Steve supervises a team of account managers. One night at a company outing, Lawrence, a visiting account manager, made some wildly inappropriate sexual remarks to Maddie, who is on Steve’s team. When she told Steve, he was uncertain what to do, so he asked his boss. She was concerned that if Steve took the matter further and Lawrence was fired or even disciplined, her whole area would suffer. Lawrence was one of the best account managers in the region, and everyone was overworked as it was. She told Steve to get Maddie to drop the matter. Just tell her that these things happen, and Lawrence did not mean anything by it. What should Steve do? What ethics traps does he face? What would be your Life Principle in this situation? What should Maddie do?

What Steve would have to do would be to warn Lawrence would because rules are rules and anything that concerns the ethics of an organization would not be taken lightly. I believe it has to be dealt with head on regardless of the person involved.

What is the ethical trap that Lawrence is faced with?

Ethical traps are the circumstances that may cause us to abandon our core values and the morals that we have established. The one that Steve is faced with is one that involves having to act as he should based on the matter. The trap he is in is if he would be able to uphold his values and call out Lawrence on his actions instead of overlooking it based on his importance to the work place.

In this situation my life principle would be to do what is right. I believe that ethics and morality has to be applied on everyone regardless of their position.