Article Review -Discpline of Building Characters

Right versus right is the battle between your moral innocence and upholding your commitment and duty to a job. As the author perfectly illustrated several examples of right vs right scenarios in his reading, it helped me to understand the moral dilemmas that managers face while performing their duties within my organization. According to Joseph L, Badaracco, Jr., one of the good example that was illustrated in his reading Defining Moments: When Managers Must Choose between Right and Right, is when an employee should choose between be being a good friend or being a good employee who keeps their word. Another great example that resonated with me is the “dirty hands” concept” (Badaracco 2013).

Ethics is the guiding force in any respectable organization. With a moral compass, especially in the leadership of organization, a company can become compromised and fall into a quagmire of legal issues, a tarnished reputation, and devaluation of company stock if it is a publically traded company. In pursuit of examine my own ethical lens I will analyze the ethical traits of an admired leader, my own traits as exhibited in the Ethical Lens Inventory, and how I make a decision concerning a particular ethical dilemma.

Every day people make decisions that may have profound effect on their personal and/or professional lives as well as the lives of others. The decision people make have a foundation on their personal, cultural, and perhaps organizational values. When these values are in disagreement, an ethical dilemma occurs.

From job-related experiences, when I am placed into situations with individuals who have different ethics from me, I cautiously take steps to determine ethical dilemmas choices without violating the rights or opinions of all involved. In addition, the experiences working with teams at work, have taught me to carefully view the opinions of others before entering into open disagreement over a given course of action. I strongly believe, apart from the ethical position,. an individual has his or her individual right to express their opinion. The results of my EAI, combined with my experiences throughout school and work, have educated me that all ethical decisions require cautious thought. I firmly believe, in order to achieve the best results, one needs to take numerous factors including but limited to culture, into consideration while also allowing for future implications of any action dictated by ethical decisions I make.

This selection of ways of expressing ethical commitments does not seek to invalidate other approaches. The presentation of different ways of conceiving ethics alongside each other in this statement is intended to draw attention to the limitations of relying too heavily on any single ethical approach. Ethical principles are well suited to examining the justification for particular decisions and actions. However, reliance on principles alone may detract from the

Values and ethics: Work with individuals of other professions to maintain mutual respect and shared values.

Create one personal life example and one career example in which you wrestle with personal challenges and an ethical dilemma (e.g., a client or research subject reveals compromising information about a friend or family member who also happens to be someone you know in a personal/social context).

Based on study of thousands of real ethical dilemmas, Kidder presents four ethical paradigm pairs:

“Defining Moments” begins expresses the difficulty of resolving “right versus right” based on ethics decision making guides such as credos and mission statement. Ethics decision making guides are managers’ sources in relieving difficult situation. However, they can ‘t resolve right versus right” conflicts mainly because they “focus overwhelmingly on problems of misconduct and wrong doing” (Badaracco, 30). Grand philosophical principles do not help in answering ethical dilemma due contradictions between school of thoughts.

My moral compass gives me guidance on many decision making situations. However, chances are high that interests of different groups cannot always be saved at the same time. Under these circumstances, no matter which one I choose, there would always be someone whose rights would be violated. This is my defining moment.

Everyday individuals are faced with issues associated with ethical dilemmas. Ethical dilemmas involve an individual’s behavior toward a moral standard, which may have been established from previous generations and passed along. In upholding the standards taught individual may be forced to take a particular action involving a decision when a behavior is considered non-ethical is when an ethical dilemma occurs. It can become difficult at times in making the correct decisions or solutions to the situation, which is why a code of ethics is established in the workplace. The code of ethics in the

Herminia Ibarra’s article in the Harvard Business review titled “The Authenticity Paradox” presents an interesting perspective on leadership. She emphasizes the importance of authenticity as an effective leadership tool, but cautions against an oversimplified understanding of the term. Authenticity is often associated with integrity and being honest and true to oneself, which according to Ibarra, should not be interpreted so rigidly in the workplace as it may “hinder [one’s] growth and limit [one’s] impact” (Ibarra. 55). The author defines an authentic manager as one who, while remaining true to his core values, is able to adapt to various situations, play politics when required; someone who is able to wear different hats and alter their behaviors and actions to the situation that demands it. He is someone who is not afraid to step outside of his comfort zone, is willing to try different ideas, admit his mistakes and move on to the next project or activity. Furthermore, the authentic manager is able to find a proper balance between closeness and detachment with his employee.

Making consistently ethical decisions is difficult. Most decisions have to be made in the context of economic, professional and social pressures, which can sometimes challenge our ethical goals and conceal or confuse the moral issues. In addition, making ethical choices is complex because in many situations there are a multitude of competing interests and values. Other times, crucial facts are unknown or ambiguous. Since many actions are likely to benefit some people at the expense of others, the decision maker must prioritize competing moral claims and must be proficient at predicting the likely consequences of various choices. An ethical person often chooses to do more than the law requires and less than the law allows.

When asked to reflect on an ethical dilemma that I faced in life, it really makes me think of all the possible situations that happened in my personal and professional life. There are several instances where I have faced ethical dilemma but I wish to point out to one such instance that I encountered at my workplace where I was able to take decision based on my conscience and I feel I have made the right choice and below is the reflective account of that incident.

Ethical dilemmas are virtually impossible to avoid if you are a participant in the workforce. The definition of an ethical dilemma stands as a situation that challenges two or more “right” values that arise in a conflict (Treviño & Nelson, 2014). As ethical persons, how may we overcome ethical dilemmas and finish on the “right” side? The research mentioned in Trevino’s and Nelson’s book, “Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How to Do It Right,” suggests that preparing for specific ethical challenges before a situation occurs can adequately prepare the workforce to better handle real-world applications when an ethical situation transpires. The notion that ethics is teachable inspires the following case analysis. The case analysis involving chemical safety will discuss the facts and issues, stakeholders, decision alternatives, and real-work constraints. Focusing on each of the previously mentioned topics, I will describe the applications using Utilitarian, Kantian Ethics, and Rawlsian Justice Analysis’s.