THREE (3) LEVELS OF MORAL

DILEMMAS
What are the levels of Moral Dilemmas?

1. Personal Dilemmas
2. Organizational Dilemma
3. Structural Dilemmas
What is Personal or Individual Dilemma?
Personal Dilemmas are those experienced and
resolved on the personal level.

Since many ethical decisions are personally made,

many if not most of moral dilemmas fall under, or boil
down to this level. If a person makes conflicting
promises, he faces a moral conflict.
What is Organizational Dilemma?
Organizational moral dilemmas refer to ethical cases encountered and resolves
by social organization. This category includes moral dilemmas in business,
medical fields and public sector.

Example of moral dilemmas in Medical Field:

• A medical institution which believes that human life should not be deliberately
shortened and that unpreventable pain should not be tolerated encountered a
conflict in resolving whether to withdraw life support from a dying patient.
Examples Organizational Dilemmas:

Medical Field:
• A medical institution which believes that human life should not be deliberately shortened and that unpreventable
pain should not be tolerated encountered a conflict in resolving whether to withdraw life support from a dying
patient.

Business:
• Administrative bodies in business are confronted with situations in which several courses of actions possible but
none of them provide a totally successful outcome to those affected by the decisions or actions taken.
• A corporate business establishment encountered a conflict between closing the business temporarily or reducing
significant number of employees through mass lay-off due to week financial performance brought by economic
crisis in the country.

Public Sector:
• Public officials encountered dilemmas whether or not to favor family, friends, or campaign contributor over other
constituents.
• Favoring the agenda of political party over a public policy one believes to good for the community.
• Accepting gifts though legally permitted but creates the appearance of impropriety.
Organizational Dilemmas in Business:
Moral dilemmas in business involve issues about corporate practices,
policies, business behaviors, and the conducts and relationships of
individuals in the organization

Example of moral dilemmas in Business:

• Administrative bodies in business are confronted with situations in which
several courses of actions possible but none of them provide a totally
successful outcome to those affected by the decisions or actions taken.
• A corporate business establishment encountered a conflict between
closing the business temporarily or reducing significant number of
employees through mass lay-off due to week financial performance
brought by economic crisis in the country.
What is Structural Dilemma?
Structural moral dilemmas refer to cases involving network of institutions and operative
theoretical paradigms. As they usually encompass multi-sectoral institutions and
organizations, they may be larger in scope and extend than organizational dilemmas.

Example of structural dilemma:

Case in point is the prices of medicine in the Philippines which are higher compared
to other countries in Asia and in countries of similar economic status. Factor
affecting medicine prices include cost of research, presence of competition in the
market, government regulations, and patent protection. Institutions concerned may
want to lower the costs of medicine thereby benefiting the Filipino public, but such
a move may ruin the interests of the involved researchers, inventors or discovers,
and pharmaceutical companies which own the patent of the medicines or
healthcare technologies. Thus, may result to unfavorable effect to the public.