All I know is this: as a manager, you walk a fine line between doing what’s best for the company (basically, the shareholders) versus what’s best for the employees. I’m sure we will all run into these types of issues in the future and sometimes we will either be liked or disliked after the decision has been made.

The questions I listed above were intended to be starting points for the more questionable situations such as the trade off between paying higher wages or providing more employee benefits, or choosing to replace existing office chairs with more comfortable and supportive ones at the expense of other benefits or cash flow. Those situations tend to be a bit less clear as there is rarely a clear legal issue, and the problem tends to center more on what you give up as a result of a trade off.

For instance, using the last example, if you purchase all of your employees new chairs that are more ergonomically correct but end up having to lay off a few as a direct result a few months down the line, was your choice the most ethical? Or, what if you were more conservative with your capital and kept the existing chairs and a few people developed back problems (personal injury to the employee, lost productivity for the company, worker’s comp burden, possibility of increased health insurance cost for the whole company, etc.)? Which is the most ethical choice in that situation? Would the most ethical choice for one company be the same for a much smaller firm facing the same dilemma?