At one time or another, ethical dilemmas are going to arise in all aspects of life. At only
twenty-five, Jacob Franklin finds himself in the midst of personal, organization, and cultural
issues that are going to test his ethical barometer. Jacob is aware that his decisions are not only
going to affect himself, but also his family and all stakeholders in the company. Since Jacob
knows he is not the only party involved, the ethical dilemmas in which he faces need to be
carefully evaluated and addressed in order to provide the best possible outcome.
One of the first ethical dilemmas Jacob finds himself in involves his employer,
Richardson Drilling Equipment, contradicting the company policy. The company policy states
that bribes to the government and contractors are strictly forbidden, yet these practices have
become all too common for the company. It is essential for Jacob to abide by rules and
regulations on a corporate and federal level, while still achieving revenue goals set by the
company. Even though Jacob wants to succeed in his profession, he knows that bribing
companies in order to make deals is illegal according to federal law. In this case, Jacob should
realize that regardless of how much success the company may claim to create, it ultimately does
not honor any type of moral value. If Jacob feels a strong obligation to his moral values, he
should already know that this is not the place for him to continue his career. Jacob finds himself
restricted by stage one of Kohlberg’s Moral Development; Obedience and Punishment. Even
though the policy states one thing, since the company acts in another way, Jacob “assumes that
powerful authorities hand down a fixed set of rules which he must unquestioningly obey” (Cain,
n.d.).
Due to a majority of Richardson Drilling’s business taking place in Latin American
countries, U.S. standards may not always apply. When Jacob was inspecting some of the
equipment and established it to be substandard, he found himself to be in another ethical
dilemma. Jacob observes the fact that the customers are not only being hurt by the product, but
also that his company is taking advantage of the fact that other countries have lower standards to
ensure safety. With that being said, Richardson Drilling is taking advantage of the fact that Latin
American countries are not as culturally protected as in America. Jacob again violated ethical
standards by not caring about the safety or well-being of consumers in other cultures.
Later on, Jacob also discovers that because of the substandard equipment Richardson
Drill was producing, many of customers had stopped purchasing from them. Rather than
immediately coming up with a solution, Jacob’s morals continued to be put to the test. It was
suggested that he should keep quiet about the numerous reports involving faulty equipment until
a new product came out or the seven-year statute of limitation was up. Following this advice,
Jacob continued his work as if nothing had happened. From an ethical standpoint, Jacob chose
