According to the case study, Julia’s dilemma could be interpreted as a truth or happiness scenario (Jennings, 2015). Specifically, the details of the case study indicate that Julia has been hiding the details of her medical condition from her employer for a long time. She has been fearing disclosure of her condition might affect her reputation at the workplace and affect her social life. The fear also stems from the fact that she values her work and commitment to a level that she feels it would be unsatisfying to her more of life if she quitted her work prematurely. In other terms, Julia has ‘refused’ to succumb to multiple sclerosis, a disorder that is incurable and deadly. Even while she feels that the symptoms would be too severe to hide from her colleagues, she lives with the determination of a healthy person. Therefore, the happiness or truth scenario presents a potential sacrifice of her joy in life upon revealing the information. She feels that she might manage hiding her condition around and continue being happy or decide to real the information and face the consequences of the company’s terms and conditions of staffing.
Either of Julia’s decision would affect herself, her husband, and her organization (Weiss, 2014). Specifically, a decision to reveal information to the management of the firm would satisfy her husband since he feels that it is the right time for her to do so. On the contrary, failure to do so would betray him since he feels that Julia is growing too weak to hide her situation from the public. In addition, revealing information to her manager might result in negative consequences according to contractual terms and conditions, but might bring fulfilment to her life. Lastly, revealing the information might result on her dismissal from work, which might affect the performance of the company bearing in mind that she is a diligent worker.
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If Julia were to make decisions based on the economic principle of ethics, she would consider revealing information to her manager. According to this theory, the objective of an organization is to make profit (Steinberg and Austern, 2010). It means that any factors, both internal and external, that affect the attainment of this objective should be avoided. Her decisions would rest in a consideration that her physical health status might affect the productivity of the organization in the eventual process. Therefore, disclosure would result in earlier interventions for a better future such as the ones undertaken by her former employer. On the contrary, if Julia were to make decisions based on the legal framework of ethics, she would not reveal such information. Her decisions using this model would be the fact that the law does not require disclosure of such information from employees, which means that they would be no legal consequences for her non-disclosure (Fisher and Lovell, 2009). In fact, confidentiality of personal information is highly respected both in the ethical and legal frameworks of decision-making.
Lastly, if Julia were to decide based on the moral principle of ethics, she would disclose such information to her manager. According to this principle, an ethical decision should consider the effects of such choices on others (Garsten and Hernes, 2008). As reported, disclosure is likely to satisfy herself, her husband, and her organization. Concerning herself and her husband, disclosure would relief the burden of guilt that they have been shouldering for such a long time. In addition, disclosing the information will allow her organization to look for alternatives to her service in time to facilitate a smooth transition from herself to another employee in her capacity.
References
Fisher, C., & Lovell, A. (2009). Business ethics and values: Individual, corporate and international perspectives . Pearson education.
Garsten, C., & Hernes, T. (2008). Ethical dilemmas in management . Routledge.
Jennings, M. M. (2014). Business ethics: Case studies and selected readings . Cengage Learning.
Steinberg, S. S., & Austern, D. (2010). Government, ethics, and managers: A guide to solving ethical dilemmas in the public sector . Greenwood Publishing Group.
Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach . Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
