- Post your responses over three days and respond to four students or more to receive full credit for frequency of participation.
- Write clearly and proofread; errors can lose you points.
- Quality of posts, citations, frequency, and timeliness of posts all factor into your discussion grade. See the Participation Grading Rubric for details.
ANDREA’S POST:
In my workplace, there is an employee who who would put others down and make them feel as if they can not do their job correctly. One day, I was working and they took it too far talking to someone who was training in a rude way and putting them down as if they could not do the job correctly. I took it upon myself to call the manager to see if this could change or be resolved because this individual was making the workdays miserable for everyone else. I was fairly new at this point so I was not comfortable saying something myself. I did not read anything that changed my perspective but I did read something that ensured going to the manager was a smart idea. The reading said “Friedman says that the manager as agent of the owners has direct responsibility to his employers” (Gilbert, pg. 30). Looking back I am satisfied with my decision because the individuals attitude had changed and everyone feels more comfortable working with the employee.
Gilbert, J. (2016). Ethics for managers: Philosophical Foundations and business realities. Routledge.
ANGELA’S POST:
Good evening class,
I once was assigned as a supervisor for a team of Marines I was working with. There were three different teams and each team had one supervisor (NCO). The Marine Corps Ball was right around the corner and duties had to be established. Our platoon Sergeant had assigned us to establish 24 hour watch for the building in case an emergency landing of an aircraft or late night flight arrival. I placed a Marine who never had duty on the Marine Corps ball and a notification was sent out to all the teams of who would stay behind that evening for the duty. My platoon Sergeant was not satisfied with my decision, and he put the same Marine who did the 24 hour duty the previous year on duty. He was never able to attend a Marine Corps ball his entire enlistment because of this event and the selfishness of the platoon Sergeant. I did not handle it professionally because I was so upset that he did this behind my back without mentioning anything and it blew over proportion and the good relationship I had with my platoon Sergeant was burned. Overall, I wish I would have handled the situation better because I try to be professional and hold my composure at all times even during times something unplanned or unexpected happens.
- How I tried to resolve the dilemma was by confrontation and letting him know this was not OK, and stood my ground to support the Marine on duty. Ethically I knew this was wrong, you do not treat someone better than someone else, especially Jr. Marines who judge based off how you lead them. I felt as though I had to stand up for the Marine because nobody would and he needed to know that someone cared. I have always felt as though I needed to stand up and defend other, this is just my character.
- I believe what constituted my moral and ethical act was fairness and just. Gilbert states, “that the moral act is the act which treats similarly situated people in similar ways with regard to both process and outcome, and maintains a sense of proportions and results” (p. 28). Although, I am regretful of the way the communication came out, I will never regret that I defended this Marine.
Joseph Gilbert. (2016). Ethics for Managers : Philosophical Foundations and Business Realities: Vol. Second edition. Routledge.
ANTONIO’S POST:
In order to have a better understanding of ethical dilemma, it is best to get it defined before responding the questions. Ethical dilemma can be defined as multiple issues a company is facing, in a statement defining options in how a company can resolve ethical issues (Ethical Issues Dilemmas Legal Issues, n.d.). Currently work at a Human Resources office, whose responsibility is to verify if payments are made accurately to their personnel. I recently found out an employee whom was leaving was receiving an incorrect overpayment for almost two years. Once the employee leaves, it is almost impossible to collect this overpayment, therefore it was time sensitive to notify it. Once accounts are closed, only a certain amount (5 percent) of them get audited in order to see if indeed the person was paid accurately. Let say transaction was not reported, certainly the person would have probably got away with this incorrect payment.
It may seem as an easy decision to make, correct the overpayment, but in order to correct this issue our office would have to accept making an improper payment for almost two years. Not only the person who processed it incorrectly but also our supervisor might have gotten in trouble for not verifying the accuracy of the transaction. Didn’t wanted our personnel to be involved in legal investigation or bringing additional attention to our personnel, for a payment that only had 5% chance of being discovered by the auditors. In order to resolve it, I did reported the incident, even though it might bring repercussions, it will be worse if discovered when audited.
Looking back, I believe the correct decision. Even though our office was on the scope of all the upper management, the member was not entitled to those payments. Discoveries made after member no longer being of our company, would have made it worse. Reviewing the class material only enforced that I indeed made the correct decision.
Reference
Ethical Issues Dilemmas Legal Issues (n.d.). Class Material. Retrieved from
https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/683418/viewContent/26564622/View
BENJAMIN’S POST:
Good day all,
Here is my initial input for week 1.
The ethical dilemma that I’m going to speak about happened in 2003 while I was a Sergeant (Sgt) in the Marine Corps as a Supply Warehousing Analyst/inspector. Keep in mind I was the only Sgt (E-5) on the team, everyone else were E-6 and above. I was well respected throughout our team and within the supply community. While conducting an inspection on one of our units that we were responsible for I noticed a massive amount of beer by the case in what we call locations. A location is where items are stored until they are needed. Storing alcohol within any location is a big no no within the Marine Corps. An even bigger no no is transporting said alcohol within a location , in this case specifically internationally. I immediately made contact with the Warehouse Chief and informed him of what I found and let him know what could happen if I were to report this violation. As a courtesy to him, I afforded him the opportunity to make the beer disappear. I explained to my leadership what I found and what my plan was. They supported my decision. The next morning I start my inspection again starting with that specific location that I left off with. As soon as I opened it, it was evident that that wasn’t even an attempt to correct the error. Not one can of beer was moved in an attempt to comply with regulations. I have finished the inspection at this point. Now it is time to type up my report and the beer is still in there. The ethical dilemma that came about from this situation is that there were two senior officers that tried to get me to basically not report the violation to the general who I ultimately worked for as the inspector.
How did you resolve the ethical dilemma?
I did not back down and remove the violation from my inspection results. I did exactly what I was hand picked to do as an analyst/inspector.
Can you recall the reasoning process that you went through in reaching a resolution?
I would say I used the deductive reasoning process in reaching my resolution. I say that this is the process since I was using specific references that outlined this was a violation to show my audience that I knew what I was talking about and was trying to get everyone to understand I wasn’t going to allow someone that outranks me to influence what I knew to be the right thing nor lower my morals.
Did anything you read in this week’s reading change your perspective on the dilemma?
Nothing that I read changed my perspective on the dilemma.
In looking back, are you satisfied with the decision you made, or might you have come to a different decision if you had different ways of approaching the dilemma?
Looking back I’m very satisfied personally and professionally with the decision that I made. Personally because I stayed true to myself even in the face of what I would call possible career suicide. Professionally because my leadership had confidence in me to always do the right thing and not be intimidated because of what rank I had on my collar compared to what rank other parties had on theirs.
