GEd 107 Module 2: Moral Dilemmas

Moral dilemma (Kvalnes 2019 definition)

A specific situation in which a decision-maker must give preference to one moral principle over another, knowing that whatever action is taken will inevitably offend an important moral value.

Self-Inflicted Dilemma

A moral dilemma that arises as a direct result of a prior personal mistake made by the agent.

Strict Moral Dilemma

A situation where competing moral values are of completely equal importance.

Broad Moral Dilemma

A scenario where a person has remarkably strong moral reasons for acting in one way, yet lacks equally strong moral reasons for acting in the alternative way.

Moral dilemma (Kurie & Albin 2007 definition)

A situation in which people assume they should morally do one thing and should morally do another thing, and occasionally a third or fourth thing, but are completely unable to perform any of these mutually contradictory choices together.

Ethical or moral dilemma (Figar & Dordevic 2016 definition)

A situational crisis whereby a person has to make a definitive choice among competing alternatives to determine which is the right ethical alternative and which option is the absolute best.

Four core characteristics of a moral dilemma

1) Require an explicit option for one moral value over another, 2) present values of equally significant weight, 3) offer strong moral reason to act but lack an equally strong reason to act another way, 4) create a state where conflicting choices cause immense decision difficulty.

Organizational Ethical or Moral Dilemma

Sourced from Lamberto et al. (2013), a situation that causes an organization to respond negatively or positively to an ethical issue directly affecting staff, shareholders, customers, and society, heavily involving leaders preserving financial reporting integrity.

Unethical Leadership / Bad Leadership Behavior

Occurs when a leader abuses authority, accepts inappropriate gifts, or fails to act with candor and upright moral values before subordinates.

Toxic Workplace Culture

Occurs when management fails to support a positive work-life balance, reducing employee motivation and happiness, which directly hurts corporate performance and productivity.

Discrimination and Harassment (Organizational)

Involves failing to treat workers fairly, creating the peril of employee favoritism or toxic harassment.

Unrealistic and Conflicting Goals

Occurs when a leader fails to establish clear, realistic goals, preventing subordinates from understanding what the organization is going through and keeping them from working together thoroughly.

Misuse of Technology and Privacy Concerns

Involves using an organization's technology for transactions outside official operations, or utilizing social media while in the office instead of prioritizing clients.

Business Travel Ethics

Involves using an organization's travel funds inappropriately or mismanaging per diems provided for official business trips.

Individual Moral Dilemma

Sourced from Smith (2018), a situation where individual ethical standards are challenged by immediate external factors.

Three primary factors influencing individual dilemmas

Peer pressure (socialization networks warping behavior/attitudes), personal financial position (creating intense moral distress), and economic/social status (forcing individuals to live beyond means as "social climbers").

Structural Moral Dilemma

The continuous challenge of selecting and setting up a proper systemic framework of organizational responsibilities and relationships.

Differentiation vs. Integration conflict

The structural conflict between distributing specialized jobs and coordinating numerous activities, making a tightly coupled, centered organization difficult as task structures grow more complicated.

Gap vs. Overlap conflict

When main tasks are not clearly defined, critical jobs slip through the cracks (gaps), or functions and activities overlap among teams, leading to conflict and unintended duplication of responsibilities.

Lack of Clarity vs. Lack of Creativity conflict

When employees are unclear about expectations, they adapt tasks to personal interests; if over-defined, they comply rigidly and bureaucratically, causing the actual product or service to fail.

Excessive Autonomy vs. Excessive Interdependence conflict

When groups are granted too much independence, they become isolated from the system; if too closely connected, people are distracted from core duties and waste time on excessive coordination.

Four structural characteristics required to avoid dilemmas

1) Well-distributed jobs balancing rules through lateral approaches, 2) clearly defined roles to evade gaps/overlaps, 3) clear-cut, transparent expectations across goals, 4) well-balanced level of structural interdependence.