Applied Business Ethics: Ethical Dilemma Essay

This essay delves into the complexities of ethical dilemmas, particularly within a business context. It begins by defining ethical dilemmas as situations where individuals face difficult choices with no clear right or wrong answer. The essay explores various sources of ethical dilemmas for business professionals, such as balancing work and family, team dynamics, and conflicts with leadership. A detailed case study involving a hiring decision is presented to illustrate a real-world ethical dilemma. The essay analyzes the situation, highlighting why it is an ethical dilemma rather than a legal one, and examines the potential moral questions that arise from different courses of action. The essay concludes by emphasizing the challenges of navigating such situations and the importance of considering various perspectives.

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Applied Business Ethics

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Part-A- Ethical Dilemma Essay
Introduction to Ethical Dilemma
Ethical Dilemma is one of the most complex situation or circumstances where most of the
people face difficulty to choose a course of action. It happens because people in such
situation perceive both the actions more or less equal. It is often referred as “Moral
Dilemma”. Dilemmas can arise from many reasons such as difference in behaviour, attitude,
principles of life, faith, beliefs etc. as personal characteristics and culture, region, tradition,
society, community, religion etc. as outside environment.
It is a paradoxical situation where the human being is stuck with two decision making
situation where none of action is clearly acceptable from ethical or moral grounds and also
none is avoidable.
Ethical Dilemma in Business
How does ethical dilemma arise for a business professional?
There is no definite source or cause from where the dilemma starts. It can be multiple
situations and it is also possible to have co-existence of 2-3 sources at a time in front of a
professional. Normally, the sources are-
 What is a worthwhile work?- It is the situation where the professional is under the
dilemma of selection of employment after education.
 What is the balancing strike between work and family?- It is the situation where the
working professional allot the time for work and family beyond normal working
hours.
 Will I be a team player or a sole runner? - It is the dilemma where the person has to
think about doing work in a team environment or individually.
 What if I feel my leader is misleading me?- It is the ethical chaos where a
professional is to decide a course of action to confront shoddy behaviour of own
leader.
 Being a change agent- It is the dilemma situation where someone is sighting a
change but fear is there with organisational bosses who may resist or oppose it.

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 Career vs the common good- It is the source of dilemma where we have to choose
whether we can serve the society with our professional skill free of cost or not.
A scenario-
Mrs. Smith, an employer published an advertisement for “Financial advisor” position few
days ago. She received 100 applications and they all were called up for the written test and
interview. Mrs. Smith was conducting the interview round and she finally short listed Ms.
Ayesha as the best performing interviewee overall.
Meanwhile, she received a recommendation letter from her senior colleague regrading Mr.
Wilkin for the same post. (The company goes with recommendation as source of
recruitment). The post demanded an experience of 2 years at least and a professional CFS
degree with 1 or 2 attempts.
Mr. Wilkin is having 3 years working experience on the same position in another
organisation and he is also a CFS. Ms. Ayesha is from India (will reside after job
confirmation). She clears CFS recently and was working in similar position over last 2.5 years
in a different firm.
Why is it an Ethical Dilemma situation?
In the above case, Mrs. Smith is having the ethical dilemma situation. First of all, to identify
the presence of ethical dilemma, we need to highlight the scenarios that are indicating
chaos of moral principles.
In the above case, we found that for the position of finance manager, there are now two
candidates in front of Mrs. Smith. One is Ms. Ayesha and other one is Mr. Wilkin.
Can Mrs. Smith apply legal clause in this situation?
If the situation can be handled by following the legal guidelines, then it is certainly not a
ethical dilemma. So to know whether it is a legal or ethical case, let us consider some of the
common legal grounds of employee selection.
Selection of candidate- Ms. Ayesha is selected after the formal recruitment procedure
conducted by the company and supervised by Mrs. Smith. So her selection is absolutely

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valid. Mr. Wilkin is introduced by the senior official who has the authority to recommend
candidates for any position of the company. So his candidature can’t be rejected as per
company policy.
Rejection-The Company goes with diversity culture and also supports the best talent
acquisition in the selection process. In this case, we have both the case of diversity and in
matter of talent, both are having almost similar experience and talent so none can be legally
rejected.
From the above two points, it is quite confirmed that this situation is not a legal matter at
any point. Both are having equal skill, talent and experience for the post and according to
diversity and company’s policy, they are both seeming as suitable candidate for the job.
As the company doesn’t laid any guidelines to give preference to formal selection or
recommendation on a specific job, this is now becoming a moral paradox for Mrs. Smith.
This is about the pre-selection part. It is also important to consider post-selection situation
hypothetically to understand how far the ethical dilemma exist.
If Mrs. Smith goes with Ms. Ayesha
If Mrs. Smith goes with Ms. Ayesha as the candidate for the post by rejecting Mr. Wilkin. She
will face the following moral questions?
1. Did I do justice to Mr. Wilkin as he was equally competent?
2. Was it good to say “no” to the superior on this matter?
3. Was it right to go with my selection procedure over and above supervisor’s
judgement?
4. Would it be justifying the organisation’s mission and vision?
5. Would it affect my career and faith on my superior after this decision?