Moral Dilemmas and Guilt - Essay Example

Moral Dilemmas and Guilt 1. Situation: For the recruitment of information technology specialist, six candidates have successfully completed a pass / fail examination. All of them are equally qualified in terms of education and experience. However, before conducting an interview, I received a mail from you, directing the selection of George McDonough, a personal friend of yours and one of the candidates. 2. Ethical Dilemma: Ethical dilemmas are generally situations that violate or have a potential to violate the moral principles and behaviors which include: a. Value of Life – Human life has inviolable sacredness; b. Goodness or Rightness – Doing good, in addition to refraining from doing evil, is required so that the consequences are good for the individual and for society; c. Justice or Fairness – This principle relates to equality of treatment among the members of society; d. Truth-telling or Honesty – Although ethical action should be based on the truth, confidentiality (contact-keeping), related to honesty and individual freedom; e. Individual Freedom – Ethical decisions should consider the principle of self-determination; and f. Trustworthiness - Trust defined, is assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, and truth of a business. 3. Application of the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics: Following are the Ethical Standards as per the Organization’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics applicable on the present situation: I) Conflicts of Interest: As your private interest may interfere in any way with the interests of the Company; II) Fair Dealing: This might affect our honesty and ethical behavior and we might not be able to act in good faith, with due care; and III) Honesty, Integrity and Objectivity: As this situation leads to conflict between honest and objective approach to recruitment and favor of any sort. 4. The Nature and Dimensions of the Dilemma: Following avenues were examined in order to ensure that the problem in all its various dimensions has been considered. This situation falls in the category of Ethical Dilemma as it violates the following ethical principals: c) Justice or Fairness – As it would be equal treatment of all the candidates; d) Truth-telling or Honesty – As by hiring the candidate of your choice my honesty would be impaired; and e) Individual Freedom – Further my objectivity and self determinacy would also be effected in this situation. Further this situation also has the potential to affect my moral behavior and this also constitutes ethical dilemma. Consultations with the ethics committee comprising of the HR personnel and supervisors, presented the following basic options: a) it would be violation of the general ethical principles as well as the Organization’s ‘Code of Business Conduct and Ethics’ to some extent as are discussed above, however, as all the candidates are of equal footings as yet and are equally compatible and capable as their results of the tests and the experience proves, we can also consider hiring Mr. McDonough. But for that effective interviews need to be conducted as these may result in certain other observations about the candidates too. I have also considered the ethical Theory that is suitable in the situation that we are facing now. The applicable theory is ‘Consequentialism’, which presents that the right action is one which produces the best consequences. 5. Potential courses of action: The following actions or rather decisions are open to me to consider: i) Carry on the interview proceedings of all the candidates, keeping in mind your request and considering Mr. McDonough above others. ii) Appoint Mr. McDonough without any further proceedings. iii) Conduct interview with no consideration or favors regarding appointment and appoint the most suitable candidate. 6. Potential Consequences of All Options and Course of Action. Considering the information that I have gathered and the priorities I have set, each option was evaluated and the potential consequences for all the parties involved were assessed. Following implications were observed: i) Carry on the interview proceedings of all the candidates, keeping in mind your request and considering Mr. McDonough above others: Gives a chance as to find out the capabilities of others too, and satisfies all the three parties, the potential candidates, you and me. It will not cause the doubts in the minds of the candidates as they will all be satisfied that they are being evaluated on their capabilities, appointment of Mr. McDonough will be as per your request, therefore, that will also satisfy your request and as all the regular proceedings will be carried and consideration can be paid to other candidates too if some extraordinary ability is discovered, this makes the HR personnel satisfied of their work. ii) Appoint Mr. McDonough without any further proceedings: If this course of action is adapted this tends to satisfy Mr. McDonough and you and will create questions as to the recruitment procedure of the company and will be against the Code of Conduct and Ethics. The company can be in the danger of negative promotion and publicity, as being one of the topnotch companies all we do is news, the candidates will be in the situation of disrupting the reputation, and this attitude and de-motivation will prevail in the company for a long time as prospective as well as existing employees will start doubting our ethics and objectivity on the whole. iii) Conduct interview with no consideration or favors regarding appointment and appoint the most suitable candidate: Tend to leave you unhappy and being the president you know better for the company then others. Candidates and the HR management will be satisfied, but that may lead to your unhappiness towards the selection, may also cause the appointed person if not as per your request to be the object of unnecessary critical examination and evaluation. 7. Evaluation of the selected course of action. Therefore as a result of proper analysis and discussion of the matter, I came to the conclusion that we will go for option # 1 that is ‘Carry on the interview proceedings of all the candidates, keeping in mind your request and considering Mr. McDonough above others’ because this is also the most suitable option as per the theory of ‘CONSEQUENTIALISM’ that is giving the most suitable consequences. By applying the test of justice, I assessed our own sense of fairness by determining whether we would treat others the same in this situation. Also the selected option does not seem to present new ethical issues. 8. Implementation of the course of action. Hence, it has been decided that interviews will be conducted from next week, we will consider all the candidates and as all of them are equally capable as yet (that is on the basis of the pass/fail exams and the experience) we will look into further details with additional benefits to Mr. McDonough. However, I would really like you to look into the matter if any candidate with exceptional qualities is identifies during the interview, so as to be sure that we are not losing any important future asset of the company. References: Aquinas, St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae, Thomas Gilby et al. (trans.), New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964–1975. Coady, C.A.J. 2008. Messy Morality: The Challenge of Politics, New York: Oxford University Press. Greenspan, Patricia S., 1983, “Moral Dilemmas and Guilt,” Philosophical Studies, 43: 117–125. –––, 1995, Practical Guilt: Moral Dilemmas, Emotions, and Social Norms, New York: Oxford University Press. Read More