Reflection on a Personal Ethical Dilemma

Overview

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical personal reflection of an ethical dilemma that I faced in my business. The goal of the paper is to conclude with actionable strategies for improvement, based upon Gentiles (2012) approach to managing ethical situations successfully. Using Giving Voice to Values (GVV) and guided by Kolbs Experiential Learning Cycle, this paper draws upon the pillars of GVV to illustrate the thought processes I went through when navigating my own ethical situation in leadership. The following provides my value conflict scenario, a reflection, with personal and contextual analysis, and reasons and rationalization. Peer feedback is also incorporated as well prior to the conclusion.

Value Conflict Scenario

Analysis is used in business ethics when one applies the rules, laws, and policies of an organization to an ethical situation to determine if it is over the line or not, in the words of Gentile (Harvard University, 2013). As Gentile notes in describing her GVV program, awareness is essential in this process of analysis, but one also has to be able to assess whether the behavior in question is trustworthy behaviorand that requires reflection and cognition (Harvard University, 2013). It also requires understanding how ones own presumptions and biases can play a part in shaping our perceptionor as Gentile puts it, just because I think its right youre gonna think its right is not a good parameter for analysis (Harvard University, 2013).

Personal and Professional Context

It is difficult for me to divide personal and professional context, because my personal life is so wrapped up in my professional life. I am a business owner, and as such I really have very little personal life outside of my business. Any business owner can appreciate this circumstance, as I believe it is common. Therefore, when I provide personal and professional context, I am really simply framing the scenario from my point of view as a human being and as a leader in my organization.

Framing the scenario, however, is important, and I must point out that Gentiles remarks are relevant to my value conflict scenario because I held the assumption that if I think its right others will too. The situation was this: I am President and CEO of The Creative Approach, Inc. With COVID taking down the business to levels we have never seen and where we were barely able to survive, the company was looking at dropping its policy of covering 100% of team members health insurance. For me, the idea of dropping health coverage for employees was an incredible conflict: I had had cancer and knew how hard it would have been to cope with bills without insurance. I did not want anyone to be in a situation where they had to worry about whether or not they would be able to pay for medical care. I assumed everyone would feel the same way. I voiced my concerns with my business partners and they appreciated what I had to say, but in the end they insisted that good governance had to win out or the company could sink into bankruptcyand that would mean reducing benefits for employees. My partners reasoned thus: better to be employed with no health benefits than to not be employed at all. I, however, maintained that as a leader of the company I had a responsibility to look out for my workers best interests and I could not in good conscience accept this decision. I did not know what to do. On the one hand, I could appreciate my partners assessment of thingsit made sense financially. On the other hand, I felt my partners were dehumanizing the situation. I wondered whether I myself had a conflict of interest in this situation, since as President I would benefit by denying my employees their benefits. It was a very confusing situation for me to be in, and I wasnt sure if my employees would turn against me if I gave into my partners and reduced benefits for all. At the same time, I wondered if I was more concerned about my own image than I was about the health of the company during this pandemic crisis. What needed to come first?my own desires, the companys finances, or employees well-being? How could I even determine what was best for employees? Maybe my partners were right about it being better to have a job without health coverage than no job at allwhich is surely what would be the case if the company did not cut costs immediately.

Reflective Observation

Gentile (2010) states that the everyone else was doing it mentality is one that should be avoided when it comes to workplace ethics because it is an attempt to excuse unethical behavior (p. iv). Reflecting on my experience, I can see that I was torn between a kind of conformity bias (conforming to my partners way of behavior) without thinking about (because thinking about it made me disconcerted) and holding out to see if we could find a better way. Gentile (2010) also has a section on cognitive dissonance in her book, and in that section she cautions against ruling out information that makes us uncomfortablebut at the same time states that these occasions of cognitive dissonance can be helpful because they help us more effectively voice our values (p. 200). Gentile (2010) states that in these cases when we voice...…our company was realizing its values. I had to do ore to believe that I was as authentic a leader as I wanted to be.

Active Experimentation

To answer that question for myself, I have decided on active experimentation to help address the mattera personal plan for continuous ethical accountability, integrity, and credibility. To show my workers that I still care about them having health coverage I want to do more research on what I can do as a business owner to help my employees during this trying time. As of now, I am not sure that there is an answerbut the important thing is that I do not give up looking. I know that in some companies, employees have a program wherein they contribute a small amount from their paychecks to a fund that will be used to support anyone who has a health-related crisis that requires additional financial support. This is one idea I plan to discuss with my partners to see if we might like to open it up as an option for our employees. Perhaps it is the little things like this that help remind us all how important it is to continue to show care for one another, even when it is impossible to give the kind of care we are used to giving. The key thing for me going forward is to maintain open lines of communication, because it is through open lines of communication and personal and professional acknowledgment of what others are going through, of what others believe and value, and of what others see as happening, that help us all to appreciate where we are now and what we can do to make things right.

Conclusion

My conflict scenario was one in which I worried whether or not I could do the right thing by my employees. To save our business during the pandemic, my partners and I knew that we needed to cut costs somewhereand reducing employee benefits seemed like the best way to do it. Yet I felt as though it were a betrayal to deny my workers health care coverage after what I myself had gone through as a cancer patient. How could I possibly think that loss of coverage would sit well with them? I understood the position of my partners, but would our workers understand? Instead of making the decision without them, I asked my partners if we could take the matter directly to our workers and ask for their feedback. I wanted to include them in this process of decision-making, as I felt it was the ethical thing to do, considering the circumstances. In the end, this seems to have been the right decisionbut I have not given up…