COURAGE AND CONVICTION: ETHICAL DILEMMAS

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you would be breaching a law or policy if you help a person in need? Do you stand aside when someone needs assistance, thinking you have no obligation to lift a finger? Is there a way to deal with an ethical dilemma without fear of being mired in the consequences? How would you answer an inconvenient question?

Courage and Conviction deals with the subject of ethical dilemmas in personal and work life. It opens with a discussion on the nature of ethical dilemmas and then discusses moral reasoning and what it takes for effective decision-making in an ethical dilemma. It provides a guide for resolving an ethical dilemma with a step-by-step resolution framework and a tactical approach. Several chapters look at ethical dilemmas in the context of professional work, running corporations and public service. The book concludes by discussing a common ethical dilemma, namely, facing an inconvenient question, and providing a set of rules for decision making by a person exercising authority.

Written in a readable and accessible style and peppered with cases and stories to illustrate concepts the chapters in the book end with a bullet-point summary, and one or two questions for readers to reflect on to deepen their understanding of concepts and their application.

Readership: People in management and professions; public officers, students taking leadership, management, accounting, auditing or ethics courses; and general readers interested in knowing how to make better decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas.

Lim Soo Ping was the Auditor-General of Singapore from 2007 to 2013. Prior to that, he served 31 years in the Singapore government, fist in the Engineering Service, and then in the Administrative Service. Following his retirement in 2013, he joined the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a professor of accounting (practice) and served for six years.

Lim Soo Ping obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (with Distinction) from the University of Alberta (Canada) under a Colombo Plan Scholarship in 1974. In 1979 and 1981 respectively, he received a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and a post-graduate Diploma in Business Administration, both from the University of Singapore. In 2001, he attended the Advanced Management Programme (AMP) at Harvard Business School.

In 2009, as Auditor-General, Lim Soo Ping set up the AGO Academy to provide more focused training for AGO officers, serving internal auditors and finance officers in the public service as well. The Academy was officially launched by Mr S R Nathan, the then President of Singapore. In 2012. Together with fellow auditor-generals of ASEAN countries, Lim Soo Ping, is co-founder of the ASEAN Supreme Audit Institutions (ASEANSAI), a regional body of national audit institutions.

Lim Soo Ping had served on the boards of directors of several government-linked organisations including Woodbridge Hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises and The Esplanade Company (Theatres on the Bay). Outside his work in public service, he has served on the governing board of St Joseph's Institution International School. He was the first chairman of Equal-Ark Singapore, a charity that provides counselling support, using horse therapy, for children with learning disability and the elderly with dementia or clinical depression. Currently, he is a member of the Roman Catholic Archdiocesan Audit Committee.