write a (400+ word) post discussion how professional obligations and duties can
ID: 3447763 • Letter: W
Question
write a (400+ word) post discussion how professional obligations and duties can inform your choices on the job. When, if ever, are principles more important than consequences? In particular, I’d like you to think about when your professional obligations require that you “follow orders”, and when your professional obligations require that you “break the corporate script” and disobey orders. In a business environment, you may find yourself with multiple, conflicting orders, some of which violate ethical principles or your own value system. How do we decide which values and principles ought to determine our actions? This issue is brought into high relief by the issue of whistle blowing, especially in the debate between De George and Birch over the details of the Pinto case. Should Pinto engineers have blown the whistle on the poor management and design decisions at Ford?
Explanation / Answer
The discussion about the ethical stand of employees with regard to the decisions taken by the company is concerned is discussed in the light of the Pinto case. Should the engineers have gone public about the safety issues of the car? Any organization is made up of a number of departments or people designated to do their particular job.Employees, especially at the lower rung, do not have a say in the final matters. More often than not they don't even come to know of the final decisions. Like we see in the Pinto case, engineers did their job but the salespeople took the decisions as getting the cost-benefit ratio right or profit was the priority of the management. Does it make sense for the engineers to leave their job in their attempt to hold high values and not follow conflicting orders? In such a case, engineers can present a model with having safety features to the best of the cost-benefit ratio. They are the ones who are trained to do this.Engineers are equipped to take such decisions.But they are not morally responsible for policies and responsibilities beyond their role. To eradicate this problem, blowing a whistle should be made part of a corporation's organizational structure.Then engineers or other employees with ethical concerns will get a fair hearing.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.