Ethical Dilemma Of Michael Vasquez Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Ethical Dilemma Of Michael Vasquez. Answer: Introduction Contemporary business organizations operate in intensely competitive market scenario. Thus, they have to involve various policies in order to gain competitive advantages in the market (Campbell, Coff and Kryscynski 2012). Involvement of the unethical principles in the business operation may have short term benefits for the business organizations, but it will have negative implications in the long term (Bello 2012). This report will discuss about the ethical dilemma being faced by Michael Vasquez in his organization (Weber 2001). His organization is being involved in unethical business practices in order gather confidential information of their competitors. Accordingly, this report will discuss about the ethical issue being faced by him with the help of various ethical theories. In addition, various aspects of ethics in organization will be discussed. Relevancy of ethics in the modern day business will also be evaluated. Identified ethical issue In the given case study, the ethical issue identified is the way or method of gathering the confidential information of the competitors. It is being stated in the case that, the boss of Michael Vasquez have gathered the confidential information by breaching in the intranet of the competitor organizations and downloaded (Weber 2001). Thus, this act is a criminal offence under the privacy act, 1988. According to this act, any types of breaching or hacking personal information for personal gain are illegal (Wright and De Hart 2012). According to the privacy act of Australia, breaching of privacy or having confidential data or information will attract penalty and imprisonment. Moreover, the information being gathered is not for public use as it is written confidential and thus having the access of this information is the serious breach of privacy and confidentiality and one of the prime examples of unethical business practice (Machanavajjhala and Reiter 2012). This is due to the reason t hat, according to the theory of normative ethics, anyone should not act similar to what they think others should not do. Thus, in this case, the boss of Michael Vasquez will not expect or welcome any similar breach of privacy in his organization or he will not accept if anyone got the access of his confidential data. He will not tolerate that any other competitor organizations of him are having the access of confidential data of his organization and gaining business advantages. In that case, he will obviously initiate legal actions against the offender. Hence, in this case, the competitors can also file legal complaints against the organization where Michael works. Thus, he should also not get involved in it and doing it similar to what he have done by being involved in unethical business practices. However, in this case, the boss of Michael Vaquez have involved in business practices, which he will not allow to do others in his organization and gave the rise of the unethical busines s issues. Probable counter actions: Theory of virtue Due to the involvement of unethical issues by his boss, Michael Vasquez is facing ethical dilemma regarding continuation of his job in the organization or not. For him, there are only two options left. One is to leave the organization and feel free from the ethical dilemmas and the other option is to follow his boss order for the good of his organization (Bright, Winn and Kanov 2014). To further elaborate these options, various theories of ethics will be used. According to the theory of virtue, there are good character traits and bad character traits. According to this theory, a person following ethics should always follow the good character traits such as courage, justice and self-respect. On the other hand, they should avoid bad character traits such as vanity, injustice and cowardice (Van Hooft 2014). Thus, in his case, if Michael Vasquez follows the theory of virtue, then he should go by his own personal character traits such as self-respect and courage and leave his job. This is due to the fact that, if he continues his job in this organization then he cannot value his self-respect. Thus, according to this theory of ethics, he should leave the job and maintain his good character traits. Theory of utilitarianism Another option being available to Michael Vasquez is to follow the order of his boss and continue with his job. In this case, the theory of utilitarianism can be used. According to this theory, if the outcome of certain act is positive and favorable then the action of performing the act should be treated as ethics and vice versa (Sheng 2012). Thus, if the outcome of any action provides pleasure more than pain, then it will be treated as ethical behavior. Thus, in this case, if Michael follows the order of his boss, then it will provide pleasure and positivity to the organization due to the fact that, it will help to gain undue advantages for the organization. Thus, according to the theory of Utilitarianism, due to the fact that the following the order by Michael will have benefits for the organization, thus it will be treated as ethical principles and he can continue with his job (Vaughn 2015). Behavior of Michaels boss The boss of Michael should be considered as unethical due to the reason that he involved unethical practices to gather confidential information of his competitors (Weber 2001). Thus, as discussed earlier the manner of gathering the confidential information is unethical according to the law. According to the theory of Kantian ethics, the principles behind the actions should be considered rather than the end result (ONeill 2013). Thus, in this case, though the end result of having the access to the confidential information will have positive impact on the organization, but the principles behind the action is unfair. This is due to the fact that, the unethical business practices being involved by the boss of Michael Vasquez due to gather confidential information of their competitors organizations is been considered as negative action according to the theory of Kantian ethics. Moreover, the outcome that will be gained by him due to the involvement of the unethical practices will be posit ive due to the reason it will help the organization to gain competitive advantages. Thus, the action of the boss of Michael is unethical according to the theory of Kantian ethics. In addition, according to the theory of duty, it is wrong for any individual to commit any crime or try to gain any undue advantages if it is against the rule of duty. Thus in this case, the duty of the boss is not to involve any unethical business practices even if it involves positive outcome. However, he have involves unethical practices for his gain and thus, according to this theory also, the behavior of the boss is unethical. Policy of whistle blowing Whistle blowing is the policy of individual stakeholder of the corporate organizations including present and ex employees who will reveal or expose the wrongdoings of their employer to the media or any regulatory authorities (Miceli, Near and Dworkin 2013). This policy is one of the main sources for the regulatory bodies to investigate the unethical policies being involved by the business organizations. Due to whistle blowing, Michael will lose his job due to the reason that his boss will be affected by his act and thus he will terminate him. Moreover, if Michael cannot prove his point in the court of law, then he may have to serve imprisonment and penalty due to false accusations. On the other hand, whistle blowing by Michael will adversely affect the organization (Robinson, Robertson and Curtis 2012). Motivation behind whistle blowing There are various reasons of motivation for the employees to become whistle blowers. The following sections will discuss about the various motivational factors of whistle blowing. The integrity and justice that the employees hold is one of the key reasons to opt for whistle blowing. According to this type of employees, they cannot tolerate the injustice or wrong doing in the organization, which caused blowing. These sorts of employees expect their organization will have positive take on the business scenario, regardless of that they opt for disclosing the wrong doings of the organization. Money also acts as motivation for the whistle blowers. In some cases, the award money for disclosing the wrong doings and compensation from the organization as penalty also prompts several employees to blow the whistle (Ayagre and Aidoo-Buameh 2014). Justification of whistle blowing There is a limit or boundary of the justification of the whistle blowing. Employees disclosing the wrong doings of their organization due to the reason that they wants to prevent the unethical practices is justified. However, on the other hand, disclosing confidential information just for reward or compensation or from any personal grudge will be the breach of privacy and will not be justified (Ayagre and Aidoo-Buameh 2014). Moreover, disclosing any confidential information of government regarding the national security is also not justified. Maybe government will involve unethical practices to gather the information but still it is for alls good. Thus, whistle blowing in this case will not be justified. Relevancy of ethics in business Ethics is relevant in business due to the reason that, it will help the organization to retain their employees. Practicing of unethical practices will de-motivate the employees to work in the organization. In this case, due to the involvement of unethical practices, employees like Michael are thinking of leaving the organization. Ethics helps in generating positive word of mouth. Employees will refer more candidates to work for the organization if the ethical principles can be followed (Crane and Matten 2016). Thus, the organization will more talent pool for selection and enhanced employer branding. In this case, employees like Michael are de-motivated in doing their job. Thus, they will not refer anyone to this organization. It will degrade the employer branding. Following ethical principles helps in preventing lawsuits and other issues. In this case, the access to the confidential information will disclose at any time. Thus, it will attract several legal issues for the organization. In addition, the business potentiality and reputation will get affected (Rushe 2017). Ethics helps in building effective teamwork and working environment in the organization. Employees will have positive impression and satisfaction in doing their job in their workplace. In this case, due to the involvement of the unethical practices, employees like Michael are having low morale. They will not able to work effectively in this environment, which will impact the organizational productivity (Crane and Matten 2016). Ethics will also help the upper levelmanagement to communicate their vision to their employees effectively in the organization. This is due to the reason that, if the leadership roles can be played ethically, then the employees will be more motivated to follow their leaders due to the reason that they will have positive impression about the upper level management. Conclusion Thus, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, adhering to the ethical principles is one of the key measures for the business organizations to effectively operate in the market. The ethical issues identified in this case are the manner by which the confidential information is being gathered. Implications for this unethical practice have also been discussed. Concept of whistle blowing along with the implications are also been discussed. This report concludes, ethics is still relevant for the contemporary business organizations. Adhering to the ethical principles will help the organizations to have competitive edge in the market. References Ayagre, P. and Aidoo-Buameh, J., 2014. Whistleblower reward and systems implementation effects on whistleblowing in organisations. European Journal of Accounting Auditing and Finance Research, 2(1), pp.80-90. Bello, S.M., 2012. Impact of ethical leadership on employee job performance. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(11). Bright, D.S., Winn, B.A. and Kanov, J., 2014. Reconsidering virtue: Differences of perspective in virtue ethics and the positive social sciences. Journal of Business Ethics, 119(4), pp.445-460. Campbell, B.A., Coff, R. and Kryscynski, D., 2012. Rethinking sustained competitive advantage from human capital. Academy ofManagement Review, 37(3), pp.376-395. Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press. Machanavajjhala, A. and Reiter, J.P., 2012. Big privacy: protecting confidentiality in big data. XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students, 19(1), pp.20-23. Miceli, M.P., Near, J.P. and Dworkin, T.M., 2013. Whistle-blowing in organizations. Psychology Press. O'Neill, O., 2013. Acting on principle: An essay on Kantian ethics. Cambridge University Press. Robinson, S.N., Robertson, J.C. and Curtis, M.B., 2012. The effects of contextual and wrongdoing attributes on organizational employees whistleblowing intentions following fraud. Journal of business ethics, 106(2), pp.213-227. Rushe, D. (2017). Raj Rajaratnam jailed for 11 years for insider trading. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/oct/13/raj-rajaratnam-insider-trading-jailed [Accessed 19 Oct. 2017]. Sheng, C.L., 2012. A new approach to utilitarianism: A unified utilitarian theory and its application to distributive justice (Vol. 5). Springer Science Business Media. Van Hooft, S., 2014. Understanding virtue ethics. Routledge. Vaughn, L., 2015. Doing ethics: Moral reasoning and contemporary issues. WW Norton Company. Weber, K., 2001. What Would You Do?: Gold Mine or Fools Gold?. Business Ethics: The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility, 15(1), pp.18-18. Wright, D. and De Hert, P., 2012. Introduction to privacy impact assessment. In Privacy Impact Assessment (pp. 3-32). Springer Netherlands.