Analyzing Situations of Conflict and Providing Solutions

Description/
Focus:
Written assessment
Value: 50%
Due date: Midnight Sunday Week 10
Length: 3500 - 4000 words (without list of references, appendix)
Task: Analyze certain situations of conflict and come up with a solution.
Presentation: Submission in a word document. Include appropriate headings; font
Arial 11. Submissions via Learnline through safeassign submission
point.
Assessment Item 2 Written assessment
The task:
Below you will find 4 situations of conflict. Analyse each situation and come up with a
solution. At the end of the description of each situation, there are some additional questions
or statements that provide you with some hints what you should address in your answer. In
your answer refer to concepts (from the textbook) as appropriate and also critically reflect on
the concept(s) you have utilized. Insert your answer right after the additional questions or
statements by expanding the space. Your answer to each of the 4 situations should be about
800-1000 words (i.e. all 4 together 3500-4000 words).
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ATTENTION: Your report will be checked for plagiarism (i.e. copy & paste / using any
material from any kind of source, including from other students, without referencing it
properly). Plagiarism will lead to a fail and might trigger further consequences.
1. Developing Self-Awareness (Chapter 1)
You are a sales manager in the Northwestern division of a large clothing manufacturing company.
Recently, you and some other managers in your division attended the yearly national sales meeting
in Chicago. Just now one of the other managers who attended the conference has come into your
office. He says, “While I was at the conference, I took out some friends of mine in Chicago to
dinner at an expensive restaurant, and charged it to my expense account. I said they were potential
clients. Now my boss is questioning that. He says he wants proof. Would you write him a note
saying you were there and that they were really potential clients?” What will you do? How will
you do it? Why?
Aspects that should be addressed/included in your answer:
Identification of personal stage of moral development, explanations of how the stage is likely
to influence behavior, identification of own interpersonal orientation, explanation of how
orientation is likely to affect what one is likely to do.
[Your answer starts here]
Answer 1.
Great philosopher Immanuel Kant once a narrated a story, about a person hiding in a bush
while a group of the royal soldiers following him with naked weapons with an intention to
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kill the man. He referred to a man who was watching this man hiding inside the bush.
Soldiers asked this man about the person to whom they were searching. Kant raised a
hypothetical question about the answer, should the person lie because he can save a life, or he
should tell the truth because telling a lie is against the moral ethics (Plante, 2011). The ethical
status of a lie can be decided on many factors associated with the question. The first question
is connected with the status of the person who is hiding, if he is not guilty then he should be
saved with the help of a lie and it is ethically correct (Hanson, 2014). If this person is guilty,
then he should be handed over to the soldiers, because soldiers are doing a right job. Another
condition also applies. This person might be guilty but the soldiers may be trigger happy
about killing him. He might have deserved a softer punishment. The moral predicament
attached to a lie can be judged on the circumstances under which a person is speaking a lie
(S.V.Nayak, 2017). Another term to explain this situation can be the consequence behind the
truth or the lie. The primary theories say that truth is white and lie is black, however, the
consequences of the truth or a lie can bring them in a grey area (Edwords, 2018). Later on,
the same consequences can change the complexion of the guilt pangs or feel good factors
attached to the truth or the false statement that a person is making.
Famous essayist Sir Francis Bacon in his essay “The Truth” wrote that absolute truth is pure
gold but we cannot make ornaments out of pure gold, we need to mix the copper in the form
of a lie to make it work (Minkov, 2010).
My personal stance in the above-mentioned case is dependent on the consequences that my
colleague is going to face. Suppose, if he is getting a penalty because of the lie that he spoke
then, I will not entertain his request. The consequence is not strong enough where we should
compromise on the ethics. If my colleague wants me to tell a lie because he wants to save the
money that he presented as a bill then again I will not support him because this is a case of
dishonesty. It will also make me a partner in the crime. However, if I will discover that due to
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the strict policies of the company his job is at stake than certainly, I have a strong reason to
support him and in this case, my moral conscience will allow me to speak in his favor, even if
it is a lie.
Before fixing a moral predicament of any good or bad act we should see it from different
angles. Let's forget about the ethics for a while, even the judiciary follows the same principle
in many cases. For instance, they have two terms called "legally guilty." and “factually guilty
(Bergman, 2015) .” A person is not guilty of the crime unless you can prove legally on him.
This legality comes from the legal systems where they allow a lie to prevail for the time
being. In the current case my colleague is also facing the same situation; factually he is guilty
of the dishonesty and a breach of trust of an organization. It is also a case of the misuse of
power. Let's see it under a different light before we fix a moral predicament connected to this
issue. The corporate rules connected to the perfect competition market clearly states that
deals should be done purely on the merits of market-based competitions. A company should
not bribe or give undue favors to another business partner (K. Ainley, 2016).
In the current case if a company allocates funds to entertain prospective clients in a setup that
can be considered as an "out of way" setup then this company is responsible for the breach of
"fair market practices." Factually my colleague is guilty if he represents a company in an "out
of the way" expensive restaurant with an intention to entertain them for a probable deal.
However, legally he is not guilty in the purview of the company. In the same fashion, in my
views, he should be saved on the merit of being "legally guilty" only.
However, the last term that we can bring into this system of decision making is “moral
integrity of a person." There are two ways to look at it since we are a part of any given
system we need to follow the morals prescribed by that system. In the current case, by
breaching the principle of perfect competition, the company is setting a bad moral
(Polowczyk, 2017). If I favor my friend by telling a lie then I am only supporting a bad moral
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