Ethics in Business......Should You Care?

In time, a situation may arise where you are presented with an ethical dilemma in relation to your relationship with your employer. Perhaps there may come a time when your immediate boss might ask you to do something that is slightly unusual, both ethically and morally. If that happens, you will have to make a choice: do what you're told and go with the flow, breaking your own code of ethics in the process, or stand up for yourself and your beliefs, go against the grain, and risk losing favour with management, perhaps even risk being fired.

Obviously, many decisions you have to make will have to do with the specific circumstances involved. If you boss does ask you to do something that is without question illegal, which might result in costing you more than your job is worth, the choice will be a lot easier than something on a smaller, more subtle scale. For instance your boss may ask you to start a surveillance program by keeping a watch of everyone's internet activity in your office. Even if you are not breaking any laws, you probably would think that this is an invasion of privacy. Your friends and fellow workers at your office would very likely shun you if they ever became aware of your spying.

Sometimes it may be clear that if you refuse to do as you are ordered then someone else will do it instead. In this case you need to decide exactly where and what you want to stand for, and is it worth compromising on your gut feeling. If you agree to do as you have been asked, then you may well be breaking whatever personal code of ethics you have. By refusing, maybe you risk losing your job or, perhaps more likely, being subtly and conveniently ignored whenever a new promotion comes up.

All things considered, these situations can never be easily resolved. There are many things to take counsel about, and you should certainly consult with your family and others that you trust for guidance before taking action. Of course, ultimately you must make the decision that feels right to you. For instance, if you think that monitoring the internet activity of a particular person may actually be in the interest of the employees as a whole, it may be easy to decide to go along with the request in this instance. However, if you strongly think that your management has absolutely no right to invade their employees privacy in this way, then by all means you should take a stand for what you feel is right, and be prepared to accept any penalty that may be thrust upon you.

There are no obvious answers to most of these ethical questions. There are only your personal set of standards which will be set against someone else's standards. They can be the most difficult situations to overcome. Different people will have varying perceptions of morality, often all convinced that only they are right. We make our decisions, and we live with the consequences for years to come.