MUN Exec (Final Reflection)

LO7-Recognise and consider the ethics implications of choices and actions.

My final task before leaving MUN Exec was to pick the new members to replace us. We had the most applicants of any year and making the final decision was difficult. We made all candidates have a written application and an interview.

At what times did I face ethical decisions when participating in this activity?

The key issues was that often many participants had the same level of experience, similar quality written application and excellent interviews. This made it difficult to narrow down between candidates as we wanted to be open to everyone and avoid bias towards the people I am friends with.

On what did I base my decision making? Why?

I decided to make my decisions objectively- we came up with levels of criteria. The first being written application, then interview performance, then commitment shown to MUN as a whole, participating in club outside of exec, and lastly the potential of the candidate to carry the exec committee forward. We were looking for people involved in both MS and HS executive so there would be continuity in the club. Then lastly, how they would fit with the pre-existing team.

How did my moral principles affect the decision I made?

My moral principles looked at the decision in a utilitarian approach – which candidate would bring the best outcome for the team as a whole. This meant that we rejected some qualified candidates as the skills sets they offer are already present within the team.

Was I ever in conflict with another person because our morals were different? How did we resolve this conflict?

There was a conflict on opinion with me and the rest of the interview panel. They found one of the applicants to be too arrogant, whereas I believed that she possessed enough skills to overlook the attitude. I further believed that since she was still in Grade 9, it would be easy for her to grow and overcome this flaw. Finally we agreed that we would place her on the middle school executive team as a trial and watch how she responds to the simpler situation – then, maybe consider her for the next year of exec.

Have I become more or less principled as a result of my participation in this activity? Why?

I think I became more principled as a result of my participation, especially after the interview round. When looking at the written applications, I had roughly made my decision around who to reject and accept in the team. However, the interviews brought new insights contrary to my original decision.  This made me think of the selection in a more objective way.