INTRODUCTION

y An ethical dilemma is a situation that will often involve an apparent conflict between moral imperatives, in which to obey one would result in transgressing another. y An ethical paradox since in moral philosophy, paradox plays a central role in ethics debates.

REFUTING ETHICAL DILEMMAS

y Ethical dilemmas are often cited in an attempt to refute an ethical system or moral code, as well as the worldview that encompasses or grows from it. y Design of a voting system, other electoral reform, a criminal justice system, or other high-stakes adversarial process for dispute resolution will almost always reflect the deep persistent struggles involved

ROLES WITHIN STRUCTURES

y Structural conflict is involved, dilemmas will very often recur. A trivial example is working with a bad operating system whose error messages do not match the problems the user perceives. y Total quality management for more on addressing this kind of failure, and governance on how many ethical and structural conflicts can be resolved with appropriate supervisory mechanisms.

GLOBALIZATION, BUSINESS ETHICS & COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

y Ethics is the study of our web relationships with

others.

y Companies do not operate in a vacuum but

rather are plunged in a universe of relationships with multiple stakeholders.

y With the globalization the scenario in which

companies operate has become even more complex, given the emergence of global groups of stakeholders.

ETHICAL DILEMMA REASON: CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN GLOBAL SETTINGS

y Ethical dilemmas arise for a variety of reasons in this business world. Four of the most common reasons are as follows:

1. Selfishness And Personal Gain 2. Profit Pressures 3. Business Standards Conflicting With Personal Values 4. Cultural differences in global settings

SELFISHNESS AND PERSONAL GAIN

y "Experts on compensation say that the illegal doctoring of hourly employees' time records is far more prevalent than most Americans believe. The practice, commonly called shaving time, is easily done and hard to detect -- a simple matter of computer keystrokes -- and has spurred a growing number of lawsuits and settlements against a wide range of businesses.

PROFIT PRESSURES
y Investors are wondering whether the intense pressure on CEOs to show profits every quarter, the pressure on their deputies to increase profits compared to previous quarter or previous year, the pressure on accountants and consultants and analysts to help these executives show us the reported money whether all of this pressure has inflated the value of their investments artificially.

BUSINESS STANDARDS CONFLICTING WITH PERSONAL VALUES

y Organizations can manage their culture and ethical

climate by trying to hire employees whose values match their own. Some firms even measure potential employees values during the hiring process and strive to choose individuals who fit within the ethical climate rather than those whose beliefs and values differ significantly.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES headquarters in the United y Many companies have theirIN GLOBAL SETTINGS States, but manufacturing facilities in other countries
y Ethical dilemmas might arise if, for example, job conditions that are considered normal in the manufacturing country conflict with labor standards in the United States. y A bigger danger can arise when a US corporation sets up manufacturing operations in a third world country and due to the lower expectations or less stringent regulations, lower standards are practiced there.

HUMAN RESOURCES HELPING BUILD AN ETHICAL ORGANIZATION

y A Human Resource practitioner, or anyone who serves in a

leadership capacity within an organization, is often faced with multiple choices about how to handle ethical dilemmas. y The field of Human Resource Management has evolved into a strategic, technical, and measurement-oriented area in the past decade. y The field will continue to grow in sophistication and complexity as a reflection of the world in the 21st century, presenting difficult ethical dilemmas. y A complicating issue is the fact that the concept of ethics means different things to different people.

ETHICS TOOLS: GLOBAL ADVANTAGE y REAL-TO-LIFE EXAMPLES OF COMPLEX ETHICAL DILEMMAS y "Our company prides itself on hiring minorities. One Asian candidate fully fits the job requirements for our open position. However, we're concerned that our customers won't understand his limited command of the English language. y METHODS TO RESOLVE ETHICAL DILEMMAS y Organizations should develop and document a procedure for dealing with ethical dilemmas as they arise. Ideally, ethical dilemmas should be resolved by a group within the organization, e.g., an ethics committee comprised of top leaders/managers and/or members of the board. Consider having staff members on the committee, as well.

y The success of developing economies around the world can be attributed to the global y y y y y y y

INDIA'S GLOBAL COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

competitive advantages that they have been able to build over the years IT and ITeS have been the engines of Indian economic growth in the past decade or rather our areas of competitive advantage Pharmaceutical majors have realized that in order to be competitive in the market they will have to set up manufacturing bases in low cost countries. The amount of money being provided as a percentage of GDP for research and development work is still miniscule as compared to the developed economies It should be realized that long-term economic leadership could be achieved only through scientific and technological innovations. Instead of importing technology or trying to better the existing technology The challenge as of now for the emerging economies is to keep growing and consolidate the gains made. The challenge for the future is to maintain the competitive advantages and develop more sustainable ones Granting tax sops to companies to build infrastructure and granting more generous grants to scientists to carry research work both seem to be crucial at the moment.

ETHICAL DILEMMA AND VALUE SYSTEMS: ADOPTING of performance of quality for each product and services as AND ADAPTING y (i) Standards
y y y y y

recognized globally. (ii) Equally important standards, which are becoming significant are the standards relating to pollution and environmental control. (iii) Another equally important issue in the global context is the need to not use sweat labour or child labour. (iv) The next significant hardware aspect are the productivity standards. (v) The fifth such aspect, especially relating to management and accounting are standard accounting procedures (vi) This in turn brings us to the common principles that have to be adopted for ensuring that all actions taken by a company are ethical

CASE STUDY MULTIPLE RELATIONSHIPS: A CASE y CONFRONTING

STUDY IN ETHICAL DILEMMAS APA (American Psychological Code) and Potential Inadequacies in Confronting Issues
y ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND ADMINISTRATIVE DISCRETION: THE FIRE CHIEF'S HIRING DILEMMA: PRESENTED AT THE 2005 SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE ON PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION (SECOPA) IN LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS.

CONCLUSION
y Learners are strongly encouraged to complete the following activities, and share and discuss results with peers, board members, management and employees, as appropriate. y Pose an ethical dilemma (from the reviewed materials) to the staff and walk them through application of one of the three methods to resolve ethical dilemmas (these methods are included in the materials, as well).

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