Acting Ethically
Definition: reacting to every situation with integrity and honesty no matter what the consequences.
Criteria: honest, humble, consistent, loyal, and courageous
Example:
In the organization I’m in, Progressively Reaching Excellence in Professionalism, or PREP, there are 6 committees. Each committee is led by two sophomore executives. These committees are all in charge of many events and tasks and have 8 to 9 freshmen in them. Earlier this semester, a freshman that was not in my committee approached me with a problem related to his own committee. He called me very upset and was asked for advice on what to do. First, I asked him to tell me what the exact issues were in his committee and what happened that night to make him want to call me. After he explained the situation, I realized that there was an ethical dilemma in front of me. He had an issue with his two committee leaders, two of my peers. He said they were being unfair with their decisions and not letting the freshmen decide things. It was not my place to tell him exactly how to handle the situation. I would not have been okay for me to tell him what to say or do to his leaders in this specific situation. If it would ever get back around that his reaction stemmed from me that would be seen as disrespectful to his committee leaders. My reaction to his phone call was calming him down and then assessing the situation. I reassured him that calling me was okay and a good idea. He was very angry so calling his leaders would not have resulted in ideal conversations. My next response was telling him to contact one of the two co-chairs above me. I told him that going directly to them would cut out any middle person who might confuse certain conversations and the situation in general.
I feel as if this was the best way to handle this situation. I acted as more of a reference instead of the person with the answers. I was not in a position to be responsible for the solution of this problem and did not allow myself to enter in as such. I have not been in many ethical dilemmas, but I do think that I handled this one the best I could. I know that since my morals and beliefs are deeply instilled in me that making ethical decisions will be a lot easier.
Definition: reacting to every situation with integrity and honesty no matter what the consequences.
Criteria: honest, humble, consistent, loyal, and courageous
Example:
In the organization I’m in, Progressively Reaching Excellence in Professionalism, or PREP, there are 6 committees. Each committee is led by two sophomore executives. These committees are all in charge of many events and tasks and have 8 to 9 freshmen in them. Earlier this semester, a freshman that was not in my committee approached me with a problem related to his own committee. He called me very upset and was asked for advice on what to do. First, I asked him to tell me what the exact issues were in his committee and what happened that night to make him want to call me. After he explained the situation, I realized that there was an ethical dilemma in front of me. He had an issue with his two committee leaders, two of my peers. He said they were being unfair with their decisions and not letting the freshmen decide things. It was not my place to tell him exactly how to handle the situation. I would not have been okay for me to tell him what to say or do to his leaders in this specific situation. If it would ever get back around that his reaction stemmed from me that would be seen as disrespectful to his committee leaders. My reaction to his phone call was calming him down and then assessing the situation. I reassured him that calling me was okay and a good idea. He was very angry so calling his leaders would not have resulted in ideal conversations. My next response was telling him to contact one of the two co-chairs above me. I told him that going directly to them would cut out any middle person who might confuse certain conversations and the situation in general.
I feel as if this was the best way to handle this situation. I acted as more of a reference instead of the person with the answers. I was not in a position to be responsible for the solution of this problem and did not allow myself to enter in as such. I have not been in many ethical dilemmas, but I do think that I handled this one the best I could. I know that since my morals and beliefs are deeply instilled in me that making ethical decisions will be a lot easier.