Real Life Ethical Dilemma of My Friend

Story: Real Life Ethical Dilemma of my friend.

This story is about Mr. X. who belongs to the Brahmin family and he follows rules or norms of his family. He is found of eating foods no matter it’s a normal or special or junk. He enjoys all type of food, except the NON-VEG Food. Earlier he used to have NON-VEG stuff but due to family reason he has to left eating ALL NON-VEG food items now he is Kind of pure vegetarian as he still eats cake that contain eggs.

Currently he is pursuing Masters from PQ University which is Residential University, so he has to stay in the University campus for the completion of the course. It was summer vacation time in the PQ University. When most of the student were gone to their home and only very few odd students were in the campus for OJC work, Back Log session or due to other reasons. As usual for the Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner or late night meals student have to go university Dining Hall. University dining hall provides Vegetarian and non-vegetarian thali along with chines food items, south Indian platters, Dhaba food items, various types of non-alcoholic drinks, breakages and snacks for student. Apart from regular thali rates of the other food items were much higher. University have given very strict instruction that they must keep the veg and non-veg counters apart and distant from each other and take extreme care while preparing the food items.

Mr. X was also using the Dining hall for his day today food requirement. One fine day he went for the lunch and find out that today in menu there is veg-biryani and some other stuff in normal menu of the day. So he took the normal plate of veg thali and took lots of biryani. He just had started eating and enjoying the food, suddenly he found something in the food, he carefully examine it and he find out that it’s a chicken leg piece, “Wow Jack Pot”, But not for the Mr. X he get very angry and he straight forward went to the Mess Manager and showed him the piece if chicken in the veg biryani. The mess manger was a smart person and he know very well how to handle such situation, he immediately apologies to Mr. X and changes his thali and gave him new fresh thali. The mess manger do not wanted that Mr. X should tell this to any other person especially the Mess Committee members and college University management. If they got to know this then Mess have to suffer a lot, as there was new mess was about to open in next few month and current mess owner were binding for that mess ownership. Apart from this the Mess manger may have to pay fine to university or manager may be ask resign the post and leave his organization. So keeping all this things in mind, mess manager Offer a great deal to Mr. X that he can now use the Mess’s any facility for whole month Free of cost, he can eat anything he wants, can take anything he wants  and he do not  have to pay for whole month. But Mr. X must not tell this incident to any person. For Mr. X it’s a Great offer.

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What Is the Ethical Issue? Problem statement.

Now the question is for Mr. X should he accept the offer and remain silent and do not report this to anyone or he can reject the offer and complain or report this to mess committee and university management.

Who are the Stakeholders?

• University students
• Faculty & attendants
• Management team
• Admin team and staff members.

What Are the Possible Courses of Action?

• Mr. X must accept the offer silently and do tell anyone.
• Reject the offer and report to mess committee and University management.

Identify the Problems with Each Alternative

• Mr. X must accept the offer silently and do tell anyone.

By going with this option it’s the easiest thing to do for Mr. X but Mr. X has to realize that he is behaving unethical and just helping the Mess manger to get rid of the mistake (blunder) they have committed.

• Reject the offer and report to mess committee and University management.

This will not be easy option as Mr X has to report to mess committee and university management have to keep cooperating with all the parties till any decision is made on this issues. But by doing this he will be doing well to himself and stakeholders.

Application of Tests:

Smell Test

Q/A asked:

1. What would the action or situation we are considering smell like if we read about in a front-page news article or in a popular blog?
2. Would we be comfortable reading a Wall Street Journal story that our company was doing this or letting the current situation continue for long?
3. Would I be comfortable explaining it to my spouse, or my grandmother?”

All the question answer are negative as this will spoil the reputation of University and trust of students’ parents who currently are part of the university. As this will incident will be very close and have high sentiments attached to vegetarian student and their family and they will not going to feel good about it. Moreover Mr. X will not able to face his family members.