Ethical Dilemmas
Recognizing an ethical dilemma may not be as simple as you might think. Ethical dilemmas may be difficult to recognize, because a true ethical dilemma requires you to choose between two potentially right decisions or answers. Having two potentially right answers or courses of action can easily be overlooked.
Generally, there are three conditions that determine a situation to be an ethical dilemma. First, the situation must require that a correct choice be made. Second, there must be more than one course of action available to choose from. And third, one of the choices will be compromised when another choice or course of action is chosen.
Now that we know what comprises an ethical dilemma, let’s take a look at the four most common ethical dilemmas you may face. They include
Truth vs. loyalty
Individual vs. community
Long term vs. short term issues
Justice vs. mercy
Truth vs. Loyalty
Truth versus loyalty involves accurately depicting facts or information and choosing to keep promises or obligations to others. A humorous example of truth versus loyalty would be when your significant other asks how he or she looks in a particular set of clothing. You may be forced to decide between telling the truth (leading to hurt feelings) or being a loyal partner (and telling a lie).
On the other hand, a serious example of truth versus loyalty would be responding to a California Public Records Act request or providing all documents in an employee’s human resource file, even though you know that the documents may be damaging to the agency or the employee.
Individual vs. Community
Individual versus community places the interests of a single person or small group of people against the larger community as a whole. An example of this may be the long-term employee who does not have the requisite skills to accomplish the level of work that is required to keep the team going. Replacing this employee with a skilled person would contribute to the agency/community, but it would provide hardship to the individual in many ways, including financial loss.
Long-term vs. short-term issues
Balancing long-term versus short-term issues pits the immediate needs of an agency or person against the long-term needs of the individual. Just think about spending versus saving for retirement. Long-term versus short-term decisions can be very difficult, because as human beings, we are not very good at predicting the future with accuracy.
Justice vs. mercy
Justice versus mercy can be best described as expectations and exceptions. Justice relates to the expectations regarding an issue, behavior, or action, while an exception asks for mercy when the expectation is not met. Think about a great employee who became ill and has utilized more sick days than the policy allows. Should mercy be provided?
Another way to describe justice versus mercy is equal treatment or fairness versus compassion. Justice is the concept that people get what they deserve—no more and no less. This means that they should also receive rewards for their actions. Mercy, on the other hand, represents forgiveness when an individual or agency does not follow the rules, laws, morals, or Codes of Ethics.
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