People are constantly faced with the trouble of making decisions that are only beneficial to them but may not sound ethically or morally sound. Such is the case of the newspaper columnist. She informs the newspaper chain that she is currently working for that she would take the other offer by the other newspaper chain and hence needs to break her current contract. The question as to whether she acted morally and ethically linger in most people’s mind. This paper looks to determine the morality and ethics of her decisions and also try to predict the court’s decision on whether or not the actions of the columnist are legal.
Key Problems and Choices
There are three aspects to the decision that the columnist makes. The move by the columnist has ethical dilemmas, legal dilemmas, and moral issues. The aspect of legality is not difficult to solve as it is solely based on the contract that she signed with the current employer. The breaking of the contract only legal if:
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The specified contract period is over.
There is a clause in the contract which indicates that she can ask for the contract to be broken at any instance provided she gives prior notice.
If there are no such indications in the contract that the columnist signed with the current employer, then the court may find the columnist guilty of breach of contract and she may be penalized depending on the charges presented by the plaintiff.
The issue as to whether the move by the columnist is moral or not may differ because of different perspectives from different individuals. In my opinion, the columnist did not show moral behavior. This is because morality speaks of a system of right or wrong behaviors and does not look at the conditions that forced the behavior into being (Page, 2012) . The current employer gave the columnist a chance to show her work to the public. Morally reasoning, the columnist is bound to the newspaper chain that saw the talent in her and chose to offer her a contract. The current employer will feel betrayed if it found out that the columnist is heading to work for another newspaper chain just because she has been offered higher pay.
Guidance by Ethical Theories
The question as to whether the columnist acted ethically or not can only be solved through the guidance of ethical theories. These theories have a few characteristics in common. The theories advocate for trust, openness, responsibility, fairness, and care towards individuals (Hammersley, 2015). Based on these characteristics, my opinion is that the columnist acted rightfully. It is the nature of human beings to always want to better themselves. Her being offered a higher salary means that she gets to raise her living standards which is probably what almost every human being tries to do every day. Therefore, it would not be right to judge her for wanting to be better. She also works to terminate her present contract before accepting the new offer. This is ethical of her. Furthermore, the columnist openly informs the current newspaper chain about the reasons forcing her to make the move. This way, she builds trust with not only the current employer but also the one offering the new job position. In a nutshell, the newspaper columnist acted ethically in my opinion and based on the basic principles laid by ethical theories.
References
Hammersley, M. (2015). On ethical principles for social research. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 18(4), 433-449.
Page, K. (2012). The four principles: Can they be measured and do they predict ethical decision making?. BMC medical ethics , 13 (1), 10.
