Ethics Scenario #35: Harristown Chamber of Commerce

 35. Harriet has been the executive director of the Harristown Chamber of Commerce, a 501(c)(6) nonprofit tax-exempt organization, for almost 20 years. She has never married, and the Chamber has become her entire life. It is not unusual for Harriet to be working in the office 12 hours each day, being the first one to arrive in the morning and the one to turn out the lights in the late evenings, which may be filled with meetings and telephone calls. For the last several years, she has gotten in the habit of having the support staff of the Chamber run her personal errands, justifying that her herculean work hours simply leave little or no time to do this herself and that the organization is better served if she devotes the time for those mundane tasks to her professional life. Some of the staff who are asked to do these errands are sympathetic and understanding, and are quite willing to help. But lately, she has noticed that some appear to be resentful. Fortunately, no one so far has given her a flat “I won’t do this for you.”

a. Is Harriet acting ethical when she asks her staff to run personal errands when she is devoting the time saved by this to the work of the organization?