Ethical Analysis - Case Study Example

?ETHICAL CASE STUDY ANALYSIS PAPER Identification of all ethical dilemmas presented Reading through the case and for that matter the issues presentedby Lisa to James, there are three major ethical dilemmas that can be identified on the part of Lisa. The first of these has to do with the academics and subsequently, the future carrier that the young lady wants to take up. This is because leading up to the break up that she had with her boyfriend she had lost concentration on her studies and is not sure if she can continue to pursue her dream of becoming lawyer. The second has to do with the dilemma of having to report her mother’s partner to her mother. Certainly, this posed a dilemma because the courage to report one’s mother’s partner is not something that most young people, who are at the age she was at the time have. At the age of 5 ?, was indeed in a dilemma on how the mother would take the reports that she made. Finally, there is the dilemma of having to punish the person she saw as an impediment to her peace and well being in life. Nature and dimensions of the ethical issues Indeed, ethical issues come in different dimensions and forms. With all the three ethical dilemmas presented above, there are different dimensions from which the ethical issues can be viewed from. For example there are ethical issues that have to do with moral action, motives and moral duties. The first dilemma, which has to do with the academic performance and future occupation of the client takes the dimension of motives, whereby she has a contemplated motive of whether or not to continue aspiring to be a lawyer, knowing that the effects of the break up she experienced with her boyfriend may not put in her an excellent position to score required grades. Then the dilemma of having to report her mother’s partner also takes the dimension or nature of moral duties. At a young age, the girl thought she had a moral duty to uphold and that was calling her mother’s partner to order. But indeed, this was not going to be a duty she was sure she was the one to play it, or whether or not it was right for her to have played it at all. Finally, the fact that she thought of punishing her mother’s partner because no one intervened when she made reports takes the nature or dimension of moral action, where by she was forced to act based on the reaction she received (Ezzamel, 2004). Application of APA and ACA codes Giving the three identified ethical dilemmas as presented by Lisa, there are three corresponding ethical codes that James is expected to put into practice, when handling the issues. These ethical codes are sampled from the APA and ACA codes and given in code numbers. On the first dilemma that has to do with career and academic dilemma, the ethical code that corresponds with it is E.1.b, which talks about client welfare (Johnson, 2012). Indeed, that dilemma deals directly with the future welfare of the client and so James must be in a position to rightly applying this ethical code in providing Lisa with any needed assistance and ethical judgments. With regards to the second dilemma that has to do with reporting the mother’s partner, the ethical code suggested by resolving the issue is that of A.2.c, which requires the counselor to communicate with the client from a perspective that is directly related to the cultural and developmental sensitivity of the client (Gray-Toft and Anderson, 2008). This means that the approach to handling this issue had to be viewed from a level whereby the cultural provisions of Lisa as at the time she reported her mother’s partner could be subjected to scrutiny. Finally, code B.2.d, which deals with minimal disclosure has to be applied on the last issue as this involves a criminal case, which requires a redirection of the issue to the appropriate quarters, whiles taking the privileged communication from the client into consideration. Alternative courses of action For each of the three dilemmas, there are available alternative causes of actions that could be used to resolving them. In the first instance, the alternative course of action is the deferment of course till the client was sure she had overcome her mental imbalance, which is preventing her from concentrating on her studies for now. This alternative holds the key to assuring the lady that her dream of becoming a lawyer was still feasible because she would have to avoid the risk of taking exams at times she was not prepared for them. In the second instance also, there is the alternative course of action of having to confront the mother’s partner directly and discussing the inhumane nature of his own actions with him. This would have been a radical approach that would have given the mother’s partner so much to think and reason about as to how such a young girl could have the courage and boldness to subject his actions into intuitive reasoning (Feldman and March, 2011). Then on the final issue of punishing the mother’s partner, there is the alternative course of action in having to record some of the advances made by the mother’s partner on an electronic device. The advantage with this course of action is that the recording would have served as evidence against the man; should any legal actions have become necessary. Ethical decision making model Due to the multi-variance nature of the dilemmas at hand and the complexities involved in their dimensions and nature, a kind of ethical decision making model that embraces the qualities of diversity is recommended. To this end, the Practitioner's Guide to Ethical Decision Making instituted by Forrester-Miller and Davis (1995) is suggested. There are seven major steps involved in this model. The first has to do with identifying the problem and with this; James is admonished to go beyond the face to face interaction with Lisa to adapt and extra-curricula investigative strategy to learning more about the background to Lisa so that he would have a better comprehension of her problem. Second, is the application of the ACA code of ethics, which as discussed earlier, should make the counselor know the specific code of actions to take in order not to breach the stipulated guidelines. The third is to determine the nature and dimensions of the dilemma and in this respect, it has been said that moral action, motives and moral duties are the key dimensions that the dilemmas hang on. Generating potential course of action is the fourth step and with this, James holds it a singular responsibility in ensuring that the course of action is one that can answer all the moral questioning that hang on the mind of Lisa, as well as giving her hope for carrying on with her life without thinking of falling behind in any way. By doing the latter, the fifth step, which deals with considering the potential consequences of all options, will be catered for (Ferreira and Otley, 2003). The penultimate, step would be to have a falshblack in the form of an evaluation for the selected course of action, which in this case is for Lisa to make restitution to her mother on the death of her mother’s partner and also thinking of deferring her course in school. The last step is to boldly assist the client to implement the selected course of action. REFERENCE LIST Ezzamel M. (2004). Organizational Change and Accounting: Understanding the Budgeting System in its Organizational Context. Organization Studies (Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG.) 15(2): 213-240 Feldman M. S. and March J. G. (2011). Information in Organizations as Signal and Symbol. Administrative Science Quarterly 26(2): 171-186 Ferreira A and Otley D. (2003). The design and use of management control systems: an extended framework for analysis, 2nd Workshop on Performance Measurement and Management Control: Nice-France Gray-Toft, P. and Anderson, J.G. (2008). Stress among hospital nursing staff: its causes and effects. Social Science & Medicine 14: 639-647. Johnson R, (2012). 5 Different Styles of Leadership Styles. Accessed September 20, 2012 from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-different-types-leadership-styles-17584.html Read More