Potter Box Case Study

What does misappropriated time on the job look like and would it be considered theft? When looking at the definition of theft from Webster’s Dictionary is: "is the act of stealing, with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it." (abbreviated from Webster dictionary) If one is using work hours to attend to personal matters or using your companies’ time for their gain, then yes, this would fit the definition of theft.
I have experienced this in the workplace and define this to be an ethical dilemma and will evaluate such situation by applying the Potter Box and Rest Four Components Model to analyze this case and contextualize how to navigate the problem if I were to re-encounter this situation again in the future.
Situation:
The
Potter’s suggests that there are four critical components to every ethical dilemma (facts, values, ethics/principles, loyalties) and that by subjecting the dilemma to analysis, a person can more clearly see all sides before making the decision.
Facts: Employee stealing time and money from the company by submitting bogus technically difficulty offline requests to cover up that he late work due to taking his son to
The first condition is ethical sensitivity, or the ability to see things from the perspective of others. The recognition comes requires that we consider how our behaviors affect others. (Johnson, 2011, p.236 ) I look at the situation from the employee's viewpoint as someone who would want to be treated with respect, caring and empathy, fairness, and honesty and trustworthiness, I know I would if I was in his shoes and can be sensitive to the ethical issues.

The second component of the four-component model is moral judgment. Moral judgment requires knowledge of concepts and stages, codes of conduct, and ethical principles, and helps to identify the guidelines that support a decision. What is the right or wrong thing do in this situation? ( Johnson, p. 241, 2011) To take into account how the actions affect others using ethical reasoning methods such as utilitarianism principles and not to violate the others of laws of any particular society. (Johnson, 241, 2011) I choice Stage II, conventional thinking as look to others for a recommendation when making the ethical decision. In this case, talking with the companies employee relations and human resources team before decisions based on the facts and values presented to make an ethical decision that also