Ethical Decision Making in Professional Contexts
Quiz testing ethical judgment and decision-making abilities in administrative, civil service, and corporate scenarios involving integrity, leadership, and conflict resolution
Questions
You are a Superintendent of Police (SP) in a district. You are approached by a boy and a girl who are seeking police protection. They claim that they are adults and are of marriageable age and are ready to furnish documentary evidence to this effect. They want to marry each other, but they belong to different castes and their families and communities are opposed to the marriage. Further, the girl’s family and community have threatened the boy with dire consequences.
You are personally not in favour of marriages which involve elopement and believe family blessings are important for a strong foundation of marriage. Besides, your work force is hard pressed for man power on account of some political agitation which is going on. In such a situation you would
- Convince the boy and the girl to return to the their families and seek their blessings before marriage
- Take the telephone numbers of their parents, speak personally to their parents and try to convince them to allow the boy and the girl to marry
- Seek a report/complaint in writing from the boy and girl and then allow police protection
- Ask them to come after a week as you are busy and lack man power to give police protection
You are a regional manager of a company engaged in manufacturing of plastic products. The region under your supervision has the maximum number of production units. You have received a complaint from a section of workers of one unit alleging that the unit-head indulges in corruption and favouritism. That particular unit has the highest production in the region. The company headquarters wants you to take quick action as dissatisfaction amongst workers, if allowed to spread, could take the shape of a strike. Which course of action would you adopt?
- Remove the unit head and appoint the next in line as the acting unit head. This would satisfy the complainants.
- Take no action as the unit has been functioning well and disturbing the administrative set up won’t be proper.
- Undertake a visit to the unit and find out the root cause of problem. Speak to the unit head and disgruntled workers if need be. But this may take some time as you are preoccupied with some urgent work.
- Call for a report from the unit head regarding the allegations levelled against him.
As a District Collector you receive a complaint regarding embezzlement and other malpractices in the ‘Food for Work’ programme running in your district. It is alleged that a cartel of contractors who are close to the ruling party are in control of the entire programme. They are either not distributing the food grains or distributing lesser quantities of food grain while taking receipts from workers and raising the bill for the full amount.
Your subordinate officials feel that the complaint is politically motivated as elections are due in the State in the next six months and the people in question enjoy immense political patronage.
They suggest that to buy time the complaint be forwarded to the Commissioner and his directions be sought. What would you consider the best course of action?
- Call the contractors and officials in question and direct them to mend their ways otherwise you will be forced to take action
- Seek directions of Commissioner as suggested by the subordinate officials and buy time
- Scrutinise the accounts of the scheme yourself but not order an inquiry as you would have to face political pressure
- Order and inquiry despite possibility of political pressure
You are the regional head of a NGO which specialises in environmental audit. A field report on environmental compliance by power generation plants shows that many coal fired plants which are under governmental control are grossly violating the pollution norms. Your team had been threatened by some government officials not to go public with your report, otherwise they would recommend cancellation of registration of the NGO. Besides they would influence the government laboratories to submit a favourable report which would refute findings of the NGO’s report. This would raise serious doubts about the credibility of the NGO. In such a situation you would
- Dilute the findings of your report and place the blame for pollution on old machinery and lack of finances for the power plants
- Go ahead with your report as it is and make it public (viz. disclose its findings to media)
- Seek confirmation of your findings from another NGO engaged in similar work and then go public
- Submit a copy of your report to the Ministry of Environment/Department concerned of the Government; wait for their response for a reasonable period of time and then go public
You are the head of a committee which selects and presents a cash award and citation to young achievers in field of community welfare and social work. The proposed names for awards are first processed by a screening committee, which ascertains the facts and finalises the nominations. The committee deciding the award (headed by you) evaluates these nominations and then decides whom to award.
You receive a complaint that the claim of social work by the winner of the last award was false. The work was actually done by somebody else which the awardee claimed as his own. Some photographs and old media reports have been furnished from which, prima facie, the allegation appears to be correct. Which of the following courses of action would you adopt?
- Ask the awardee to return the award and tender an apology
- Seek the explanation of the awardee
- Ask the screening committee to examine the allegation, if need be seek comments of the awardee, and then furnish its report
- Take no action as the matter is old and no purpose would be served by digging up such matters; besides it would compromise upon the prestige of the award
You are a senior government servant who is known for his uprightness and integrity. You are approached by an NGO which is taking out a procession against the government on the issue of corruption. They want you to support the movement and actively participate in it as you are also known to be against corruption. But you know that the government Conduct Rules prohibit any government servant form criticising government policies, or, from participating in demonstrations, etc. Which are against the government. In such a situation what would be the most appropriate course of action for you?
- Lend support and participate in the procession, as the issue of corruption is very important
- Refrain from participating in the procession but convey moral support on the issue of corruption. Explain the provision of Conduct Rules which prohibit you from doing so
- Resign from the service and actively participate in the movement. This way you will fight against corruption and be free from violating Conduct Rules
- Discourage the NGO from taking out a procession against corruption as it would be a wrong means to attain a noble end
You are appearing for a competitive examination, based on which you will be admitted for certain post graduate courses. The ratio of the number of seats available to applicants is 1:250, but you fancy that you have chances of qualifying.
During the examination you suddenly hear lot of noises. You come to know that a group of students were spotted using unfair means. A student complained to the invigilator about these students which led to a quarrel and commotion. You find it very difficult to concentrate and the commotion does not seem to be settling down. In such circumstances you would
- Join ranks with the student who has complained about the group which was cheating and ask the invigilator to expel them, as students using unfair means stand better chance in this stiff competition
- March out of the examination hall in protest against the noise and cheating and threaten to have the examination cancelled by complaining to the governing body
- Ask the invigilator politely to take the quarrelling candidates out of the examination hall and take disciplinary action against the guilty
- Do nothing but wait for the noise to settle down
You are heading the team supervising the commissioning of an important manufacturing unit of an MNC. The commissioning has got delayed resulting in financial losses to the MNC. Your headquarters have issued directions to expedite the commissioning. They have not agreed to your earlier suggestion of sanctioning of additional funds and have redrawn the time line for completion of the work.
A report received from your subordinate regarding progress shows that the completion of pending work is likely to take more time than the redrawn time line. You are of a different view from your subordinate. You feel that if additional funds are allotted then the unit can still be completed as per the new time line set. You would have liked your subordinate to include this point in his report but his report is silent on this issue and he has expressed unwillingness to modify his report. In such a situation you would
- Direct the subordinate to modify his report and seek more funds
- Forward the report to the company as it is, intimating of more possible delay and seeking more time for commissioning of the unit
- Forward the report of the subordinate, expressing your disagreement and stating that the unit can be started in time without additional funds
- Forward the report with a recommendation for allocating additional funds, to enable you to complete the commissioning as per the revised timelines
You are an appellate authority in one of the government departments. Inter-alia the many functions it performs, the department examines the accounts of those super- specialty hospitals, which were granted land free of cost by the government in lieu of treating poor patients free.
The hospital must treat 25% of its patients free as per the rules. In the previous year it treated only 18% free. As per rules an amount equivalent to the average treatment cost of the 7% patient was to be deposited in a fund. This fund was to be used in the next year to treat poor patients over and above 25%, free of cost. The hospital had a failed to do this also. During the scrutiny of accounts it had presented the plea that being in a posh area of the city, lesser number of poor patients had approached it. The non deposition of money (7% of treatment cost) was an oversight. Your junior authorities have levied a penalty of Rs.5 lakh as per rules for this failure.
The hospital administration has approached you in appeal. The rules permit you to reduce/ waive/ enhance the penalty. You happen to know them personally and they have helped you in getting timely treatment of your relatives on a couple of occasions.
In such a situation you would
- Confirm the levy of penalty and politely explain the provisions of rule
- Reduce the penalty to 50% as their failure is only technical in nature but issue a reprimand to them
- Waive the penalty as the hospital is providing treatment to at least 18% poor patients free of cost
- Enhance the penalty and personally admonish the administration for taking the obligation of treating the poor free, so lightly
You have joined as a Director in an important Ministry of the Government of India which is overseeing programmes worth several thousands of crores.
On your first day you call a meeting of all subordinate officers and staff. Out of the two Under Secretaries, Mr. X and Mr. Y, the former did not attend the meeting. You also sense that the Section Officer, Mr. Z and Mr. Y, are not talking to each other and all other staff members appear demotivated.
In the afternoon your boss, the Joint Secretary calls you and discusses a new project (worth thousands of crores of rupees) which is to be piloted by your division. You doubt that the existing team can handle the project. Under such circumstances you would
- Convey your first impression to your boss and request him not to undertake the project as your Division is not capable of handling it, or hand it over to some other Division
- Request him for transfer of both the Under Secretaries and the Section Officer, as there is a clear undercurrent of animosity between them which would be prejudicial to the new project, which would require good team work
- Accept the project and the team as it is as of now and see what best you can do to improve the situation
- Accept the project, but convey your impression about animosity and seek his intervention and guidance