Ethical Context Essays Example

Disasters, whether natural or technological, usually strike without a precursor. As a result, communities, families or individuals suffer distress and debilitation. The distress may be brought about by loss of health and life, property, personal belongings, jobs, community infrastructure and social ties. Organizations are often faced with emergency management issues where an array of post disaster services is required. Since different organizations operates under various assumptions, auspices and values there occurs variation of approaches towards disaster management. The organization may approach an emergency with best intentions but due to dynamics involved in modes of communication, scheduling, eligibility standards and application requirements increase susceptibility to conflicts, inconsistency and poor coordination in emergency management. This may increase anger and frustration in chaotic situation and impede the movement towards longer term environmental, social and economic recovery and development. Ethical considerations in such situations are paramount.
The seriousness of implication of decision made during disaster management depends on the nature of the disaster. As a manager in one of the humanitarian organization in America, the terror attack of the twin towers was really a dilemma. The information got into our offices in the morning of September 11, 2001 and required prompt action from our center. Issuing prompt orders to staff to rush to the scene and join in the saving efforts of the victims. Just before I could set off my team, the government reported that there was a possibility that attack was carried out by terrorists and wished that people around the world trade center could be alert. According to the disaster management policies of the organization, there should be immediate response to reported emergencies. However, the center has no history of response to terror attack and this caused the delay on decision to respond. Barely an hour later, another message came that the southern tower had also been attacked and was also on fire. This was not only startling but also exposed the management to dilemma.
The question was whether the center had the capacity to respond to terror attacks, whether to rush to northern or southern tower or to subdivide the staff into two. The major question was what if another strike happens? After an hour or so, the government announced that the rescue operation had already kicked off. A decision to send our crew to the scene was reached and they rushed to the two scenes and joined in rescuing the victims. After some time the buildings collapsed crashing the rescuers and the victim. Some members of our team became victims too. I instructed the team members who escaped unhurt to rescue their colleagues fast. The rescuing process continued and our members are accused of ignoring the rest of the victims and saving the staff members first. Some of the survivors still believe that their condition would have been better were it not for the discrimination from the members of our team. Others believe that the act also made them lose some of their loved ones.
Some emergency decisions may not be right especially to survivors. The decision to delay the rescue process was important for I minded the safety of our staff. However the unexpected still happened. The instruction to rescue our team members first was also justified as they had higher chances of surviving as the building collapsing was not as fatal as the initial attack. However, in future, hastening the rescue process and subdividing the group members for some to rescue their colleagues while others save the rest of the victims will be a good idea.