Reynaldo Marasigan                                         IT-ETHICS                                              April 8,2008

Book Review 13

Title: Ethical Dilemmas review13.doc

Author:   Campell Jones

              Martin Ten Bos

Amazon: click here

I even began reading the book “Ethical Dilemmas in Business” I decided to look up the word “ethics” in the dictionary. Apparently, ethics is the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation. We deal with problems everyday which somewhat requires us to make an ethical response. The bottom line is that we need to make a decision and society expects us to make an ethical judgment.

The business realm is a much different playing field as compared to the real world. In business, you are dealing with two important aspects, life and money. The basic purpose of a business is profit and most often than not we are faced with dilemmas that forces us to choose between something that would generate more profit for the company and the lives of the people that you are about to terminate. According to the book “Ethical Dilemmas in Business,” there are 5 ethical theories that affect our decisions. These theories have levels or hierarchy much like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Each level is ranked according to its social desirability with Egoism at the bottom of the list.

 As explained in the book, egoism is place at the bottom for the sole reason that it is only focused on the “Me, Myself and I” aspect. It doesn’t consider the welfare of others. I agree with the philosophers and the authors with this simply because although it is but a human trait to give in to the “survival of the fittest” attitude but that is merely our primal instinct. As a thinking man, we should know better than to just think of our own good. Let’s say you’re in a competition much like that of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, there was a task wherein they had to search for their clues in order to know what the next competition is. There was a player that told Harry where to look for his clue.

The same way, Harry did not immediately run to grab the Goblet of Fire while inside the maze, he even took the time to help his competitors when they were in need of his help and even shared grabbing the Goblet of Fire with one of the players. This is just like the dilemmas that we are presented with in the business world. There are times when the gold is already at arm’s reach but then we see a co-employee in need or a competitor that is about to get ruined, as humans we are able to empathize with them and give in to helping them first.

The book “Ethical Dilemmas in Business” is a great read that helps open our eyes to the various problems that could come our way. It presents us with cases that challenge us to asses if we would be able to come up with an ethical choice or just give in to our primal instinct.