Chris was placed to work as a relief manager in a small suburban branch of the company. The task was challenging as he had to work with inexperienced employees and knew little about local customers and daily office routines. The accidental bank robbery took place when one of the bank tellers named Carol had an unresolved $900 shortage from her drive-in window. As a probationary employee, Carol would be fired unless the money was restored (Plath, 1991). Chris faced the dilemma of either reporting the shortage to the personnel department or finding a way to balance Carol’s window without notifying the bank’s authorities.
The core values that might be used to resolve the dilemma are honesty, reliability, and trustworthiness. The utilitarian perspective can be applied to the dilemma as it might offer ways to achieve the best possible outcome. Utilitarianism is “a theory of normative ethics that ethically evaluates actions by their consequences and their impact on overall happiness of all affected by an action” (Becker, 2019, p. 19). Additionally, the concept of virtue ethics based on favorable character traits might be used to resolve the dilemma and prevent Carol from being dismissed.
The complicating factors in the scenario are the probationary status and inexperience of Carol, the steadfast position of the customer about the money he received, and the reliance of Chris on the knowledge and experience of the local branch personnel. There might be two distinct alternate solutions to the problem. One the one hand, using the utilitarian approach, Chris might report the shortage to the bank’s personnel department, which would possibly result in Carol’s termination of employment. He would also recommend the bank to check the surveillance cameras and databases to prevent criminal prosecution against Carol. On the other hand, Chris might try to help Carol to preserve her position by applying the concept of virtue ethics. He would submit a report that confirms her status of a probationary employee and indicates the need for a short training course on her expense as a disciplinary alternative to her dismissal.
There is a specific relationship between the dilemma and societal issues, such as theft and workplace problems. Even though the money was not stolen by a thief, it went missing because of the incompetence of the bank teller. Thus, the social issue of theft can be applied to the situation as it might lead to the same result of missing money, as in the case of accidental bank robbery. Workplace problems, such as the lack of proper training for employees, might have also contributed to the given scenario and caused the loss of $900. The resolution involving a disciplinary measure for Carol include valuable managerial implications, such as the importance of employee training for money-loss prevention and the plan for the effective local management. The adverse outcomes of the proposed resolution would be the financial and temporal expenses for the bank, which in the long run, however, might contribute to the efficiency and profitability of the business.
References
Becker, C. U. (2019). Business ethics: Methods and application. New York, NY: Routledge.
Plath, D. (1991). The accidental bank robbery. In Ciulla, J. B., Martin, C., & Solomon, R. C. (Eds.), Honest work: A business ethics reader (pp. 132–133). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.