HOME WORK #01

Prepared for:

Tasnim Hasan Saara (TAS)

Lecturer

North South University

Prepared by:

Munshi Neemal Ehsan

ID#1210066030

PHI401.16

What is the right things to do in this situation form an ethical point of view? What ethical theory

supports your position?

The primary phase during undertaking any moral choice procedure is really perceiving that there

is an ethical issue. The fact that the decision to be taken is going to have a significant effect on the

employees, and that is quite relevant to both parties suggests, that the decision is ethical in nature.

The right thing to do would be to express the concerns regarding the contractors on tge contrary to

the full time employee issue with the management team as a whole, including the CEO and the

director so that everyone is aware of the situation at hand. The civil engineer should express that,

not only are the full time employees quite competent but are also very enthusiastic to carry out all

required tasks.

To support this argument is the consequentialist theory of Utilitarianism where “an action is

morally right if it results in the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people affected

by the action” (Crane and Matten, 2010). Not only will the full time employees be motivated and

inspired by being given the more challenging tasks but also, it would conserve the company’s

funds from being spent on outsourcing contractors.

If you were the Civil engineer, what would you actually do? Is your response to this question

different to your response to above question? If so, why?

A lot of time and effort went in collecting data and preparing all the required documentations to

present a valid point regarding the contractors; however the Director was aloof and seemed

disinterested in the topic, not even taking the time to personally discuss the issues with the civil

engineer. He practically disregarded of any of the concerns that were put forward.

As the civil engineer has noticed, a lot of important decisions are often made while the Director of

Public Works, the Human Resources Manager and the CEO are out to lunch together. In this

situation, the best approach would have been to hold a meeting with the entire management team

and then openly discuss the pros and cons of using the full time employees over the contractors.

Here the civil engineer would have had the opportunity to not only to voice the frustrations of the

employees being given the usual boring odd jobs instead of more challenging projects, but also

express the faith that there is in the full time employees skill set.

The civil engineer should strongly campaign for the utilisation of the full time staff. In doing so

the current full time employees are motivated to work harder as they are no longer stuck with the

monotonous tasks and also, the organization is spending less of the company’s budget on outside

contractors. These are sufficient factors for the civil engineer to go forward with a good argument.

Going to the entire management team with the proposal, would be more beneficial than expressing

the concerns to only one of the management team as there may be conflicting opinions and would

therefore be undemocratic.