Susan is facing an ethically conflicting situation in which either of her actions might cause negative implications on her career. Her manager has tasked her with a dubious ask of misrepresenting herself to competitor companies to gather product information for market research purposes. I see three main options for her to react to the dubious ask:
- Keep quiet and execute the task as asked by her manager
- Prioritize job safety, risk reputation and compromise values
- Propose an alternative strategy on how to obtain competitor data
- Risk reputation at the company, create ethical alternative
- Reject the task and voice ethical concerns
- Risk internship position, prioritize ethical principles
As discussed in the commentary by Ruwan Weerasekera option 1 is undesirable as she would risk losing integrity and jeopardizing her future career. Option 3 is also suboptimal as voicing concerns without proposing an alternative strategy might cause her to be viewed as a bad employee and might result in her losing her job. I would advise Susan to proceed with option 2. The three-step plan presented in “How to Speak Up When It Matters” can help structure the process of coming up with action items for option 2.
- First, realize how psychologically difficult — and worthwhile — speaking up can be:
If it were me, I would realize that speaking up will show me if the company I am working for is receptive to my proposition and ethically correct after all. And if not, that working at Zantech is not for me and worth losing my internship. Thus speaking up is worthwhile no matter the outcome. - Second, work to lessen the social threat that speaking up creates:
Before talking to Mr. Moon and Emma, I would prepare the exact phrasing of my words to make sure the proposition of an alternative approach to gathering competitor data comes across as collaborative and productive rather than destructive and defensive. This way she is providing feedback without making any assumptions about intent and is lessening the social threat of speaking up. - Make a plan:
On top of preparing the phrasing for the initial part of the conversation, I would think through the possible responses of Mr. Moon and Emma and make an if-then plan for the different ways the conversation might go. E.g.: If Mr. Moon asks why I am proposing an alternative approach to gathering data, then I will say that I am concerned about Zantech’s reputation in case competitors find out and make public that we misrepresented ourselves to gather data on their products.
