A634.1.5.RB – The Train Dilemma: When no Choice is a Good One!

The Train Dilemma: When no Choice is a Good One!

            Velasquez et al. (n.d.) referred ethics to two things.  First, is that ethics pertains to a rational standard between right and wrong that requires what human beings need to do regarding obligations, fairness, rights, or specific virtues.  Ethical standards are the standards that impose on humans to avoid and negate from committing murder, slander, rape, physical and verbal assault, etc.  Second, ethics appertains to the development of an individual’s standards of ethics where one’s feelings, social norms, and laws can diverge from decisions or actions that are morally ethical.  It is of importance that we consistently and continuously put the effort in studying and be mindful of our moral conduct and beliefs ensuring that we are a part of a society that helps shape and live up to the standards (Velazques et al., n.d.) that are logical, rational, and well-grounded.

            The Creative Education Foundation (2016) defines Creative Problem Solving as the process that helps us in redefining the problems and opportunities that we face daily finding new innovative responses and solutions before taken actions.  The method offers tools and techniques that are collaborative, engaging and pleasurable.  CPS helps leaders to create better solutions and positive experience for speedy adoption of new ideas.  Ruth Noller, a noted CPS educator, and practitioner characterized CPS as the summation of its parts.  Creative dictates elements of innovation, novelty, and newness.  Problem indicates to events that exhibit challenges and proposes opportunities. Solving signifies creative processes to meet, resolve or satisfy an issue or concern by self-altering or to modify a situation.

Scenario 1:     A train is hurtling down the track where five children are standing. You are the switch person. By throwing the switch, you can put the train on a side track where one child is standing.  Will you throw the switch?

In this scenario, if my only choice is to throw the switch where the train can be put on a side track where one child is standing, against my better judgment, I can say that choice was already made for me.  With that said, all I can do is yell at the top of my lungs and warn all children from the left and the right track to run as fast as they can away from the train track while throwing the switch and have faith that all six children heard and followed my instruction.  Also, If I have the option to run and save the one child as fast as I can which may in fact in danger us both, then I am with all my heart be willing to do so.  I believe I can sleep better at night knowing that I did everything I can to save the one child in addition to the five children.

According to Pink, Dan (2009), science knows that there are three building blocks in the new business operation systems of today.  They are a) Autonomy - the urge to direct their lives, b) Mastery – the desire to get better at something that matters, and c) Purpose – the yearning to do what we do in the service that is larger than ourselves.  Utilitarians have always believed that the most ethical decision is that decision that offers the best benefits for the most number of people.  As a mother and a wife, there are times that I might be behaving or living as a utilitarian where I find myself at times to not responding with their question(s) as honest as I can to spare them from getting hurt emotionally.

      Right now, I am confident that I am and have been a good leader professionally and personally.  But there were times that I find myself judgmental to the people that I work with or even to members of my family.  One time, one of our HR Generalist criticized my decision of going far and beyond in assisting our employed physician(s) updating personal information i.e., address and phone number in the system.  We have a self-service system which means employees can log on to their account and make those type of updates themselves.  But our HealthCare employed Physicians are used to seeking my assistance.  So I did a case in what we call “the Hub” to request the change.  I did not realize that our HR Generalist was standing outside my office, and she heard everything.  She said, (with a smile) “Elvira, why do you have to entertain those types of request?  You are supposed to refer them to Shared Services (our corporate HR Administration).  Besides the physicians can do that by themselves.  You are letting them waste your time.”  Then, she left without waiting for my response. 

At first, deep inside I was a little bit insulted and wanted very badly to follow her and give her a piece of my mind.  I wanted to say, “What do you know about excellent customer service?  You assist employees with a smile, but when they leave, you always have something negative to say about the person.”  But, as I have been disciplining myself, I always pause and think carefully before speaking, especially during the times when I know I am upset.  Thirty minutes after calming down, I gave our HR Generalist the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe she was not criticizing me. Instead, she was just trying to critique how I use my time.  I have too much on my plate, and I need to pick and choose what I can do and what corporate can.  I never did bother to ask what was the purpose of her approach.

Scenario 2:     Same scenario except: You are standing next to an elderly man. If you push him in front of the train, it will stop the train, and all the children will be saved.  Will you push him?

In scenario 2, I don’t have to think twice about my ethical decision.  Pushing an elderly man who probably has no ability and strength to defend himself to a track with a fast-approaching train, is evil and can be ethically considered as a mortal sin.  Pushing a live being to his/her/its death is purely an act of willful killing.  Regardless if the elderly man is standing right next to me will never be an option to stop the train and save the six children.  In this second scenario, I will take the same action as I have made in scenario one.  I will throw the switch to where the one child was standing, yelling at the top of my lungs and warn all children from the left and the right track to run as fast as they can away from the train.

The second scenario reminded me of the research I did regarding Dan Ariely’s team who pulled away from their duty by self-interest when the team decided not to separate or remove the drunken guy as one of the subjects of their experiment at that time.  Ariely’s team did abandon or fudged their moral principles to gain a more compelling determination or finding when they rerun the test to get the result that will achieve them more accolade in the eyes of their colleagues.  As Curzer and Santillanes (2012) concluded in their research that conflicts of interest are situations in which researchers are strongly pulled away from duty by self-interest.  They are best understood as temptations to abandon or fudge one's moral principles and distorting lenses which imperil one's observations and judgments.

            Based on my past experienced, I certainly cannot condone or agree with the approached that Dan Ariely and his team took as it relates to throwing out some of their research.  I was once tasked to lead an investigation into a claim of workplace harassment supposedly committed by one of the top leaders of our organization.  The senior leader, who was under investigation, indeed had a history of being rude to the workforce and with the customers.  Nobody just did not dare to say something about it for the incidents to be documented.

With this particular claim, based on the result of my investigation, there was no evidentiary proof of the occurrence of such unacceptable behavior.  I gave my findings to the president of the organization.  My recommendation was to dismiss the claim due to lack of evidence.  Needless to say, my advice was rejected.  The President and the Legal Counsel decided to issue a separation agreement for me to deliver. 

Looking back now, I did not have the virtue of Intellectual Courage to stand up to the President and the Legal Counsel and let them know that I disagree with their decision.  I just went ahead and executed their preferred course of action blindly and delivered it as humanely as possible.  Going back with Ariely and his team’s decision to disregard the result of their original experiment is unjustifiable.  If the team accurately and appropriately conducted the research in the absence of bias, then the result was what it was supposed to be.  If I were a junior researcher on a research team, with what I know now or with the experienced I have gained, I would have stood up to the senior team and recommended to conduct a new experiment with the different group and see the comparable result.

Scenario 3:     Same scenario except: The one child on the side track is your child. Will you throw the switch to save the five children?

It took me some time to think and rethink of this scenario.  75% of my senses was telling myself to leave my post and run as fast as I can to retrieve my child while warning the five children to run as far away as they can from the train track.  25% of me is saying that I should do the same thing as scenarios 1 & 2 regardless if at this time that child involved is my own. 

This scenario reminded me of the time when I used myself as the human shield for my eldest son and my best friend.  One of the mother’s of my eldest son, who was five years old at that time, pulled a gun and pointed to my son.  My son and her boy were playing race cars where my son accidentally picked-up his friend’s race car instead of his own.  The error caused his friend to yell and cry and here comes the mother with her gun.  Without thinking, I ran as fast as I can towards my son who was so terrified, grabbed him, hugged him and assured him that nobody was going to hurt him.  His terrified face is still very fresh in my memory even today.  I faced the mother and calmly begged her to put the gun down and move away from the children to which she calmly obliged.

The second event was that of my best friend’s boyfriend who pulled a gun and threatened to kill my friend in front of his parents just because she disagreed on what he wanted to do and instead she sided with her boyfriend’s parents’ viewpoints.  Again, without thinking twice, I stood up in front of my best friend and ask her boyfriend to put the gun down.  He warned me twice to get out of his way or else…I did not budge and what he did next was appalling.  He turned to his parents’ dog and shoot the dog right in front of us.  The parents and my best friend were crying while I calmed them down and asked the boyfriend to leave.  To my surprise, he obliged.  Oh, did I mention that the boyfriend was a police officer? 

Conclusion

Leadership is all about the ethical decisions and the steps we take to make a point or take a stand for the benefits of others.  An excellent leader always steps up during the crisis and is able to think and act creatively in difficult times and situations.  Leadership does not have an end or destination.  Leadership is a journey that one takes from the moment they find the opportunity to do so until the moment that one seized to exist.  All we need to take is a leap of faith, having the confidence in seizing opportunities to make a difference and facing new challenges. 

References

Ariely, D. (2011). Beware of Conflicts of Interest. TEDGlobal 2011, 05:21, Filmed March

2011. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_beware_conflicts_of_interest/transcript?language=en

Creative Problem Solving.  Retrieved from:

http://www.creativeeducationfoundation.org/creative-problem-solving.

Curzer, H. and Santillanes, G. (2012). Managing conflict of interest in

research: Some suggestions for investigators. Accountability in

Research, 19:143-166.

Pink, D. (2009). The Puzzle of Motivation. Retrieved from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y (Links to an external site.).

Velasquez, M., Andre, C., Shanks, A., S.J., and Meyer, M. (n.d.). What is ethics? Retrieved from

            http://ibccatl.weebly.com/uploads/9/2/2/4/9224085/what_is_ethics.pdf.