Applying Ethics to Workplace Dilemmas and Leadership

Applying Ethics to Workplace Dilemmas and Leadership addresses Assessment Criterion 1.5 of 5CO02, focusing on how distinct ethical perspectives shape decision-making in professional contexts. The video works through four named ethical theories — utilitarianism, deontology (Kantianism), communitarianism, and altruism — alongside the values of democracy, fairness, honesty, and equality that run through CIPD's indicative content for this criterion. It also examines the role of religious and personal beliefs as sources of moral reasoning in the workplace, and considers the longstanding debate about whether ethics and business success are complementary or competing concerns.

A recurring illustration throughout the video is a scenario involving an employee who is underperforming because of personal difficulties. This concrete case is used to show how utilitarianism, deontology, communitarianism, and altruism each surface different priorities and can point towards different courses of action. The tension between compassionate and punitive responses to capability and performance issues is examined directly, with different ethical frameworks placed on that spectrum. The video also addresses how religious convictions can create fixed moral boundaries that may come into conflict with organisational requirements or with other employees' rights, and how HR professionals must navigate those tensions whilst remaining lawful and consistent with organisational values.

The final section of the video moves from individual dilemmas to broader questions of management style and organisational culture. It traces how leaders operating from utilitarian principles, deontological orientations, or communitarian values model different behaviours and embed different priorities in organisational systems, with lasting consequences for culture. Rather than advocating a single ethical framework, the video covers the practice of analysing situations from multiple perspectives simultaneously — an approach positioned within the evidence-based practice unit as a form of ethical literacy relevant to understanding the value assumptions and rationales that underpin people management decisions.