Trolley Problem
In Organizational Ethics, it states that ethics involves judgements about the rightness or
wrongness of human behaviors and has to do with the systematic study of general principles of
right and wrong behaviors (Johnson, 2016). An ethical dilemma is presented in which a third
party is required to make a decision about which course of action is best out of three options,
however, in the end, two of the options require ethical principle to be compromised. The Trolley
Problem poses a situation in which five workers find themselves on a track with a trolley coming
towards them. There is an option to divert the trolley onto another track, however, there is also
another worker on that track. A large man can also be pushed off of the overheard bridge to stop
the trolley. Another option is to simply do nothing and let the trolley continue to go along the
track. It asks the question of whether it is better to sacrifice one to save the five. Regardless,
none of the options presented are deal and it would not be an ethical choice to partake in either of
the options that are presented.
In making the decision, it is important to use “decision-making guidelines [to] help us
make better moral choices” in order to “incorporate elements that enhance ethical performance
while helping [to] avoid blunders” (Johnson, 2016, p. 89). Checkpoint number 4 in Kidder’s
Ethical checkpoints includes four test that can be applied to a situation to “determine if there is
any wrongdoing in the case” (Johnson, 2016, p. 90). The test is used to dictate and act as a test
