Being a good person and having sound personal ethics may not be enough for the ethical issues in business.* Ethical dilemmas are rarely as simple as knowing what is right or wrong. Many times managers must decide between two wrongs, such as which employee to fire during a restructuring process. Because managers must interpret company policy, enforce rules, hire, fire, discipline, and supervise employees, they perform a crucial role in organizations and serve as role models.*

It is also important to understand that, while most people are inherently good and have good intentions, there are situations where an individual may make immoral decisions. For example, as accountants develop an attachment to their clients, they can become less likely to report faulty information or even notice suspicious behavior, making them more susceptible to the influence of bias.* Even more striking is the behavior of some doctors. Before 2002, liver transplants were prioritized to patients depending on how sick they were. Accordingly, anyone in an intensive care unit (ICU) was usually close to the top of the list. In an effort to help patients who needed a liver transplant but were not sick enough to be in an ICU, some doctors created fake ICU admissions. How do you evaluate the morality of the doctors who fabricated the ICU patients, especially when considering the Hippocratic Oath? Their intentions were well meaning, but their actions are questionable. Under this system, the patients with the most honest doctors, who didn't create fake ICU admissions, were less likely to get transplants.*

While many people believe that they are ethical in the workplace, most people fall far short of self-perceived morality.* As a manager, you must be alert about your own biases to avoid ethical pitfalls. The most common biases include favoring your own group, overclaiming credit for yourself, and constructing incorrect cause-effect relationships.* Other challenges that managers face in ethical decision making involve the organizational culture, which can strongly influence ethical decisions and even vary within subgroups of an organization.* For example, raising concerns over employee safety may be a source of pride in one manufacturing plant but a source of ridicule in another. In this section, we outline the most common moral dilemmas that organizations face today and the ways in which some individuals act on these dilemmas.

Describe a "moral dilemma" that you have experienced. What did you do?