Ethical dilemma:
Ethics of past mistakes
September 2004
You are attending a social function with a number of colleagues, many of whom report to you.
In an unguarded moment, one of your colleagues (who has had a little too much to drink) takes you aside. In a clear attempt at confidentiality, he reveals that he made a fairly serious error of judgement in his previous job within the company. However, in a remarkable stroke of good fortune for him, his manager was blamed for his mistake.
That was three years ago. Since then, that same manager has been passed over for promotion on a number of occasions while your colleague has been promoted.
The colleague who discloses his past mistake to you is one of your best performing staff and is critical to the success of your area.
He makes it clear to you that he is not willing to go over past history and own up to his mistake.
Ethical questions:
- What are the issues?
- Who are the stakeholders?
- What should you do?
- What would you do?
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