Ethical Dilemma

The ethical dilemma that I encountered in a previous job was when I discovered that a co-worker was abusing company privileges by writing company checks out for large amounts of money in their name . The supervisor in the division was informed of the employee’s actions and the amount of money that the employee was stealing from the company but did not make any efforts to report the actions to the appropriate management personnel for disciplinary action. As an individual that worked closely with the employee, I was faced with making a decision to report the actions of the employee, or look the other direction and allow the money laundering to continue because of the friendship that I had with them. The major points that will be highlighted are the relationships between among virtue, value and morals respective to the ethical dilemma I have described. Additionally, I will identify external social pressures that influenced the business ethics in this dilemma as well as provide suggestions and/or recommendations on how I would handle the same situation in present day.

The decision I made with regard to this dilemma was to report the employee’s actions to our immediate supervisor for management action. I chose to make this decision because I felt that it was unfair for a fellow employee to steal from the company. I felt that the employee’s actions were harmful to his reputation and employment, harmful to the company and harmful to the consumers because the action went against company policy and values. All employees were subjected to more stringent supervision and work practices. The consumers suffered because of the increase in operating costs which impacted the price for products and services.

The relationship between virtue, value and morals in this ethical dilemma was the disconnection between them and the employee’s complete disregard for doing what was right and not stealing from the company. Looking at the dilemma from and individual standpoint, the individual exhibited behavior that was indicative of someone who does not have the ability to effectively weigh the benefits and consequences associated with making the decision to steal. The employee did not make any attempts to avoid making the poor decision; their actions gave the perception that their moral values were low. I believe that the employee may have had a warped interpretation of what they viewed to be good or bad and was inevitably unable to make a clear distinction.

I believe that the largest external social pressure that impacted this employee’s decision was the economy’s financial status. The economy as a whole was entering a recession and many people were finding that they were unable to keep up on monthly living expenses. As a result of the financial crunch, many people were taking desperate measures to obtain supplemental income even if it meant