Ethical Principles at the Workplace

Using Utilitarianism and Deontology to Resolve an Ethical Dilemma
Ethics are the principles that govern the way people act or decide in a way that can be considered as right or wrong. They are the moral standards in the society that guide the management and employee’s way of thinking when executing the responsibility. They are formulated from decent principles such as honesty, dignity, equality, and fairness. Therefore, any employee or any person in a society is expected to behave in a manner that is consistent with the moral principles and good values as perceived by the organizations and the society. On their day-to-day activities, people encounter situations that test their limits in deciding whether they will engage in an action that will promote a greater good instead of the one that perpetuates selfishness. The decision can go either way depending on the standards set out in the society or a company. In this study, I will detail my encounter when I had to apply various principles at my workplace in resolving a dilemma.
My Case
I once served as an intern accountant for a gas station outlet owned by Shell in New York City. Shell explores and sells petroleum products in the United States and globally. As an intern accountant at its New York headquarters, I was responsible for the collection, recording, analysis, and presentation of financial records from nearby outlets owned by the company. The veracity of the financial records of the company was highly dependent on my integrity because the resident accountant gave the bulk of the workload. The records covered from the books of the original entry (journals) to the final report of accounting, which is balance sheet.
One day, my colleague from the transport and logistic department approached me. He informed me that his manager wanted to have a discussion with me in a private hotel away from the workplace. I requested to meet him in the office, but he turned down because he considered it as a busy place and we could not hold our meeting. With the transport and the logistics manager being a senior officer, I had to accept the request. However, the meeting was to be arranged outside the working hours. After three days, we managed to meet at a restaurant in a nearby town. The officer brought to my attention that two tankers were transporting petroleum products to our depot. However, he redirected those tankers to his depot that was 100km from the main firm. He, therefore, requested that I should expunge the records of those tankers from the financial records of the company. Being a senior employee of the firm, he promised to protect me and negotiate for my promotion upon accepting his request. Failure to accept the request would also come with consequences. He threatened me that he would request my senior officer (chief financial officer) to demote and transfer me to another branch or mess with my internship program.
Based on my responsibility, I knew that I could make changes to the financial report to avoid the questions that might have risen. After a long engagement with transport and logistics manager, I had to decide on what would be good for the firm and myself. It was tough on my side as it directly threatened my job. I requested the transport and logistics manager to offer me 24 hours to decide on the matter.
Although I was capable of making the requested changes without causing a commotion at the finance department, I knew very well that malpractices would eventually be unearthed when the financial reports will be audited. Moreover, concerning the moral standards of the company, it was unethical to make such transaction because it would lead to losses to the firm. Apart from that, it would lead to questioning the integrity of the employees in the department of finance (Holder, 2016). Therefore, my action would affect the integrity of my colleagues at the firm.
After the agreed time, I made a call without hesitation informing him of my course of action. I would not involve myself in a transaction that was outside the confines of my moral values, as it would jeopardize the company’s progress and my career. In response, I arranged a meeting with my senior officer (Chief financial officer) as I sought to inform him about the deal.
Moral gravity can be related to several types of human rights. It is the idea that issues that greatly affect the interest of a person, as well as his/her moral well-being, are more important over others. For instance, a property is noted to have interests. However, some interests are more important over others. Th same analogy can be applied to moral standards of a person. The moral standards are more important as compared to the financial interests. Several stakeholders were involved in my case. However, the stakeholders affected by my decision were the transport and logistics manager, chief financial manager who was my senior boss and Shell Company. Concerning moral standards, the right outcome involved the decision that I made of politely decline the request and informing by senior staff about the issue (Holder, 2016). I declined the request because it would make me violate the company’s moral standards. I discussed with my supervisor because it was appropriate for him to know what I was going through in his department. In his position, he would guide me on how to approach the issue before calling for an interdepartmental meeting for further discussions regarding the issue.
If I had accepted the request from my senior officer from transport and logistics department, I would have violated the rules that guide the responsibility of my office. My office has the prerogative role of ensuring the financial records within a company are as accurate as possible. Any other action of altering them will be considered fraudulent, and my career will suffer from integrity issues. Based on my action, the ethical principle that was exercised is deontology. The decision was in line with the universal principle of fairness. I wanted to extend fairness to my colleagues in the department of finance, my employer, and my senior staff by preventing the fraud from occurring. It was about fairness and what is morally right (Holder, 2016). Biases that could have led me to make a wrong decision were the promise of promotion and threats of demotion or transfer. Another principle of ethics that was exercised was utilitarian. The decision focused on the overall benefit to the company and employees at the finance department. While disclosing the information to the chief financial officer, I desired to absolve myself of any wrong before the fraud could occur besides ensuring that the issue could be handled at the managerial level given that my job was in jeopardy.
Conclusion
Ethical principles are fundamental to the progress of any society as it controls people’s actions and the dimensions they take when resolving dilemmas. Using ethical principles when making a decision is important, and the actions should focus on promoting the common good and less harm. In my experience, I adopted the deontological and utilitarian principles in my decision-making process. I was satisfied with my action, and I would take the same action in case I come across a similar situation. Overall, accountability and integrity are important values in a workplace.


Reference
Holder, F. (2016). Integrity in business. London: Routledge.