Video: Ethical Dilemmas in the Workplace
In your career, you will be both interviewer (manager and hiring authority) and interviewee (job applicant). As a manager, how would you find out whether the employee learned from his/her mistake? What questions would you ask?
As a manager conducting an interview with a potential employee, I would find out whether the employee learned from a mistake by first asking how they problem solve in tricky situations. Making a mistake is challenging (and tricky) because there are differing levels of complexity (who it affects, how it affects, etc.) to the outcome of it. By asking an interviewee how they problem solve, I would be interested in how they work their way out of a tough situation – most mistakes are tough situations – and whether or not they found themselves in a similar situation. Another question I would ask is if they were able to apply whatever they learned to different situations, whether it be personal or in a different work environment. I think it is an important trait to carry lessons that you’ve learned wherever you go. By being able to carry on these lessons, it shows that an employee has learned from their mistake.
As a job applicant (interviewee), how will you “own’ the “failure’ (every failure is a learning opportunity). How would you put that “failure’ in a positive light? If you do not already have a “failure’, can you think of one a friend has had and articulate how you would advise them?
As a job interviewee, I would own my failure by admitting to the mistake and taking responsibility for the impacts of it. I think it is important to acknowledge and take ownership of failures, ignoring failures does not allow for personal growth. I would put a failure into positive light by explaining all the precautions that I have taken since the event and how it has proven to be beneficial in a professional work environment. In my personal experience when I am asked about one of my weaknesses, I’ll explain a weak area and then put it into a positive light by sharing all the ways I am working on improving that aspect. I agree that every failure is a learning opportunity. Failures can be initially scary and difficult to deal with, but turning around that failure is healthy for personal development.