Philosophy Essay Example: Ethical Dilemma

Ethical dilemma also referred to as moral paradox represents a situation in which someone finds himself in a delicate state of making a choice among competing alternatives. The difficult part of the decision is because the choice someone makes favors one party at the same time offends the other. Also, the party involved in decision making looks at an opportunity to choose a better choice at the same time mitigate the evil or unpleasant outcome or feeling to the aggrieved party. The party in the dilemma is must make a decision no matter how painful it is and must bear the consequences of his/her decision. For example, a procurement officer may be given a bribe by a prospective supplier to induce him (the buyer) to give the vendor a contract. The buyer may be poorly paid and so in dire need of money to better his life and look after his family. If the purchaser accepts the bribe, he/she may comprise several things that may adversely affect the company. One, the supplier may overcharge the goods to recover, the money paid in bribe. Secondly, the supplier may provide goods or raw materials of low quality which may not sell or fetch low prices in the market. Customers may reject the goods offered which mean the company would incur a loss. The company may also lose money due to inflated prices. In such a case, the buyer would be in a fix on whether to accept or reject the bribe because on one side, he/she will benefit himself but jeopardize his/her job is the deal is revealed. Besides, the company may incur high losses to the extent of lying off some employees to manage the increasing cost and diminishing profit margins. At the same time, the culprit may face legal charges for accepting a bribe.

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In our case study, we meet Borries who works with an advertising agency. He scheduled to go for a holiday to meet his girlfriend and her parents. His holiday is planned to be longer a bit because he went for a one week holiday in the previous year. However, his manager informs him of new product launch of one of their loyal client that Borries has been serving. The launch is planned to happen in the mid of Borries holiday. As such, Borries is required to prepare advertisement designs, plan for campaign roll out, viral and website marketing among others. Borries informs his girlfriend of his managers decision and that sanctions may follow though his manager had not revealed this. His girlfriend gets mad at him. She says that her parents will vex Borries decision. Despite a lot of pleading from his girlfriend, Borries cancels the holiday and gets to work. His decision angers his colleagues very much. They call him a coward and say his cowardly action will make others suffer the same in the future. Borries unable to find a suitable answer to his friends says he was only trying to help the situation.

The kind of a situation that Borries is faced with is an ethical dilemma for some reasons. For one, he does not want to lose his job. His manager though he had not disclosed to Borries threatens him with sanctions if he does not perform. That means his sole source of income will be gone. Secondly, he is afraid of losing their leading client. The lost business if this customer is dissatisfied is dire. For example, a competitor of the said client will lose business to a competitor who is in the course of rolling out a new product to compete with their clients in the same market segment. If their client loses the business, he may be forced out of the market due to shrinking market share and dwindling profit margins and also lay off some staff to manage the situation. This loss will cascade down to Borries company, and Borries is afraid of the consequences of his decision. Besides, Borries is afraid to lose his friends at work in the name of appeasing his manager. Healthy relationships at work matter because of social issues that bind people together at work. As the adage goes No man is an island. Borries will need his colleagues to accomplish his job, particularly when one stage of his job relies on the effort of others. He is, therefore, torn between choosing to make his manager happy or his friends at work.

Apart from work related dilemma, Borries puts his relationship with his girlfriend and in-laws to be on the line. For instance, his girlfriend is unhappy at what Borries has chosen to do: forfeit his holiday to please his boss and secure his job. His girlfriend may conclude that Borries is not serious and does not treasure their relationship. As such, she may choose to end the relationship and find someone else. In connection to this, Borries finds it hard to disappoint his parents-in-law to be. It would be tough to convince them after failing to honor his promise. Besides, they may also lose trust in him if he keeps on making promise after promise. His relationship with his girlfriend may grow cold since they dont stay near each other and she is expected to go back to school in Germany. As such, Borries is torn between attending to his family issues and work related matters.

To address his issue, Borries has several options. For instance, he can negotiate with his manager for a day or two visit his girlfriend and parent then come back to continue with the work that awaits him. If he does that, he would have satisfied his friend and his prospective parents-in-law. However, Borries will need to have excellent negotiation skills to convince his boss, friend and parents-in-law. He has to convince his boss that he can be trusted to come back within the agreed time if his boss grants him permission to visit his girlfriend. To win this battle, Borries can share with his boss how he values his job and the companys clients and its wellbeing. He can also agree to go on holiday once the important order is completed. On the other hand, he needs to tell his girlfriend how important is his job to him and the girlfriend. He can also promise to have a longer time with her and her parents in the coming years holiday. In so doing, he will have killed two birds with one stone.

On the contrary, Borries can agree with his manager to design the advertisements, campaign plans, viral and website marketing then proceed to his holiday. He can also convince his manager to attend the promotional campaign virtually through teleconferencing through Skype. In such a platform, he can communicate the message to the audience through slides on power point presentations and other visual aids. Furthermore, website marketing can be done from any place as long as he can access the Internet. He can comfortably utilize the social media like Facebook and Twitter to communicate the necessary ideas off site. He can be doing office work during the day then at night pay attention to his girlfriends issues. However, he needs to be excellent at using the Internet and the computer. In case he is not familiar with the computer, he can use the internet to learn the basics of the applications he shall need to interact with to accomplish his duties while away from the office. Also, he needs to ensure the content he is communicating is secure from cyber criminals since this information must remain confidential given that a rival company is targeting the same market with a similar product. For this purpose, he can encrypt the information he communicates to the other end. He can also ensure safety by having passwords on his computer to limit unauthorized access to the information. His computer should also be kept under lock and key to restrict unwanted movements.

To solve the dispute between him and his friends at work, he should explain to them the importance of his decision. Previously, he had told them that he was only trying to help the situation, but he needs to give more information. Borries should explain the importance of customer satisfaction. For instance, he can tell them the consequences of losing such a client. He should elaborate the revenue that the company will lose if the said customer is not satisfied and the consequences of such an action. For example, some of them may lose their jobs which spell doom for them and their families. Besides, he should talk to them about loyalty to their firm which means putting companys interests before theirs. He should also train his colleagues persuasive skills to defend their course in the future as their chief complaint is that they may not get a holiday during peak seasons when the company demands are many. He also needs to emphasize the importance of healthy relationships in accomplishing business goals as a team. In so doing, he would avoid the sour relationship in the offing.