UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN (UTAR)

FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE

(Academic Year 2014/2015)
October 2014 Semester
Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons)
Bachelor of Marketing (Hons)
Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) Entrepreneurship
Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting
Bachelor of Finance (Hons)
Assignment Cover Sheet
MARKING SCHEME FOR GROUP ASSIGNMENT
No.

Assessment Criteria

Marks

Marks

Allocation

Awarded

Introduction

10 marks

Contents

10 marks

Recommendation

10 marks

Discussion

10 marks

Conclusion

5 marks

Format

5 marks

Total

50 marks

Comments:

Name of Marker

Signature of Marker

Date

:
1

Table of Contents
Par

Contents

Page

t
1

Introduction
1.1 Introduction of Ethical Dilemma

1-2

1.2 Related Issues on Ethical Dilemma

2-3

1.3 The Importance of Ethical Dilemma to The Society or Organizations

3-4

Contents
2.1 Review the topic with literature support

4-5

2.2 Relevant Theories Explaining the Relationship of The Concepts

5-6

2.3 Comprehensively Discuss the Concepts Inherited in Ethical Dilemma

6-8

2.4 Explain the Relationships Among the Concepts

8-9

2.5 Explain the Concepts From the Psychological and Sociological Approach

9-11

2.6 Two Different Theories Explaining the Relationship Between/Among the

11-13

Concepts
Part C: Discussion
3.1 Lying

13-14

3.2 Fraud

15-16

3.3 Discrimination

17-18

3.4 Sexual Harassment

Part D: Recommendation

19-21

4.1 Implications to society, organizations, and management

21-23

4.2 Justify the recommendations with literature supports

Conclusion
References

24-27
27-28
A1-A6

1.1 Introduction of Ethical Dilemma

2

Ethics is referred to an individual's moral judgements which is about right and wrong.
Decisions which are taken within an organization may be made by individuals or groups, but
whoever makes them will be influenced by the culture of the company (Cadbury, n.d.). Ethics
leads the way with its ethical approach in business perspective. To ensure its position is fully
understood and to invite its stakeholders to share in it by clearly communicated both internally
and externally. The decision to behave ethically is a moral one; employees must decide what they
think is the right course of action (Cadbury, n.d.). This may involve rejecting the route that
would lead to the biggest short-term profit. Ethics has often been observed that when
philosophers encounter something they do not understand the first thing they do is try to make a
theory about it (Geoffrey, 2008). Ethics also includes a responsibility for the natural balance of
the world (Dharma, 2013).
1.2 Definition of Ethical Dilemma
Ethical dilemma can define as a situation that requires a choice between equally
unfavourable or mutually exclusive options (Unraveling the Ethical Dilemma (Part 1), 2013).
Ethical dilemma is not clear at first sight, it picks out a class of situations which all share the
same common characteristics (Geoffrey, 2008). A moral dilemma is different from a merely
difficult decision. In a dilemma, the difficulty is arose from the situation that is very nature with
which we are faced rather than our mere lack of wisdom or ethical knowledge. Even when
organizations have great policies and procedures and follow the laws and regulations, theres still
a high risk of unethical behaviour (Chris, 2013). For example, your supervisor enters to your
office to ask you for a check which is about $150.00 for expenses that he said he incurred
entertaining a client last night. He submits the receipts which is from a restaurant and lounge. At
the lunch time, you overhear your supervisors girlfriend tells the receptionist about what a great
time she had at dinner and dancing with your supervisor the night before. What should the
employee do? The employee incurred in an ethical dilemma.
When applies to ethics, an ethical dilemma refers to a situation which involves mental
conflict between two moral imperatives, whereby to obey one of the moral imperatives will
result in transgressing another moral imperative (Different Approaches to Ethical Dilemmas,
n.d.). A common dilemma is what to do when you see another employee taking unfair advantage
(Jill, 2012). For example, some companies are allowed their employees to take smoke breaks, but
3

sometimes, when take a cigarette break, some workers will hold an off-the-cuff outdoor meeting.
That is not only unhealthy for the other people attending, it also gives the smoker another
cigarette break effectively. The most people use a faulty model of unethical behaviour because
they think that bad people do bad things (John, 2013). But in many cases, the wrong is made
by the good people such as good leaders, good managers and good employees. For example, they
fail to recognize that the problem they are confronting has an ethical component and is not solely
a marketing or finance or other kind of problem (John, 2013). They are lack the ability to solve
the problem from an ethical perspective. So that, the goal of ethics training is not to change
peoples ethics and it is to enhance peoples sensitivity to ethical issues and provide them with
tools for resolving ethical dilemmas effectively (John, 2013).
The ethical dilemma is even more difficult to decide because there is not a wrong
answer. The toughest ethical dilemmas in the workplace occur when two or more competing
alternatives are present, each having its own set of ethical values, the choice of which always
offers a less-than-ideal solution (Chris, 2013). This kind of situation will happen because people
often caves in two favourable outcomes against each other which is fairness versus compassion
(Chris, 2013). The toughest ethical challenge to navigate is right versus right. A difficult
ethical dilemma decision is not necessarily the same as a decision that is easy to make. You may
be faced with a situation where it is very not clear what would be the right or wrong thing to do.
For example about the ethical rule which is lying. If you say, 'I know it is wrong to tell a lie, but I
allow myself to tell lies whenever it suits me,' then this is the clearest possible evidence that you
don't really believe it is wrong to tell a lie (Geoffrey, 2008).
For example, you are a new officer who need to assign by a training officer for the first
six months of your employment. The training officer is a close friend with three Assistant Chief
of Police and the brother-in-law of the Watch Commander. In one day, you respond to a burglary
call at a local convenience store at 2:30 am. The manager has been notified. You are needed to
wait 30-35 minutes for his arrival. Later, you observe your partner take a soda, candy and a bag
of chips. He consumes the soda and chips. When the manager arrives, the two of you depart from
the store. In the example, we can learn that some of the companies like to place their employees
in impossible positions. If a supervisor demands that you do something you find unethical or
even illegal, such as fabricating financial data or violating federal employment laws, you have
4

options (Jill, 2012). If these kind of situation happened, you can make reports to the governance
bodies. If u can avoid it, do not quit the organization, but after you make reports, you want to
prepare to get fired and you may find another job quickly as you can.
1.3 Issues related to Ethical Dilemmas
Ethical dilemma happens all the time among human beings which usually arise from
different situation under any circumstances (Toit, 2007). It could be an issue about morality and
the nature of absolute ethics.
One of the common ethical dilemmas is about lying which people unable to show and tell
the truthful part about something and tends to tell lies. Lying has been known by theologians and
philosophers as an unethical behavior of the nature (S.Bok, 1978). Humans will usually involve
conflicts for facing ethical dilemma when they unable to decide what should they do under these
circumstance. For example, Ones friend is going to get married in one week time Before the
wedding ceremony starts, one found out that one best friend fianc has been having an affair
outside with another man. She will likely to be unfaithful to one best friend if they get married,
but on the other hand, if one brought this bad news to one friend about the affairs, one would
ruining his wedding. Therefore, lying arise all the time in our daily life (B.M. DePaulo, 1998).
Moreover, conflicts of interest will be another subjective issue in the world today.
Conflicts of interest captures the conflict between collective interest and self- interest which
usually links to other outcome structures or interdependence structures (Lange, 2012). Conflicts
of interest are divided into 3 sub-parts which are moral values, professional relations and
hierarachies which concerns about the relationship between different parties (Klvemark, 2003).
Other than that, another related issue will be potential of accountants involves in fraud
by using their role in committing it. A journal stated that Executive-led fraud should be
predominantly focused by excess research on criminality and fraud (N.L. Piquero, 2005).
Conspiracy is generally a harder act to pull off than an individual misdeed (Klempner, 2008).
Therefore, it requires well understanding of the phenomenon in order to be able to examine the
scope and role of an accountant as an instigator on the matter. (G.J. Rossouw, 2000).

In addition, discrimination always happens in the workplace within our society today
due to negative practice of ideas in our surrounding (Simon, n.d). The main factor that initiates
discrimination to arise is conscious or unconscious action which brings positive or adverse
effects towards an individual to act upon something. It can be in the basics of religion, sex,
marital status, sexual orientation, colour, race, age or any other status.
Sexual harassment is also one of the relations which known as any unwanted sexual
behaviour towards an individual by another (O.C. Ferrell, 2010). It is a form of sex
discrimination which violates certain laws. It can also occur in a verbal, visual, physical or
written form which the victim feels unpleasant and find it offensive by being harass because of
their sexuality. Therefore, people in different culture will have different perceptions of actions
that considers as harassment that arise in the issue of ethics dilemma.
Furthermore, bribery can also be a related issue of business ethics because it can be
judged differently in different cultural environments and situation (O.C. Ferrell, 2010). It can be
recognized as an offensive act by determining whether an act is contrary or illicit that accepts
convention or morality in the different situation. Therefore, it is an ethical issue because if an act
is permitted by the law, it is not an offense.

1.4 Importance of Ethical Dilemma to Organizations and its Effects on Organizational

Performance
Now, identifying the ethical dilemma is important as it is visible to all the stakeholders of
a business. We can use preparation and recognising a few simply signs to identify the ethical
dilemma. If you're familiar with the values that your firm wants you to uphold, and with the
ethical values that your profession wants you to uphold, then you will understand what is
expected of you in how you go about your work (Personal Finance Society, 2014). If you have
personal value yourself, other peoples will respect to you. Then, you will look forward to
behaviour yourself. People can learn the value in the ethical dilemma such as personal,
organizational, professional and others. For example, Annie faced some problems in a time, she
do not know what problems should be solved first, all the problems are important, after she
solved all the problems, she will have the experience about which kind of problems should be

solved first and will not make any peoples angry. Thus, the preparation is important to identify
the ethical dilemma.
One sign is that 'ethical' dilemmas touch more heavily than others on matters of principle
(Personal Finance Society, 2014). Some of the examples of principles are impartiality,
accountability, fairness, confidence and openness. These examples may be faced in the conflict.
For example, whistle-blowers often face a conflict between the principle of truth and the
principle of loyalty, when weighing up whether to report a concern(Personal Finance Society,
2014). People make a bad ethical choice will influence public relations stay in a nightmare
world. For example, some companies operate with destroy the air or atmosphere to achieve their
goals and the toxic materials which pollute the environment work against green societal
valuation. Many peoples in the world are very selfish, because they want to achieve their goal
and career, they do not think about other peoples.
In the perfect world, the companys businesses and their employees always do the right
things. But, nowadays, in this real world, many peoples face in the ethical dilemma at the
workplace. An ethical dilemma is a problem where a person has to choose between a moral and
an immoral act (Terry, n.d.). The employees in the company will always face many ethical
dilemmas in their careers, so that the company should provide some training and give some
information about how to solve the question for them to help them in their decision making. In
ethical dilemma, people will make unethical decision, this kind of problem will make the
organization fall to an unstable slope which concerns the legality of company businesses. If any
employees in the organization found in guilty or the management of the organization manage in
guilty ways, the punishment will be severed such as, the high legal fees and fines need to pay and
jail for a certain period.
Hence, a society which is not built on ethics based on freedom, fairness, mature hearts
and minds unable to survive for long (Koestenbaum, 2002). However, organization could
minimize workplace ethical issues by creating an effective compliance and ethics guidelines
which will be able to minimize unethical behaviour among employees. Therefore, employees are
able to feel comfortable in adapting these guidelines and bring awareness to motivate them in
performing their jobs. Lastly, it is able to boosts the organization performance when the
stakeholders are able to discuss openly and independently to resolve ethical problems.
7

Part B: Contents
1

Review the topic with literature

Ethical dilemma can be defined as a circumstance that frequently involves complex and
conflicting principles of ethical behaviour as there is no clear guideline on how to act and
respond to a particular problem (Noor Hazlina Ahmad, Mahfooz A. Ansari & Rehana Aafaqi,
2005). Furthermore, ethical conflicts are unavoidable when an individual's personal business
ethics is not consistent with that of the corporation (Noor Hazlina Ahmad et al., 2005). It is
essential for an individual to identify the presence of ethical dilemma as it acts as catalyst for the
decision making process (Noor Hazlina Ahmad et al., 2005). There will be a great danger in an
organization if an ethical dilemma is failed to acknowledge.

The ethical decision making process is denoted by a four-component model established by Rest,
which are recognize an ethical dilemma, formulate a judgment about the morality of the issue,
develop moral intentions as how to behave relating to the issue, and actually behave in the
intended manner (Valentine, Nam, Hollingworth & Hall, 2013).
8

Recognizing an ethical dilemma is crucial as a person will become aware that he or she is
fronting an ethical problem in the workplace (Valentine et al., 2013). In order to recognize the
existence of an ethical dilemma, there are some criteria depicting the ethical dilemma situations.
Firstly, the fairness components play an important role in management decisions in ethical
dilemma situations (Litschka, Suske & Brandtweiner, 2011). Secondly, the commitment as the
behaviour that sticks to the rules even if personal welfare is adversely affected (Litschka et al.,
2011). Thirdly, the reciprocal altruism acts as a cooperative behaviour that anticipates a
reciprocal beneficial act from other persons (Litschka et al., 2011). All of the three elements have
been applied by the managers when considering the ethical dilemma in the workplace.

After recognizing an ethical dilemma, a person will formulate the judgments related to the
morality of the situation and investigates the issue in question. Individual moral development
plays an imperative role in formulated the judgments. Some people might consider about what is
most accepted within society, or some might prefer to reflect upon the personal ethical values
(Valentine et al., 2013). An individual will eventually decides what is ethically right regarding to
the issue.

The remaining two components indicate the behavioural dimensions of ethical reasoning. Ethical
reasoning is the process of sorting out the principles that help to identify what is ethical when
confronted with ethical dilemmas (Noor Hazlina Ahmad et al., 2005). Having a better
understanding about the ethical reasoning is important because it has several bearing on the
decision style used by the managers when encountering with dilemma or conflict at work (Noor
Hazlina Ahmad et al., 2005). The ethical reasoning comprises of Egoism, Belief in Just World
(BJW), Utilitarianism, Deontology and etcetera. There may be incompatible between an
individuals ethical judgment and ethical intent because of the preferred consequences
concerning particular alternatives (Valentine et al., 2013). An individual may identify the best
ethical alternative when making ethical judgments, but intend to behave the other alternative due
to the preferred consequences (Valentine et al., 2013).

As a conclusion, the organization should hope to see the incremental improvements in workers
ability to make the ethical decisions through developing a stronger ethical culture so that it can
lead to a more ethical workplace (Valentine et al., 2013).

Comprehensively discuss the concepts inherited in the topic.

Ethical issues are confusing and multifaceted and not only black and white (Welker & Berardino,
2013). Recognizing an ethical issue or condition is necessary to ethical decision making because
a person becomes conscious that he or she is facing an ethical dilemma in the workplace
(Valentine, Nam, Hollingworth & Hall, 2013). Lying, sexual harassment, discrimination and
fraud are the four ethical dilemmas that always happen in the world today.

Lying relates to distort the truth and philosophers and theologians have categorised lying as
unethical and immoral behaviour Lying is very common in daily life and it is difficult to resolve
with its occurrence (Levine & Schweitzer, 2014). People not only lie for own benefits but also
others people benefits. There are three types of lying which are joking without malice,
commission lying and omission lying. Commission lying is creating a perception or belief by
words that intentionally deceive the receiver (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2010). For example,
How do I look? You look great is the commission lying which is usually used to booster
someones self-worth because telling the truth will be hurt the people (Martin, n.d.). Omission
lying is defined as intentionally not to inform the channel member of any differences, problems
or negative issues related to the product that significantly affect intention, awareness and
behaviour. For example, tobacco manufacturers that did not allow negative research to appear on
cigarette and did not inform the degree of side effects to the consumers, one of which is death
(Ferrell et al., 2010). Research showed that lying may harm the interpersonal relationships,
induces negative effects and decreased trust which could be lead to the focus of lawsuit (Levine
et al., 2014).

Secondly, sexual harassment issue in ethical dilemma has been increased from past decade and
it serves as a serious obstacle to the assimilation of women in the industry market that the effects
on individuals are always negative and can be positively harmful (Drago, n.d.). Sexual
10

harassment in the workplace poses something of an ethical dilemma for career guidance practice
because it is identified that about half of all working women are likely to be victims at some
stage of their employment (Bimrose, 2004). Sexual harassment is a type of sex discrimination
and it defined as any repetitive, unwanted behaviour of sexual nature perpetrated upon one
individual by another (Ferrell et al., 2010). The most common types of sexual harassment are in
verbal type which include sexual jokes, sexual comments about body, clothes and sex life
whereas non- verbal form is staring and whistling (Drago, n.d.). Besides, sexual harassment
has been used as a method of control by those with power over those with less power, especially
in closed organizational settings for instance prisons and law enforcement agencies (Firestone,
Miller & Harris, 2011). Many surveys demonstrated that huge numbers of women are affected,
but low levels of identification are evident due to a general lack of understanding and awareness
particularly since that the term sexual harassment used without definitions or examples leads to
lower percentages of victims reporting such experiences (Bimrose, 2004).

Thirdly, discrimination used to justify an unjust practice (Simon, n.d.). Discrimination is the
detrimental conduct of an individual based on membership of a certain group or category is
possibly to have negative effects on its victims well- being and health (Wood, Braeken & Niven,
2012). Race, age and gender discrimination are major discrimination issues in ethical dilemma
facing in the workplace. For instance, a CEO who hires a close friend on the basis of the qualities
he believes he has as his friend would be positive discrimination. Negative discriminations
example would be a man being denied a job on the basis of race. For example, in the case of the
CEO, while his friend was the recipient of the positive discrimination whereas those who denied
the job on the basis of not being a friend of the CEO suffered from negative discrimination
(Simon, n.d.).

Fraud appears extensive and reports seem to show a growing trend even though there are many
regulations currently implement by government and private enterprise corporate fraud continues
to be a pervasive problem. Fraud statistics are incredible and remain one of the most challenging
issues for worldwide business (Alleyne & Elson, 2013). Fraud is defined as deceive,
impersonation with intention to deceive, criminal fraud done with the intention of gaining
benefits (Fatma Ulucan O zkul & Ayse Pamukcu, 2012). Fraud is a crime and may result in
11

fines, imprisonment or both (Ferrell et al., 2010). Pressure, opportunities and justification that
constitute the fraud triangle are the reasons why people commit fraud when they are facing
ethical dilemma (Fatma Ulucan O zkul et al., 2012). Fraud detection information technology
tools, intrusion detection systems, whistle-blowing hotlines and reference checks before hiring
employees are few methods that firms have tried to alleviate fraud (Alleyne & Elson, 2013).

Explain the relationship among the concepts.

Ethics scholars have argued that honesty, fairness and integrity are the significant element of
moral personality and they are the primary characteristic of ethical behaviour in our daily life
(Levine et al., 2014). Lying, sexual harassment, discrimination and fraud issues in ethical
dilemma are related to the element of moral personality which consists of honesty, fairness and
integrity. Researchers presumed that lying and fraud are immoral and honesty is moral whereas
justice is a moral establishment that prioritizes fairness, honesty and moral principles. Ethics
scholars defined white lies as false statements made with the intention of confusing a target about
something insignificant (Levine et al., 2014). On the contrary, prosocial lies are intended to help
the target and can have significant consequences. For instance, parents may tell prosocial lies
about their marriage to protect their children or doctors may tell prosocial lies about the severity
of a prediction to help a patient (Levine et al., 2014). Caring is a moral establishment that focus
on the duty to help and protect other people. Prosocial lying is an ethically undecided act which
is the signals of caring other people (positive moral signal) but it is also disregard for the moral
standard of honesty (negative moral signal). Therefore, we build our understanding of the
relationship between ethical dilemma (lying and fraud) and moral character judgments by pitting
the signals of care and honesty against each other (Levine et al., 2014).

The importance of good ethical practice, honesty and professional integrity is at the spirit of the
research method, business field or our daily life (Karcz & Papadakos, 2011). However, fraud and
deceit in medical research is misuse the standard codes of ethical behaviour and conduct. Trust is
principal between the scientific community as a whole and the public. Nevertheless trust has
been dishonoured in a number of areas of the research process caused by scientific misconduct.
12

The reasons for people to conduct fraudulent actions are due to the pressures to publish, achieve
career promotion, the lure of reputation and money (Karcz et al., 2011). Fraud and deceit in
business can visible itself in a few ways of affecting all business disciplines populations and
countries. As a business community, we should always keep in mind that all types of fraud and
deceit can ruin the reputation in the eyes of the public and practice good ethical behaviour,
honesty in our life.

Researchers argue that sex testing is a sensible (though imperfect) way to assure the safety,
competitiveness and fairness of women sport, by accurately arranging competitors into suitable
categories according to convention, science and humanitarian values. Although there is no
gender discrimination have been recognized through sex testing in sport, a number of selected
women have been unfairly disqualified from competition since sex test were formally introduced
into international games, with consequences that extend away from their sporting career (Wells
& Darnell, 2014). Testing has caused harms to women athletes. Therefore, any accommodations
are attempted through privacy clauses and integration policy in sex testing policies based in the
advantage thesis assumptions of fairness appears to receive main concern over the impact of
discrimination. Consequently, critics emphasize that sex testing participates in a tradition
biological concept of sex difference actually help to construct and disseminate social hierarchies
and stereotypes for the gender discrimination and fairness (Wells et al., 2014).

2.4 Explain the concepts from the psychological, sociological or philosophical approach.
The simplest definition for psychology is that it is the study of the humans mind and behaviour
(What is psychology, n.d.). The applications of psychology comprise the mental health treatment,
performance enhancement, self-help, ergonomics, and many other areas that affecting health and
daily life (What is psychology, n.d.). It is quite challenging to capture everything that psychology
covers in just a brief definition, however, the matters like development, personality, thoughts,
feelings, emotions, motivations and social behaviours depicts just a part of what psychology try
to understand and clarify (What is psychology, n.d.).

13

Why can we say that ethical dilemma can be originated from psychological approach? According
to Lai and Babcock (2012), Asian Americans have been largely ignored in the workplace
discrimination. It is definitely very vital for having a set of skills needed in the job for securing
the employment. However, the more significant is that how the employers perceive the
candidates job skill. The perceptions of competence and social skills of Asian Americans will
influence their opportunities of being employed. The employers beliefs of candidates skills are
not only according to an objective evaluation of the skills but also on a subjective interpretation
of them (Lai & Babcock, 2012). Nevertheless, people frequently see what they expect to see due
to the biases in the processing of information brought on by stereotypes (Lai & Babcock, 2012).
Asian Americans are stereotyped as intellectual, industrious, hardworking, self-disciplined and
good at math and sciences, this reflects that they are competent (Lai & Babcock, 2012).
Conversely, they are also stereotyped as quiet, ashamed, unpopular, reserved, old-style, and
placing less value on a leisurely life, this indicates that they are deficient in social skills (Lai &
Babcock, 2012). Hence, this lead to the Asian Americans experience workplace discrimination.

Normative assumptions relating to how female and male differ regarding to the work related
skills, attitudes and knowledge usually imply that female are deficient compared to male peers
(Firestone, Miller & Harris, 2011). For instance, the pop-psychology literature is equipped with
self-help advice for female on enduring the deficiencies by succeeding at corporate
gamesmanship, breaking into the boys club, improving communication styles and
supervising skills, and how to be feminine and still succeed in the workplace (Firestone et al.,
2011). These attitudes usually will turn into sexist behaviours, whether intentionally or not and
thus lead to occurring of sexual harassment.
Even though the philosophers and theologians have considered lying as unethical behaviour as
they think that people lie to benefit themselves, however sometimes an individual tells lie is to
benefit others or to serve both self-interested and prosaically motives. Most of the research in
moral psychology discusses that, at its core, morality is to protect individuals (Levine &
Schweitzer, 2014). Caring and concerning someone is essential to the human experience as
humans are hardwired to discover harm to others (Levine & Schweitzer, 2014). For instance,
individuals usually assume that the immoral behaviour will cause harm, even when no objective
harm has been done. Some researchers have recommended that moral rules of justice developed
14

to protect people from harm (Levine & Schweitzer, 2014). That is why we value justice may
have more to do with its role in protecting individuals than our preference for formal rules.

Meanwhile, sociology can be defined as the study of human social relationships and institutions
(What is sociology, n.d.). It is a field of study that investigates and describes the important
matters in our personal lives, our communities and even the world (What is sociology, n.d.). At
the personal level, sociology analyses the social causes and effects of such things including
romantic love, racial and gender identity, family conflict, deviant behaviour, aging, and religious
faith (What is sociology, n.d.). At the societal level, sociology observes and explains the issues
such as crime and law, poverty and wealth, prejudice and discrimination, schools and education,
business firms, urban community, and social movements (What is sociology, n.d.). At the global
level, sociology examines such phenomena as population growth and migration, war and peace,
and economic development (What is sociology, n.d.).

Why can we say that the ethical dilemma can be originated from sociological approach? Cressey
(1971) claimed that the white-collar crimes are occurred due to a non-shareable problem
(Dellaportas, 2013). A non-sharable problem will give arise when an individual faces a problem
or personal crisis and cannot share with their friends or colleagues due to the embarrassment the
criminal associates with the conduct and the resulting impacts of legal or social sanctions when
the conduct is revealed (Dellaportas, 2013). Other than personal crisis, loss of status, admission
of fault or poor adjustment also can generate a non-shareable problem that causing an individual
to solve their problem privately by stealing to prevent losing face (Dellaportas, 2013).

2.5 Two different theories explain the relationship between/among the concepts.
The first theory to be used is utilitarianism. This theory is more focus on its consequences. The
utilitarian searches for the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The utilitarian make
decision by comparing the costs with the benefits to all parties that are affected (Ferrell,
Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2010). Through the cost-benefit analysis, they compute the utility of the
15

consequences of all possible alternatives and choose the one that result in the greatest benefit
(Ferrell et al., 2010).

Sexual harassment in the workplace has become the focus of much academic researches across
disciplines and also much media attention (Firestone, Miller & Harris, 2011). The research
indicates that the sexual harassment is a widespread phenomenon with various negative impacts
(Firestone et al., 2011). More than half of the harassed workers stated the negative impacts for
their personal well-being; a third of the harassed workers reported the negative consequences for
their work situation including resignation, tasks reduction, change of workplace and short of
working condition; and the rest of them said the negative implications for the work satisfaction,
working climate and motivation (Drago, n.d.). Since there are many negative consequences
contributed from the sexual harassment, based on the utilitarianism theory, the greatest utility to
the society will lead to forcing the organizations to prevent sexual harassment in workplace.
Therefore, the management of a company is responsible to establish a rigorous standard and
policy regarding the sexual harassment on the job to raise the awareness of employees.

Workplace discrimination can range from the systematic denial of peoples rights on the basis of
their sex, religion, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation or other variables to more informal oral
abuse that makes reference to such characteristics (Wood, Braeken & Niven, 2012). According to
the national survey 1218 adult Asian Americans in year 2000, 92% of those with experience of
personal discrimination pointed out that the discrimination was because of their ethnicity, 40%
stated that the discrimination happened in workplace in the form of getting jobs or promotions
(Lai & Babcock, 2012). Discrimination is likely to have clear cut implications for sociological
viewpoints on the workplace, policy interventions surrounding equity and conflict and also
employees' well-being. Obviously, it promotes greatest utility to the society that causes the
government to establish a few of the standards to guide their implementation to avoid the
occurrence of these unfair treatments.
The second theory to be applied is Deontology. Deontology is defined as moral philosophies
which are focus on the rights of individuals and on the intentions related with a specific
behaviour rather than on its consequences. The primary for deontology theory is the initiative
16

that equal respect must be given to all persons (Ferrell et al., 2010). Deontologists consider that
we should not involve in committing fraud in order to maximize the profit. However, utilitarian
consider an action is acceptable if the action can create greater benefit. For example, researcher
found out that white-collar criminals claimed that they felt reasonable in committing fraud in
order to save their company, the employees jobs and other businesses that relied on their
survival (Brody, Melendy & Perri, 2012).

Fraud is a human endeavour, and it is significant to understand the psychological factors,

including personality, that might influence the fraud offenders behaviour (Brody et al., 2012).
Deontologists will try to find compliance to moral principle to decide whether the action is
ethical or unethical (Ferrell et al., 2010).A study researching fraudulent financial reporting,
defined as intentional misrepresentation of a corporations financial statements or a lack of
financial disclosures, found that between 1998 and 2007, the 347 U.S. public corporations
studied suffered a collective fraud-induced financial loss of $120 billion. Besides, the 2010
Report to the Nations, compiled by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, predictably
that fraud cost the global economy $2.9trillion in 2009 (Brody et al., 2012).

Lying is a multifaceted psychological occurrence. People lie for a diversity of reasons such as to
avoid conflict, to save face or to please people (Al-Fedaghi, 2005). A lie is illegal if it is based on
courts judgement by hurting others people Deontological ethics relentlessly demand always
telling the truth. The maxim that lying is wrong is applied even in non-common sense cases such
as telling a murderer the location of his victim (Al-Fedaghi, 2005). According to Kants
deontological justification method, lying about private information is morally reasonable when
there is no alternative; so, we have neutralized relying on the psychological feeling of
convincing, and the authoritative force to pressure people (e.g., online consumers) to be honest
when submitting private information. People lie about their private information because their
decision does not depend on the ethical code (Al-Fedaghi, 2005). Lie becomes unethical
dilemma in business but it is depend on the context and intention to cover the truth (Ferrell et al.,
2010).

17

Part C (Discussion)
3.1 Lying
Most of the people always think that lying is bad. For centuries, philosophers and theologians
have characterized lying as unethical (Levine & Schweitzer, 2014). Similarly, ethics scholars
have argued that the honesty is a critical component of moral character and it is also a
fundamental aspect of the ethical behavior. Some lies are perceived to be more ethical than an
honest statement. Prosocial lies are intended to benefit the target and have small or substantial
consequences (Levine & Schweitzer, 2014). For example parents may tell prosocial lies about
their marriage to protect their children, the government authorities may tell a prosocial lie to the
18

citizens, and hoping to protect them and doctors may tell a prosocial lie about the severity of a
prognosis in order to help their patient (Levine & Schweitzer, 2014).
There was a famous case study which happened in Nordstrom and it was about a clerk
helping an elderly woman. This woman came to Nordstrom for returning a set of new tires which
were for her husbands automobile. She wished to return them because her husband was recently
deceased. Unfortunately, there is no automotive department in Nordstrom. By seeing how
distressed this woman was, the Nordstrom clerk decided to take the tires back and reimbursed the
woman out of his or her pocket. In this example, lying was used as a demonstration of the
organizational improvisation and resulted positive outcome for the customer (Conway, 2014). We
can argue that there is still a good side of lying. Prosocial lying is an ethically ambivalent act, it
signals care for others but also disregard for the moral principle of honesty (Levine &
Schweitzer, 2014). The majority of the research in moral psychology argues that, at its core,
morality is about protecting individuals. Consequently, we expect that the observers to judge
the individuals who tell lies that help others to be more moral or ethical than those individuals
who are honest but to harm others.

However, there is still a bad side of lying. Lie can be defined as a statement which
believed by those liars to be false and made to another person with the intention of making such
person to be deceived by the statement. A lie is always associated with deceit. The term of deceit
implies an intention to mislead to the disadvantage of those who are misled (Graafland &
Eenkhoorn, 2010). The deception with lying is qualified as a calculated effort to mislead the
target of lie. There are ten millions of dollars are lost to American businesses at the hands of
dishonest employees. Besides that, detection of deceit is also critical to the public safety and
health. When the problem prompted the first lie reappears, the risk of having past untruths
exposed is a powerful incentives to lie again. Those who lie on behalf of the state are lauded
whereas lying for the enemy is the most heinous crime which considered as traitorous. We can
argue that the greater the level of the central control, there will be greater risk from pervasive
deception. There was a case which about Chinese leaders knew the disastrous consequences of
19

the Great Leap forward but persisted in their policy and imposed a system of deception. Due to
lack of free debate which able to stimulate the action, 10 millions of people died of the starvation
in year 1959 to year 1961, it was hidden for years. There are good and bad side of lying.
3.2 Sexual Harassment
Sexual Harassment reflects the unequal power relations between the women and men in
the society (Ng & Othman, 2002). It can be said as a serious infringement on the right of the
workers within a company and the victims are forced to deal with some unpleasant and
humiliating experience which might cause in emotional and also psychological trauma. Besides
that, it can create an offensive and hostile working environment for those workers which impede
the productivity and also the social interaction within the company (Ramsaroop & Parumasur,
2007). In order to show that the sexual harassment is actually occurred, the complaining parties
must show that the physical conduct is unwelcome. Most of the sexual cases involve women
with the lower income. Those victims might experience some kinds of emotional reaction
whenever the sexual harassment occurred. Sexual harassment cases always reduce the
productivity and also the teamwork and the idea generation which impact on the companys
effectiveness (Ramsaroop & Parumasur, 2007).
Moreover, most of the companies and government always cancel the contracts with those
companies who have sexual harassment problem because such problem might reduce the
reputation of those companies who cooperate with them and they are doing this for discouraging
sexual harassment (Ramsaroop & Parumasur, 2007). Some women argued that sexual
harassment consists of the use of male sexuality to exercise and to reinforce the power of those
men and to control over the women. They said that it is a sexual violence and gender
discrimination (Ng & Othman, 2002).
In Israel, the law prohibits intimidation or retaliation that accommodates sexual
harassment, referred to prejudicial treatment (Kamir, 2005). Both of them are considered as a
crime and tort under Israel law. In workplace, and employer is liable for the civil consequences
of the sexual harassment which perpetrated by anyone in his or her employ. The civil liability of
the employer is in addition to the harassers individual civil and criminal liability (Kamir, 2005).
Sexual harassment might have some negative impacts on those victims job satisfaction, their
20

stress levels and also their mental health (Lunenburg, 2010). Those harassed victims also might
be more likely to leave the company. Besides that, they also tend to have some negative attitudes
toward their supervisors or coworker (Lunenburg, 2010).
However, a truly consensual sexual relationship or the sexual conducts may not be
considered as unwelcome if it is participated willingly and hence it is not a sexual harassment.
We can argue that it is an ethical behaviour. In fact sexual harassment has been misconceived by
both women and men as simply a harmless expression of an individuals basically sexual nature
to others and hence some women are flattered by sexual attention and would flirt back (Ng &
Othman, 2002). According to biological model, men and women are attracted to each other and
they would like to relate to each other in sexually oriented manners in the workplace (Ng &
Othman, 2002). With this we can argue that it is just a harmless behaviour and a natural
behaviour of individuals with the strong sex drives.

Generally, from the mens perception, sexual harassment is just a normal behaviour
among them which is far more different from the womens perception. For instance, a store
supervisor who is a man did not think that wolf whistling was a sexual harassment. Sometimes,
even dirty or rude languages are considered as normal behaviour among the men (Ng & Othman,
2002). Another man with 28 years old engineer who excused a womans rejection of his
persistent invitations to go for a date, if the man persists in his invitations, it is not a sexual
harassment. Perhaps that woman is shy. It is not considered as unethical behaviour. It is not that
every conducts we made is always ethical
3.3 Discrimination
Discrimination can come in many various forms such as gender discrimination, racial
ethnic discrimination, age discrimination and many more that can happen in a working
environment. There is no one accurate way to define as to what constitutes as discrimination as
there are two theories which repel each other as what discrimination is under their own
definition. The two theories are Utilitarianism and Kantian.

21

The utilitarian argument against discrimination maintains that society's productivity

will be highest when jobs are awarded based on competence or merit. However, Immanuel Kant
the founder of Kantian condemns Utilitarianism as an immoral ethical theory for having an
ethical theory that can morally legitimize pain, suffering, exploitation, and injustice (Cavico,
Muffler & Mujtaba, 2012). As Kant says that, humans should be treated as ends in themselves
and never as a means to an end. Therefore, discrimination is wrong because it violates people's
rights to be treated as equals. So no matter what type of gender, age, race or even level of
performance based, everyone should be treated which contradicts Utilitarianisms ideology.
This brings an ethical dilemma as any decision to give promotions or job opportunities
will give rise to wrongs in both different views. As Heckman (1998) points out that, major
controversies will arise over whether relevant omitted characteristics differ between races, and
between genders, and whether certain included characteristics systematically capture
productivity differences or instead are a proxy for race or gender.
Opposing towards Kantian theory, the beliefs that everyone should be treated equally and
not based on performance has also brought much injustice towards society, people who are
fighting for their privileges and rights have gone too extreme towards their demands. On regards
to sexism (or racism), women or minorities are making unfair demands and using unfair
strategies to advance their privilege and power, and preferential treatment or special favors
granted to these groups are undeserved. Modern sexists and modern racists nowadays view these
beliefs as empirical fact, not opinion or ideology. In fact, research suggests that they consciously
endorse values of egalitarianism and justice, publicly condemn sexism and racism, and strongly
identify as non-prejudiced (Cortina, Kabat-Farr, Leskinen, Huerta & Magley, 2013).
These implications have brought a whole new perspective and abuse towards
discrimination itself and at the same the individuals themselves are trying to discriminate back
unknowingly through their emotions. Sometimes discrimination can happen at a sub conscious
level without knowingly by a person that is doing the discrimination. As an example by
Posthuma and Campion (2009), managers can hold negative stereotypes about older workers that
are subtle or unconscious, yet these may affect how they think about their workers. The result
can be discrimination against older workers when they are not hired, are not selected for training,

22

or are targeted for layoffs. Thus, although the

influence may be subtle, the cause

may be age stereotypes and the effect, discrimination.

However, these same individuals implicitly harbor negative emotions and cognitions
toward women (or minorities), driving them to discriminate in inconspicuous or rationalizable
ways (Cortina et al., 2013).
Utilitarianism on the other hand has also its upsets as, giving rewards, salaries and job
opportunity in the working environment based on performance can also lead to stereotyping. In
an example of age discrimination given by Cuddy, Norton and Fiske (2005), that it is a general
stereotype that older workers are expected to have lower job performance than younger workers.
Therefore managers will have negative perceptions on older worker. However, that is not the
case as proven by Posthuma and Campion (2009) that there are positive relationships between
age and work performance. This means that the stereotype that leads to age discrimination is not
concrete enough to discriminate senior workers in a workplace because of age.
Therefore, the ethical dilemma that comprises with discrimination arises when looking at both
arguments of utilitarianism and Kantian when it involves discrimination when making decisions
will adhere in wrongs ethically and morally.
3.4 Fraud
Discussion about ethical dilemmas when it comes to fraud is often unheard off as fraud
itself is morally wrong from every angle and perspective. Hence, we look deeper into the ethical
dilemmas that can happen when it comes to fraudulent activities and found out that ethical
dilemmas do arise when fraud comes hand in hand with incentives as we found out through
journals that what are the motivations of managers and CEOs to issue misleading financial
disclosures as most fraudulent activities are attributed from top

management levels

(Zahra, Priem & Rasheed, 2005).

The ethical dilemma happens when questioning the incentive given to the CEO or
manager will result in fraudulent act or not. In a case where given by Donoher, Reed and Barnes
(2007) that given part ownership of the company to a CEO as incentive, the CEO is motivated by
the desire to protect his or her accumulated wealth, whereas in the other, that of contingent
23

compensation, the objective is to profit from a higher share price than would be justified by
actual results. CEOs are stuck with a dilemma between duty and moral as they have a duty to
maximise the wealth of the shareholders yet not committing fraud in the books in order to
increase the share prices of the company will be a violation of a CEOs duty to the shareholders.
Another instances of ethical dilemma in fraudulent act is through stock options, which
have arguments that stock options can provide managers with incentives for misrepresenting
their firms financial performance to boost near-term compensation or to cover up risky bets
gone wrong. As stated by Ndofor, Wesley and Priem (2013) stock options have been used as a
common means for aligning top managers goals with those of shareholders and thereby
mitigating the agent-principal goal misalignment problem. Because the value of managers stock
optionsbased compensation increases when their firms stock prices increase, top managers with
enough stock option compensation will vigorously pursue their shareholders goal of stock price
appreciation. Therefore, this will bring incentives to managers to misrepresent company
statements or commit fraud.
As Agency theory suggests that shareholdings are a relevant indicator of power.
Those whom control the most voting shares make the final decisions and can impose their will
on the other shareholders. This can have either beneficial or adverse consequences (Dunn, 2003).
And the consequences brings out ethical dilemmas from fraudulent acts from top managements
and CEOs.

24

Part D: Recommendations
4.1 Implications to society, organizations, and management.
In society, people do not always lie even though lying might increase monetary payoffs.
(Erat. S, 2013). However, people might hire someone to lie for them to allow themselves avoid
from the disutility of lying. (Erat. S, 2013) According to Erat. S, 2013, the possibility of
delegating to an agent is depending on the incentives. In the results shows that women have
higher possibility to delegate an agent as compared to men. (Erat. S, 2013). Some may lie about
good deeds because it seems to be a self-defensive strategy as this strategy might decrease ones
vulnerability of social distrust. The research recommended that by employing the standard
principal-agent framework and explains the delegation from differences in information, ability,
and cost or from the credibility because of handing off the decision-making authority. There is
one model which is the principal select an appropriate incentive scheme and delegates it to agent
and consequently gain credibility. (Fershtman, C., Judd, K. L., & Kalai, E. 1991) For example,
people might be averse to hire an illegal immigrant to help them doing things for less than the
minimum wages, this doesnt mean that the people choose to hire only legal workers. In this
situation, that people have an alternative course of action to hire an agent and act on that
people behalf with the possibility of this person might engage in some actions that he would not
do.
25

In the business organization, it is a form of human community contributed to commerce.

(Wallace. J, 2000) According to Wallace. J, 2000, people may perceive to work in a business
based on lies and without being disturbed by it. Some people might tolerate to an environment in
which the employees are routinely lied to if the employee is the type of able to thrive in an
environment. However, some employee might resign due to lack of integrity because there is an
incentive for everyone to be honest in business. An organization who is lack of integrity may
lead to many problems for examples when customers have discovered they have been laid, they
will not return to the organization. Besides, employees who have been laid to will leave the
organization too and this cause the organization hard to recruit new employee.
For the management, leader is like a flag. (Wallace. J, 2000) Leader needs to have good
ethical values for their employee in order to salute him. The honesty of the leader is the
cornerstone of the structure. So, if the employees found out that they are being laid, they will
reduce the confident level towards the leaders.
Next, with the technology advancement, stakeholders are able to look through and get to
know the situation of company. However, some listed company might disclose less information
about how their business is being conducted for instances the policies and situation in the
company to satisficed the investors and stakeholders. (Yu. T& Chen. J, 2009).Hence, what are
the consequences? A company who is lacking of transparency, the stakeholders or investors
might not want to trust the company. Stakeholders will uncertain that whether the company has
already taken into account as well as taken preventive steps on fraud and corruption. According
to Webley (2001), Government and shareholders groups are asking for accountability and
transparency on the part of multinational corporations by giving the potential of high profile
incidents that poor corporate behavior may lead to.
Apart from lying and fraud, as far as historical records show, the more civilized a
society becomes the more subtle the stigma and discrimination gets. (Roseval. W, n.d.)
Discrimination is still happening in the society. The consequences of discrimination in society
are obviously reflecting on race, religion and disable discrimination. Nowadays, one of the main
reasons cause violence is race discrimination. For example, white people always fight with black
people due to they were discriminated. People might not understand about others culture which
may cause them to look down on others. Furthermore, discrimination in religion might endanger
26

the peacefulness of the society. When there is a conflict between different religions, this may
easily lead to a war.
On the other hand, discrimination also happens in organization and management as well.
Discrimination in the organization such as age, gender, disabilities, sex, race and so forth.
Discrimination in the organization can have serious consequences and effect towards the
offender and also the victim. (Lisa. F, n.d.) When the discrimination in the organization has
spread, the morale will decrease, trust between each other will be broken, and significantly the
company bottom line will be broken. Besides that, Google Company has faced serious problem
in discrimination of gender in their company. (Claburn. T, 2014) When an employee is being
discriminated, he might feel helpless and anxiety as well as lack of interest in job
responsibilities, says Douglas N. Silverstein. Besides, an employee might feel like he is an
outsider when his religious beliefs might lose self-esteem and therefore stop contributing ideas.
After that, the employees morale will go downward which can later cause absenteeism and lack
of interest and motivation to complete his tasks on time. At last, the performance of the
organization will drop.
Sexual harassment is a serious violation of personal rights and institutional values. (Stop
Violence Against Women Sexual Harassment, n.d.) In this society, there is about 90% to 95% of
sexually harassed women suffer from some stress reaction for examples anxiety, depression,
sleep disorders, sexual dysfunction and headaches according to a data compiled by a womens
law center in the United States.(Stop Violence Against Women Sexual Harassment, n.d.).In
addition to that, the victim will be objectified and humiliated by scrutiny and gossip of the
society. (Stop Violence Against Women Sexual Harassment, n.d.)
Furthermore, the consequences of sexual harassment in the workplacescan be many and
serious especially in Australia. (Wright. J, 2010). Sexual harassment significant effect on an
employees productivity and emotional.(Wright. J, 2010)For example, a harassed woman might
at the risk of losing her job or the chance for a promotion if she rejects to give in the sexual
demands of someone in authority. In some other situations, employees will also feel that, they are
harmful by his friends or colleagues.(Wright. J, 2010). On the other hand, the employee might
unable to overcome the incident and suffers serious emotional and physical consequences at last.
Employers may also lose talented employees because of the sexual harassment as not only
27

victims but also the observers who always quit the job in response to their experiences. As the
turnover of the employee increase, the organization will loss more productivity and then affects
the societys overall economic productivity. Sexual harassment will lead to a demoralizing effect
on everyone within range of it and it also brings negatively effects towards organization
productivity on the whole.

4.2 Justify the recommendations with literature supports.

The implications of those issues which are lying, sexual harassment, discrimination and
fraud are serious towards organization, management and society. Hence, every person is playing
an important role to reduce these issues.
So what are the recommendations to reduce these issues?
Lying
Ethical leadership plays an essential role in resolving ethical dilemma (Ikbale, T., Hidajet
S. 2012). Leadership is a way to affect all ethical decision making by human and management.
This is because leader plays an important role and holds a powerful influence towards culture of
the organization. Furthermore, leader has the obligation in creating credibility and trust in the
organization. From the research, it is obviously show that an employee may contribute more as
he/she work for something they trust in. (Posner. B. Z., & Kouzes. J. M., 1988). If the good
ethics and attitudes are set by the top manager in the workplace, the ethical will be enhanced. For
example, leader should give trustfulness and avoid lying towards his employees. Therefore
leaders are acting as role models for employees to behave ethical in the workplace.
In detail, Q. Miao et al (2012) proposed that ethical leaders proposed that an ethical
leader has the responsibility to establish a clear and fine standard which will differentiate the
right and wrong ethical behavior among the subordinates with respective right action. For
instance, an employee who conduct unethical behavior should being punished with a right action
such as unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) in the organization should be carried out to
warn and aware of employees who try to conduct unethical behavior although it is for the benefit
of the organization. Besides, leader should not only punish employee who has conducted
28

unethical behavior, they should also reward their employees who have done in ethical behavior
in order to encourage them to continue doing ethical behaviors.
However, leader needs to be aware of the appropriateness of punishment standard by
giving punishment according to the level of unethical behaviors in order to show fairness among
the employees because a too harsh punishment of a small unethical behavior will lead to reduce
the confidence of employee in doing works that may bring benefit to the organization in future.
In short, an organization should have a standard of ethical behavior set by the ethical leader to
assure that their employees are clearly understand the standard which is expected by the
organization. Through this, the employees potential performance will be maximized.
Fraud
Recently, public has largely captured their attention to the cases of fraud. (CBIANEWS,
2007) According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), small and
midsize companies suffer a greater share of fraud losses than do the largest companies.
(CBIANEWS, 2007) So, what are the recommendations to prevent this issue?
Firstly, company should require a background check on all employees. According to
PROTECT YOUR COMPANY, 2013, background report is a great way to protect the quality and
culture of business. The manager should check for any inconsistencies between the application
and the report of the background. For example, a persons dishonesty might prove detrimental to
the business. So, the manager should look into deeper the persons background or consider
another person. The manager must know who they are hiring as the manager can take time to call
the previous employers. (PROTECT YOUR COMPANY, 2013)
Besides that, the manager should actively involve in checking companys finances.
(PROTECT YOUR COMPANY, 2013) They have the obligation to know the cost and expenses
run by the company. In detail, manager need to recognize any costs seem too high or the profit
seem too low for the companys sales volume. Segregation of duties is also vital in a company.
Every employee should have their own work to prevent them manipulate others work easily.
Furthermore, according to (PROTECT YOUR COMPANY, 2013) the company should
implement internal controls by asking some questions in order to evaluate and get to know
29

current internal policies. For example, the manager needs to ask about is there any blank checks
was being left out? Is there any suspicious people have access to your signature stamp? Last but
not least, in order to raise the awareness about fraud employees should be educated about fraud.
(PROTECT YOUR COMPANY, 2013). The company can have fraud awareness training in the
company to assist the employees know about the subtle and not so subtle instances of fraud. In
short, employee may be able to keep this awareness at the forefront and they will also get to
know the consequences of fraud.
Sexual Harassment
In order to reduce sexual harassment issue in the workplace, leaders are automatically
plays an important role and perceive ethical behavior. Therefore, the employer should also
implement positive duties towards the employees. According to (Wright. J, 2010), Australia was
introduced a model whereby if an employee is sexually harassed in the workplace, the
responsibility is lies with the employer because the employer holds a positive duty to prevent this
issues from happening. In detail, employer has the responsibility to update the workplace
policies relating to sexual harassment. Besides that, employer needs to organize a regular staff
meeting to remind employee the company policy that sexual harassment is prohibited. If
employee breaches the workplace policy, the employee should expect to be disciplined by his/her
employer.
Furthermore, the leader should also implement other measures to reduce the risk factors
of women workers. (Ismail. M. N., Chee. L. K., & Bee, C. F, 2007). For instances, employer may
rearrange the work area to let the women workers work in the full view of other employees.
Employees also encouraged to dress properly at the workplace. The introduction of legally
binding standards and positive duties for employers is a positive step forward. (Wright. J,
2010). Through this step, it can encourage the employee to have self-regulation in order to
achieve social change in the workplace. (Wright. J, 2010) However, the author also proposed that
the duties must be in clear and unambiguous term, they should be governed as well in order to
prevent employers not fail in their responsibility to prevent sexual harassment.
On the other hand, Malaysian government has officially launched the Code of Practice on
the Prevention and Eradication of Sexual Harassment in 1999 in order to deal with the sexual
30

harassment issue. (Ismail. M. N., Chee. L. K., & Bee, C. F, 2007). Malaysia government has also
put efforts by conducting workshops to enhance the awareness and implement the ways to handle
such case. In short, prevention will be an effective way to deal with the problem in the long term
as people are being educated to deal with it and aware of sexual harassment.
Discrimination
As mention in the journal, discrimination is very common in the world. (Roseval. W,
2007). For example, in order to reduce discrimination in Google Company, Google start to give
more than $40 million to the organization working for them to send out and bring computer
science education to women and girls for them to know more about computer science. By this
way the company is able to encourage and attract more female employee who is interested and
has the ability in computer science into this industry. (Claburn. T, 2014). Besides that, top
manager or other operating manager can reduce the discrimination by clearly explain the goals
and make sure other employees understand the benefits and risks of inclusiveness. (Dodson. A,
2002).
According to Dodson. A, 2002, mention that, organization should provide discrimination
training to every employee in order to enhance the understanding of employees towards the
discrimination problem. On the other hand, the mangers can also create the intensive class to let
the employees learn more about different attitude of male and female and culture in order to
avoid conflict and discrimination in workplace. (Dodson. A, 2002). By this, workplace
peacefulness and harmony will be formed. Lastly the worker or employees can also reduce
discrimination by telling their manager about the discrimination problem between themselves in
the work place. (Dodson. A, 2002). After that, the manager will be able to assist their employee
solves the problems.

31

Part E: Conclusion
Nowadays, people are always trying to make a decision that is benefitting to the
company. However, sometimes being beneficial to the company but there is unethical. Therefore,
ethical dilemma is occurred when this situation happened. Ethical dilemma is influence by
personal value when a person has the ability to make two choices, but can only perform one or
the other that among several wrong and unethical action. Some people prefer to make decisions
based on ethical code but most of people are desired to reach the goal of the company even
though there are unethical. Thus, there will be a great danger in the business world if an ethical
dilemma is failed to acknowledge. The good news is that situation such as ethical dilemma does
not have a perfect solution, choosing either of the alternatives will not be entirely wrong.
Ethical dilemma is always occurred in our daily life like making decision. There is
essential in the decision making process. It affects the use of different modes of reasoning by
decision makers. When people make the decision that is only benefitting toward them, they will
start to analyze the ethical dilemma encountered, and then select an appropriate mode of
reasoning to resolve the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion. As a result, it leads to ethical
actions. For example, people may act unethically to make the decisions in such conflicting
situation who weigh profitability above values and morals. Thus, ethical misconduct by an
individual will be detrimental to the interest of stakeholders.
According the journal articles, we found the four major factors of ethical dilemma which
is lying, sexual harassment, discrimination, and fraud. Ethical dilemma has the potential to make
a breach of acceptable behaviour. It is a very danger problem which requires an in-depth
understanding of the many factors which contributes to decision makers to behave unethically.
Thus, this study is suggested that to take some appropriate approaches to solve it or minimize its
occurrence. Ethical dilemma can be resolved from many aspects, such as legislation, corporate
culture, and ethical leadership. In addition, there are some requirement to resolve ethical
dilemma which is honesty, cooperation, respect and integrity. Therefore, an organization can only
ensure the long term sustainability when it adopts these values in the daily business activities and
also in the decision making process.

32

At the end, this study is proved that ethical dilemma is very common and always
occurred in our daily life and in the professional, corporate and also in the business worlds. By
referring the 20 journal articles, we already update the reliability of the result regarding the
factors of ethical dilemma and the solutions of ethical dilemma. Then, companies and marketers
should take note on this impact of ethical dilemma issues and try to prevent its occurrence and
also more concern.

References

33

Al-Fedaghi, S. S. (2005). Lying about Private Information: An Ethical Justification.

Communication of the IIMA, 5(3), 47-56.
Alleyne, J. B., & Elson, J. R. (2013). The Impact of Federal Regulations on Identifying,
Preventing, and Eliminating Corporate Fraud. Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory
Issues, 16, 91-106.
B.M. DePaulo, D. K. (1998). Everyday lies in close and casual relationships. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology.
Bhatta, Dharma N. (2013). "Moral Dimensions of Research Ethics: Ethical Dilemmas and
Challenges in Human Participants Research among Different Settings." Journal of
Preventive Medicine 1.3, 19-21.
Boundless. (n.d.). Different Approaches to Ethical Dilemmas. Retrieved from
https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-managementtextbook/ethics-in-business-13/ethical-responsibilities-of-management-99/differentapproaches-to-ethical-dilemmas-465-8374/
Cadbury, S. (2002). Ethical business practices. Retrieved from
http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/cadbury-schweppes/ethical-business-practices/theimportance-of-ethics-in-business.html#axzz3HYKre2GB
Cavico, F. J., Muffler, S. C., & Mujtaba, B.G. (2012). Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Discrimination in the American Workplace: Legal and Ethical Considerations.
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2(1), 20
http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_2_No_1_January_2012/1.pdf

34

CBIANEWS. (2007, May). Prevent fraud in your workplace. 85(4). Retrieved from
http://www.cbia.com/cbianews/2007/05/200705SB_PreventFraud.htm
Cherry, K. (n.d.). What Is Psychology? Retrieved from
http://psychology.about.com/od/psychology101/f/psychfaq.htm
Chris, C. (2013). Ethical Dilemmas in the Workplace: Why Do Some Organizations Stumble?
Retrieved from http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2013/07/30/ethical-dilemmas-in-theworkplace-why-do-some-organizations-stumble/#sthash.En5TXi6X.dpuf
Claburn, T. (2014, May 29). Google Admits Its Workforce Lacks Diversity. Information week.
Retrieved July 3, 2014, from:

http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-

cio/team-building-and-staffing/google-admits-its-workforce-lacks-diversity/d/did/1269290
Conway, J. S. (2014). The invention of lying (at work): The development and validation of a
situational judgment test measuring dishonesty in organizations. Unpublished
Doctoral dissertation, University of South Florida
Cortina, L. M., Kabatt-Farr, D., Leskinen, E. A., Huerta, M., & Magley, V. J., (2011). Selective
Incivility as Modern Discrimination in Organizations: Evidence and Impact. Journal of
Management, 39(6), 28
http://jom.sagepub.com.libezp.utar.edu.my/content/39/6/1579.full.pdf+html

Dellaportas, S. (2013). Conversations with Inmate Accountants: Motivation, Opportunity and the
Fraud Triangle. Accounting Forum, 37, 29-39.

35

Department of Socioogy. (n.d.). What is Sociology? Retrieved from

https://sociology.unc.edu/undergraduate-program/sociology-major/what-is-sociology
Dodson, A., (2002, November 15). USATODAY. Tips for preventing discrimination

in the

workplace. Retrieved from http: //usatoday30.usatoday.com/ money/ jobcenter/

workplace/ diversity/ 2002- 11-15-prevent-tips_x.htm
Drago, C. (n.d.). European Legislation Regarding the Sexual and Moral Harassment. Juridical
Current, 145-158.
Erat, S. (2013). Avoiding lying: the case of delegated deception. Journal of Economic Behavior
& Organization, 93, 273-278.
Fatma Ulucan O zkul & Ayse Pamukcu. (2012). Fraud Detection and Forensic Accounting.
Retrieved from https://www.google.com.my/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=10&ved=0CFAQFjAJ&url=http%3A%2F
%2Fwww.springer.com%2Fcda%2Fcontent%2Fdocument%2Fcda_downloaddocument
%2F9783642208256-c1.pdf%3FSGWID%3D0-0-45-1326442p174119761&ei=cIBLVMjuJ9PfarrHgfAD&usg=AFQjCNGid-08mFRzoZQSPJE7Q32QrMu2A
Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2010). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and
cases (asia ed). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Fershtman, C., Judd, K. L., & Kalai, E. (1991). Observable contracts: Strategic
cooperation. International Economic Review, 551-559.

36

delegation and

Firestone, J. M., Miller, J. M., & Harris, R. (2011). Implications for Criminal Justice from the
2002 and 2006 Department of Defense Gender Relations and Sexual Harrasment
Surveys. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 37, 432451.
G.J. Rossouw, B. M. (2000). Defining and understanding fraud: A South African case study.
Business Ethics Quarterly.
Geoffrey, K. (2008). ETHICAL DILEMMAS. Retrieved from http://ethicaldilemmas.co.uk/
Graafland, J. & Eenkhoorn, P. (2010) Lying in business insights from Hannah Arendts

Lying

in Politics. Tilburg University.

Heckman, J. J.. (1998). Detecting Discrimination. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12(2),
18
http://public.econ.duke.edu/~hf14/teaching/povertydisc/readings/heckman98.pdf
Ikbale, T., Hidajet S. (2012). The dilemma of business ethics. Procedia Economics and Finance,
(2012)3, 555-559. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com
Ismail, M. N., Chee, L. K., & Bee, C. F. (2007). Factors influencing sexual
the Malaysia workplace. Asian Academy of Management

harassment in

Journal, 12, 15-31.

Jill, E. H. (2012). 5 workplace ethical dilemmas. Retrieved from

http://www.phoenix.edu/forward/careers/2012/10/5-workplace-ethical-dilemmas.html
John, R., Raymond, C. B. (2013). Confronting Ethical Dilemmas at Work: Why Do Good People
Do Bad Things? Retrieved from
http://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2013/10/21/confronting-ethical-dilemmas-at-workwhy-do-good-people-do-bad-things/

37

Klvemark, S. (2003). Living with conflicts-ethical dilemmas and moral distress. The National
Institute for Working Life. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencedirect.com.libezp.utar.edu.my/science/article/pii/S027795360300279
X
Kamir, O. (2005) Sexual Harassment Law in Israel. International Journal of Discrimination
and the Law, 7, 315-335.
Klempner, G. (2008). Ethical dilemmas. Creating A Thinking Board.
Koestenbaum, P. (2002). Leadership: Facing Moral and Ethical Dilemmas. The Philosophic
Consultant: Revolutionizing Organizations with Ideas.
Lai, L., & Babcock, L. C. (2012). Asian Americans and Workplace Discrimination: The Interplay
between Sex of Evaluators and the Perception of Social Skills. Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 34, 310326.
Lange, P. A. (2012). The psychology of social dilemmas: A review. Organizational Behavior and
Human Decision Processes. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencedirect.com.libezp.utar.edu.my/science/article/pii/S074959781200127
6
Lawrence. (n.d.). Ethical Dilemma in Today's Business. Retrieved from
http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/print.php?id=962
Levine, E. E. & Schweitzer, M. E. (2014). Are liars ethical? On the tension between
benevolence and honesty. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 53, 107-117.
Levine, E. E., & Schweitzer, E. M. (2014). Are Liars Ethical? On the Tension Benevolence and
Honesty. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 53, 107-117.

38

Lisa, F. (n.d.). Global Post. The Effects of Discrimination in the Workplace. Retrieved from
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/effects-discrimination-workplace-2727.html
Litschka, M., Suske, M., & Brandtweiner, R. (2011). Decision Criteria in Ethical Dilemma
Situations: Empirical Examples from Austrian Managers. Journal of Business Ethics,
104, 473484.
Lunenburg, F. C. (2010). Sexual harassment: An abuse of power. International Journal of
Management, Business and Administration, 13(1)
Martin, B. (n.d). Telling Lies for a Better World? Social Anarchism, 35, 27-39.
N.L. Piquero, S. T. (2005). Examining the role of differential association and techniques of
neutralization in explaining corporate crime. Deviant Behaviour.
Ng, C. & Othman, J. (2002). Unwanted and Unwelcome: Sexual Harassment in the
Malaysian Workplace.
Noor Hazlina Ahmad, Mahfooz A. Ansar, & Rehana Aafaqi. (2005). Ethical Reasoning: The
Impact of Ethical Dilemma, Egoism and Belief in Just World. Asian Academy of
Management Journal, 10 (2), 81101.
O.C. Ferrell, J. F. (2010). Ethical Decision Making and Cases.
Personal Finance Society. (2014). Identifying an Ethical Dilemma. Retrieved from
http://www.thepfs.org/membership/ethical-dilemmas/identifying-an-ethical-dilemma
Posner, B. Z., & Kouzes, J. M. (1988). Development and validation of the leadership practices
inventory. Educational and psychological measurement, 48(2), 483-496.
PROTECT YOUR COMPANY. (2013, August). Ways to Reduce Your Companys Fraud Risk.
Retrieved from http://www.eidebailly.com/media/61602/top_20_fraud_brochure.pdf

39

Q. Miao, A. Newman, J. Yu & L. Xu. (2013). The Relationship Between Ethical Leadership and
Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior: Linear or Curvilinear Effects? J Bus Ethics, 116,
641 653.
Ramsaroop, A. & Parumasur, S. B. (2007). The prevalence and nature of sexual harassment
in the workplace: A model for early identification and effective management thereof.
Journal of industrial Psychology, 33 (2), 25-33
Roseval, W. (2007). HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination among nurses in Suriname.
Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 41(1), 67-74.
S.Bok. (1978). Lying: Moral choices in public and private life. Pantheon.
Simon, D. (n.d). Discrimination and Affirmative Action.
Simon, D. (n.d.). Discrimination and Affirmative Action.
Simon, D., (n.d). Discrimination and Affirmative Action. Retrieved October 25, 2014, from
http://www.kon.org/urc/simon.pdf
Stop Violence Against Women Sexual Harassment, (n.d.). SEXUAL HARASSMENT-4. Effects
of Sexual Harassment. Retrieved from
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/svaw/harassment/explore/4effects.htm
Terry, M. (n.d.). What Causes an Ethical Dilemma in Conducting Business? Retrieved from
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/causes-ethical-dilemma-conducting-business-23439.html
Tian, Y., & Chen, J. (2009). Concept of voluntary information disclosure and a review of relevant
studies. International Journal of Economics and Finance,

1(2), p55.

Toit, C. W. (2007). THE ONE AND THE MANY: LIVING WITH. SEASONS IN THEOLOGY.
Unraveling the Ethical Dilemma (Part 1). (2013). Ethics By The Book. Retrieved from
http://ethicsbythebook.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/unraveling-the-ethical-dilemma-part1/
40

Valentine, S., Nam, S., Hollingworth, D., & Hall, C. (2013). Ethical Context and Ethical
Decision Making: Examination of an Alternative Statistical Approach for Identifying
Variable Relationships. Journal of Business Ethics, 124, 509526.
Wallace, J, (2000, May). The Ethical Spectacle. Lying. Retrieved from
http://www.spectacle.org/0500/lies.html
Welker, J., & Berardino, L. (2013). Integrating Ethical Decision Making In Multiple Business
Courses. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 17, 77-93.
Wells, C., & Darnell, C. S. (2014). Caster Semenya, Gender Verification and the Politics of
Fairness in an Online Track & Field Community. Sociology of Sport Journal, 31, 44-65.
Wood, S., Braeken, J., & Niven K. (2012). Discrimination and Well-Being in Organizations:
Testing the Differential Power and Organizational Justice Theories of Workplace
Aggression. Journal of Business Ethics, 115, 617634.
Wright, J. (2010). Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: The Loophole Exposing Western
Australia's Parliament. eLaw Journal: Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law,
17(2),.

41