up report showed that the data that was initially reported had somehow changed in order to offer a more favorable impression of a certain medication. I had a concern based on my own research and I was also approached by a fellow employee who had the same questions. I had to decide how to handle the breach of integrity in the office. We needed to determine the best approach for handling this situation.
As with the first issue, we had to understand the real problem.
Using the Relationships Lens I was able to answer the question of what the core problem was and what my responsibilities were. I knew I had to protect my employees’ rights and I further had to protect my employer’s integrity. It would not be beneficial to allow faulty data to be published and approved by myself and my employer. This would break the law in a few different ways and would further question my judgment and integrity. I realized that I needed a to face the issue head on and also put a process in place that would address any potential questions of data integrity in the future, not just this situation, so that we would be prepared for any future issues. This was the most ethical decision to make. I let the employee know that I had serious questions on the data provided and I let him know that I would be initiating an investigation into the information. My decision was praised as the best one for this
situation.
In our office, we have a lot of personal and private information for millions of members. We use data to determine appropriate treatment options and approvals. It would be a very bad situation if we allowed ourselves to ever accept false data simply for the benefit of the company. We need to protect everyone, our company and our members.
Ethical dilemmas are a daily practice for me and I certainly feel better prepared to handle them effectively.

References
EthicsGame Dilemmas, University of Phoenix
Boylan, M. (2009). Basic ethics: Basic ethics in action (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Treviño, L. K. & Nelson, K. A. (2011). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.