Instructions

based on the case given below.
Ethical – a person is called unethical, when he deviates from principles. The principles and their use is often guided by two definitions: Moral: society’s code for individual survival Ethics: An individual’s code for society survival Naresh was a small time civil contractor in a small city. His major clients were the residents who wanted ad-hoc work like painting, building extensions to be done. His just prices had made him a preferred contractor for most of the clients who preferred him over other civil contractors. Always he followed the principle that client had to be kept happy – only by doing so it would be a win-win situation for both. However due to the unpredictability of such orders from residents, Naresh used to be idle for substantial part of the year. As a consequence, he could not expand his business. His two children were growing up and his existing business could not support their expenses. The medical expense of his elderly parents was another drain on his resources. The constant rise of prices in medical care and medicines was another issue. For Naresh, family’s concern was predominant. Naresh was, therefore, under pressure to expand his business. He was the sole earning member of his family, and he had to ensure their well being. He thought that by expanding his business, not only would he be able to care for his family in a better way, as well as offer employment to more number of masons and labourers. That would benefit their families as well. Naresh drew the boundary of his society to include himself, his family members, his employees and their family members. For expansion, the only option in the city was to enlist= as a contractor for government work. Before deciding, he sought advice from another contractor, Srikumar, who had been working on government projects for a long period of time. Srikumar followed the principle of always helping others, because he believed that he would be helped back in return some day. Srikumar had just one advice “The work is given to those who will win the bidding process and at the same time will give the maximum bribe. Prices quoted for work have to include bribes, else the bills will not get cleared and the supervisors will find multiple faults with the execution of work. This ensures survival and prosperity for contractors”. When asked about other contractors, Srikumar said “The government contractors are like a micro-society in themselves, almost like a brotherhood. Within that, they are highly competitive; however towards any external threat they are united to ensure no harm happens to any of their members”.

Question 54

A new supervisor had joined a government department where both Naresh and Srikumar were bidding for work. During the bidding process for a particular project, in an open meeting with all contractors and officers from the department, he produced a document which had the rates at which Naresh had worked for private clients for similar building related work. He accused Naresh and Srikumar of over-pricing for government work and threatened to disqualify them from the bidding process, if the rates are not brought down. Faced with that situation, Naresh gave a written reply that “I use materials of inferior quality for private work, and that is the reason for price difference”. Srikumar supported Naresh in the meeting by saying that he had seen Naresh’s work and he agreed. In this situation, it can be concluded that:

Solution

"Ethical - a person is called unethical when he deviates from principles. The principles and their use is often guided by two
definitions: Moral: society's code for individual survival Ethics: An individual's code for society survival
".

In this situation, the case presented by Naresh was moral, as it was necessary for his survival, and to some extent, it puts the onus of the issue on him rather than his society; he can be considered ethical to some extent.

While for Srikumar, nothing can be commented on as there is not enough data to comment on his ethics.

Thus, the correct option is D.

 


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