Professional Workplace Dilemma

In business, more than anywhere else, we are faced with moral and ethical decisions daily. Not only are we faced with questions between right and wrong, but between right and right. We have all experienced situations in which our professional responsibilities unexpectedly come into conflict with our deepest values...we are caught in a conflict between right and right and no matter which option we choose, we feel like we have come up short.

I work for a small accounting firm and with small companies, there is no "layer" between the owner and the employees--everything depends on the ethics of the owner. My current employer of 3 years, is highly ethical, supportive of his employees and their family life, and takes responsibility for every action of the company. Small companies can generally course-correct faster, are more forgiving, provide more mentoring, are willing to risk setting a visible ethical tone, and provide less "cover" for employee misdeeds by virtue of their size, so small companies in general do have an easier time charting and staying on an ethical course. As with any other business process in a large company, filtering ethical messages and guidelines from the top of a ladder to the bottom slows as size increases.

My experience from working with an accounting firm and the banking industry taught me that making a mistake is unacceptable any decision made affects me, my customers and the people around me. That is why I am very neurotic of making mistakes. My dilemma is very lame compare to others but I could not think of anything really bad. Anyway one day I had a dilemma I mailed some important documents for a client and the mail man returned the envelope for not enough postage. This envelope came back a week later. Should I tell my boss, if I did will he yell at me and reprimanded me? Too many things come to mind. Will my boss fire me? If I do not tell him and just mail the envelope as if nothing happens, put the correct postage and drop it off in the post office again. Just blame it on the post office this happens all the time, but will this clear my conscience? My solution was to tell my boss and hope for the best. Thank goodness I did, because the client called in and was looking for the documents. The outcome was when I told my boss he did not yell at me, he just said be careful next time in a calm voice. In fact we did not have to mail the envelope again the client picked it up.

In my company we have an easier time maintaining ethical health because it is not nearly as powerful as a large company. Where power is greater, it is harder to maintain ethical health. We only have total five employees which includes the owner. Moreover, the more people who need to agree and cooperate, the harder it is to agree on ethics, much less maintain them.

We have an easier time defining and maintaining culture in our company because it is often closer to its founder/owner and their ethical principles. Also, leadership in a smaller