Decision Making - 3
Ethical decision-making scenarios for administrative and professional contexts
Questions
You are a Superintendent of Police (S.P.) of a district. You are approached by a woman, who claims to have been subject to domestic violence and harassment by her in-laws. She had approached the local police station but she claims that her complaint was not registered there. You telephonically enquire from the police station who reveal that on account of pressure from a prominent politician her complaint was not registered, as the politician had threatened the station officer of being transferred if he registered the complaint. In such circumstances which of the following options would you exercise?
- Ask the woman to approach the national commission of women to get justice as getting complaint registered would be very difficult due to the politician’s pressure.
- Ask her to bring a report of a government hospital about her suffering physical injuries, so that you can have a complaint registered on the basis of the report.
- Call the in-laws, counsel and sternly direct them not to resort to physical violence. But ask the woman not to file a complaint as it would lead to unnecessary long litigation.
- Ask the station officer of the police station to register her complaint and to take her for medical examination in a government hospital.
As an Executive Director ( R & D) of a cosmetic multinational company you are besieged with the following dilemma. Your company is about to make a public launch of a sunscreen cum anti ageing cream. You are aware that a rival company is about to launch a similar cream shortly. As a marketing strategy it is important for you to launch your company’s product earlier so as to capture the market as a pioneer in this domain. But field trial reports show that nearly 10% of the human samples showed signs of allergy to the cream. Products in which allergies/ adverse reaction is observed in more than 2% of sample are not permitted to be launched. But not launching the product timely will imply economic loss to the company and may jeopardise your career. What action would you take?
- Ask your R & D team to conduct a fresh trial on those persons who did not have allergy to the cream. Specific selection of sample is not to be disclosed in the R & D report. This way the trial report will be successful.
- Launch the cream irrespective of the R & D report by suppressing it. By the time complaints of allergies are received from the consumers the R & D division will be able to identify the allergen and remove the ingredient/ find suitable substitute.
- Withhold the launch despite the economic consequences and ask the R & D division to identify the cause of allergy and rectify it.
- Present the finding to the Board of Directors in a Board meeting which is to take place in another 10 days and await their decision.
You are about to enter a mall (a large shopping complex) when you hear gun shots being fired in the air. You also see three persons rush out of the mall, board a white car and drive off from the mall. You are able to note the vehicle number.
On entering the mall you realise that a person has been robbed and shot at. Though he is wounded, he is not critically injured. In such a situation you would;
- Carry on with your work as there are other people who are attending to him and the incident might have been captured in CCTV.
- Offer to help him and take him to a hospital.
- Call the police, inform them about the incident, the number of the vehicle in which the robbers fled and the need for an ambulance.
- Inform the management/ security personnel of the mall about the incident and ask them to take immediate action.
A riot has broken out in the district in which you are a District Collector. The media has launched a scathing attack on the administration for its failure, although several steps were taken by the administration to prevent a possible riot. The Home Minister of the state has immediately sought a report and has threatened to transfer you. What will your priority be?
- To visit the riot affected areas to try and bring the situation under control
- To prepare for media briefing and highlight previous and present efforts of the administration
- To prepare a comprehensive report defending the administration; this is to be sent to the Home Minister lest you are transferred
- To seek directions of your immediate supervisory officer in writing (about the action to be taken) lest you are later faulted by him
You are a police authority in a district where you receive information about a proposed procession by a student’s union in the university. The students are protesting against certain policies of the government which affect the students. Personally you are sympathetic and even supportive of the demands of the students. But you have been approached by the local M.L.A. who wants the proposed procession to be prohibited. This is so, as he suspects that the opposition parties are instigating the students to bring out the procession. He wants the students union leaders to be taken in preventive custody. The university authorities have also requested you not to permit the procession as it will embarrass them. However, the union leaders assure you that the procession will be peaceful. In such a situation you would;
- pass orders banning the procession and take union leaders in preventive custody.
- permit the procession after taking a written assurance from the union leaders that procession is going to be peaceful. This will be in consonance with your own views as you perceive the demand to be justified.
- persuade the union leaders to drop the procession and instead make a written representation to the authorities concerned.
- permit the procession but deploy suitable number of police personnel to prevent any law and order breach from taking place.
You are a senior manager in a multinational company. An important meeting with the distributor is scheduled at 11 A.M. But when you reach the office at 9:30 AM, you find that the two of your subordinates whom you had entrusted the work of making arrangements for meeting haven’t turned up and they haven’t made the necessary arrangements either. In such a situation you would
- Call your subordinates on their mobile phone, seek their explanation and threaten them with dire consequences
- Immediately write a letter seeking their explanation in writing and also report in writing the matter to the H.R. division
- Borrow some workers from one of your colleagues division and yourself make the necessary preparation with the help of those workers
- Adjourn the meeting to afternoon so that you are not under undue pressure for making arrangements
You have gone to the railway reservation counter to book a berth for New Delhi where you have to appear for a job interview. You see that the person on the counter has been getting several tickets booked for the past half an hour. He appears to be a tout/ ticketing agent. When you raise objection the tout/ agent offers to help you book your ticket ahead of other persons in line, in lieu of your silence (as he knows the railway reservation supervisor). In such a situation, what will you do?
- Accept the agents offer and save your time which you can better utilise for preparing for the interview
- Ask him to leave the window without accepting his offer and wait for your turn at the window
- Warn the agent and railway booking personnel not to do such a thing in future as it is against the rules
- Make a formal complaint with the Chief Reservation Supervisor and his superiors, but this will encroach on your valuable time
Your are a project head in a public sector undertaking. You are approached by an important team member of the project who is seeking 10 days leave for going on ‘leave travel concession’ (L.T.C) [ The organisation reimburses the employee's to and fro expenses for travel of the employee and his family to a holiday destination once in four years]. He is to proceed on leave after a week.
He states that his L.T.C. option is going to expire in a month’s time, if he does not avail of it. Besides, he has already got the reservation of train and hotel bookings done (as they have to be done well in advance). As such he will suffer monetary loss if leave is denied.
You know that the project is to be completed in another 3-4 months time and his absence of 10 days is likely to affect a part of the project, unless you or somebody else put in additional effort in his place. In such a situation which of the following course of actions would you adopt?
- Reject his leave application as organisational need is supreme and leave is not a matter of right. Besides, he had not taken your permission before getting his train reservations and hotel booking done for the LTC.
- Ask him to reduce his leave applied for, to 5–7 days and also recommend the name of a colleague who can be given additional charge of his work.
- Ask him to put in additional effort in the next 7 days (before he proceeds on leave) so that the work required to be done by him in the subsequent week is completed before he proceeds on leave. Assign additional responsibility to someone who can handle the remaining work in his absence.
- Refer the matter to your superior officers. If they reject the leave, the employee will not hold any grudge against you and if they grant leave, they cannot hold you responsible for the delay in the project caused by his absence.
You are driving on a highway on your way to an urgent business trip. You are late for the appointment scheduled with your prospective customers from whom you are expecting a big order. You notice the wreckage of a car and also see that a person is trapped in it. Which of the following options would you choose as the first course of action?
- Continue to drive as you are late for the appointment but inform about the accident to the first police station or hospital you come across
- Inform telephonically about the accident to a hospital/police station and then move ahead
- Inform telephonically about the accident and wait for police/ambulance to arrive; but then you are likely to miss your business deal
- Inform the police/ambulance and seek local help to try and extricate the victim from the wreckage; this option is also likely to rob you of your business opportunity
As a District Magistrate you receive an order of the Pollution Control Board for removal of tanneries which are discharging pollutants in the river in gross violation of the pollution control norms. You also receive a representation from the tannery owners requesting you not to execute the order as more than two hundred workers are employed in the tanneries who will lose their job and livelihood. Besides, these tanneries have been operational for at least two decades. Which of the following courses of action would you adopt?
- Write back to the Pollution Control Board that tanneries cannot be removed as a large number of persons will lose their livelihood
- Report the matter to the government secretariat in the state capital and seek their directions. This is going to take at least 10 days. By pursuing this course of action neither the Pollution Control Board nor the local people will blame you for taking a wrong decision.
- Pass an order for removal of tanneries giving a notice of 10-15 days (as per law) to the owners/ occupiers for vacation of the premise
- Advise the petitioners to file an appeal to the High Court against the order of the Pollution Control Board and take no further action till an appeal is filed.