The Fifteen Ethical Traps and Lessons

The Fifteen Ethical Traps and Lessons
Learned on Avoiding Them

Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism One: Justification
Justification trap involves people justifying bad decisions and unethical behavior by claiming it is necessary or the need of the hour. This trap makes people think that the reason they are being involved in unethical behavior is for greater good that will come out of it. The world has seen many signs of such justification traps. Killing a particular group of people that happen to be from a particular religion has been justified time and again for saving their own religion.
This trap can be tackled by using reputation perspective. This perspective calls for a person to take responsibility and do the right thing at all the times. This perspective has principles that ask a person to do justice, show integrity and courage.

Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Two: Money
Money is thought of the means to achieve happiness. It is thought of as one the goals of life. This trap asks for people to make sure they get as much money as they can, leaving the way to achieve it to attain the happiness they require. A person is judged by money in world and it has replaced all of the comparison metrics. Earning money fast calls for taking wrong measures to get easy profits, give people a chance to not pay taxes and indulge in wrong and illegal activities.
This trap can be tackled by ensuring people are weighed on the scale of their work, their attitude towards other people and giving money less weightage in life.

Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Three: Conflicts of Interest
Conflicts of Interest trap involves getting in a fix related to a situation where you get into the middle of it. It means that there are two parties and you can make sure only one party gets the benefit while other loses. This conflict of interest is created when a person solves such conflict by seeing where it would benefit him the most. This involves taking of bribe from one party in order to rule the conflict in his favor.
Mill’s principles can make sure conflict of interest is avoided. Always act what is best as per rules. Integrity and honesty can make sure the person makes the best decision. Never accepting any favor and working under rules would make sure it is avoided at all times.

Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Four: Faceless victims
This trap involves generalizing victims. By this the unethical behavior done towards those affected diminishes in the mind of the person who did it. This trap involves not picturing the pain of the humans to make it easy for not taking any responsibility of the damage it caused. People died in a war referred to just as numbers is a part of this trap.
This trap can be avoided by ensuring that all people are looked at the same way. The human factor shouldn’t go away from any victim. Responsibility should be taken and measures should be taken that damage created can be compensated in some other way rather than shrugging off. True integrity and courage principles are required to avoid this trap.

Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Five: Conformity
This trap is aligning attitude, beliefs and behavior just to fit in better. If the coworkers don’t work diligently or are not honest, it becomes a situation for them where they need to do the same or be nagged all time and left out of the group because they do something which you are not doing.
Conformity can be avoided by self-satisfaction. If a person knows he does not require a group to be happy, he or she can work as they wish and they don’t need to change their beliefs. Strength and integrity can ensure a person does what is required at all times and there is no need to be like someone else just to fit in.
Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Six: Advantageous Comparison
This trap deals with comparison one’s action with something worse than the action. It gives the satisfaction that what the person did is always better that he could have done and so the action gets validated since he something better than what he could have done.
This trap can be avoided by making sure the action is compared with something of equal nature of higher nature or not at all. If a person is comparing against a higher action, he will be knowing what he did wrong and then next time onwards it won’t be repeated.
Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Seven: Obedience to Authority
This trap involves showing obedience to someone who is having more powers than you. If manager says something we to do which may be wrong, an employee will show obedience because non obedience can get him fired. Hence obedience without knowing the nature of work or consequences of the action is an ethical trap because of the fear.
This trap can be avoided by making sure that work is done for the firm’s welfare and not because we need to please authority. Authority can be asked for explanation as to why a particular task has to be done. Blind faith on authority can be avoided by strength to do always right and question when it is wrong.
Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Eight: Alcohol
This trap involves taking alcohol to ensure all the bad feelings are washed away. These feelings come become of doing something bad and being intoxicated makes it forget temporarily.
This trap can be avoided by knowing that alcohol is not a permanent solution. It requires courage and integrity to accept that something has been done which is not right and it will take courage to accept and work on it to make sure such things are not repeated.
Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Nine: Contempt for Victim
This trap involves dehumanizing victims to make it easier to harm them. When victims are looked as just numbers and employees are looked upon as hired help, it gives the authority power to look humans as just people.
This can be avoided by seeing people as human. This will require inner strength and the ability to see the impact of the harm we are going to do upon them. Keeping ourselves in their position can give a reality check which can ensure they are looked as humans only in future.

Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Ten: Competition
This trap involves competition between two or more people or parties. Competition is a feeling of going ahead of other. This competition gets so fierce sometimes which involves one party or both party sometimes to break rules and move on to unethical practices to harm other and get ahead of the other.
This trap can be avoided by having a mutual respect among the parties. Both competitors can coexist only if they have mutual respect. Competition should be done in a fair manner and it is good competition if everything is done under rules and regulations.
Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Eleven: We Won’t get Caught
This trap related to the feeling of self-denial that anything would happen to us if we are doing something wrong. Lack of faith in justice or crooked system often enables people to get this feeling that they are doing unethical practices in the safest way possible and it won’t be traced back to them.
This can be avoided by always seeing that justice will prevail sooner or later. Even if the justice fails to catch them, they will be haunted by their inner conscience. Integrity and honesty in the work will ensure that people always do the right thing and they won’t ever get the feeling that we won’t be caught since they would always know what they did.
Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Twelve: Anger
This trap involves covering up fear by showing hostility towards anyone. Anger covers guilt but it also keeps people at distance from the instance anger is showed on. Anger is a very powerful emotion which can lead people to be aggressive in nature.
This can be avoided by having sympathy and love towards every person. When anger itself gets weak then a person will have no fear in showing the guilt he committed towards the person.
Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Thirteen: Small Steps
This trap involves committing unethical acts in small steps. This makes the person committing the unethical acts tolerant of the unethical nature of the steps. It becomes more severe since a person gets accustomed to the unethicality of it and he keeps raising the bar of the small step for himself.
This can be avoided in the initial stages itself. Every small step should be seen as a sign of guilt and it should never be accepted but should be dealt strongly to ensure the gravity never increases.

Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Fourteen: Tyranny of Goals
This trap asks for people to move fast in order to achieve their goals. The goals should be achieved even if it means cutting short on some of the goals to reach the prime goal. This can involve taking short cut methods and unethical approach just to finish the work.
This can be avoided by making sure that goals are completed as they were desired. Nothing should get left behind nor were any goals modified just to claim goal has been reached. The quality and the desired form of the goal should be untouched.
Ethical Trap and Avoidance Mechanism Fifteen: Don’t make Waves
This trap deals with showing authority to keep everyone quiet on the subject matter to avoid any suspicion or challenge. This trap ensures that everyone stays quiet and there are no measures to unearth a matter which is in suspicion for unethical behavior.
This trap can be avoided by ensuring that everyone gets a say in the matter. Meetings are regular and everyone is allowed to speak their mind without the fear of getting reprimanded in the later stage. Free thinking and the ability to accept any wrong doing can ensure that such a trap is avoided.