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Managing an Ethical Dilemma Cover
Open Access
|Dec 2016

Abstract

An ethical dilemma is a situation of making a choice between two or more alternatives. An agent is in unpleasant and difficult situation because he/she often needs to make a choice between ethical and unethical alternatives, and when it comes to the ethical alternatives, he/she should choose the best one. Selection reflects to a large number of principals, so this situation causes conflicts between different levels of ethical dilemmas, but also the conflicts within the same level. These conflicts can be solved by applying the hierarchy and priority rules which are incorporated in the procedure and, in particular,in the strategy for solving the ethical dilemmas. Through many case studies this paper points out the importance of an ethical dilemma in making business decisions, the so-called business ethical dilemma. It is the result of the incompatibilities between altruism, egoism and the common good. Neglecting the need for establishing the compatibility not only creates an ethical dilemma, but it becomes deeper, which is firstly manifested through the loss of reputation of the company, then through decreasing the financial results, and, in the worst case, in closing the company. Therefore, an ethical dilemma must be continuously managed.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ethemes-2016-0017 | Journal eISSN: 2217-3668 | Journal ISSN: 0353-8648
Language: English
Page range: 345 - 362
Submitted on: Jun 2, 2016
Accepted on: Sep 26, 2016
Published on: Dec 30, 2016
Published by: University of Niš, Faculty of Economics
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

© 2016 Nadica Figar, Biljana Đorđević, published by University of Niš, Faculty of Economics
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.