Reflecting on an Ethical Dilemma Using Giving Voice to Values
This paper presents a critical personal reflection on an ethical dilemma faced by a small business owner during the COVID-19 pandemic. Guided by Mary Gentile's Giving Voice to Values (GVV) framework and Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle, the author examines a conflict that arose when financial pressures threatened to eliminate employee health insurance coverage. The paper explores cognitive dissonance, conformity bias, authentic leadership, and ethical fading as lenses for understanding the decision-making process. It concludes with actionable strategies for maintaining ethical accountability, open communication, and integrity in leadership—even under conditions of financial crisis and uncertainty.
- Overview and Framework: GVV and Kolb frameworks introduced as guides
- Value Conflict Scenario: COVID forces debate over employee health benefits
- Reflective Observation: Cognitive dissonance and conformity bias examined
- Abstract Conceptualization and Authentic Leadership: Authentic leadership and trust-building analyzed
- Peer Feedback and Reasons for Rationalization: Peer validates decision; moral myopia risk considered
- Active Experimentation and Conclusion: Action plan for ongoing ethical accountability proposed
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What makes this paper effective
- The author grounds an intensely personal experience in recognized academic frameworks (Gentile's GVV, Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle), giving the reflection both emotional authenticity and scholarly credibility.
- The paper models intellectual honesty by acknowledging the author's own biases, including the assumption that others would share her values and the risk of a conflict of interest as a business owner and cancer survivor.
- The integration of peer feedback as a distinct reflective stage demonstrates awareness of external perspective and strengthens the paper's dialogic quality.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied ethical reasoning through Gentile's GVV pillars: it moves systematically from scenario description and reflective observation through abstract conceptualization to active experimentation. Rather than simply narrating events, the author uses each stage to interrogate her own reasoning, identify cognitive errors (conformity bias, ethical fading), and generate concrete alternative actions—a hallmark of reflective practice at the graduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows Kolb's four-stage learning cycle as its organizing structure: concrete experience (value conflict scenario), reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation, with a peer feedback stage inserted before the conclusion. Each section builds on the previous one, moving from description to analysis to scholarly synthesis to forward-looking action planning.
Overview and Framework
The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical personal reflection on an ethical dilemma I faced in my business. The goal is to conclude with actionable strategies for improvement, based upon Gentile's (2012) approach to managing ethical situations successfully. Using Giving Voice to Values (GVV) and guided by Kolb's 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 prior to the conclusion.
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 (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 behavior"—and that requires reflection and cognition (Gentile, 2013). It also requires understanding how one's own presumptions and biases can play a part in shaping our perception—or as Gentile puts it, "just because I think it's right you're gonna think it's right" is not a good parameter for analysis (Gentile, 2013).
Value Conflict Scenario
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 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 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 Gentile's remarks are relevant to my value conflict scenario because I held the assumption that if "I think it's right, others will too." The situation was this: I am President and CEO of a small creative firm. With COVID-19 devastating business to levels we had never seen, and with the company barely able to survive, we were looking at dropping our policy of covering 100% of team members' health insurance. For me, the idea of dropping health coverage for employees was an enormous conflict: I had had cancer and knew how hard it would have been to cope with medical 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 bankruptcy—and that would mean reducing benefits for employees. My partners reasoned thus: it is 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—it 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, since as President I would benefit from denying my employees their benefits. It was a very confusing situation, and I was not sure if my employees would turn against me if I gave in to my partners and reduced benefits for all. At the same time, I wondered if I was more concerned about my own image than about the health of the company during the pandemic crisis. What needed to come first—my own values, the company's finances, or employees' well-being? How could I even determine what was best for employees? Maybe my partners were right that it is better to have a job without health coverage than no job at all—which surely would be the case if the company did not cut costs immediately.
References
Drumwright, M. E., & Murphy, P. E. (2004). How advertising practitioners view ethics: Moral muteness, moral myopia, and moral imagination. Journal of Advertising, 33(2), 7–24.
Gentile, M. C. (2010). Giving voice to values. Yale University Press.
Goffee, R., & Jones, G. (2005). Managing authenticity: The paradox of great leadership. Harvard Business Review, 83(12), 86–94.
Harvard University. (2013). Building trust: Giving voice to values—Mary Gentile | IECO-RCC. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ3WZ9nv7vQ
Tenbrunsel, A. E., & Messick, D. M. (2004). Ethical fading: The role of self-deception in unethical behavior. Social Justice Research, 17(2), 223–236.
Wong, C. A., & Cummings, G. G. (2009). The influence of authentic leadership behaviors on trust and work outcomes of health care staff. Journal of Leadership Studies, 3(2), 6–23.
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