Ethics 101 Module 2

Module 2 - SLP

Ethical Decision Making in Difficult Situations

Ethical Decisions in the Workplace

After reading your background readings, please review the following scenario and address the

questions at the end.

Jerry Stevens heads up an excavation crew for the municipal utilities district in a city in

Nebraska. A sewer line needs to be replaced and it has been excavated with a back-hoe. The

trench is 7 feet deep. The municipality's safety rules indicate that employees should not go into

the trench without a trench box. This rule is to prevent employees from being buried if the trench

walls collapse. People die every year from trench cave-ins.

The trench box won't arrive on site for another 6 hours and the city promised residents that the

sewer would be fixed by the end of the day, which now seems impossible. The City

Administrator called Jerry on his cell phone and indicated that it was imperative that the sewer

be fixed as soon as conceivably possible because a City Council member is served by that sewer

line and will raise a fuss if it’s not fixed by the promised time.

One of the more experienced workers states, "It's only going to take 30 minutes to dig under the

pipe and loosen the fittings. We don't need the trench box. We used to do this all the time before

we were required to use one of those darn things."

Jerry knows he's right. He used to do it himself before the rule was put in place. Also, the soil is

clearly a cohesive soil and it's highly unlikely that it will collapse. And although there is an

organizational policy to use a trench box for trenches deeper than 5 feet, the Occupational Safety

and Health Administration (OSHA) does not have

Jurisdiction over municipalities in Nebraska because municipalities are political subdivisions of

the State. The only entity regulating safety policies is the City's Safety Director and he took the

day off.

1. In this scenario, to what extent do you think allowing the crew into the trench without a trench box would be pushing (or exceeding) the limit?

2. Discuss any ethical grey areas in this scenario? 3. What in your mind is the right thing to do? 4. What is the value of having an ethics program (and related programs like safety

programs) and what are the responsibilities of front line leaders/supervisors and the

workers when they face dilemmas such as the one described?

SLP Assignment Expectations

Please take some time to review the materials and take a position on the issue. Write a 2- to 3-

page assessment of the authors’ claims, and your assessment of what might be done in a place of

business to prevent the "moral amnesia" phenomenon from taking a foothold in a place of

business.

Your paper should be double-spaced and in 12-point type size.

Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate reference page. Make sure you cite

your sources.

Use APA style, and proofread your paper.

Upload your paper by the end of the module.

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