Case studies
These are real-world scenarios — the kind that land in your inbox or come up in a meeting. See how the MoralCompass framework helps navigate each one.
A team member confides that they've been falsifying expense reports. They ask you to keep it quiet. You're not their manager, but you know the company's code of conduct.
"Your colleague trusted you. But staying silent makes you complicit in ongoing harm to the organisation — and potentially to other employees who follow the rules."
A senior leader asks you to fast-track a proposal for a client who happens to be a personal friend. Other clients with more urgent needs are waiting.
"Refusing could damage your relationship with your manager. Complying means other clients — and colleagues — are treated unfairly."
A report went out with incorrect data. The error is minor but could affect a client's decision. Correcting it means admitting a mistake — and your team is already under pressure.
"Saying nothing is easier in the short term. But the client may be making decisions based on wrong information."
End-of-quarter pressure is mounting. Your manager suggests skipping the usual quality checks to get numbers over the line. 'Just this once,' they say. You know the checks exist for a reason.
"Refusing could mark you as 'not a team player' at a critical moment. But complying means knowingly releasing work that doesn't meet the standard customers expect."
You saw a colleague treated dismissively in a meeting — their idea was ignored, then repeated by a senior manager minutes later as if it were their own. Your colleague noticed. Others noticed. No one said anything.
"Speaking up risks making you a target. Staying silent means the behaviour continues — and your colleague knows you saw it and said nothing."
As a manager, you've been directed by HR and your own manager to begin a formal performance improvement process for a team member. You don't believe the evidence justifies it — and you suspect the real reason is a personality clash with senior leadership.
"Following the instruction protects you professionally. But you'd be initiating a process that could end someone's career based on grounds you believe are unjust."
You've noticed that one member of your team — the only person from a minority background in the group — is regularly not included in informal briefings, key project conversations, and social events where work decisions get made. It may not be intentional. But the effect is real.
"Raising it could be dismissed as 'reading too much into it.' Not raising it means the exclusion continues — and the person affected is likely already aware."
The framework that shaped these case studies is available to every employee. It takes about 10 minutes to work through.