Moral Reasoning in Management, 2014 - Class 4

Intrapersonal Moral Conflict

(a situation where the manager faced a tough moral choice in his/her job and experienced problems in
making right decision)
Brief description of the situation


I occasionally got to know that top-management is thinking about
firing my colleague


Type of moral issue (dilemma) To tell the colleague about the finding or not
What variants of choice were
considered and what bad things
were associated with every variant?

To tell the colleague about the finding
Bad thing: relationship with top-management could change to the
worse if they found out about it

Not to tell the colleague about the finding
Bad thing: It just seemed right to tell his colleague about it







What variant was chosen and why?

Actually, while I was deciding what to do top-management fired
the colleague


If you referred to a moral norm in
the previous answer, why do you
think this norm is right.


I did not


Were you experiencing some
strong emotions about this
situation?
Which emotions?
Would you make a different choice
without these emotions?
Yes
A feeling of remorse
No
Was it the very first time when you
faced such a dilemma?

Yes


Did someone (colleague, boss,
family member, moral authority)
influenced his/her final choice?


No


Moral Reasoning in Management, 2014 - Class 4

Moral Reasoning in Management, 2014 - Class 4
Interpersonal Moral Conflict
(A situation where two managers or two companies disagreed about behavior of each other, and each party
evaluated the behavior of the other party as unethical)
Brief description of the situation




Manager of sales department was angry because of delay in supply
and abused procurement manager who was in charge. I, as the head
of Procurement Department, thought that this situation is
inappropriate and unethical.



Type of moral issue (dilemma) Should the sales manager speak directly to supply manager or not?
Your original argumentation
(justifying your original position in
the conflict)
Sales manager had firstly to tell me about his concern
Original argumentation of your
opponent

If he told me firstly behind the back of supply manager it would be
sneaking

Your strategy of conflict
resolution (arguments, etc.)

I explained him that as I am in charge for the actions of my managers
all concerns about the performance of our department he and others
should tell me and there no similar to sneaking in this.

Your opponents strategy of
conflict resolution

Actually, he agreed with me

Were you experiencing some
strong emotions about this
conflicts? Which emotions?
Rage, anger
What emotions, you think, were
experienced by your opponents?

Anger

How the conflict was resolved?


We concluded that in such cases he should come to me firstly


Was it an ethical solution? Why?


Yes, it was. All parties were agreed


What is necessary to avoid such
conflicts in the future?

To be frank with each other

Moral Reasoning in Management, 2014 - Class 4