An ethical dilemma can always cause a challenge to people while deciding the best decision to make. Situations that involve conflicting scenarios arise and one is put to the task of deciding the best decision. While this can be done by weighing a variety of factors, values can always be very significant in helping one arrive at the best decision. Understanding values and morals of the community are the key to solving ethical dilemmas if best outcomes from the decisions are to be achieved.
Ethics are the moral principles that govern the behavior of a person or conducting an activity ( Anderson & Anderson, 2014 ). It is an accepted code of conduct in the society or within a given set up. Ethics affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. It is majorly concerned with what is good and worth for individuals as well as the society. It covers dilemmas on how to live a good life, the rights and responsibilities and moral decisions for what is good and bad. Ethical dilemma, on the other hand, is a decision-making situation in which one is faced with two possible moral imperatives, both of which are unambiguously acceptable or preferable. The problem arises when a conflict arises between two decisions and obeying one will lead to transgressing the other.
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The dilemma was a marketing issue between a marketer and customers. The dilemma involved the marketer from an organization that manufactures a drug which has been confirmed to dry and heal wounds faster. The drug has been tested and it was proved to cause a quick healing to the wounds of the patients, ten times faster than other drugs. However, it has been found that the drug can cause bone cancer in the patients. The firm is still new and it is on the verge of increasing its market coverage through marketing. The marketer knew the side effects of the drug and while marketing, was put between two decisions, to disclose the side effects of the drug to the patients or keep it a secret. The marketer feels that morally it is not right to sell a drug that has negative side effects to the customers without telling them these effects. At the same time, the marketer has a target of getting more customers, and he knows that by disclosing this information to customers, the sales will reduce and among other effects may be him losing his job.
In this situation, the marketer is forced to make choices between remaining ethical by disclosing the side effects of the drug to the customers, which is governed by his moral principles. At the same time, he needs to protect the image of the country and attract more customers. Disclosing the information to customers might result in job losses, damage the image of the organization and loss of income. Failing to disclose the information violates his moral principles and amounts to failing to care for the possible impacts of the whole community who might get affected by using this drug. The most ethical decision that needed to be made was to disclose the information to customers and save the community who may be affected by using the drug that has negative side effects.
The marketer for the fear of his job and income opted to keep the information confidential to all customers. People continued to get healed faster with the drug. But as time moved by, many cases of bone cancer were being reported among many community members who used the drug. As time progressed, it got into the public domain that the drug was responsible for cancer that was affecting many people in the community in which the organization operates. As a result, the reputation of the organization was damaged, it lost customers and even faced lawsuits for providing customers with a product that had detrimental effects on the health of the users.
Solving this ethical dilemma required moral intelligence. If I were to make this ethical decision, I could have resorted to my moral values, the ethical values which the society agrees. The value of honesty. When honesty as a value is applied to this ethical dilemma, the decision will include, being honest with the customers and therefore reveal the side effects of the drug on them. Similarly, I could have used various ethical decision-making techniques such as utilitarianism. Under this technique, the right decision is the one which provides the most good or the highest utility. Ethics under this technique becomes like an equation where different elements are given different utility or values. When utilitarianism is used, it comes out that revealing the side effects of the drug to customers will have the most good or the highest utility ( Ford & Richardson , 2013). This is because many patients will be rescued from cancer which could have affected a large number of the population. Failing to reveal the information to customers will not lead to most good because only the marketer and the organization will benefit at the expense of the whole community.
The outcome of the ethical dilemma resulted in serious unethical issues. It was unethical to sell to customers a product that is not safe for use. By doing this, the marketer failed to adhere to his moral intelligence and standards. As a result, many people who used the product contacted cancer leading to illness for the majority of the community members. This was unethical and had a different decision been made, the unethical outcomes would not have resulted. The decision led to serious health effects to many community members, a very unethical situation. The ethical code of conduct states that a product sold to customers should be free from any side effects to the customers, and if there is any, such information should be disclosed to that customers so that as they use the product, they use it at own risk. Failing to adhere to this code of ethics amounts to the violation and unethical behavior towards the customers. Similarly, the ethical code of conduct advocates for honesty in dealing with customers. The marketer faced with ethical dilemma failed to display honesty and rather preferred to conceal the information to protect his job and income.
Understanding values and morals are the key to making a right ethical decision ( Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015 ). There are values that the society agrees and consider as being moral and accepted. To deal appropriately with an ethical dilemma, one must understand his values and morals of the society first. This will act as the guiding point on arriving at a decision whether something is moral or not. Like in this case, honesty is a core value, and it is an accepted moral virtue in the society. After understanding the value of honesty, such a decision will be based on honesty. I will not lie to a customer, or fail to reveal crucial information to them because I know it is against the moral standards of the society. I would know that moral values require me to remain honest, and as a result, the most appropriate ethical decision will be made.
In conclusion, making the right decision when faced ethical dilemma requires moral intelligence and understanding of one’s core values. The core values and the moral intelligence will guide in making a decision that is considered better for the majority. While some unethical decisions may seem better in the short run, such decisions always invite unethical problems and can put one in a crisis. It is therefore important to always apply values and morals of the community while making any decision under ethical dilemma.
References
Anderson, M., & Anderson, S. L. (2014, July). GenEth: A General Ethical Dilemma Analyzer. In AAAI (pp. 253-261).
Ford, R. C., & Richardson, W. D. (2013). Ethical decision making: A review of the empirical literature. In Citation classics from the Journal of Business Ethics (pp. 19-44). Springer, Dordrecht.
Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases . Nelson Education.
