Moral Minefield

Assignment Guidelines

Moral Minefield Level 5 Reflection Paper

Jamie Yazzie

OGL 345: Organization Ethics

Professor Chris Glover

November 21, 2021

1. Copy and paste (or screenshot) your Level overview and scores. You can find this

information again in your Overview & Profile.

2. Reflect on the scenarios presented in the game. Was there anything you found particularly

difficult? Anything that surprised you?

The Moral Minefield Business & Ethics Game level 5 was concerning employee’s

behaviors from lying, unfavorable and dissatisfied stakeholders. What I found difficult in this

level was question 1. The scenario to this question was regarding an employee who lied on a

transaction to meet his quota that the Director of Sales assigned. The Director set these goals

in hopes to terminate the individuals who did not meet the goal. The question was “Who is

primarily accountable for this infraction?”. I choose “C. Both”, but the answer was “A. The

Director of Sales”. I choose both because, in previous levels, all parties were held

responsible. However, the outcome provided by E.I. Games said different, the “Wrongful
 behavior in organizations are often lone actions by people, but they are as often the result of

the cultural permission given by inappropriate pressure, language and pressure tactics by

superiors. So, the leader is as accountable for an employee acting as the employees

themselves”. Since the intent of the employee was only to keep his job and he was put in an

unacceptable situation. The director should be held responsible for intentionally ensuring

employees fail. According to Fryer, “since executives act as the agents of shareholders,

Friedman believes that executives have a moral responsibility to do with the company

whatever those shareholders want them to do with it” (Fryer, p. 368, 2015). Although the

company is trying to meet sales, its responsibility or goal is to help people manage their pain.

Thus why would they inflict pain on their employees? This scenario provided more in-depth

knowledge that leadership decisions affect everyone and the intent behind every decision

should be carefully considered.

3. Explain one of the decision-making scenarios you were given in this level and analyze it in

terms of one of this week’s theories.

The Whistleblower scenario question 7 regarding the employee who raised the red flag

on her company had stumped me. I had to read and analyze this question several times. Upon

re-reading Ethics Theory & Business Practices on p. 365, I found “According to normative

stakeholder theory, then, executives should not focus all their efforts on serving their

shareholders by building share value; they should also take into account the needs and

expectation of all those other stakeholders” (Fryer, 2015). Considering the employee's stance,

I knew we could not publicly challenge her credibility regarding her Whistleblowers, even

though, she was a part of that work that is being flagged. Being transparent and allowing her
 to raise these issues can only help the company in the long run. Every person is valuable, and

a company should not degrade a person because they raised issues. If they do not agree,

simply state, and investigate the problem, to see what can be done. The outcome provided a

lot of growth opportunity in the case this was ever to happen in real life, “the Ethical

Business Principle: An open and facilitative whistleblowing process is part of a healthy

ethical culture. Creating a robust ethical culture that follows a strict moral code means

ensuring the safety of all those who come forward to point out wrongdoing in every case”

(E.I. Games, 2021). I found this theory interesting and believe this is a great takeaway, that

can be used almost every day. I want to be the leader who allows individuals to speak up and

not be afraid to state there is a problem, so we can move forward to fix the issue.

4. How could you use the concepts discussed in this simulation in your job today? Relate these

concepts to the other course materials and your own experiences.

The concepts discussed in this simulation that I can use in my job would be from

Questions 3 and 7. Question 3, “The Union” was about sharing information from previous

wrongdoing regarding an unfavorable employee, who made work more complicated.

Question 3 asked “Do you make this information public or withhold any disclosure?” (E.I.

Games, 2021), and question 7 “The Whistleblower” was regarding a disgruntled employee

who flagged their work, and the question was “Do you publicly challenge her credibility?”.

The answer to both questions was “No” because it would not be justifiable, inappropriate,

and releasing the information to others would only benefit the other party. For example, I

recently encountered a similar situation at work, where a supervisor asked a potential

candidate in an interview, “Where are you originally from?”. I immediately stopped the
interview and informed the candidate not to answer the question. I had the candidate step out

and briefly explained, the questions we cannot ask a candidate. The supervisor was upset

because he could not find out where this person was from and said he would not ask any

more questions unless they were approved by HR before the interview. Although this is not

his first interview or last, I felt it was not necessary to tell everyone in my department. I had a

conversation with him after the interview and provided him with a list of questions, and

subjects that cannot be asked. He said, no one ever told him he could not ask that question

and said that in the Navajo Culture when you ask someone where you are from it usually

opens more conversation but culturally, they may be related. I explained, they are welcome

to disclose that information, but we cannot ask or select an individual because of where they

are from or live. I believe everyone deserves a chance to explain their situations and it also

allows room for growth for both parties, regardless of the situation. Fryer stated, “therefore,

to establish a more-sustainable relationship with nature, we need to develop more-sustainable

relationships with one another” (p. 355, 2015). If we can develop a relationship with our

kind, other people, we can provide the same care to the environment. Not only the natural

environment but the environments we live in day today. The day-to-day relationships and

interactions change how we interact with our companies. In return, this also affects the

environment and the communities tied to our company.

 References:

E.I. Games (2021). Moral Minefield: Product Proposal: Business & Ethics Game. [Online File].

Retrieved October 24, 2021from https://play.eigames.com/game/26#/

Fryer, M. (2015). In Ethics Theory & Business Practice. SAGE. Retrieved October 24, 2021,

from https://app.perusall.com/courses/ogl-345-organization-ethics-fall-2021-session-b/

ethics-theory-and-business-practice.