Therefore, I
was forced to dismiss this friend from the job, due to my ethically
grounded sense of responsibility to serve an organization to the fairest of
my duties.
Naturally, the result of this would be two-fold. The organization
would benefit as I was able to make another hire with greater dedication
and capability in the position. My workplace stress and the load of my
responsibilities would be lessened by this improvement. On the other hand,
my friendship with this individual never recovered. We had clashed
frequently at the workplace and though I labored over the decision, I had
given him ample warning that he was jeopardizing the security of both of
our jobs, he showed little respect toward changing his behavior. The
result for me was a careful meditation over the moral implications of this
situation. As a friend for whom I had clearly gone out on a limb, his
ethical responsibility to me, let alone to the organization, should have
been sufficient enough to alter his behavior. That it wasn't would
ultimately be cause enough for me to push for his dismissal, feeling that
at that juncture my ethical responsibility would be to the organization.
More than anything, I believe that this strengthened my position in
the organization, with my willingness to do that which was necessary, even
at the expense of this friendship, engendering trust in my ethical
disposition. It would be clear to my superiors that I had taken my role as
an investment of moral leadership. Here, our research contends that "moral
leadership is not mere preaching, or the uttering of pieties, or the
insistence on social conformity. Moral leadership emerges from, and always
returns to, the fundamental wants and needs, aspirations and values of the
followers." (Wren, 483) In instances where the values of followers
especially appear to be lacking, there is a necessity...
In the scenario described above, it was true that
the friend's value system was contrary even to the extent that other
members of the organization suffered through heavier workloads and the
presence of a personality which brought with it workplace stress. As my
constituents, these employees were suffering the consequences of a decision
which I had made. It was therefore incumbent upon me to preserve their
interests even at the expense of my friendship. Ultimately, even if the
end of this ill-fated friendship may be seen as the 'bad' outcome of a
necessary decision, it was an outcome chosen by the individual in question
more so than it was chosen by myself or others within the organization.
Additionally, it would be clear that the 'good' invoked by this decision
would hold a greater weight for me personally.
This experience would enlighten me as to the difficult
responsibilities which one assumes when one aspires to a position of
leadership. Indeed, even as we may be reared and educated with a firm
grasp on the differences between right and wrong, the application of this
knowledge in the world of business can often produce serious challenges to
one's sensibilities. It helps to be well-grounded in one's own sense of
moral rightness before confronting such a challenge in the framework of an
organization itself possessing poorly defined ethical parameters.
Works Cited:
Klein, S. (2002). The head, the heart, and business virtues. Journal of
Business Ethics, 39(4), 347.
Solomon, R.C. (1992). Corporate Roles, Personal Virtues: An Aristotelean
Approach to Business Ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, 2(3).
Spears, L.C. & Lawrence, M. (2004). Practicing Servant-Leadership.
Jossey-Bass.
Wren, J.T. (1995). The Leader's Companion. Simon & Schuster, Inc.
