Business Ethics : study of four scenarios with teaching notes that can be used to introduce ethical topics for discussion in a business ethics class

Résumé du document

You have been working for a large corporation for three years. The job is tough and you have fought your way up the ladder of success. The manager of your department was your co-worker from two years ago and the power has gone to her head. She is overly demanding and has ?my way or the highway' attitude that grates on your nerves daily. Six months ago, Trish was hired in a position three levels above yours due to years of accounting and SEC reporting experience. Trish and your manger never see eye-to-eye on any issues and there are daily battles between them that you observe. This person talks non-stop most of the day and sits across from you in a cube environment. One day after a particularly ugly discussion with your manager, this person comes to you and informs you that she is going to quit her job and sue the company. She believes that the manager is treating her unfairly and that it constitutes harassment. You smile politely and blow off the comment as just anger being vented due to the current situation and go on with your day. As time progresses, you hear this same comment about suing the company several more times from your co-worker and you hear her discussing this with several other members of your department. What do you do?

Extraits

[...] Regarding the gift keeping or declining it both could be ethical solutions. The choice will depend on the negotiations between the supervisor and the supplier. The gift can be kept as a punishment for the dishonest supplier (if it is really the case) but if the supplier recognized its faults and proposed the company to keep the gift, it can be also kept in case if two companies have managed to find new field of agreement. But it should be certainly declined in case of definitive braking of the contract. [...]

[...] When supplies were low, Paula would have this vendor fill the order. One day, she received a package from this company. Inside were an underwater camera and a note thanking her for the business. A few weeks later the vendor called to get approval to ship more supplies. Paula declined as informed him supplies were not low. The salesperson became annoyed and reminded her that they were under a contract and would face a penalty if the supplies were not shipped and paid for within a specified time period. [...]

[...] Ethical business behavior consists of transparency and truth whereas not speaking about the problem is not really ethical. Finally going straight to the human resources department with no real information is a worst solution. This will only increase rumors and misunderstandings. As a conclusion we can say that ethical behavior is based on a dialog. So in our case we should act in order to favor the dialog. From the four solutions the least harm would be the first one. [...]

[...] Business Ethics : study of four scenarios with teaching notes that can be used to introduce ethical topics for discussion in a business ethics class You have been working for a large corporation for three years. The job is tough and you have fought your way up the ladder of success. The manager of your department was your co-worker from two years ago and the power has gone to her head. She is overly demanding and has my way or the highway attitude that grates on your nerves daily. [...]

[...] Moreover, in occidental culture to denounce people is considered to be bad at least if it concerns really important things such as murders or violence It means that two first solutions would be not really ethical in this case. Nevertheless from the general point of view (value of universality) the first solution could be seen as an ethical solution especially because we are supposed to have a particular relationship with Trash. But it could be quite difficult in the company's situation. Top managers are arguing about their problems and we as a subordinate normally do not have to mingle with their problems. [...]