It’s easy to point the Finger of Guilt at well-known personalities or entities who defy the standards of ethics, moral and values on a grand scale and the consequences are far-reaching.
What is difficult is to examine the common violations of our more personal standards, especially the ones that we become immune to noticing—because we see them so often or we may know someone guilty of such action,or perhaps we are guilty of some of them ourselves.
It can be as simple as taking home a handful of paperclips from our job to knowlingly accepting and keeping the incorrect change (in our favor, of course) from the grocery store cashier.
Your task is to describe three common ethical dilemmas and offer some suggestions of how a person could or should turn the situation around.
Remember Kant’s Categorical Imperative:
“Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”
In other words, if it’s OK for you, then it should be OK for everyone, everywhere and every time. Hmmmm
dilemma 1: you get pulled over for speeding and you know that you were going faster then should have been. the officer askes you if you know why you were pulled over and you told them you didnt know. YOUR LYING A way you can change the situation is tell the officer the truth that you were speeding and that you knew you shouldnt of been. then you may get off a little easier because the officer appraicates your honesty.
ReplyDeletedilemma 2: you are walking down the sidewalk and the person infront of you drops a $20 bill you pick it up and pocket it not saying anything. Now another way is picking up the money and running up to that person to say that you have dropped the money. You dont know the situation of that person it could be there last dollar for the week and they also will appraciate that you were honest and that makes you feel good.
dilemma 3: cheating on a test and getting caught doing it. this could happen more for a high school student. when asked if you were cheating and the teacher saw you but you lie anyways. Another way of to change the situation is again to be honest with the teacher and say yes but first be honest with yourself and maybe the test was to hard for that student to take, but wanted to get a good grade. the teacher could give that student a second chance on taking the test.
Some things that I see that are unethical and people just seem to walk by without noticing or commenting are: People eating food in the grocery store while they are shopping and then they put the empty bag or box on the shelf before they leave so they don’t have to pay for it. I think this happens because employees don’t want to confront people. If they told a member of management or security maybe it would be taken care of if they didn’t want to approach the person themselves. When you go someplace and the cashier asked if you would like to donate to a charity and people make up some of the craziest excuses why they won’t. If they don’t want to donate all they have to say is no. there really doesn’t have to be an explanation. They need to feel better about themselves so they feel making up a lie is better and people won’t look at them as being a bad person because they say no. once that transaction is done no one thinks about it again and we have to get past that. One thing I see a lot of is when a person tells someone something in confidence and asks not to tell anyone else. The urge is there and they always feel the need to tell just one person this juicy piece of gossip. This urge keeps going and there is no longer a secret it is now a grapevine and everyone knows. It is hard to find people to trust and you can’t always keep things inside. Know and trust the people you are talking to if it is that juicy maybe it is better off not being said until you can handle the results of the secret.
ReplyDelete1st Dilemma - A person is walking around Target and notices a little kid who is lost and is looking for their parent. They come up to the person, and say "I can't find my Mom." The question becomes what do you do? Do you take the kid to the front of the customer service desk or do you just say "I can't help you, sorry or just walk away." That is the question. The right thing to do is first say, where did you Mommy go?" Then if they don't know take the child up to the customer service desk and wait for the parent, or have the customer service person call throughout the store to find the parent. Chances are the parent is still in the store, what parent would leave without their child?
ReplyDelete2nd Dilemma - A person is shopping at the grocery store and sees that someone's paper towel fell out of their cart outside of the store. Instead of turning in the paper towel, they decide to just keep it and put it in your cart. This is totally a wrong action, because to make it right, they should take the item, go into the grocery store and give the item to the customer service desk. They tell them that someone had already paid for it, but it fell out of someone's cart as they were leaving. They then leave the store, or continue on with their day.
3rd Dilemma - During a job interview, a person tells the interviewer that they were a manager of a local Burger King Restaurant, instead of an Assistant Manager. They also tell other lies about their experiences so that they look good to the perspective employer. To fix this situation, the person should never lie about their experiences just to get a job. If they don't have the right qualifications, they will be found out sooner or later, so lying about what they have to offer doesn't work so well in the end.
First dilemma: You are the only witness who saw a bully beat up your best friend. The bully tells you not to say anything or you will be the next victim. When you are called to the principals office you are told to tell the principal what happened and who beat up your best friend. You can tell the principal what happened and who did it which would be helping your best friend or you don’t say anything because you do not want to be beaten up. The best option would be to tell the principal what happened and what the bully said to you if you told anyone what happened and you should also tell your parents what had happened.
ReplyDeleteSecond dilemma: You are driving and talking on your cell phone, out of the corner of your eyes you see a police officer parked in a police car waiting to catch someone. You hurry to put your cell phone away and seconds later you are pulled over and the police officer says that he saw you talking on your cell phone and is going to give you a ticket. You can lie and say that you were not on your phone or you can tell the truth and accept the consequence. The best option for you is to accept that you did wrong and pay the ticket.
Third dilemma: You are in a gym class and your final grade consist of running a trail. The teacher tells the class not to take the short cut because it would be considered cheating. While you and a friend are running you both decide to take the short cut. The teacher approaches you after the run and asks if you took the short cut. You can tell the truth or lie and say that you did not take the short cut. The best option would be to tell the truth.
Sara Hilton
ReplyDeleteFirst Dilemma- People walking around the grocery store eating food with no intent of paying for it. I do work and have seen that more than you would think. It is hard to approach the person because often times I am the younger person telling an adult what is right and wrong which is negatively viewed upon in society. Even though in the store as an employee I would technically have the "upper hand." It is hard an uncomfortable to approach someone older than you and tell them that they are stealing. What if found is easier to do is to tell my front end supervisor that I think they are stealing and let them follow through with proper actions.
Second Dilemma: This situation has happened to me. Were I left my cell phone in the bath room at work because I was changing. I started to walk out and the next person stopped me and gave me my cell phone. The lady could have easy taken it and did whatever she wanted with it. But she was honest about. Was it because I was in my work uniform clearly indicating I was an employee there or she was simply doing the right thing. I don't know. But I appreciated her act of kindness. When someone drops or forgets something just return it. You know its not yours.
Third Dilemma: You get pulled over for speeding and you know you were speeding. Instead of lying you could just tell the truth and own up to it. My dads a cop and says he's less likely to give a ticket if people are honest and just admit that they were doing it. We all do it. Just stinks when you get caught. Don't deny it. Just admit your actions.
The first of three ethical dilemmas is when the person in class next to you leaves their test wide open to where you can see the answers. You have a question that you do not know the answer to so you could look if you wanted to. To turn this around the person can just leave the answer blank or guess. Just because the opportunity is there to cheat doesn’t mean you should do it.
ReplyDeleteThe second of three ethical dilemmas is when you see the person walking in front of you drop money on the ground. You could pick it up and keep it, or you could get the attention of the person and tell them they dropped it. Even if I didn’t know who dropped it, I would look around and assess the area before keeping the money. I would have to think if it was me that dropped it, I would appreciate an honest person giving it back to me.
The third of three is when you are in a group of people that are supposedly your friends and they are ganging up on a person. They will expect you to follow and gang up on them to, but instead you could walk away, get help, or intervene and tell your friends it isn’t right what they are doing to just leave the kid alone.
I believe you should do upon others what you want done to yourself!
I think the first is when people come across a person on a busy street and can tell that things are out of sorts, it could be that they are young and cant find a parent or that they are having an argument with a partner/friend, a lot of people today walk by with out even a second glance, they can chose to ignore or they can chose to help.
ReplyDeleteAnother scenario that seem to happen a lot is when you are walking around a grocery store and you see people eating or giving food to their children. DO they pay for it or do they consume it and not pay when they cash out? DO you alert a store clerk or do you ask the person have they paid for it yet? This is such a tricky situation as it can be confrontational to get involved.
A third scenario is when you are taking a test and you are at a table where there are people on both sides so you can see each others exams, you are struggling on some of the question while your friend next to you is flying through, do you cheat off the friend if they are on the same page or do you chose to go with your best answer.
Only you can chose how to act in situations.
First dilemma - you find someone's wallet. You have two options: bring the wallet to your nearest police station so they can return it to it's rightful owner, or keep the wallet and the items inside for yourself. Most obviously the correctly ethical and moral option is to return the wallet, however that is not always the case. I found a wallet once when I was younger and returned the wallet to the man. In return, he sent me twenty dollars as a reward for finding it and returning it. The night before I left to go to college when I was 18, I lost my wallet, and it was never returned to me. In fact, two years later my license was sent to me in the mail from a man who said he had found it in the river.
ReplyDeleteSecond dilemma - a drive off at a gas station. The morally right thing is always to pay for your gas, yet this does not always happen. Many places now have cameras to catch the people who drive off but not all of them. My friend from school worked at a gas station where there were no cameras and at least twice a week she would have to write off a drive off.
Third dilemma - you are shopping with a friend and you see her steal a necklace. Do you tell the sales clerk in case she gets caught so you do not go down with her? Or do you keep your mouth shut in hopes that nothing happens and question her about it after she is scott-free.
First ethical dilemma, it is a common fact in our human nature; we do not like to face the consequences of our wrong action, for instance, according to a TV Show, “COPS” when someone got caught in committing a crime, some of them may admitted that it is their first time doing it, some may blame on someone else that cause them to committed a crime, and some may not have no sense of guilt of their wrong action, in fact they even deny of wrong doing.
ReplyDeleteSecond ethical dilemma is based on personal experience, recently, I lost a ring at work, as I recalled, I did not misplace it. It happened in the locker room, when I removed the ring to put on lotion, I remembered that I left it on the bench, I forget to put it back on when I left the locker room. Approximately, half hour later, I realize that I left my ring on the bench and went back to get it but it’s not there anymore. At the same time, I also remembered exactly who walked into the locker room when I walked out. When I ask this person, she denied having seen it. A month later, I saw that same ring on her finger, when I ask her about the ring; she said she just bought it.
Third ethical dilemma, for instance, let say when a spouse is suspicious of another spouse is committing adultery, when the questioning were ask by a spouse, instead of telling the truth and facing the consequences, the cheating spouse tended to deny it or use excuses to get themselves out of the situation. The cheating spouse could tell the truth and face the possible divorce, or continue to hide the affair and face the consequence of unresolved conflict that leads to stressful situations. Suggestion, for every lie, the truth will find a way to come out eventually.
Three ethical dilemmas that I think are big ones, meaning they occur more often than they should are:
ReplyDelete1. When a couple is married and either the husband or wife has conversations with another prospect while in the marriage. For example: Facebook. Facebook is for connecting with people from your past and is a social network. It brings many people together, which can potentially lead to negative things. If one member of a relationship is talking outside of the marriage in context that should not be talked about (ie: cheating, sexual interests, or rekindling an old fling) it is considered cheating. There are certain things that a person should not say to another while in a relationship. It is a moral obligation to be faithful to your spouse, simple as that.
2. When a person gets pulled over by a police officer for speeding and when the officer comes up to the window and asks if you know the reason they are pulling you over. In most cases the person will lie to pretend and make themselves look better like they were not breaking the law. It's lying. That is not okay. You know why you are being stopped, fess up and next time think before you act.
3. When you are walking through a store or even outside and you find money on the ground. Most people pick it up as long as no one is watching, and keeps it. The right thing to do would be to return it to the store owner or security personnel. Not only does it rightfully belong to someone else, it will also make you feel better knowing that you did the right thing.
It is up to one person how these situations are handled, and that is yourself.
The first ethical dilemma I would consider would be using people. Pretending to be someone’s friend only to gain something from them is an example of this, whether it is for financial gain or popularity gain or some other personal gain. My solution to turn this around would be to take a good inventory of yourself and see what is it that you are lacking in your life and stop replacing it with what others have.
ReplyDeleteA second ethical dilemma would be cheating; it could be on someone, with money, and / or material objects. Again I believe the solution comes down to taking a closer look at oneself and discover what one is missing.
A third ethical dilemma that some of us face is when people lie to us. People lie for many reasons mainly for selfish reasons or to hide the truth. My granddady use to always say you can trust a thief and a killer but you could never trust a liar. This situation would be hard to turn around because it would take precious time and forgiveness to ever be trusted
Dilemma 1. Someone asks for help on a take-home test that is to be completed on an individual basis. You could just say no, I am not going to help. Another option is to assist them in rephrasing the question in their own words, but not giving them the answers.
ReplyDeleteDilemma 2. What do you do when you see your friend shoplifting? You should tell the store personnel immediately. If you can stop your friend from shoplifting before the act is committed that would be better for the friendship. Just be honest.
Dilemma 3. You see a group of people getting into a fight in the middle of the street blocking the flow of traffic in a bad part of town. Take note of the location. Get to a safe area and immediately report the situation to the police.
Three ethical dilemmas that I think are big ones, meaning they occur more often than they should are:
ReplyDeleteDilemma1. When a person gets pulled over by a police officer for speeding and when the officer comes up to the window and asks if you know the reason they are pulling you over. In most cases the person will lie to pretend and make themselves look better like they were not breaking the law. It's lying. That is not okay. You know why you are being stopped, fess up and next time think before you act.
Dilemma 2. People shopping in the grocery store who open product for the kids and not pay for them...I see this alot when shopping with the wife.
Dilemma 3. Seeing a fight break out and instead of breaking it up or calling for help you walk away