Ethical Dilemmas - Short-term versus Long-term

When the short run is emphasized to the exclusion of the long run, the risk may increase that individual interests will dominate over community interests - Michael E. Cafferky, Business Ethics - In Biblical Perspective.

The present and the future are always rivals - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Profit is often a short-term concern. Ethical considerations often concern both the short term and the long run- Joseph M. Grcic, Democratic Capitalism: Developing Conscience for the Corporation.

Research shows that individuals see a higher value of the present and tend to discount the value of all gains and losses of the future. When looking to the future, we are more apt to focus on what we should do; whereas when considering the present, we tend to do what we want to do.

When immediate needs or desires run counter to future prospects and goals, it reflects the difficulties arising within the short-term versus long-term paradigm. Since it comes upon us everyday in many ways, of the four ethical dilemmas being presented, this perhaps, is the most common of them all. Without due attention to today, there is no tomorrow; whereas living for today, leaves nothing for tomorrow. It is a dynamic that runs through every personal and business operation.

Short-term decisions have long-term consequences which you may or may not like. In any given situation you may choose to grant yourself an exception to your rule. The issue here is, if granting yourself exceptions becomes the rule; you can expect to achieve a long-term outcome that is different from your goal. The short-term and the long-term are inseparable.

The developments of capitalism and its market economy figure into the short-term/long-term equation. Because quarterly corporate reports need to reflect substantial profits, and to distribute as much of the quarter's profits as possible to shareholders, the bottom line figures need to be positive. To survive, a company must also pay attention to its future. Because of the pressure to invest in research and product development, new equipment, staff, the tension between these to opposites is constant. In tough times, very few firms are immune to economic fluctuations allowing them to remain fully committed to their long-term investment.

One of the most visible short-term/long-term dilemmas is with environmentalism. Conservation versus development. Protecting the global future against present moment needs. There is great wisdom in John Galsworthy's observation, "If you do not think about the future, you cannot have one."  But it is also true, that if you don't think about today, you may not be around to think about the tomorrow. Unfortunately, there is no easy formula, quick fix. What's important to recognize is, the environmentalism issue is a dilemma that has no simple moral or single correct response.

Ethical Dilemmas - Individual versus Community

“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, 
the more I will respect myself.” ― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration - Pearl S. Buck

McQuilkin and Copan in their work Biblical Ethics, state that individual decisions are based on self-love. The term self-love can be used to mean, "self-interest" or "self-centeredness". They note John Stott's affirmirmation that "self-love is a fact to be acknowledged, not a goal to be pursued." That we have a natural, God-given, self-interest, to feed, clothe, care for, and to protect ourselves from danger. Gene Ahner points out the dynamics of self-centeredness reflects a pattern of tension involved in the "self versus others"; the "us versus them" mentality. 

You visit your Aunt Sally in the hospital hoping your visit will make her happy, lifting her spirits, helping to speed up her recovery, which, in turn, makes you happy (self-interest); 
versus hoping she will appreciate your visit enough to include you in her will which, in turn, will make you very happy (self-centeredness).

According to Ahner, the community has two moral voices: the moral voice of the community has a whole and the moral voice of the individual.Therefore it involves what you want to do for yourself versus what you should do for others. How then do we form a human community that can embrace both the interests of the individual and community?

In Business Ethics in Biblical Perspective, Michael E. Cafferky poses these two questions:

Can an act be right if it does not simultaneously promote both the interests of the individual and the interest of the larger community?

Can an act be wrong if it promotes the interests of either the individual or the larger community but not both?

How does one deal with a 60-year old employee, who has worked faithfully for the last 42 years, who is unable to grasp the new computer technology required for their job?

You are the managing partner for a contract security firm serving a large corporation. You just lost the contract to a competing firm. In 60 days you and your team must leave, allowing the new security firm to take over. What is the right thing to do as you and your team prepares to exit?

An employee is required to sign a confidentiality agreement stating that if she leaves the company for any reason, voluntarily or termination, she will not join a competitor. What about her rights to make a living versus the company's rights to protect its business for the sake of its current employees?

What's important to keep in mind is the dilemma here is not a choice between understanding the individual in terms of egotism, greed, or selfishness, and understanding the community in terms of altruism or unselfishness. The rights of the individual and the common good of the community can both be legitimate. A dilemma that has no right or wrong answer.

Ethical Dilemmas - Truth versus Loyalty

Dogs owe no loyalty because they are not moral agents.
They lack the distinctly human faculty of rational choice.
Choose,  they do; reason, they do not. - Raymond Pfeifer

I will not tell a willful lie to save the souls of the whole world. - John Wesley

A lie is also a useful thing. - Japanese Proverb

In Business Ethics, Gene Ahner reminds us why ethical dilemmas are so common. Referencing Rushworth Kidder's How Good People Make Tough Choices, identifying and becoming aware of the four fundamental patterns can assist us towards resolving ethical dilemmas. Since the world is not divided into abstract entities that can be logically separated into neat mental boxes; words and distinctions can be helpful in complex situations for identifying patterns. They can help us identify dilemmas and easily recognize that the issue is not right versus wrong, but right versus right.

Can two obvious values, truth and loyalty, really be at odds with one another. Aren't we taught to always tell the truth; that "Honest is the best policy"; "Only the truth will make you free". Aren't we also instructed that "A friend in need is a friend indeed". The value of loyalty to family and friends is paramount.

Truth, seen as honesty, integrity, candor, is the foundation for trust; and trust the foundation of all relationships  Loyalty, though it may not be a statement of fact, it is an intimate personal commitment of allegiance, responsibility, promise-keeping.  It's this clashing of values that cause these internal conflicts.

Your best friend brags to you about taking supplies home from the office. The next day the boss asks you point-blank, "Did your friend do it?" What do you say?

To get away from an abusive relationship you seek refuge at a neighbor's home. There's a knock and your neighbor opens the door, "Is she here hiding in your house?", they are asked. Hearing the question, don't you hope that they put loyalty above truth; at least this once.

You learn that a friend has been implicated in some financial irregularities at work. After a careful audit and investigation, though there is some doubt about his actual complicity, your friend is let go from his job. Now unemployed he comes to you asking for a letter of reference. Truth compels you to describe him as being financially risky. Loyalty urges you to downplay the financial aspects and focus on his other strong characteristics. You cannot do both, so what do you do?

Being truthful is one thing. Telling all the truth on every occasion, however, is something else. -
Rushmore M. Kidder

Ethical Dilemmas – Right-versus-Right Choices

Do right and risk the consequences - Harry Truman

Right-versus-Right Choices are genuine dilemmas because each side is deeply rooted in our core values.

Four Common Paradigms

• ·         Truth versus Loyalty
• ·         Individual versus Community
• ·         Short-term versus Long-term
• ·         Justice versus Mercy

Moral Temptations – Right-versus-Wrong Choices

Right-versus-Wrong Choices are commonplace and widely understood to be wrong.

• ·         Cheating on taxes
• ·         Lying under oath
• ·         Insurance fraud
• ·         Running red lights

Three Principles for Decision Making gives us a way to test the twin rights of a dilemma:

• ·         Ends-based Thinking – Do whatever produces the greatest good for the greatest number.  It is the staple of public policy debate. At the heart of this principle is an assessment of consequences, a forecasting of outcomes. It demands a type of cost-benefit analysis, determining who will be hurt and who will be helped, and measuring the intensity of that help.

Relevant Terminology – Utilitarianism – Consequentialism – Teleological

• ·         Rule-based Thinking – “Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become universal law.” German Philosopher Immanuel Kant. Simply put, “Follow only the principle that you want everyone else to follow.” In other words, act in such a way that your actions could become a universal standard that others ought to obey. Ask yourself, “If everyone in the world followed the rule of action I am following, would that create the greatest good or [in Kant’s words] the ‘greatest worth of character’?”

This principle called “the categorical imperative.” This mode of thinking stands directly opposed to Utilitarianism – Consequentialism – Teleological.

Relevant Terminology – Deontological Thinking

• ·         Care-based Thinking – Putting love for others first: Do to others what you would like them to do to you. It asks you to test your actions by putting yourself in another’s shoes and imagining how it would feel if you were the recipient, rather than the perpetrator, of your actions. Known to philosophers as reversibility, it is often associated with Christianity – Jesus said, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matt. 7:12 [KJV]. It is in fact so universal that it appears at the center of every one of the world’s greatest religious teachings. For many people, it is the only rule of ethics they know, deserving consideration for the moral glue it has provided over the centuries.                                                                                  

Relevant Terminology – The Golden Rule, focusing on Reversibility


From Rushworth M. Kidder book: How Good People Make Tough Choices