Ethical Dilemma
Imagine you work at an ad agency and your team is charged with
coming up with the name for BeautyBees’s latest perfume. You have
been with the company for 6 months. The branding team has been
brainstorming for the last 2 hours, filling up pages and pages of
the flipchart with innovative, imaginative names. Feeling daunted
by how loudly, quickly, and assertively branding team members are
shouting out suggestions, you decide to sit this one out, even
though you have some ideas. You are uncomfortable shouting over
everyone else and you reason that the group would discount your
input anyway. Plus, everyone else is generating so many good names
that the group is bound to succeed regardless of your input.
What Do You Think?
- Is your lack of participation ethical? Why or why not?
- What are the implications of speaking up or not speaking
up?
- Would you change your answer if you’d been with the company for
10 years instead of 6 months?