This study presents the ethical dilemma faced after encountering suspected drug use by a fellow employee.
The paper discusses how during our professional careers we often encounter difficult ethical situations. Often, these professional dilemmas involve a careful consideration of not only pertinent professional ethics, but a weighing of personal moral values. This study presents the ethical dilemma faced after encountering suspected drug use by a fellow employee. It shows how this is a common and complex, professional dilemma that requires the careful consideration of the consequences of several divergent courses of action. The paper uses a personal scenario to illustrate the dilemmas faced by a worker.
“Personal morals are built on a very different basis than professional ethics. Personal morals are often built on religious faith. Family values play an important role in our personal ethics and value systems. We learn a great deal about ethics from the behaviors of our immediate and extended families. Personal experiences also do a great deal to define our personal values. For example, it is often said that a conservative is simply someone who has never been robbed, while a liberal is someone who has never had anything stolen. Simply put, this means that our experiences with other individuals, whether good or bad, often shape our personal value systems. Finally, personal values are also steeped deeply in the personality of the individual. Personalities can be seen as falling somewhere on the continuum from selfish to truly altruistic (University of Waterloo).”