Question

The dean at the university where you are a department chair forwards an e-mail to you that is clearly an advertisement for a consulting firm’s seminar on grant writing and asks you to send the note on to your faculty. You are concerned about using the university’s e-mail for commercial purposes. What would you do?

Answer 1

This is unethical to use the university’s e-mail for commercial purpose. But it is the tendency of individuals to do what they are told irrespective of the limitations as long as the order has come from legitimate authority. The option here is to communicate your concern and protest the action to your immediate supervisor and do not obey the order even if it comes to your resigning from the university which is not an attractive option. But if you keep quiet and follow the order then sometimes in future you cannot escape the moral consequences of your action.