ETHICAL DILEMMA

                                                   

What is an Ethical Dilemma?

Ethical dilemma; the word speaks a lot in itself. Ethics are solely the generally recognized principles of right and wrong, especially for those from some organization or profession. While the dilemma is an occurrence in which a choice must be made between two or more equally seemed uninvited alternatives.

Conditions of Ethical Dilemma:

Before considering how ethical dilemma is a part and parcel of daily working of life. Here are 3 conditions that must be present in a situation to be considered as an ethical dilemma.

1. The first condition is that an individual must make a decision out of the available course of action. A situation that is uncomfortable but does not require a choice, are not ethical dilemmas.
2. There must be a different course of action to choose from.
3. No matter what course of action is taken, some ethical principles are compromised. Hence, there is no perfect solution.

Moving on, a decision taken in dilemma can be subjective based on the current or past experiences and judgments as well. Whether it is in the personal or professional front of life.

For example:

Recently, the CEO of ICICI bank Ms. Chanda Kochhar had been claimed for the violation of a code of conduct. Due to her lack of responsiveness to unveil allegedly critical information about her husband’s business dealings with a client of her bank led to her downfall. For nearly a decade, she remained the world’s most power and prominent female CEO. But, somewhere being ignorant towards executing her ethical duties caused the collapse of her eminence.

“Ethics aren’t easy!”. The basic problem is that so many choices fall into the grey area in between. Choices are to be made between what is right versus easy, ethical versus profitable. 

Here are some of the routine example dilemmas:-

1. Taken a sick day leave when you aren’t sick.
2. Making someone alone a scapegoat for which you are partially responsible.
3. Cut the quality control to shrink cost.
4. Fabricating to make things easy for you.
5. taking someone else credit behind a proposal.
6. Put inappropriate pressure on others.

and many more…..

Likewise, what may sound right or correct for you might not be correct for somebody else. Discovering what you may not be able to get in somebody else’s shadow, can cause that person as well not today but surely tomorrow. A living example of this is Prince Charles himself who happened to be a target of his father’s childhood experiences. This affected his early childhood as well while studying in the same boarding school i.e. Cheam and Gordonstoun which his father, Duke of Edinburgh had attended. This might be ethically right for his father to choose the same school for him from his perceptive but what impression it leaves on Prince Charles can be well known from his autobiography.

Hence, founding oneself around these ethical dilemmas is quite ordinary. As ethics aren’t easy to practice in the real world, to make the verdict first thing required is to eradicate the unethical aspect and select from the left alternatives. We need to come up with a base to calculate even the most critical situation with an eye; to what’s right not what will cause less distress. Decision making required a trained sensitivity as well as practicing to take into consideration the weight of the available alternatives.

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LOYALTY IS ROYALTY.