NUR2868 Assignment: Professional Ethics: What Would You Do?

 

Today’s health care environment gives nurses many reasons to be conflicted. Genetic testing, abortion, and end of life care are just some of the areas in which nurses may face ethical dilemmas. Consider how you feel about the following issues:

Respecting the wishes of a suffering client that he is permitted to die with dignity,

Respecting the health surrogate’s wishes regarding termination of life support,

Or even observing another nurse take two tablets of oxycodone as ordered but keeping one for herself.

Then give an example of an ethical dilemma you may have confronted in your own clinical experience or workplace. How did you come to the decision you made? What feelings did you experience while coming to that choice? (If you have not yet faced an ethical dilemma, research one and comment on it, answering the same questions.)

Recent headline-making ethical issues, particularly those tied to discrimination and sexual harassment, have shed light on unethical conduct in the workplace and how these ethical lapses can permeate employee relations, business practices, and operations. According to the Ethics & Compliance Initiative’s 2018 Global Benchmark on Workplace Ethics, 30% of employees in the U.S. personally observed misconduct in the past 12 months, a number close to the global median for misconduct observation. These ethical breaches often occur unreported or unaddressed, and when totaled, can command a hefty cost. Unethical practices spurred more than half of the largest bankruptcies in the past 30 years, like Enron, Lehman Brothers, and WorldCom, and can take a larger economic toll, estimated at $1.228 trillion, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

These numbers suggest you’ll likely encounter ethical dilemmas in your workplace. Here are five ethically questionable issues you may face in the workplace and how you can respond.

Unethical Leadership

Having a personal issue with your boss is one thing, but reporting to a person who is behaving unethically is another. This may come in an obvious form, like manipulating numbers in a report or spending company money on inappropriate activities; however, it can also occur more subtly, in the form of bullying, accepting inappropriate gifts from suppliers, or asking you to skip a standard procedure just once. With studies indicating that managers are responsible for 60% of workplace misconduct, the abuse of leadership authority is an unfortunate reality.

Toxic Workplace Culture

Organizations helmed by unethical leadership are more often than not plagued by a toxic workplace culture. Leaders who think nothing of taking bribes, manipulating sales figures and data or pressuring employees or business associates for “favors” (whether they be personal or financial), will think nothing of disrespecting and bullying their employees. With the current emphasis in many organizations to hire for “cultural fit,” a toxic culture can be exacerbated by continually repopulating the company with like-minded personalities and toxic mentalities. Even worse, hiring for “cultural fit” can become a smokescreen for discrimination, which can result in more ethical issues and legal ramifications.

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Discrimination and Harassment 

Laws require organizations to be equal employment opportunity employers. Organizations must recruit a diverse workforce, enforce policies and training that support an equal opportunity program, and foster an environment that is respectful of all types of people. Unfortunately, there are still many whose practices break with EEOC guidelines.  When discrimination and harassment of employees based on race, ethnicity, gender, disability or age occurs, not only has an ethical line been crossed but a legal one as well. Most companies are vigilant to avoid the costly legal and public ramifications of discrimination and harassment, so you may encounter this ethical dilemma in more subtle ways, from seemingly “harmless” off-color jokes by a manager to a more pervasive “group think” mentality that can be a symptom of a toxic culture. This could be a group mentality toward an “other” group (for example, women aren’t a good fit for our group). Your best response is to maintain your personal values and repel such intolerant, unethical or illegal group norms by offering an alternative, inclusive perspective as the best choice for the group and the organization.

Unrealistic and Conflicting Goals

Your organization sets a goal—it could be a monthly sales figure or product production number—that seems unrealistic, even unattainable. While not unethical in and of itself (after all, having driven leadership with aggressive company goals is crucial to innovation and growth), it’s how employees, and even some leaders, go about reaching the goal that could raise an ethical red flag. Unrealistic objectives can spur leaders to put undue pressure on their employees, and employees may consider cutting corners or breaching ethical or legal guidelines to obtain them. Cutting corners ethically is a shortcut that rarely pays off, and if your entire team or department is failing to meet goals, company leadership needs that feedback to revisit those goals and re-evaluate performance expectations.