A new job brings a moral dilemma

Pri Notowidigdo, The Amrop Hever Group, Global Executive Search, (e-mail: jakarta@amrophever.com)

You get a call from a client in the morning. He offers you a position at three times your current salary. You're overwhelmed. You start daydreaming of a holiday in Bali with your wife. You can buy that new laptop you had always wanted. However, unsettling thoughts come to mind -- job responsibility, trust, commitment, and friendship. You feel uneasy and confused.

What's happening? What are the issues? How can you resolve them? This could be a moral dilemma that you may have faced before in your life. Or, it may be a dilemma you are facing now.

The first issue to address is meaning. What does moving to another company mean to you? What does it mean for you to stay in your current company? It all comes down to reflecting on those values that have guided you in life -- family, friendship, integrity, fairness, dignity, and commitment, among other things. What matters most to you?

A second issue can be called productivity. Work is more than just performing tasks. It is part of whom you are, or at least whom you should be. As you work together with other people and develop your skills and talents, you can express your creativity and enhance your dignity. This is all part of performing and producing service and benefit to others. It is within the context of an organization -- a group of people -- that people produce value.

A third issue to address is dignity. What is the basis of your self-esteem? Is it externally defined, such as your job title, your salary, or public recognition? Or, is it internally defined, such as the satisfaction you feel when you have achieved something?

Can you bring your values to work and use them every day? Too few professionals are able to do that. People can understand and embrace a cause in their work, a cause that goes beyond just earning a living. There can be a way to work and a way to live.

It would seem to me that what we seek is not to be known for what we know but for what we do. We must be people of integrity, seeking to do that which is right even when no one is looking. And we must stay committed to our values whether the test is adversity or prosperity.

Whatever decision you make as a professional does not affect just the bottom line of your company -- or of yourself for that matter. It affects people -- fellow workers, customers, employees, your boss, your spouse and your children.

A corporate tradition should encourage freedom of inquiry, support personal values and reinforce a focused sense of direction. If the company can do this, it can then fulfill the need for individuality, along with the prosperity and success of the group. Without such corporate support, you, the individual, are lost, and face a moral dilemma that cannot be resolved.