Submitted By

Sahana P M
PGDM No – 21153
Section C
Date : 6-1-2022

Answer 1
An example of personal ethical dilemma would be of my one friend being distressed due to another
friend. Few years ago, a friend of mine, “A” was displeased with another friend “B” of ours due to
her inability to concentrate on the work while working as a group. This led to most of the workload
falling on A. The problem was that friend B didn’t pay attention to work while doing the project
and was on phone most of the time, either calling or texting. In 7 days of project, A kept up with
this attitude of B for 2-3 days and later got distressed because of the excessive workload. This
disturbed her mentally and she lost her cool. She was stressed most of the time and was either angry
or found crying. On being asked, she told the entire incident to me, and I felt the easiest way to
resolve it is by making the two discuss about the issue. This would help them communicate freely
and try to arrive at a middle path. This was a case of individual ethical issue. It had to be solved on
a personal level. I was in a dilemma about whether to confront B about her attitude or wait for A to
speak to B about it. I could not see A being distressed due to a small issue and was quick to react
and brought up the topic of friend A’s problem with friend B’s behaviour towards work. I did not
think if the situation was right for the discussion and brought up the topic during dinner in front of
all my friends. This made the situation awkward and turned bad. B was unaware of what A was
feeling and going through due to her careless behaviour. B justified that she felt that there was not
much work and since A was very interested in doing the work, she left A to do all the work. This
was wrong and B was not ready to accept her mistake. She pointed out that A should have spoken to
her in case of any issue rather than keeping quiet. Thus, A and B had a thorough discussion of the
situation and poured out their feelings and later sympathised each other and got back to good terms.
Though me bringing up the topic helped them to get back to good terms, they were upset with me
for bringing it up in front of other friends.

In this case, I would rate myself 7 out of 10 for the way I reacted to the situation. Though my
intention was good, the way the whole thing came up was not right. I should have been more
sensitive about the environment and the situation before speaking anything. This would have helped
in solving the issue in a better way and not spoilt my relationship with them. In this case of ethical
dilemma, the major stakeholders were the three of us and our friendship.
Though being a negotiator and having clear communication is necessary, it is also necessary to
manage people and their emotions in the situation. I was trying to solve the issue before it turned
into a crisis and led to problem between friends. Leaving the issue unresolved would lead to
deterioration of relationships but mishandling the delicate situation led to different type of crisis.
Hence while faced with an ethical dilemma, not only taking steps to solve it matters, also the way in
which it is solved matters so as to not spoil the relationships once the issue is resorted.

Answer 2
While working in XYZ Ltd., the company allocated a budget for party and dinner. This was
allocated yearly twice. The money for the same could be claimed by producing bills of expenditure
during the party or dinner arranged by the employees’ team. This was being misused by producing
exaggerated bills which were nearly 20-30% higher than the original cost of the event. This money
was then shared among a few who organised the event and produced the bills. This came to my
notice while been working there. Huge amount of company funds were misappropriated in the name
claims for expenditures. This issue came under the framework of stealing from the company and
padding expense accounts for personal use. This was an individual level on which the ethical
problem existed. The company was the major stakeholder in this case as it was losing money
unaccounted for. My reaction to the situation was by making aware the manager to cross verify the
bills before approving them and give the responsibility of hosting dinner to different people every
year. This helped in curbing the malpractice of misappropriation by shifting the authority to
different people. It also did not involve direct mentioning of names and hence a good way of raising
a complaint in an organisation and thus not spoiling the relationship between employees and also
not blaming anyone directly and spoiling their image in the company.
Overall, I would rate myself 8 out of 10 for the resilience displayed by me in this situation of ethical
dilemma in professional life. The situation could have been handled better by speaking to my
colleagues first and try to convince them about correcting their behaviour and then approaching the
manager if the situation did not improve. This would give them a chance to correct themselves
before anyone could find out about it and they would lose their reputation in office.
Another instance would be tax evasion by the company by creating fake bills and by taking cash
payments and making cash payments. This system lead to huge amounts of tax being evaded every
year by the company by adjusting records and payments. This was an organization level ethical
issue and the major stakeholder od this was the government whose taxes were being evaded. This
was a practice known to everyone in the company and was being practiced publicly in the company.
Unfortunately, I could not retaliate to this as it was a practice prevalent in the company and it
started from the top level and flowed down the hierarchy. Any whistle-blowing done against it
would result in termination of job and a negative recommendation letter which would make it
difficult to gain any job in that field in the future.
It was a case of whistle-blowing vs. organizational loyalty. Since the practice was from the top
management, it was an organization level ethical issue. Since there was no documented evidence of
the unethical practices, it was difficult raise voice against it. Hence keeping mum was the only thing
to be done. Going by the knowledge available now after learning this course, I understand that there
could be ways in which I could raise my voice against the issue and also aware of my rights as an
employee gives me the courage to raise voice against unethical issues practiced by the organisation
and not fear losing my job because of it.
I would rate myself 5 out of 10 depending on how I reacted in that situation but understand that
improvement in my score is possible as of now. This scenario of unethical leadership maybe
considered as one of the reasons for unethical employees as explained in the previous example in
this question.