As a student at NAIT, I thought for the most part that I would be dealing with Adults and reasonable ones at that, but now, I don’t know anymore. One day, I found myself in an unfortunate situation that I was not prepared for. This occurrence happened as I was waiting on my lunch order preparation. I witnessed a fellow student stuff her bag with all sorts of dipping sauces. She looked me blanked in my eyes as she thanked the food preparer when asked, if she wanted anything and did not even reply in the affirmative.
With zero to little reaction time, I was faced to make a decision that I was not ready for. To take a stand against shoplifting seemed like the right thing to do, regardless of the purchase value of the product stolen. …show more content…
Studies show that shoplifting is most prevalent among adolescents. Survey results suggest that consumers ' ethical judgments are related to both attitudes toward shoplifting and intentions to shoplift positively, and that highly ethical judgments of shoplifting may represent consumers ' attempts to rationalize the behavior (Babin, Robin, and Pike 1994).
Below is my ethical analysis as to whether I should have reported the shoplifting incident or not. Evidently, I was in a dilemma, whether to report or not to report her as I tried to contemplate as many ethical pros and cons, as stated in the above image.
Internal …show more content…
I was taught that stealing, regardless of the price or size or etc. is still stealing. The severity of stealing is best illustrated in the following quote, “There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife 's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone 's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness” (The Kite Runner, 2013). With regards to the stages in Kohlberg’s Theory, stage 5 is by far most applicable. Here, individuals becomes aware that while rules/laws might exist for the good of the greatest number, there are times when they will work against the interest of particular individuals. The issues in hand are not always clear cut. For example: perhaps she was stealing ranch dipping sauce because she was in a life threating situation. Who knows? Perhaps she felt NAIT at least owned her that much after all that it’s taken from her in terms of finances and all that’s its given her back in terms of