Workplace Ethical Dilemma Resolution

Running head: CRITICAL THINKING I N MANAGEMENT
Critical Thinking in Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1CRITICAL THINKING IN MANAGEMENT
It is seen that in a reputed organization, a valuable employee of that organization
whose production level in the organization is beyond the expectation of the management has
posted some derogatory comments on social media that harmed the reputation of the
organization. He was given chance first time and then again he did the same and the
organization fired him. In every situation, firing the staff might not be the ideal choice, and
there lies the purpose of this report. In this report it is thoroughly discussed how the
managerial body of any organization can analyze this type of issues usig multiple ethical
frameworks and decide what to do for the betterment of the organization. After a detailed
analysis, a brief recommendation regarding the solution of this type of issues is provided in
this report.
In an organization, it is seen that a valuable sales person of that organization has
posted such comments on social media website that it has affected the reputation of that
organization. The complex part in this case is that the person who has committed this act
actually loves his job, his organization and in his field, he is the best and most effective
employee of the organization. His employers has already given him a second chance and
second time he did something offensive. Now the problem that the management is facing is
whether to terminate his service or to penalize him and make an example of him or they
should talk and clear things out. For this particular reason, an ethical business framework can
be utilized to solve the issue. A detailed discussion on that ethical framework is provided
below.
Briefly, it can be said that ethics gives a set of standards for conduct that helps
individuals to decide how they should act in certain situations. It can also be said in this
context that, ethics is all about making the right choices and providing valid reasons behind
the making of those choices (Ariely and Jones 2012). The traditional field of ethics can be
categorized into three parts. First part is meta-ethics and this basically deals with the nature

2CRITICAL THINKING IN MANAGEMENT
of the situation whether it is right or good and also the nature and the valid justification of the
ethical claims. The second part is normative ethics and this part sheds light on the standards
and principles those are used to determine whether something is good or else correct. Finally,
the last part, applied ethics, deals with actual application of the ethical principles in a specific
situation (Iphofen 2016).
Apart from these, the ethical theories can be divided into three major categories and
those are Consequentialist theories, Non-consequentialist theories and finally Agent-centered
theories. Consequentialist theories deal with the ethical consequences of any specific actions.
The non–consequentialist theories are concerned with the intentions of the individuals
making ethical decisions about any specified actions. The Agent-centered theories are largely
concerned with the ethical status of the persons and these theories are a reduced amount of
concerned about the identification f the morality of specific actions (Ariely and Jones 2012).
These three main theories have various approaches to ethics and in this report, as per the case
studies the approach of consequentialist theories and the approaches of non-consequential
theories would be appropriate to discuss.
Utilitarian approach is among one of the most widespread approaches in making
ethcal decisions, and specially the decisions with consequences that concerns huge groups of
individuals in part, as it directs to weigh various amounts of good and bad those can be
produced by the actions of the individuals (Johnson 2017). This conforms to the feelings of
the decision makers that either good or bad would necessarily be the result of the actions, and
the action that generates the best things or causes less harm can be referred to as the best
action. Ethical environmental action is the one that generates the most goods and the least
bads for all the affected individuals or organizations.