Rajanna’s Ethical Dilemma

Rajanna’s Ethical Dilemma

Gudigantala Rajanna (Rajanna) was born to government school teachers and lived in the outskirts of Warangal in the state of Telangana in India. His parents taught him the importance of being honest, kind-hearted and hardworking. Right from his young age, he wanted to serve the society in a meaningful way. After completing graduation, he took up social work and started campaigning for clean drinking water, a perennial problem in his municipal ward.

Rajanna, who had been living in his ward for 32 years, had friends across ages and was hailed to be a simple and honest person. He observed that the ward grew from about 5,000 population to 15,000 in the last five years i.e., 2011–2016. Such sudden increase was attributed to new academic establishments (schools and colleges) that came up recently. As the land value increased and the disposable income grew due to increased economic activity in the ward, construction of houses and apartments increased and had an adverse impact on the ground water tables. In the last five years i.e., 2011–2016, the problem became acute to the extent that several households had to purchase water on a daily basis.................

Assignment Questions

I. What should be the ideal course of action for Rajanna?
II. .................

Exhibits

Exhibit I: Ethical Decision-Making Approaches

Rajanna’s Ethical Dilemma

Synopsis

Gudigantala Rajanna (Rajanna) grew up in the outskirts of Warangal, a small town in the Indian state of Telangana. Born to school teachers, he was a popular youngster in his neighborhood and at a prime age he became a Ward Councillor in the Municipal Corporation. His incessant effort to bring better drinking water facility to his ward was thwarted by a contractor who asked for a bribe to expedite the laying of water pipes. His conscience is now in conflict with his election promise to his ward members about providing better drinking water facility in the ward.

Prerequisite Conceptual Understanding/Before the Classroom Exercise/Reading

• Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel, “Ethical Breakdowns”, Harvard Business Review, April 2011
• Ron Carucci, “Why Ethical People Make Unethical Choices”, Harvard Business Review, December 16^th 2016

Learning Objective

The objective of this case is to help understand and analyze various ethical decision-making strategies.

Case Positioning and Setting

This is an ideal case to start a course on ethics, be it for an Undergraduate or a Post Graduate Program or a Training Program. This case gives scope to elicit several ethical decision-making strategies which generally form the larger part of these course sessions.............................