Jessica is a recent graduate. She begins her first job at a publishing house as a trainee editor. Jessica's manager is a highly authoritative person who closely monitors her performance. Jessica believes that if she obeys her manager's instructions, she can avoid harmful personal consequences. In the context of ethics, Jessica is at the _____ of moral development.

An individual is said to be at the preconventional level if the individual level of reasoning is to form an opinion or conclusion about the morality of an action by its direct consequence

As seen in the question, Jessica believes that if she obeys her manager's instructions, she can avoid harmful personal consequences; this means that she's more concerned with external rewards and punishment; hence, she obeys authority (i.e. her manager) in order to avoid unpleasant personal treatment.

There are two stages in preconventional level of moral development

Obedience and Punishment Orientation. A person does what's right only to avoid being punished. If a person is punished, they must have done wrong.
Individualism and Exchange. This is where an individual realizes that different individuals have different viewpoints.

In Jessica's case. she's at the stage 1 of preconventional level of moral development