Introduction
In all spheres of life, one has to constantly make decisions, consciously or not. This means that it is important to analyze how one behaves in difficult situations, not only to make one’s life better, but to see who one is as well. In my case, as a nurse, I have had to work with many difficult patients, as most people in the profession. From difficult patients to tough family members, this is obviously not an easy profession.
Nevertheless, I believe that one of the most significant ethical dilemmas was actually in regards to a superior who was going to let a worker go because he was homosexual. I found this to be unacceptable. Therefore, I saw the need to fight against it. This really challenged the way I saw both life and myself.
This obviously had important moral and ethical implications, as well as legal ones; nevertheless, because of the sensitive and taboo topic, they were almost profoundly disregarded. I had a very important role in this situation, as I was the one that changed my supervisor’s point of view on the matter, leading him to the correct path. As a guardian, I sought to keep the institutions that make our country great.
Situation
Even though this may sound trivial now, it was a very pressing and scandalous situation at the time. At the moment, people of different sexual orientations were stigmatized and discriminated against. After I had about a year working at a hospital, a nurse was going to be discharged because he was a homosexual.
This person will be referred to as Derek Jacobs, in order to conceal his identity in such a sensitive issue. We had the same supervisor, who was pressing Mr. Jacobs to resign due to his newly-public sexual orientation. The nurse had already taken the decision to leave.
However, the treatment he was receiving was not fair at all. After being basically forced to quit his job, he was being publically shamed and shunned, all because he did not fit the traditional standards of masculinity. Even though I know that there were many people for who this was something to be ashamed of, there was a significant portion of those involved in the hospital that were starting to open their eyes to the fact that there was nothing wrong with having a different sexual orientation than the established norm.
Moral, Ethical and Legal Implications
Obviously, there are many moral and ethical implications in this situation. The most significant is the position with respect to homosexuality: whether one finds it to be evil or not. Even though there is a general consensus among the learned public today that there is nothing wrong with having a different sexual orientation, it is also important to note that this position has changed numerous times in history. The general public has seen homosexuality in many different moral lights throughout the years, so it is not a very cut and dry issue. There are still many controversial aspects of homosexuality at hand, including whether if it comes from nature or from nurture, characteristics that could help decide whether to find it morally acceptable or not (Blackwell, 2008).
Another important ethical aspect to consider is discrimination. The issue whether one should actually fire somebody because of any mental or physical condition is important as well. There are many people that believe that being a homosexual is wrong, yet that would find it immoral to fire somebody because of their sexual orientation.
Madera (2010) argues that the fear of disclosing one’s different sexual orientation leads to many impairments in the workplace, including cognitive ones (p. 86). These people may try to help in many ways so that the person changes his or her conduct, yet would condone mistreatment towards homosexuals.
Finally, there are also legal implications involved. Even though one may morally believe that being a homosexual is wrong or not, this more particular point of view should cede to the law. Humans acquire a social contract when they decide to form a part of society. In this sense, it is important for them to put their prejudices aside in order to uphold the law.
Obviously, in this predicament, our supervisor was breaking a very important law that goes against discrimination in the workplace due to sexual orientation. There has been a long history of discrimination of LGBT people in the workplace, and different laws have been put in place so that this does not happen as much as they did before (Pizer, Sears, Mallory & Hunter, 2011, p. 715). Laws are very important because they set a standard that everybody in society has to abide by.
Personal Role
I had a really important personal role in this situation, as I was the person that led the movement towards him not leaving the workplace. He was really an excellent nurse, and it was horrible to see him go because of this. Even though he said he was going to leave voluntarily, he was obviously being coerced by the shaming and threat of firing that the supervisor was imposing on him. As I knew this to be wrong, I fought diligently so that he stayed in his workplace and so that people respected him.
I basically achieved this in two different ways: changing public opinion and talking personally with the supervisor. I decided to take action when I saw that there were many people that also supported his staying. Even though there had been people laid off because of this before, the workers were now being more understanding towards people with alternate sexual orientations.
This meant that there was a growing rumble that he should stay in his workplace, something that I decided to capitalize upon. By talking to different people at various times, I started to make it clear that it was acceptable to support Mr. Jacobs. This led to a decrease in the shunning that they were imposing upon him, something that visible made him feel better about his place in the hospital.
Furthermore, I also discussed this with the supervisor in order to pressure him into coming to his senses. “The employer has a responsibility to understand the environment in which it works and to adapt itself to that environment as long as it is not compromising its ability to do good and productive work” (Lansing & Cruser, 2009, p. 60). I talked to him about the legal responsibilities that he had, and the way that he was committing an illegal act by promoting this type of discrimination and if he were to lay him off.
This, along with the public opinion, led him to change his position, calling back Mr. Jacobs so that he would keep working in the hospital. Even though I cannot actually say how much this was due to my own intervention, I believe that I had a very important role in this establishment of the correct order once again.
Relation to Leadership Style
In this particular case, my leadership style did not quite facilitate my acting in favor of Mr. Jacobs. I am a guardian, considered to be one of the most conservative of these categorizations. According to Omar, Syed-Abdullah and Hussin (2010), guardians are people that mix sensing and judging (p. 625).
Nevertheless, it is important to note that the aid or challenge that this brought me really depends on what institution one believes that guardians would like to uphold. Even though there is a tradition of men being attracted to women and vice versa, one could also take the virtues of equality and ethics of care as that which the guardian would uphold.
In this case, traditions were being pit against one another, and there was really no way out but to decide on which one would be more important for the person. Even though guardians constantly attempt to preserve the different traditions and institutions, sometimes the choice is not as easy as upholding a tradition and dismissing change.
As such, I believe that the preservation of the rule of loving one’s neighbor was also at stake here, and that is something that my guardian personality facilitated. Likewise, it is a human tradition to treat others kindly, especially if they form part of minorities. For me, it was not difficult to defend Mr. Jacobs as I though t it to be the logical continuation of caring and solidarity, the basis of all societies.
Furthermore, my leadership style also stands for the respect of the law, something that obviously facilitated my participation in this case in a more direct manner. Guardians are committed with law and order, and this was something at stake in this situation. “Guardians are concerned citizens who trust authority, join groups, seek security, prize gratitude, and dream of meting out justice” (Scheider, 2010, p. 105). If my boss would have gone ahead with his plans, he would not have been in keeping with what the law stated, and this was something that was unacceptable for me as a guardian.
In all, I have to say that I knew this sort of thing would happen, as I knew about my employer’s discriminative tendencies. In fact, this had already happened before, in a very similar case, and I had done nothing against it more than later comment to him, in an offhand remark, that what he had done had been wrong. Nevertheless, this was only the preparation for this stronger stance that I mustered up this time in order to fight for justice and what was right for all involved.
Conclusion
The way one handles the problems that are presented do not only reflect who one is, but shape one’s life as well. Work is only one of such parts of life, where one has to make tough, ethical decisions. One of the toughest situations I have had to face as a nurse has been the letting go of a coworker because he was a homosexual.
Although this could seem almost silly at the moment, it was a very controversial topic at the time, and my role was both facilitated and hindered due to my leadership style. At the end, it was important to distinguish what I thought to be the right path in order to uphold my traditional principles, as a guardian.
Even though I was not very comfortable with blazing this new trail, I did it because I thought it was the right thing to do. I knew that change would be positive for the company and the community as a whole. This was true even if I did not feel comfortable with it myself at first. I saw that change was important and beneficial for companies and societies, a true learning experience for a guardian!
Reference List
Blackwell, C. W. (2007). Belief in the “Free Choice” model of homosexuality: A correlate of homophobia in registered nurses. Journal of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health Research, 3 (3), 31-40. DOI. 10.1080/15574090802093117
Lansing, P. and Cruser, C. (2009). The moral responsibility of business to protect homosexuals from discrimination in the workplace. Employee Relations Law Journal. 35 (1), 43-66. Retrieved from http://homepages.se.edu/cvonbergen/files/2013/11/The-Moral-Responsibility-of-Business-to-Protect-Homosexuals-from-Discrimination-in-the-Workplace.pdf
Nickels, D., Parris, J. B., Gossett, C. H., and Alexander, P. A. (2010). Developing collaboration skills: a mixed temperament approach to teamwork. Business Studies Journal , 2 (2), 101-116. Retrieved from http://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/bsjvol222010.pdf#page=107
Madera, J. M. (2010). The cognitive effects of hiding one's homosexuality in the workplace. Industrial and Organizational Psychology. 3, 86-89. DOI: 10.1111/j.1754-9434.2009.01204.x
Omar, M., Syed-Abdullah, S. L., and Hussin, N. M. (2011). Analyzing personality types to predict team performance. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224238862_Analyzing_personality_types_to_predict_team_performance
Pizer, J. C., Sears, B., Mallory, C., and Nan D. (2012). Hunter, evidence of persistent and pervasive workplace discrimination against LGBT people: The need for federal legislation prohibiting discrimination and providing for equal employment benefits. Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, 715. Retrieved from: http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/llr/vol45/iss3/3
