Going in the trench without the trench box will pushing boundaries beyond limits to the extent of tempting fate. It will also amount to breaking the law. Although the men initially used to work in the trenches without the trench box, the risk involved were enormous. Statistics indicate that dozens of men have lost their lives due the collapse of the trenches. Trench boxes were introduced to improve the safety of people working in the trenches by protecting them against potential death in case the trenches walls collapse. Also, at the moment, there is a regulation in place that prohibits such negligence.
Therefore, it will be totally unwise for these men to go into the trenches without the trench box despite having analyzed the ground and considered it safe to go underground without the box. One of the experienced workers feels that six minutes is such a short time that they can complete repairs within the six minutes without the trench box. Similarly, the ground looks cohesive enough. However, it is wrong to assume that these are strong reasons to justify pushing beyond the limits by contravening the municipality rules that prohibit workers entry into a trench without a trench box. This would be unethical. Despite considering the conditions to be safe, it is not easy to predict when an accident will occur. Otherwise, no accident would ever claim human lives. All trenches that have collapsed in the past were accidents; no one expected they would collapse. If fact, if the men who died in these trenches thought that they would collapse, they would not have gone in the trenches even under the protection of a trench box.
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The workmen may consider the six minutes to be a short time within which they will finish, but an accident only takes less than ten seconds. Similarly, the soil may look cohesive on top but may be loose underneath, therefore, going into the trench without the trench box is taking too much risk.
The ethical gray areas in this scenario lay in failing to deliver on the deadline the residents had been promised and risking the lives of the worker to meet the promised deadline. Furthermore, there are experienced workers willing to take the risk. Failure to deliver on the deadline will lead the city losing credibility among the affected citizens, on the other hand, letting men get into the trench without the trench box contravene not only the municipal guidelines but also endangers the lives of the men. Whatever decision the Jerry take, there is a consequence. Therefore, he has to choose which consequence is better to live with.
I believe that the right thing to do is to postpone the repairs on the sewer lines and continue with the work on the following day. The city should be able to explain to the residents that the sewer line will be fixed on the following day. Although the city resident will be infuriated and make negative suggestions towards the city authorities, their anger is short lived, and they will accept the apology on the next day when the sewer line gets fixed. On the other hand, if the men go in the trench without the trench box and end up losing their lives due to the collapsing of the trench it will be a double tragedy. The sewer line will remain unrepaired, but the workers might lose their lives and suffer permanent injuries and totally change their lives. If the men get into the trench and manage to make the repairs, as well as, come out safely, they will still have contravened the municipality safety regulations. Getting lucky once may encourage future disregard of safety regulations and may result in fatal accidents in future.
Having an ethics program has the potential to improve leaders and workers observance of ethic and morals. The program can empower leaders and employee and enable them to uphold ethical values while transacting business (Snell, 2013). Safety programs also enable workers and leaders to understand and adhere to safety protocols at work. The program enables them identify risky situations and thus protect lives instead of ignoring potential dangers while trying to please their customers, meet deadlines or make profits. The profits that they fail to make today can be recovered in the subsequent days, but the loss of human life can never be recovered. Therefore, in any situation the human life is involved, human life should be considered more valuable than any other gains. Also, with the programs, the leaders and workers will not compromise ethics for profits, and will never allow the pressure from the prevailing circumstance to lead them to unethical choices.
The author claims show why people consistently engage in unethical activities. In business, many people have adopted the culture of pushing the limits. As a result, they only look to avoid that which is prohibited by the law and anything the law is silent about considered okay (De Cremer & de Bettignies, 2013). These notions support the pushing of the limits which result in gray areas. As the other notes, when here is an incentive to engage in unethical activities people easily disregard morals. People easily depend on the law and lose their moral bearing. The author refers to this as moral amnesia. The phenomenon can be prevented from taking foothold only by creating awareness of how the human mind works under certain conditions. Through awareness, managers can avoid exploiting gray areas, and corporate culture can be shaped to become sensitive to morals. Leaders will be made more responsible and will often take the right direction.
References
De Cremer, D., & de Bettignies, H. C. (2013). Business Ethics. Business Strategy Revie, 2(2013), 64-67.
Snell, R. (2013). Teaching Rules-Based and Values-Based Ethic. Journal of Health Care Compliance . 29-32.
