MGMT2010 Chap.2 Dilemmas, Pressure and Ethical Action
Dilemmas, Pressure and Ethical Action
A genuine dilemma contains competing claims with enough legitimacy that one remains partly unfulfilled. This chapter examines why deadlines, incentives, hierarchy and competition narrow attention, then uses sensitivity, judgement, intention and action to diagnose where ethical conduct breaks down.
The method avoids two common mistakes: treating situational pressure as an excuse and treating every failure as defective character. You will match interventions to the failed capacity and write the residual cost of a recommendation. Begin by stating the competing claims in language their supporters would accept.
Confidentiality can protect a person or organisation from unfair exposure; warning others can prevent avoidable harm. Speed can serve customers and colleagues; due care can protect them from hidden risk. If one side is described only as greed, laziness or fear, the dilemma has been weakened before the reasoning begins. Behavioural pressure explains why a relevant consideration may be missed or displaced.
Incentives focus attention on measured outcomes, deadlines shorten the time available for challenge, hierarchy changes the personal cost of speaking and competition can make restraint feel like unilateral surrender. These facts matter without becoming excuses. The individual still chooses among available actions, while managers also own the conditions that make responsible action practicable.
The four capacities locate the break. Sensitivity asks whether the ethical feature and affected people were noticed. Judgement compares reasons and possible actions. Intention determines whether the ethical reason retains priority when rewards or loyalties compete. Action converts the intention into conduct despite friction.
A reminder may repair a recurring oversight, but it will not fix a promotion rule that punishes challenge. A framework may improve judgement, but it cannot substitute for a safe escalation route when action is the problem. Perspective-taking strengthens sensitivity when it is specific. Ask what another person knows, what loss they face, what choices they genuinely possess and what they cannot easily communicate.
Then check which assumptions remain yours. The exercise need not force agreement; it should improve the facts, reasons or safeguards. Close the analysis by naming the residual cost. A delayed launch, strained relationship or reduced flexibility remains real even when the recommendation is justified.
Naming that cost proves the rejected value was understood and creates a second managerial task: mitigate what the central choice could not fully protect.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Right-against-right dilemmas
- 02
Behavioural pressure
- 03
Ethical sensitivity
- 04
Ethical judgement
- 05
Ethical intention
- 06
Ethical action
- 07
Perspective-taking
Worked example · free
A safety certificate under deadline
- 2Identify the affected parties and missing assurance.
- 2Separate commercial pressure from the ethical reason.
- 2Recommend a time-bounded verification and escalation path.
Key terms
- Ethical Dilemma
- A conflict in which legitimate values cannot all be fully satisfied.
- Ethical Sensitivity
- Capacity to notice the moral dimensions and affected parties.
- Ethical Judgement
- Capacity to compare reasons and identify a defensible choice.
- Ethical Intention
- Capacity to prioritise the ethical reason over competing motives.
- Ethical Action
- Capacity to follow through despite practical or social friction.
- Perspective-taking
- Testing a choice from another affected person's informational and practical position.
Dilemmas, Pressure and Ethical Action FAQ
What makes a choice an ethical dilemma?
A dilemma requires competing legitimate claims, not merely an attractive benefit attached to a clearly wrongful act. State both sides strongly and name the value left partly unsatisfied.
How should pressure affect an analysis?
Pressure explains why attention or follow-through may fail, but it does not erase agency. Diagnose the mechanism and propose both an individual action and an organisational repair.
When is ethics training the right response?
Training helps when people lack concepts or fail to notice a recurring issue. It is weak when incentives, authority or unsafe escalation channels punish conduct that people already know is right.
Exam move
Take a workplace scenario and label sensitivity, judgement, intention and action. Decide which stage is most strained and select an intervention that fits it. Then write one sentence naming the cost your recommendation leaves behind, because that proves the competing value was taken seriously.
Rewrite the scenario once with a different incentive and once with a safer escalation route, then observe whether the diagnosis changes. Practise stating both sides of a dilemma without loaded language. Your final revision card should connect each capacity to one fitting repair and one intervention that would miss the mechanism. This prepares you to choose rather than merely list possible controls.
Check that pressure explains difficulty without excusing conduct.
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