Unintended unethical behaviors could result from insuicient knowledge, situational ambiguity, or a misaligned management system. Sometimes a person may have good motives but insufcient knowledge or awareness. For instance, the manager of a retail clothing store may generously donate unsold clothing to Goodwill to assist people in need. The used clothing is then sold in bulk by a Goodwill agent to unlicensed street vendors in San Salvador. As a result, legitimate small retailers in San Salvador, who cannot compete on price with the illegal street vendors, go bankrupt. The manager donating the clothing did not intend to bankrupt the San Salvador retailer, but that is the action sequence consequence. Sometimes the ethics of a situation are ambiguous or complex. Assume a colleague is obviously overwhelmed by work deadlines that, if not met, could result in being terminated. Should you proactively take on some of the colleague's work, ask others to assist, or do nothing? Assisting may seem to be the ethical response. Indeed, the colleague may accuse you of being unethical for not providing the necessary assistance. However, many contextual issues must be considered before reaching a quick moral judgment. Assisting could be unethical if the work you set aside is even more important or if your assistance makes the matter worse because you lack adequate skills or knowledge. Last, the unintended unethical behavioral outcome could result from a misaligned management system rather than the fault of a particular employee. Managers seek to maximize prot for the well-being of the company. Managers may be able to achieve higher sales and prots by using extravagant packaging and junk mail marketing. The manager does not intend to reduce the quality of life for future generations by contributing to landll scarcity and climate change, but that is the action sequence consequence. WHY DO GOOD PEOPLE BEHAVB UNETHICALLY? Ethics would be easy to manage if it were simply a matter of detecting and dismissing evil people. But that is not the nature of life in organizations. Most employees are good; otherwise they would be in jail rather than employed. Nonetheless, good people occasionally make ethical mistakes, which at times can be costly for an organization. At times you might wonder why the employee you trusted so much made such an unethical decision in a particular situation. Good people occasionally behave unethically for four general reasons. First, the person may not have intended to generate the resultant unethical outcome. Second, the person may have chosen one set of values over a competing set of values. Third, the person may justify the unethical behavior based on a reason considered more compelling, such as organizational survival. Fourth, the person may choose not to prevent an unethical behavior for compelling reasons, such as fear of being red or retaliation. Unintended Unethical Behaviors For this opportunity you must choose a "Practice Dilemma" found at the end of a chapter in The Business Ethics Field Guide. (You may NOT write about the dilemma discussed at the beginning of a chapter). (A) Explain how you would handle this dilemma if faced with it. (B) Explain why you would handle it in this way. In your explanation you must (C) draw on at least one of the suggestions made in "Questions to Ask" or "Bill's Experiences" from earlier in this chapter AND note at least one action that you considered taking before considering the problems with this type of dilemma mentioned in "Pitfalls." You may submit write-ups on up to three different listed Ethical Dilemma Challenges for extra credit on the due dates listed in the syllabus. XC-5a can address the Practice Dilemma from ONE of these challenges from The Business Ethics