Assignment Essay

People come across different incidents that deal with ethics and morals in their routine lives. The ethics and morality are the two words that show bad and good in a person, and also gives individuals and society a set of conduct and rules. Moreover, the ethical values guide one to behave and deal situations ethically in real life. The main belief of ethical behavior is believed by religion, education, family, culture and society. This essay will discuss my personal incident that I have experienced to decide on the basis of moral gravity.
Few months back, while I was working with an indenting company where I came across a situation where I had to take a moral decision. At the indenting company, I was responsible to manage the documents of the clients and to handle all the documentation work. My team comprised of three members where my manager was responsible for the final answer to the top management. One day, while I was working, I came across a fake document of freight prepared by my co- worker “X”. The document had all the details related to the indenting but the price charge was mentioned incorrectly. While going through all the other details, I found another similar document with the correct charge fees. Both the two documents have the same details of the client expect the charge fee of the commission. “X” had forwarded the document with incorrect (higher) charges to the client. “X” was trying to keep a portion of his charge along with the company’s charges which was unethical and not known to the company and to the client. By knowing so, it was my moral gravity that forced me to inform the wrong deed of the “X” to the management. On that day, my co-worker “X” left office early, so I took advantage of his absence and reported the incident to my manager. My manager took serious action on the incident and called “X” immediately at the office where he accepted his wrong deed because manager had all the evidences. My manager immediately fired the employee “X”.
The incident affected three different people, i.e., the company, employee and the client. The company’s reputation in front of the client was affected. Moreover, if the client would have filed a case against fraud conducted by the company, it would have seriously caused financial and reputation loss. Moreover, the employee “X” was fired who later realized that if he had not done so, he would have still remained a part of the company. Finally, the client was disappointed because he was one of the oldest clients to the company and the act of “X” has made him careful to make next decision of shipping the load to another region.
The outcomes that generated from the incident were right, particularly with the dismissal of “X”. Moreover, the outcome borne by all other stake-holders were also right has they have to bear for the unethical action taken by “X” that was not good for all. However, the wrong decision would be if I would not have informed my manager about the misconduct of “X”. Moreover, if I would have hide information from my manager and directly contacted “x” would also cause me into more ethical dilemma as he would have offered me bribe to keep the information secret. Therefore, in the situation, I was responsible to highlight the unethical act performed by “X” to the company so that immediate and corrective action could be taken as soon as possible. in addition, if the client would have highlighted the issue, it would create more mistrust from the company as the contacting client by the manager regarding the situation has saved the company from the poor reputation.
In my case, I was adhering to the ethical principle of lawfulness as we are responsible for obeying the law and fight for any misjudgments that are done by someone else. Moreover, in the scenario happened to me, it was my ethics and moral gravity to prefer raising the unethical act of “X” instead of hiding it because it does not relate directly to me. While working in an organization, it is not only important to work ethically, but it is also important to ensure that others working around are also working ethically.
While taking a decision, there are various factors that might create biases to take the best or appropriate decision and action. In my case, my personal interest to bribe and good relationship with my co-worker “X” would have created biasness from making ethical decision and taking right action. In addition, if I would have contacted “X” before contacting my Manager, I know that my friendship and relationship with “X” would have encouraged me to have more concern for my co-worker rather than for company. Similarly, as I am student and always in need of extra income for my expenses, therefore the offer that could be made by “X” to have share in the commission margin would have prevented me to take the ethical decision that was made by me.
On the unethical behavior conducted by “X”, the company was left with no option except for his dismissal from the organization as if would have remained a part of it; similar act from him would have been accepted. However, according to me, I would appreciate if organization has made him realize that he had done something really wrong that has not only affected the company and client, but also his career or future. Moreover, the organization would have punished him with a grading him a lower position that he would made him realize on the position and income level he has lost. However, considering the overall situation, I believe that the action taken by the company was correct.
In a nutshell, the unethical behavior conducted by “x” has not only affected himself, but also the company and its clients. Moreover, the situation has made the management more careful where the manager was made more responsible for cross checkingt all the documents before forwarding it to the client. Likewise, the other employees in the organization have also become more careful in avoiding similar unethical acts that would save the organization from deteriorating its reputation among clients in the future. Thus, on the basis of the situation, I feel that I have taken correct decision and action that was forced by my moral gravity. The decision has not only increased my recognition among my team members, but also saved the organization from future misconducts of employees. Thus, I will take the decision whenever I am faced with a similar situation where I am responsible for taking ethical decision.