Ethical Dilemma Questrion / Maintain Integrity Question

amirkabir · **Posted:** Thu Dec 15, 2011 3:05 pm

Hi

I would like to hear from you if the topic I consider to wirte about is suitable for an ethical dilemma / maintain integrity question.

On one of my current projects as a project manager, I managed 5 client team members. One day the client senior manager asked me about an honest opinion about one of the members I supervised. The dilemma was that the guy was underperforming and actually I faced the situation to tell the truth and let guy get a warning sign or just wipe it off and deal with it and try to successfully finish the project. I decided for the latter and actually this was against my integrity, because I appreciate honesty and will be treated with honesty. But my decision was actually good, because we successfully finished the project and several month later the senior manager told me that they self have take note that this guy is a underperformer and he was removed from the team.

Hope someone can shed some light in this

BEst
Amir

GMATLA · **Posted:** Thu Dec 15, 2011 4:41 pm

The way this is worded I don't actually understand what happened, and how your choice was an ethical dilemma. There are many times when managers choose not to tell someone below about something. This isn't actually integrity and ethics, it's just a choice that managers have to make in certain situations.

An example of an ethical dilemma would be in regards to a manager asking you to do something that you didn't believe was ethical. For example, you have to collect 100 surveys, and instead of randomly collecting them your boss asked you to find as many of your friends to fill them out to make it easier. What do you do?

Integrity would be what you chose to do. Its the meeting of your morals and your choices. Did you do what your boss told you, or did you decide to work overtime and collect the 100 samples from random individuals as the client asked.

I'm not sure if your decission was really that tough. But maybe if you could word it differently, and help us understand how this was an ethical dilemma and how you did/didn't maintain integrity it would really help. Get back to me

jenniferbloom · **Posted:** Thu Dec 22, 2011 1:41 pm

amirkabir wrote:

Hi

I would like to hear from you if the topic I consider to wirte about is suitable for an ethical dilemma / maintain integrity question.

On one of my current projects as a project manager, I managed 5 client team members. One day the client senior manager asked me about an honest opinion about one of the members I supervised. The dilemma was that the guy was underperforming and actually I faced the situation to tell the truth and let guy get a warning sign or just wipe it off and deal with it and try to successfully finish the project. I decided for the latter and actually this was against my integrity, because I appreciate honesty and will be treated with honesty. But my decision was actually good, because we successfully finished the project and several month later the senior manager told me that they self have take note that this guy is a underperformer and he was removed from the team.

Hope someone can shed some light in this

BEst
Amir

In the story as you retell it here, it seems as if you lied (by saying that the guy is doing fine), which would be a red flag. An ethical dilemma is a situation in which you have to choose between two options and neither is really fully "correct." Your challenge in this situation wasn't an ethical dilemma really because you could have just said to the guy that you and the team member in question were working out differences in styles still and you couldn't make a full assessment or some other hedge (not lie).
The key element of the ethical dilemma is to demonstrate that you can think and navigate challenging situations in which it is not clearcut what you should be doing.

amirkabir · **Posted:** Thu Dec 22, 2011 1:56 pm

Ok thanks got it. But what is actually the difference when answering an ethical dilemma question vs. Maintain integrity?

What would be a situation regarding "Maintain your integrity?"

Can you give me some advise.
Thanks

jenniferbloom · **Posted:** Fri Dec 23, 2011 1:20 am

amirkabir wrote:

Ok thanks got it. But what is actually the difference when answering an ethical dilemma question vs. Maintain integrity?

What would be a situation regarding "Maintain your integrity?"

Can you give me some advise.
Thanks

Ethical dilemma: Neither choice is perfect.
Maintain your integrity: Someone puts a lot of pressure on you to do something not proper.
Both typically require creativity to navigate.

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Ethical Dilemma Questrion / Maintain Integrity Question

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