Ec0 4402

1. An ethical issue or concern can be defined as having to choose between what is right and what is wrong. Generally, our morals and experiences guide us as we classify things as right and wrong. Furthermore, it is helpful to think about the consequences of our choices, the right or the wrong, when we evaluate the course of action we would like to consider.

2. Ethical Issue in the workplace:

I work for the Criminal Justice Department at Grand Valley State University as a student worker. During the first semester of my employment there, I was asked by one of the faculty members if I could assist them in translating some German letters from WWII. The letters were very valuable and I was instructed not to take them home, but instead work on them during my scheduled working hours, if possible. At some point during the semester, while I was working on the letters, all the faculty and staff members had left for the day and I was left alone. So, I decided to take the letters home with me to work on them and bring them back the next day, which I did. I returned the letters to the faculty member and they decided to reward me for my great work.

I initially struggled with deciding whether or not to take the letters home because I was specifically instructed not to do so. However, the concern, as it was pointed out to me by the faculty member, was that the letters might get lost or damaged and that there would be no replacement for them at all. Also, I wasn’t sure whether or not the instructor would periodically check on the letters to ensure that they were not stolen (they were kept in an open locker with no key). So, naturally I went through all the ‘what if’ scenarios that I could possible think of prior to taking the letters home with me. However, I wasn’t sure what the consequences would be at that point in time.

I think I did the wrong thing by taking the letters home with me. I say this because I later understood that I could have been working on the letters at...