CIV402 Sec22 & 66 4/22/2020

Acting Ethically without Having to Make Difficult Choices

Acting in an ethical manner and with little harm to oneself is generally easier in
engineer-oriented and customer-oriented companies than in finance-oriented
companies.

Additional recommendations that should make acting ethically easier and less
harmful to the employee:

1. Engineers and other employees should be encouraged to report bad news.

Sometimes there are formal procedures for lodging complaints and warnings
about impending trouble.
2. Companies and their employees should adopt a position of ‘‘critical’’ loyalty
rather than uncritical or blind loyalty.
3. When making criticisms and suggestions, employees should focus on issues
rather than personalities. This helps avoid excessive emotionalism and
personality clashes.
4. Written records should be kept of suggestions and especially of complaints.
This is important if court proceedings are eventually involved. It also serves to
‘‘keep the record straight’’ about what was said and when it was said.
5. Complaints should be kept as confidential as possible for the protection of
both the individuals involved and the firm.

6. Provisions should be made for neutral participants from outside the

organization when the dispute requires it.
7. Explicit provision for protection from retaliation should be made, with
mechanisms for complaint if an employee believes he or she has experienced
retaliation.
8. The process for handling organizational disobedience should proceed as
quickly as possible. Sufficient delay often allows management to perform the
actions against which the protest was made.

Dr. Manish A. Kewalramani 1