Ethics Dilemma: For this assignment you will submit a short prompt of no more than half a page which proposes a dilemma related to your area of study – Finance. The goal here is to pinpoint a dilemma relevant to others in your own field. As such, it should not have a clear resolution: there should be arguments for multiple approaches –and clear issues with those approaches as well.

Consider the following dilemma as an example:

Eleanor was delighted with her new broadband connection. Having been used only to dial-up,

she loved the fact that now her internet connection was always on, and also that surfing and

downloading was so much quicker. And it was a bonus that it happened to be completely free.

Well, to say it was free was perhaps a little misleading. Eleanor paid nothing for the

service because she was using her neighbor’s WiFi connection, otherwise known as a wireless

Local Area Network. It so happened that Eleanor’s apartment was close enough to her neighbor’s

for her to use his connection.

Eleanor didn’t see this as theft. The neighbor had the connection anyway. And she was

only using his excess bandwith. In fact, a neat piece of software called “Good Magpie” made

sure that her use of the connection never slowed down her neighbor by more than a negligible

amount. So she got the benefits of his connection, but he didn’t suffer as a result.

Is Eleanor is doing anything wrong?

In writing your dilemma, try not to presuppose that one response to the dilemma is ‘right,’ make

sure that the reader can imagine multiple ways to address the scenario (in this case there are three

obvious ones right off the bat for Eleanor: to act as she has, to ask permission from her

neighbor, and to not use the better internet at all). But don’t feel that you have to answer every

conceivably relevant question: for example it’s unclear whether Eleanor’s neighbor has secured

his wifi or not, and that is potentially a relevant ethical issue here.

Finally, make certain you are thinking about something relevant to your major: an issue for a

Banker, or financial advisor, any financial professional…. Something that you yourself may be faced with

some day, and as such don’t over-worry about focusing on a technical detail related to that field, not if it helps you write a clearer dilemma.