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An Ethical Dilemma: As told from the Perspective of a 12 year old
Katie Strait
E11045496
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An Ethical Dilemma: As told from the Perspective of a 12 year old
Ethical leadership is a funny thing to figure. In some cases, ethical leadership is explicit
and straightforward. It is crystal clear what a person should do in that particular situation. Other
times Ethical leadership appears muddled and murky, lost behind society’s expectations and
norms, pressures to perform within a corporation, pressures from superior authorities or from
fellow coworkers. Perhaps Ethical leadership is maybe even obscured behind that individual’s
egoistic goals and viewpoints they themselves view as absolute necessities to their own wellbeing. Perhaps the values no longer exist in the well-being of the company, but rather rest in the
wellbeing of the individuals that make up the company. Things such as trust, loyalty, and
integrity simply no longer exist within a company. Perhaps ethical leadership programs and
codes of ethics are established and incorporated only as a means of show. A simple way to get
the media off corporations’ backs. As I was thinking about the topic of this essay and how ethical
leadership has been prevalent my own life I realized that all of these situations are ethically
judged upon an internal scale regardless of any authority a person might hold. Even you now are
grading me based on an internal ethical base that you feel I either do or do not grasp in
comparison with the other essays in this competition. Regardless of anything I might do or not
do I am judged on how well I grasp the concept of ethical leadership based on what you think
about what I say. If someone else were to be scoring this competition they would most likely
have different opinions than you on whether or not an essay is considered to be held in high or
low esteem. Moreover, there is not a single solitary standard that people use to judge ethics that
is the same for every single person. One person might say a decision is ethically sound while
another would say that the same decision is ethically unacceptable. Ethics is something that is
not static. It changes as society changes. It changes as the norms and expectations change. It
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changes in regard to the particular person who is making that particular decision within a
corporation at that particular time. In summary ethics is dynamic and brings into play numerous
values, norms, morals that dramatically affect that person’s decision within the corporation.
My story starts out on the soccer field. For the majority of my life I’ve slept, ate and
breathed soccer. It was my goal to play in college and as such I spent a large amount of my time
show casing myself to college coaches and getting better. This story happened around the time I
was about 12 or 13. As a 12 year old I really had no idea that what I was facing was even
considered to be an ethical dilemma I didn’t even know what the word ethics meant. But looking
back, I realize how much this situation affected me as an individual and my ethical decision
making even at 12 years old. It was a situation that would forever change how I was viewed not
only as an individual and as a player by my peers, but also in the eyes of my coaches and
mentors who had helped me become the player that I was at that time.
Honestly, I really don’t remember the score or who we played or even anything that
really happened in that game. I have no memories of anything that anyone did that was
spectacular or anything special that happened other than we won. And apparently it had been a
big deal because the only thing I remember was that we had won against a team that we all really
hated. That’s the only thing I remember. At the end of the game, I remember the coaches brought
us together and told us how good we had all played. And then I remember someone suggesting
that we do the chant. Now, this wasn’t the first time we had done the chant. We had done it to
several other teams before and I remember feeling very uncomfortable each time that we did it
but I had just played along so as not to make a ripple in the pond. Each time we did the chant I
felt an extreme amount of bone crushing pressure by the rest of my peers to just go along, to not
make any sort of scene. At that age, the most important thing is fitting in and doing whatever it
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takes for people to view you as cool or at least it had been for me. But each time that I continued
to degrade other teams and rub their face into losing a game I felt extremely guilty about my
participation afterwards. The chant not only downplayed and degraded other teams but it
sometimes specifically picked out specific races and details of other players depending on the
game and the players that were available to make fun of. Not only did this coincide with my
own personal moral beliefs about how I should treat other individuals, but it also raised the
ethical dilemma of was this ok for me to just go along with all the rest of the kids even though I
felt bad about it and it really made me extremely uncomfortable? Was I ok with just going with
the flow? Or was I willing to have the courage to step up and be a leader and do something about
the issue? I don’t know about anyone else’s experiences but when you are 12 years old what
your peers think about you is really a big deal. It was scary to even think about standing up to the
rest of the team when obviously nobody else had any problems with rubbing the other teams’
face into losing just a little bit. Anyways, that day I tried to buy time and make lame excuses like
I needed a drink or I needed to get something in my bag. I remember bending down to
indiscreetly tie my shoe hoping that they would just get tired of waiting and do it without me.
But they didn’t. Finally I ran out of excuses after claiming to have a headache and of having to
take of my shin guards and cleats because my feet hurt. Still waiting, they told me to hurry up
and that I wasn’t getting out of it. With my voice shaking and my hands clinched into balls at my
side, I shrugged my soccer bag onto my shoulders and said “I’m not going to do this anymore”
and started walking toward the parking lot. Before I could get more than one or two steps away
the coach grabbed me and pulled me into the circle. “Oh yes you are, you’re a part of this team
aren’t you?” I remember him saying. Once he let go I broke through the circle. Refusing to take
part in something I didn’t feel good about I did the only thing I knew to do. I ran. Tears
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streaming down my face, I ran over to my parents who had seen everything that had happened.
Needless to say my dad walked over to the coach afterward and told him if he ever tried to make
me do something that I was uncomfortable doing again that would be the last day I ever played
for him. After that the chant was no longer incorporated into any of our victory celebrations
again. Later several other girls admitted to me that they had been uncomfortable with it too but
had been too scared to say anything about it.
That day, I learned one of the most important lessons of my life. Looking back, I see how
it ties into ethics and ethical leadership. Even though I was scared stiff I did what I felt was right
and stood up for what I believed in even though at the time I didn’t really even know what ethics
and morals were. As a result, my actions had dramatic consequences that impacted my team.
Ethical leadership doesn’t just start with CEO’s managers and high up officials. It only takes one
person to start a revolution and in the case of establishing ethical leadership authority has no
effect on the impact that any single individual (no matter how low or high up in the corporation)
can have on the rest of the business and for that matter on the rest of the world. The influence
any person has in a corporation is substantial and can be used as a detriment or as a benefit to
that corporation if only given the chance. So the only question is simply will you have the
courage to stand up and do what you know is ethically right as an individual? Or will you
crumble and coincide with what is expected of you by your superiors and coworkers? The choice
cannot be made for you, it is solely up to you.