Ethical Dilemma Commercial or Industrial Situation

Question: Discuss about theEthical Dilemmafor Commercial or Industrial Situation. Answer: Introduction: The aim of the report is to analyze ethical dilemma that might encounter in a commercial or industrial situation. The purpose of the report is to identify the situations that lead to certain ethical dilemma and the approaches undertaken by the particular organization to overcome those issues. In addition to this, certain recommendations will be made to keep ethical approach towards the particular business operation. Discussion: As stated by Wright et al. (2014), ethical dilemmas are common in workplace and they are not easy to answer all the time. Even if an organization works on certain set policies, following proper law and regulations, there exists, a risk of ethical dilemma. Some ethical dilemma might be specific to a particular company or industry, but most of the ethical dilemmas are common to all types of companies. Reading Olson (2014), it has been observed that dilemmas regarding morality and other value-based dilemmas, if becomes difficult for the employees to decide between right and wrong. When an individual takes any step against the ethical policies, there remain potential reasons for major conflicts in the particular organization. Shapiro and Stefkovich (2016) have suggested that when an ombudsperson is designated for the purpose of taking in charge of the ethical dilemma related to the employees of the workplace ethics. It is important to undertake the policies of the organization at the time of coming up with any kind of decision making approach. In this respect, it has to be mentioned that communication plays a vital role in supporting the view point of the employees. Addressing the workplace issues along with the basic concerns of the employees is important to resolve the queries that might occur at any point of time in an organization. Some of common ethical dilemmas that are evident in recent market situation can be stated here: Technology: In the era of internet and technical advancement, technology is responsible for creating most issues related to ethical dilemma. As commented by Ferrell and Fraedrich (2015), it falls under the responsibility of the leaders of the company to balance the privacy and freedom of the workers and at the same time maintaining a standard that the companies use for their legitimate business purpose. Most companies are using online platform for their business that has automatically opened up concerns regarding privacy and autonomy. Health and safety issues: With the increasing numbers of manufacturing plants and other workplaces where the workers have to work with dangerous equipment or at times have to engage themselves in hazardous physical activities (Pasquale 2016). This automatically demand questions related to safety of the workers and thus, create an ethical dilemma. Transparency in business: There are numerous business and accounting scandals that have made it imperative to companies to operate with openness and transparency. Ethical dilemma occurs when a company is caught in a lie that might cause irreparable harm to the business. Recent Examples Related to Ethical Dilemma: There are numerous cases that draw attention of the society and are related to issues that results in ethical dilemma. One of these issues is the launch of the robotic cars. Ranging from TESLA, Mercedes and even Apple and Google are all into the recent business of the manufacturing of driverless or robotic cars (Zanne 2016). The innovative approach made by these companies is to create a mark in engineering and technological advancement in the current scenario. However, the outcome of the combination of this excellence has created issues related to ethical practices in business. There have been many debates regarding the safety concern of the people in the car and on the road. As argued by Morris (2016), that the robotic cars might result in the death of people on road and the manufacturing of the cars are completely against the ethical approach. Apart from this, there are many other situations as well that has created serious questions related to the ethical approach of the particular organization. For instance, companies like Apple Inc have been surrounded with issues related to child labor or Vodafone that remained in the news for a long time over its issues related to payment of tax (Zanne 2016). Identifying the issues and making necessary changes to check the limitation of the approach of their respective business is important and it is for the same reason maintaining ethical guideline is indeed important. Recommendations: Handling issues related to ethical dilemma falls under the responsibility of the management of a company. For small businesses, handling ethical issues might not be very challenging. With proper wisdom and knowledge, the particular business can come out of devastating situations if it is handled correctly. Every company should have a number of codes of ethics for formal guidance for the employees of the company to work on. In case, if there still arise any kind of ethical dilemma, it is recommended to discuss the complete issue that creates dilemma and come out with a solution. With the experience of the supervisors, it is expected that certain fruitful solution will be provided to overcome the dilemma. In case, if the employees face any situation where the person cannot decide on a particular matter, it is advisable to discuss the same matter with the peers or colleagues and come down to a particular decision. Conclusion: It can be assumed that employees in an organization are exposed to the risk of ethical dilemma either internally or externally. It depends on the decision making approach at all levels of the company to resolve any kind of issues related to ethical dilemma. It has been found that at many instances, in order to compete with the existing competitors in the market, many companies take such initiatives that are against the ethical guidelines of the company. However, there lies a great possibility that the same approach might result in creation of certain conflict in the business of the organization. It must fall under the prime responsibility of the management of an organization to overcome any kind of ethical issues in business. Reference List: Ferrell, O.C. and Fraedrich, J., 2015.Business ethics: Ethical decision making cases. Nelson Education. Morris, D. 2016. Mercedes' Self-Driving Cars Will Save Passengers, not Bystanders. [online] Fortune. Available at: https://fortune.com/2016/10/15/mercedes-self-driving-car-ethics/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2016]. Olson, M.D., 2014. Exploring the ethical dilemma of integrating social work values and military social work practice.Social work, p.swu010. Pasquale, F. 2016. Self-Driving Cars Shouldnt Have to Choose Who to Protect in a Crash. [online] Slate Magazine. Available at: https://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/10/self_driving_cars_shouldn_t_have_to_choose_who_to_protect_in_a_crash.html [Accessed 19 Oct. 2016]. Shapiro, J.P. and Gross, S.J., 2013.Ethical educational leadership in turbulent times:(Re) solving moral dilemmas. Routledge. Shapiro, J.P. and Stefkovich, J.A., 2016.Ethical leadership and decision making in education: Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge. Wright, D., Finn, R., Gellert, R., Gutwirth, S., Schtz, P., Friedewald, M., Venier, S. and Mordini, E., 2014. Ethical dilemma scenarios and emerging technologies.Technological Forecasting and Social Change,87, pp.325-336. Zanne, D. 2016. Why Companies Are Blind to Child Labor. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2016/01/why-companies-are-blind-to-child-labor [Accessed 19 Oct. 2016]