There are various resources one can use in handling ethical dilemmas. they are explained below.
Explanation:
What is Ethical Dilemmas: An ethical dilemma is a problem in the decision-making process between two possible options, neither of which is absolutely acceptable from an ethical perspective. Although we face many ethical and moral problems in our life, most of them come with relatively straightforward solutions.
It is also when a person have to choose between a moral and immoral act.
Stakeholder Interests
: Ethical Dilemmas arise when stakeholder interests differ. For example, a company may choose to maximize production and pay little attention to the quality of the end product while the customers expect the product to meet their specifications. Customers trust the organization to get it right the first time.
Conflict Resolution Process
: Ethical conflicts do not always deal with right versus wrong issues. Dealing with such conflicts requires balancing the interests of all parties involved.
Ambition and Discrimination
:Individual workers may be under financial pressure or simply hunger for recognition. If they can't get the rewards they seek through accepted channels, they may be desperate enough to do something unethical, such as falsifying numbers or taking credit for another person's work to get ahead.
Though diversity is an important part of business, some people may not be comfortable with people from different backgrounds and possibly be reluctant to treat them fairly. This kind of discrimination is not only unethical but illegal and still remains common.
Used as Negotiation Tactics
: While these factors can cause ethical dilemmas for workers within their own companies, doing business with other firms can also present opportunities for breaches. Pressure to get the very best deal or price from another business can cause some workers to negotiate in bad faith or lie to get a concession. Negotiators may also try to bribe their way to a good deal. While this is illegal in the U.S., it still sometimes happens; in other nations, it is more common, and sometimes even expected, which can put negotiators in a difficult position.
Value Ethical Behavior
:These ethical dilemmas can be difficult for workers to grapple with, especially if they don't know what the company's official guidelines are. Therefore, it is in an organization's best interest to provide ethical training to its employees, to help them identify unethical behavior and give them tools with which to comply. Every company should have an ethical policy that spells out its penalties for infractions. Moreover, management must lead by example, showing that the company takes ethics seriously and that violators will be punished according to the organization's policies, including possible suspension or termination.
Perhaps too often, business ethics is portrayed as a matter of resolving conflicts in which one option appears to be the clear choice. For example, case studies are often presented in which an employee is faced with whether or not to lie, steal, cheat, abuse another, break terms of a contract, etc. However, ethical dilemmas faced by managers are often more real-to-life and highly complex with no clear guidelines, whether in law or often in religion.
Organizations should develop and document a procedure for dealing with ethical dilemmas as they arise. Ideally, ethical dilemmas should be resolved by a group within the organization, e.g an ethics committee comprised of top leaders/managers and/or members of the board. Consider having staff members on the committee, as well. The following three methods can be used to address ethical dilemmas. Resources used to assist with addressing ethical dilemmas includes an ethical checklist, a ten-step method and a list of key questions. (Note that The Golden Rule is probably the most common method to resolve ethical dilemmas. The rule exists in various forms in many of the world religions.)
