While most organizations believe that their specific ethical dilemmas are unique, J.O.  Cherrington and D. J. Cherrington (1992) found that most organizations face very  similar ethical dilemmas Cherrington, J. O., & Cherrington, D. J. (1992). A menu ofm moral issues: One week in the life of the Wall Street Journal. Journal of Business  Ethics, 11, 255–265.. Specifically, J.O. Cherrington and D. J. Cherrington found that  most organizations will face a specific list of twelve different ethical issues.

1) Taking things that do not belong to you (stealing)

Whether stealing a package of Post-It ® notes for home use or skimming millions of  dollars out of a corporate account, the first major ethical hurdle many organizations  have to face is theft. Sometimes the issue of theft is not clear cut. For example, is using  company time for personal business theft (J.O. Cherrington & D. J. Cherrington, 1992,  p. 256)? One area that has recently received attention is the use work computers for  non-work/personal business, such as playing games online or chatting on Facebook.

2) Saying things that you know are not true (lying)

Gregory House, main character on the hit Fox television series House, frequently utters  his basic mantra, “Everyone lies.” Whether someone is lying to get a job, keep a job, or  advance in a job, people often use deception as a method for enhancing occupational  options. Some occupations even require deception as an integral part of the occupation  (Shulman,2007)Shulman, D. (2007). From hire to liar: The role of deception in the  workplace. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.. Could a spy really commit espionage without a little  deception?

3) False impressions (fraud and deceit)

For the purposes of the list of 12 ethical issues, J.O. Cherrington and D. J. Cherrington   (1992) differentiate between general lying and what they refer to as “false impressions.”  False impressions occur when an individual purposefully represents herself or himself  as something that he or she is not. The authors note, “Are you responsible for correcting  others’ false impressions such as not accepting unearned praise or not letting others  take the blame for your mistakes? … Are you being deceitful when you dress for success  or pretend to be successful so clients will have confidence in you?” (p. 256).

4) Conflict of interest and influence buying (bribes, payoffs, & kickbacks)

According to Desjardins (2009)Desjardins, J. (2009). An introduction to business  ethics (3rd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill., a conflict of interest occurs when an individual’s  personal interest in a business decision interferes with her or his professional judgment.  Influence buying, on the other hand, is when an external party offers a bribe, payoff, or  kickback to a decision maker in order to influence her or his decision.

 5) Hiding versus divulging information

 

Information is one of the most important commodities in any organization. Ultimately,  who has information and how they chose to disseminate that information can have very  positive or negative ramifications for an organization and its stakeholders. For example,  would you sell a product to a client, allowing them to believe that the version you are  selling them is the latest technology, when you know a newer, better version is being  released the following week? When is divulging information about your corporation  “whistleblowing” and when is it “industrial espionage?”

6) Unfair advantage (cheating)

The idea of unfair advantage occurs when one person clearly has more power to control  the outcome of a situation. For example, if you are dying of a disease and a business has  the only cure, they hold all the cards. In essence, they have the ability to charge anything  they want for their “magical pill” because the patient has no other options. Is this  practice fair and ethical? Is it fair when CEOs are paid multi-million dollar bonuses  when thousands of employees are being laid off? Is it fair when a CEO promotes her son,  when the son is not the most qualified applicant in the pool? In all three of these  situations, we see individuals taking advantage of the positions they hold.

 7) Personal decadence

 In the summer of 2008, the major players in the United States’ auto industry flew on  their private jets to Washington, DC to ask for a multi-billion dollar bailout from the  U.S. Congress. When most people think of personal decadence, this type of over-the-top  self-indulgent behavior comes to mind. However, decadence can also include the  process of decreasing the state of oneself. For example, in the business world there are  many people who work slower than necessary, turn in sloppy work, use drugs or alcohol  at work, and engage in many other behaviors that clearly impact an organization’s  ability to perform.

8) Interpersonal abuse

While some actions within the organization, like personal decadence, impact the larger  organization, other actions directed at coworkers have direct effects on personal  performance. J.O. Cherrington and D. J. Cherrington (1992) note that “physical

violence, sexual harassment, emotional abuse, abuse of one’s position, racism, and

sexism” are all examples of interpersonal abuse occurring in modern organizations (p.

256).

9) Organizational abuse

 While interpersonal abuse includes targeted action from one member of an organization  toward another member of the organization, organizational abuse stems from the  organization toward the organizational members. For example, “inequity in  compensation, performance appraisals that destroy self-esteem, transfers or time  pressures that destroy family life, terminating people through no fault of their own,  encouraging loyalty and not rewarding it, and creating the myth that the organization  will benevolently protect or direct an employee’s career” are examples of how  organizations abuse employees (J.O. Cherrington & D. J. Cherrington, 1992, p. 256– 257).

10) Rule violations

Every person within a society or within an organization is governed by a long list of  rules. Some of these rules come in the form or religious commandments and other rules  come in the form of laws set down from the judicial or legislative system. Other rules are  created for specific organizational settings and are handed down in the form of an  employee manual. Are there ever legitimate reasons to break these rules? Are some rules  more important than other rules? When the rules in one set of documents (workplace  policies) contradicts the rules in another set of documents (religious tenants), which  rules should be followed?

 

This lecture was retrieved from the text Business Communication for Success which was adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution as requested by the work’s original creator or licensee.