Artifact

Ethics in the Workplace

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Ethics in the Workplace

Introduction

Ethical dilemmas are some of the problems that military employees face. This is particularly true to senior military professionals who are charged with the responsibility of awarding tender or projects to businesses. For a long time, policymakers have struggled with the daunting task of avoiding conflicts of interest in the procurement process. Ethical decision-making models can provide strategies that are effective in addressing ethical dilemmas.

Description of the Ethical Situation

A former programs director for the General Services Administration (GSA) confessed to have taken advantage of his status at Fort Monmouth to provide payments from the government to himself and his family members. The former director executed this violation by awarding tenders and projects to two business persons, who would in turn hire the workers’ personal business enterprise and his daughter as subcontractors (Department of Defense, 2007). Three years later, they were paid more than $80000 in terms of fee from the government. Despite receiving large sums of money from the government, neither the employee’s personal organization nor his daughter really provided any service for the government at all. Besides the clear embezzlement to which the former worker, his wife, and his daughter pled guilty, the federal rules also bans federal workers from making decisions that relate to issues in which they or their family members have personal financial interests.

Although the former general service administration worker and his family members had really provided any of the services that they were paid for, the former worker would still be held culpable for contravening federal rules (Department of Defense, 2007). This is because he awarded tenders and projects to contractors in the first place since his own financial interests were involved. As a result, the former general service administrator and all his family members involved in the scandal were compelled to pay more than $800000 in restitution. They were also sentenced to 12 to 46 months in prison. This is because serious issues related to conflict of interests were raised by the court.

Ethical Dilemma that Impacts Decision-Making

An ethical dilemma can exist in various situations. Ethical dilemmas exist when there are confusions that are brought by lack of obvious right or wrong choice; conflicts that exist between an employee’s own principles and those of other professionals; and situations in which a person’s conduct is viewed from an emotional perspective instead of rationally-based (Zerbe, Härtel & Ashkanasy, 2008). From the above definitions, the former general service administration employee found himself in a dilemma over whether to stick to his own personal principles or those of his professional and legal obligations. Moreover, he was also confused on whether to please his emotional feelings or rational and objective feelings (Zerbe, Härtel & Ashkanasy, 2008). His personal principles were clearly inclined towards fulfilling his family obligations by providing money and taking care of their needs, whereas his professional obligations required him to award tender to the winning bidder without favor. By choosing to award projects worth more than $800000 to a business linked to his family, the former GSA director chose to stick to his personal views as opposed to his professional principles and obligations (Zerbe, Härtel & Ashkanasy, 2008). Moreover, since family members may pose emotional concerns, he chose to please the emotional attachment that he had with a firm linked to his family instead of awarding tender to those who rightfully deserved it.

Conflicts of interest pose one of the most challenging ethical dilemmas in the workplace, especially the military profession. This is the main source of ethical dilemma for the former GSA director. A conflict of interest exists when a businessperson or employee struggles with a circumstance in which a decision that benefits one person has the potential to inflict harm on another. This is the case when the individual’s own interests conflict with those of the public, fellow employees, the laws, and all stakeholders (Boone & Kurtz, 2010). In this situation, the former GSA director faces ethical problems related to conflict of interest. This is because he awards projects to a firm that is linked to his family members. In so doing, he is advancing his personal interests in the tendering and procurement process as opposed to those of the rightfully deserving candidates. Honesty and integrity are some of the esteemed principles that promote trust. However, an individual’s immediate self-interest may appear to require violation of such principles (Boone & Kurtz, 2010). The same is true of the former GSA director, who has decided to serve his immediate self-interest by violating federal standards that prohibit awarding of projects to businesses that are associated with the individual who should be in charge of selecting the most suitable and qualified businesses to be awarded the projects.

Conflicts of interest are at the center of many other forms of ethical problems, such as all cases of corruption and many instances of fraud and insider trading (Kaplan & Walker, 2015). In many business areas such as government-contracting in the military, conflicts of interest-related regulations have been extensively enforced, due to the extensiveness of the conflicts of interest-based challenges. In nearly all organizations, conflicts of interest risks exist. More than most other risk areas, conflicts of interest tend to be personal as is the case with the former GSA director. This can create major challenges to tackling them in the most appropriate manner. For instance, one difficult question raised is when the former GSA director awarded the tender to the organization after determining that it was the most qualified, although it is linked to his family members (Kaplan & Walker, 2015). This implies that conflicts of interest can be personal, not just to winners, but also to losers, such as the business that was never awarded the project. In light of the above, it is the task of the former director of GSA to understand conflicts of interest issues. In addition, conflicts between management team and other stakeholders in the military must be resolved in an amicable and legal manner.

Decision-Making Model to the Dilemma

In order to avoid possible ethical violations, the former GSA should have employed the positive models of ethical decision-making proposed by Jones. The Jones model offers one of the most comprehensive synthesis models of ethical decision-making (Michalos & Poff, 2012). It introduces the issue of moral intensity. The foundation of Jones model is based on Rest’s four stages to link positive ethical decision-making and presumes that ethical choices are not merely individual decisions, but are influenced by social learning within an organization. The first step is recognizing an issue. At this point, the former GSA director should have identified possible conflicts of interest as the ethical issue to confront. Recognizing an issue should be guided by moral evaluations through moral philosophies such as deontology and teleology (Michalos & Poff, 2012). Timely recognition of possible conflicts of interest enables better control and best possible outcomes.

The next stage of the ethical decision-making process should be making moral judgment. This entails processing and eliminating possible solutions (Michalos & Poff, 2012 The former director should have examined different sides of the moral debate on whether he should award tender to a business linked to his family or the most qualified business. This must be done by taking into account perspectives from all parties involved, including the legal perspectives. The third phase is known as moral motivation, which entails thinking beyond possible consequences. This includes thinking first about the consequences of serving his personal interests on the quality of services that are going to be delivered. The final stage of the decision-making model is referred to as moral action, which involves acting by making judgments (Michalos & Poff, 2012 After evaluating both sides of the ethical dilemma, the former director ought to have taken action that does not have the worst consequence on the organization that he served. In this case, he should have avoided possible conflicts of interest.

Conclusion

Conflicts of interest are one of the leading causes of ethical dilemmas in all business organizations. This includes the military, which awards tender to many businesses. Senior employees may sometimes use their influence to award projects with large sums of money to businesses or entities that they have links with. Therefore, ethical decision-making models can offer solutions in cases where company policies fail.

References

Boone, L., & Kurtz, D. (2010). Contemporary business 2010 update. New Jersey: John Wiley &

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Department of Defense. (2007). Encyclopedia of ethical failures. Washington DC: Department

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Kaplan, J. M., & Walker, R. (2015). Board conflicts of interest in an age of behavioral ethics.

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Michalos, A. C., & Poff, D. C. (Eds.). (2012). Citation classics from the journal of business

ethics: Celebrating the first thirty years of publication (Vol. 2). New York: Springer

Science & Business Media.

Zerbe, W. J., Härtel, C. E., & Ashkanasy, N. M. (Eds.). (2008). Emotions, ethics and decision-

making. Boston: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.