A New Perspective on Ethics and Ethical Decision Making

Entry # 1: A new perspective on ethics and ethical decision making

I think reflective journal has provided me an opportunity to speak out my own thinking. The learning experience was different from other courses because I have to think about what I learned. Through journal writing, it helps me to make up my ideas, thoughts, and concepts on ethics. Indeed, values and ethics are a part of my everyday lives. Writing down my thoughts and reflecting has made me understand that different people think differently because a person’s set of principles may differ from another person’s views, and thus, there are no right or wrong solution in ethical decisions.

Before studying IMEV course, I thought it would be so easy to analyze things ethically and I felt that I was an ethically person because I would consider both short and long-term consequences when making ethical determinations. However, I didn’t know there are different ethical approaches which can help me make the most ethical decision in many real-life situations. Ethical perspectives help me to view issues from many different vantage points so that I can come up with a better solution. Often, combining them will be helpful to solve an ethical dilemma.

I am now working in human resources department responsible for employee hiring. I have experienced a case of hiring dilemma for the post of accountant. One is the most qualified applicant, who has 25 years experience managing the same types of tasks and another one is a fresh college graduates with no working experience, however, he is a cousin of my boss. As I know, it is critical for HR professionals to be objective throughout the recruiting process. Applicants are to be hired should base purely on knowledge, skills, and ability in accordance to the needs of the organization. What should I do? This situation was never really resolved by me, I didn’t want to cause an erosion of the relationship between my boss and me. Finally, I turned a blind eye to hire the...