Help! dilemma about "ethical dilemma"

monk_chang

Depaul有这么一道essay:

In the competitive world of commerce, where profit is a top priority, one can lose sight of the importance and need for ethical decision-making and business practices. Please describe an instance in your professional career in which you were faced with or involved in an ethical dilemma. How did you choose to address the issue? Were you pleased with the end result? How do you think that the situation could have been handled differently?

关键在于最后一句话"How do you think that the situation could have been handled differently"这句话我不太理解，我问了一个美国朋友，她说这个问题的意思是If you are given another chance to deal with the same issue, what can be improved by doing something differently.  It is testing how you improve your skill, point of view, or understanding of issues overtime, by learning something new and useful from school, mentor, experience and practice.  The emphasis should be how you improved yourself in the business world, either profession skill or people skill, or leadership, or ability dealing with complex and conflicting situations, etc..  These are the attributes of you that set you apart from other applicants.

正常思路总归是要讲一个自己曾经坚持道德标准的事迹来表明自己是个有道德的人，但这样的话最后一个问题就没有意义了，因为我是个有道德的人，没有什么可以改进的。但如果要回答最后一个问题，你就得说一件自己曾经犯过道德错误的事情，但写essay哪有给自己抹黑的

唉，真得很delimma啊

蒹葭68

唉，最近也纠结于essay的道德问题……

对于没工作经验的本科生，这种问题真的很难be personal啊……

pisceswzh

怎么感觉像是MBA的essay？楼主是不是贴错区了？

Shiry

我在MBA版里找到的，转贴下……

Ethical Dilemmas   This question is designed to evaluate your ability to reason through complexities rather than to assess your ethical standards. In other words, the admissions committee is not looking to confirm that you are a good person. Moreover, the dilemma you choose should not have a clear "right" answer. For example, if your essay involves you struggling against temptation to make the ethical choice, then that is not a dilemma. A dilemma must involve two choices for which equally compelling arguments exist.

The most common approach to this essay is to set yourself up for a third option that offers a compromise between the two original choices. Be careful that this third option isn't a copout or immediately obvious from the beginning. The best essays will conclude with a genuinely creative solution that effectively addresses both sides of the equation.

You can, of course, simply decide to go with one option over the other, but you should have a clear reason for your decision. Don't simply describe the reasons for both sides and arbitrarily choose one in the end. Justify your choice, and show how you dealt with the negative consequences that resulted from it.

The hardest part about this essay is often finding the right topic, so the following is a list of possible scenarios to spark your thinking. Keep in mind that you'll have to do more than substitute your own details, however, because these generic examples don't reach the level of complexity that your answer should reach.

Scenario 1: You discover that your immediate supervisor is taking kickbacks. You are uncertain whether to report it. The conflict is between your loyalty to your boss and your commitment to the greater good of the company.

Possible solution: You decide to turn your boss in, appealing to absolute moral standards. The fact that he has committed a wrong outweighs your personal feelings of friendship.

Better solution: You decide to confront your boss directly, demanding an end to the unethical behavior. This is a compromise in the sense that you're not betraying him outright, but you're seeking the best interests of your company. This solution is stronger because it shows more nuanced thinking and problem solving.

Note that one problem with this dilemma is that it's hard to justify doing nothing about the situation. If you offer the second solution, then you're at least showing a creative analysis, whereas if you go with the first solution, you're merely appealing to the "what's right is right" principle, which may be too simplistic.

Scenario 2: You work for a nonprofit organization that helps AIDS victims. You discover a government error that results in significantly higher funding for your organization. Do you keep the money, which you know will go to a good cause, or do you report the error?

Possible solution: You decide to keep the money, arguing that it could not go to a better cause if sent back through the bureaucracy。

Possible solution: You decide to report the error, because it's not your position to determine the best use for that money.

Third alternative: You write up a proposal for how that extra money would be used. You then contact donors who have been generous in the past explaining your situation and asking that they help you to generate the funds so that you can return the misrouted government money.

Perhaps you could have come up with a better third alternative. This scenario does at least have two more equally matched alternatives. If you chose one side over the other, you should have more fully fleshed out reasoning to justify your decision.

Here is one example my ethics teacher at Wharton recently told. The point is, there is no right or wrong answer: however, there are different types of ethical thinkers. Try to find out which type you are:

A friend and you are stuck on an island, after being shipwrecked. With only each other as company, you slowly become best friends, especially as time passes and you realise that you two may never be saved. After about ten years, you know everything about your friend, including his absolute love for his orchid collection at home. Every day, he talks about how if he could only go back, he would replant his beloved orchids, and bring them to life. They are the one thing in life that mean the most to him.

One day your best friend gets sick, and his condition gets progressively worse. He tells you, "CDreader, if something happens to me, I want you to promise me that you'll replant my orchids for me. It's an easy job, but it will take half an hour of your life every single day. If you even miss one day, they will die. Please promise me." And since he's your best friend and you know how much it means to him, you promise. Plus, you may never get off this island.

Two weeks later your best friend dies, and his last word before dying was, 'orchid'. Within three days of his death, a miracle happens. A boat has passed your island, and you are elated to be picked up. You head back to civilization.

As you slowly get back to your life, reuniting with your wife, your parents, your kids, everything seems perfect. One day, however, you remember the promise you made to your friend. It's now time to decide. Do you choose to keep your promise? After all, it was your best friend's dying wish, and you had promised him. Or do you break it? He's already passed away, you reason, and it makes no difference- he'll never know.
Stuck in an ethical dilemma, you know you'll have to decide, or you'll never be able to continue living your life guilt-free.

There's no right answer here! =) But, you need to know what your answer will be, or you'll never understand your own ethical compass.

fatj

好像MS也是这篇.

i think your U.S friend has told you how to write~