Essay on "Philosophy - Ethical Dilemma Weighing Comparative"

Essay 5 pages (1510 words) Sources: 0 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Philosophy - Ethical Dilemma

WEIGHING COMPARATIVE ETHICAL OBLIGATIONS Obligation to the Potential Employer:

In this situation, there is an affirmative moral obligation not to lie to the potential new employer. That employer is responsible to his or her company, shareholders, clients, customers, and existing employees to make good decisions about personnel decisions.

The consequences of lying to the new employer could include decreased productivity, lost revenue, disruption of operational procedures, safety, and employee morale. The specific moral duty to the potential new employer is very easily upheld or violated depending on the choice: that duty is fulfilled by providing truthful information about the brother in law or by simply declining to provide any recommendation altogether. The same duty is violated by providing untrue information (and evaluations) about the brother in law.

While, the particular nature of the business involved will dictate the type and degree of harm that could result from an untrue recommendation, in principle, that does not matter. Even if the business operations or industry does not directly involve matters of life and death or human health and welfare, no business venture is helped by the hiring of an unqualified or unreliable problem employee. Virtually every conceivable business venture will be harmed in some way by hiring the brother in law based on an untrue letter of recommendation.

Obligation to Self and Family:

Generally, one has a moral obligation not to cause harm others by selfish actions for one's own benefit. That moral obligation also precludes causing harm to others for the benefit of one's family. Wherever possible, one also hopes to help one's family, but there is no objective moral duty to do so, particularly with respect to far-removed or relatives by marriage. While it is perfectly understandable that your sister would want you to help her husband find a job, there is not necessarily any objective moral duty to do so, especially at the expense of other innocent people or entities. Finally, your sister also has both a moral responsibility and also a family obligation to you not to ask you to damage your professional reputation by recommending an unqualified family member for employment. Unlike the supposed obligation she believes requires you to lie on her behalf, her obligation to you in that regard is objectively valid. Weighing the Respective Moral Obligations to Family and Future Employers:

Generally, there is an objective moral duty not to lie to or deceive others for one's benefit or enrichment. However, that moral duty may vary, depending on the purpose, intent, justification, and consequences of the lie. For example, white citizens who supported the underground railway and other abolitionist efforts to assist escaped slaves before their emancipation engaged in deceitful and illegal conduct as did non-Jewish citizens who sheltered Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.

However, unlike those examples of justified deception, the request to misrepresent the brother in law's professional competence is not morally justified, because it is simply a lie intended to benefit one person financially at the expense of others. Protecting innocent human beings from persecution is a moral imperative; helping your unqualified brother in law deceive an innocent employer is not. Since your sister has placed you in the uncomfortable position by asking you to suspend the general moral obligation not to lie without specific justification, you might even wish to consider whether it is morally worse to lie to employer or to simply lie to her about it.

Morally, the consequences of lying to your sister by promising to mail the letter to the prospective employer yourself without ever doing it is preferable to lying to the employer on behalf of her husband. The lie your sister is soliciting is likely to cause tangible harm to its recipient; the lie to your sister does not cause any harm, but merely allows you to avoid her unjustified anger at your refusal to participate in a course of action that is likely to cause harm. Either choice requires dishonesty on your part, but one lie cause actual harm while the other does not.

Granted, dishonesty should normally be avoided, but if your sister is demanding that you lie to the employer or become the target of her unjustified anger, you are more morally justified in simply pretending to comply with her request without actually doing it to avoid harming the employer or subjecting yourself to unjustified anger.

Furthermore, your sister is the one who made the irresponsible choice to marry a person who cannot hold a job and her husband is responsible for ruining the opportunity that you already gave him out of "family loyalty." Chances are, if he managed to prove himself so unemployable even to family members, he is even less employable to strangers and would have lost that same job even faster but for the family connection.

Since your supposed family obligation (in your sister's mind) has already been fulfilled by your hiring him in the first place and (probably) by retaining him somewhat longer than you would have retained an unrelated employee who performed unsatisfactorily, you are under no moral obligation to misrepresent his qualifications to another employer who should not have to suffer harm to his business just because you once employed an unqualified relative in your business.

Conclusion:

Your sister's request is a very selfish one that is not predicated on any objective moral standard. Chances are, if she were faced with the identical situation on her end, she would be equally reluctant to lie to the prospective employer on behalf of an employee who she honestly believed was only marginally competent and lazy. Her moral judgment is clouded by self-interest and her characterization of your acquiescence to her request as crucial to keeping her family together is overly dramatic as well as manipulative. It also carries with it implied passive threats of negative consequences to your relationship with her and possibly other members of your family.

If you have any reason for truthfully expecting that your brother in law might perform better at work now than in the past, you might choose to send a letter detailing your apprehensions as well as your reasons for hoping that your brother in law might perform better now than in the past. Luckily, it is the prospective employer rather than your sister who has asked for the letter. Had she asked for it, you would not have the option of doing the right thing morally while paring yourself the unpleasantness of her anger and disappointment.

Ideally, you would simply explain to your sister that it would be morally wrong to misrepresent her husband as a qualified employee when you have first-hand knowledge that he is not. Ideally, your sister would understand that your decision is not one of malice, ill-will, or even lack of concern toward her family and that you would be more than happy to help her out in this respect if you could do so in good conscience.

Unfortunately, the fact that your sister is pressuring you to lie to the new employer is probably a good indication that she will not understand the moral basis of your refusal to do so. Likewise, her imploring you by characterizing your help as necessary to keep her family together indicates a lack of personal responsibility. Even worse, in the event that her marriage does eventually fail, she may very well believe that you are to blame, at least to whatever degree her husband's failure to secure employment is a cause of their breakup.

Given the delicate situation, you may ask to discuss the matter with the brother in law to ascertain for yourself whether there is any justified logical basis to believe that he has matured or otherwise become more employable since he worked for you. If so, you may consider providing the most… READ MORE

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