Prioritizing ethics in your work becomes difficult when what you view as ethical is different than what others view as ethical. Additionally, organizational hierarchies cause individuals to be influenced and obliged to fulfill what their bosses expect from them. This is exacerbated when individuals are low in the organizational hierarchy, or are seeking full-time roles or promotions.
In the situation discussed in the text, an intern struggles to accept a task that was given to her where she is asked to impart only part of the truth of her identity in order to contact rival companies for the goal of competitive advantage. If she brings up the issue to her boss, she risks the foundation of her internship. One possibility is that her internship itself could be rescinded. In better cases, she would keep her internship opportunity, but her boss views her as self-motivated, difficult, or problem-causing. This perception could taint her overall experience at the company and future opportunities. On the other hand, if she accepts the task, she is going against her moral values to maintain integrity, even when she is trying to further a company’s mission. Beyond her moral misalignment with the task, she risks her reputation of honesty, which could hurt her ability to get further jobs with different companies. These are all considerations surrounding her decision making to speak up about the morality of the task (whether she does it through providing a different solution or another way) or agreeing to complete the task.
