There are many challenges business owners face. While some of them are more common than the others, there are also type of challenges that come rarely but are problematic enough to disrupt the flow of you running your business. Decision-making is part of daily basis for business owners and leader. However, it is not always so easy especially when ethical dilemmas come as the challenge.
Most common ethical dilemmas business owners and leader often face
Ethical dilemmas are often challenging for business owners because they are hard to work through. Sometimes, the risks and rewards are not so clean-cut which make the decision-making become harder. And here are example of ethical dilemmas happened in business industry:
Compromising on product quality
Products with cheaper costs look promising on a spreadsheet. However, what about the customers? They will notice the quality of your product because they are the one who use it. Meanwhile, your goal is to optimize the lifetime value of your customers. If you give them low quality product, the chance is high for them to move on to another brand. The bets solution for this dilemma is always stick to what’s right that is beneficial in the long term.
Walking away from clients
Letting toxic clients go is such a dilemma for business owners and leaders. In one hand, the clients brings you good income while on the other hand the relationships you have is the toxic type. The best choice to do when you face this kind of dilemma is to let the clients go. Because maintaining toxic relationship for a long time even in business won’t bring any good outcome.
Keeping senior employees
Keeping skillful employees is the right thing to do because they can contribute to your company. However, keeping employees just because of seniority only brings dilemma. If they are no longer competent enough to contribute to the company, it is not wrong of you to terminate them. However, do it in a non-offensive way.
Being honest with your marketing
Creating honest marketing message is one of the biggest challenges in today’s business. This ethical dilemma seems easy to solve but not many business owners today are ready to face the truth. The best choice is to keep what’s right. It means, you need to show your care to your customers by creating honest marketing message. Tell them the truth while delivering valuable content that help them solve their problems. This is not only beneficial for your brand to standout but also help build trust with your market.
Responding to your employee’s behavior on social media
It is difficult to give the right respond to how your employees behave outside of work. However, it is justifiable to terminate an employee over their poor behavior on social media. However, make sure that you do it with the right reasons. For example, your employee crosses a line into discriminating against particular community or delivering hate speech then you can take a decision to terminate their contract.