Dilemmas, Ethical

An ethical dilemma involves a situation where there is uncertainty regarding what is the proper or right thing to do. This occurs when either of the following two conditions appears involving circumstances that require a resolution:

• 1.
  There is a conflict between two, equally valid ethical principles or values.
• 2.
  There is a conflict within an ethical principle or value.

Some of the more common ethical values or principles that frame ethical dilemmas include the following:

• To whom do I have a duty—self, family, friends, workers, investors, consumers, future generation, and so on?
• How can I minimize the causes of harm—harm that is physical versus economic versus psychological, or harm that is actual versus potential, or harm to many versus harm to a few, or harm that is severe versus harm that is minor, and so on?
• What is a fair or just resolution—is fairness or justice based on everyone receiving equal shares, or more to those who merit or have earned it, or more to those who have a greater need, or more to those of higher rank or status?
• How do I protect the entitlements due others, that is, protect the rights of others—the right to life, to be informed, to be safe or healthy, to be heard (free speech), to conscience (personal beliefs or opinions), to freedom, and so on?
• How can I maintain or express the importance of being honest, trustworthy, behaving with integrity, and the like?

A business moral dilemma places the decision maker in a situation confronted with making a decision where ethical principles or values discussed above are in conflict. For example, the classic Ford Pinto case of the 1970s found Ford's management struggling with the challenge of how to bring to the marketplace the new Ford Pinto to stem the tide of consumer purchases of the cheaper, fuel-efficient, Japanese-made automobiles. This quest was confronted by the discovery that the Pinto was highly susceptible to fires if involved in a rear-end collision. These fires placed occupants in the Pinto at greater risk of burns or even death. Ford management wrestled with the importance of offering the car to the American consumer quickly and cheaply versus delaying the delivery of the Pinto while outfitting it with a safety device to prevent or slow the spread of flames if the car was involved in a rear-end accident.

In this and other ethical dilemmas, the decision maker is asked to make a decision that requires placing certain ethical values above others—for example, the value of minimizing people's exposure to harm versus significant economic benefits accrued by other people, or the value of many benefiting versus the value of [Page 593]a few people being harmed. Despite the obvious ethical duty to act in a way that produces “good,” sometimes a person is challenged to act in a way that will cause some harm or inflict harm on some people for the sake of the greater good or the benefit of the many.

Ethical dilemmas also may be framed in a way that pits different ethical theories or value structures against each other. For example, in the Pinto dilemma posed above, the answers generally are framed toward seeking the greatest good—maximizing the benefit received by as many as possible despite the suffering endured by some people. But one could also question whether there is ever justification for someone to take another's life or place someone in harm's way. The ethical principle of a “right to life” should be paramount for a decision maker, outweighing a preference for seeking to maximize the benefit for all affected by the decision.

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