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Videos Concepts Unwrapped View All 36 short illustrated videos explain behavioral ethics concepts and basic ethics principles. Concepts Unwrapped: Sports Edition View All 10 short videos introduce athletes to behavioral ethics concepts. Ethics Defined (Glossary) View All 58 animated videos - 1 to 2 minutes each - define key ethics terms and concepts. Ethics in Focus View All One-of-a-kind videos highlight the ethical aspects of current and historical subjects. Giving Voice To Values View All Eight short videos present the 7 principles of values-driven leadership from Gentile's Giving Voice to Values. In It To Win View All A documentary and six short videos reveal the behavioral ethics biases in super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's story. Scandals Illustrated View All 30 videos - one minute each - introduce newsworthy scandals with ethical insights and case studies. Video Series

Case Studies UT Star Icon

Case Studies

More than 70 cases pair ethics concepts with real world situations. From journalism, performing arts, and scientific research to sports, law, and business, these case studies explore current and historic ethical dilemmas, their motivating biases, and their consequences. Each case includes discussion questions, related videos, and a bibliography.

A Million Little Pieces

A Million Little Pieces

James Frey’s popular memoir stirred controversy and media attention after it was revealed to contain numerous exaggerations and fabrications.

Abramoff: Lobbying Congress

Abramoff: Lobbying Congress

Super-lobbyist Abramoff was caught in a scheme to lobby against his own clients. Was a corrupt individual or a corrupt system – or both – to blame?

Apple Suppliers & Labor Practices

Apple Suppliers & Labor Practices

Is tech company Apple, Inc. ethically obligated to oversee the questionable working conditions of other companies further down their supply chain?

Approaching the Presidency: Roosevelt & Taft

Approaching the Presidency: Roosevelt & Taft

Some presidents view their responsibilities in strictly legal terms, others according to duty. Roosevelt and Taft took two extreme approaches.

Appropriating “Hope”

Appropriating “Hope”

Fairey’s portrait of Barack Obama raised debate over the extent to which an artist can use and modify another’s artistic work, yet still call it one’s own.

Arctic Offshore Drilling

Arctic Offshore Drilling

Competing groups frame the debate over oil drilling off Alaska’s coast in varying ways depending on their environmental and economic interests.

Banning Burkas: Freedom or Discrimination?

Banning Burkas: Freedom or Discrimination?

The French law banning women from wearing burkas in public sparked debate about discrimination and freedom of religion.

Birthing Vaccine Skepticism

Birthing Vaccine Skepticism

Wakefield published an article riddled with inaccuracies and conflicts of interest that created significant vaccine hesitancy regarding the MMR vaccine.

Blurred Lines of Copyright

Blurred Lines of Copyright

Marvin Gaye’s Estate won a lawsuit against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for the hit song “Blurred Lines,” which had a similar feel to one of his songs.

Bullfighting: Art or Not?

Bullfighting: Art or Not?

Bullfighting has been a prominent cultural and artistic event for centuries, but in recent decades it has faced increasing criticism for animal rights’ abuse.

Buying Green: Consumer Behavior

Buying Green: Consumer Behavior

Do purchasing green products, such as organic foods and electric cars, give consumers the moral license to indulge in unethical behavior?

Cadavers in Car Safety Research

Cadavers in Car Safety Research

Engineers at Heidelberg University insist that the use of human cadavers in car safety research is ethical because their research can save lives.

Cardinals’ Computer Hacking

Cardinals’ Computer Hacking

St. Louis Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa hacked into the Houston Astros’ webmail system, leading to legal repercussions and a lifetime ban from MLB.

Cheating: Atlanta’s School Scandal

Cheating: Atlanta’s School Scandal

Teachers and administrators at Parks Middle School adjust struggling students’ test scores in an effort to save their school from closure.

Cheating: Sign-Stealing in MLB

Cheating: Sign-Stealing in MLB

The Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scheme rocked the baseball world, leading to a game-changing MLB investigation and fallout.

Cheating: UNC’s Academic Fraud

Cheating: UNC’s Academic Fraud

UNC’s academic fraud scandal uncovered an 18-year scheme of unchecked coursework and fraudulent classes that enabled student-athletes to play sports.

Cheney v. U.S. District Court

Cheney v. U.S. District Court

A controversial case focuses on Justice Scalia’s personal friendship with Vice President Cheney and the possible conflict of interest it poses to the case.

Christina Fallin: “Appropriate Culturation?”

Christina Fallin: “Appropriate Culturation?”

After Fallin posted a picture of herself wearing a Plain’s headdress on social media, uproar emerged over cultural appropriation and Fallin’s intentions.

Climate Change & the Paris Deal

Climate Change & the Paris Deal

While climate change poses many abstract problems, the actions (or inactions) of today’s populations will have tangible effects on future generations.

Cover-Up on Campus

Cover-Up on Campus

While the Baylor University football team was winning on the field, university officials failed to take action when allegations of sexual assault by student athletes emerged.

Covering Female Athletes

Covering Female Athletes

Sports Illustrated stirs controversy when their cover photo of an Olympic skier seems to focus more on her physical appearance than her athletic abilities.

Covering Yourself? Journalists and the Bowl Championship

Covering Yourself? Journalists and the Bowl Championship

Can news outlets covering the Bowl Championship Series fairly report sports news if their own polls were used to create the news?

Cyber Harassment

Cyber Harassment

After a student defames a middle school teacher on social media, the teacher confronts the student in class and posts a video of the confrontation online.

Defending Freedom of Tweets?

Defending Freedom of Tweets?

Running back Rashard Mendenhall receives backlash from fans after criticizing the celebration of the assassination of Osama Bin Laden in a tweet.

Dennis Kozlowski: Living Large

Dennis Kozlowski: Living Large

Dennis Kozlowski was an effective leader for Tyco in his first few years as CEO, but eventually faced criminal charges over his use of company assets.

Digital Downloads

Digital Downloads

File-sharing program Napster sparked debate over the legal and ethical dimensions of downloading unauthorized copies of copyrighted music.

Dr. V’s Magical Putter

Dr. V’s Magical Putter

Journalist Caleb Hannan outed Dr. V as a trans woman, sparking debate over the ethics of Hannan’s reporting, as well its role in Dr. V’s suicide.

East Germany’s Doping Machine

East Germany’s Doping Machine

From 1968 to the late 1980s, East Germany (GDR) doped some 9,000 athletes to gain success in international athletic competitions despite being aware of the unfortunate side effects.

Ebola & American Intervention

Ebola & American Intervention

Did the dispatch of U.S. military units to Liberia to aid in humanitarian relief during the Ebola epidemic help or hinder the process?

Edward Snowden: Traitor or Hero?

Edward Snowden: Traitor or Hero?

Was Edward Snowden’s release of confidential government documents ethically justifiable?

Ethical Pitfalls in Action

Ethical Pitfalls in Action

Why do good people do bad things? Behavioral ethics is the science of moral decision-making, which explores why and how people make the ethical (and unethical) decisions that they do.

Ethical Use of Home DNA Testing

Ethical Use of Home DNA Testing

The rising popularity of at-home DNA testing kits raises questions about privacy and consumer rights.

Flying the Confederate Flag

Flying the Confederate Flag

A heated debate ensues over whether or not the Confederate flag should be removed from the South Carolina State House grounds.

Freedom of Speech on Campus

Freedom of Speech on Campus

In the wake of racially motivated offenses, student protests sparked debate over the roles of free speech, deliberation, and tolerance on campus.

Freedom vs. Duty in Clinical Social Work

Freedom vs. Duty in Clinical Social Work

What should social workers do when their personal values come in conflict with the clients they are meant to serve?

Full Disclosure: Manipulating Donors

Full Disclosure: Manipulating Donors

When an intern witnesses a donor making a large gift to a non-profit organization under misleading circumstances, she struggles with what to do.

Gaming the System: The VA Scandal

Gaming the System: The VA Scandal

The Veterans Administration’s incentives were meant to spur more efficient and productive healthcare, but not all administrators complied as intended.

German Police Battalion 101

German Police Battalion 101

During the Holocaust, ordinary Germans became willing killers even though they could have opted out from murdering their Jewish neighbors.

Head Injuries & American Football

Head Injuries & American Football

Many studies have linked traumatic brain injuries and related conditions to American football, creating controversy around the safety of the sport.

Head Injuries & the NFL

Head Injuries & the NFL

American football is a rough and dangerous game and its impact on the players’ brain health has sparked a hotly contested debate.

Healthcare Obligations: Personal vs. Institutional

Healthcare Obligations: Personal vs. Institutional

A medical doctor must make a difficult decision when informing patients of the effectiveness of flu shots while upholding institutional recommendations.

High Stakes Testing

High Stakes Testing

In the wake of the No Child Left Behind Act, parents, teachers, and school administrators take different positions on how to assess student achievement.

In-FUR-mercials: Advertising & Adoption

In-FUR-mercials: Advertising & Adoption

When the Lied Animal Shelter faces a spike in animal intake, an advertising agency uses its moral imagination to increase pet adoptions.

Krogh & the Watergate Scandal

Krogh & the Watergate Scandal

Egil Krogh was a young lawyer working for the Nixon Administration whose ethics faded from view when asked to play a part in the Watergate break-in.

Limbaugh on Drug Addiction

Limbaugh on Drug Addiction

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh argued that drug abuse was a choice, not a disease. He later became addicted to painkillers.

LochteGate

U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte’s “over-exaggeration” of an incident at the 2016 Rio Olympics led to very real consequences.

Meet Me at Starbucks

Meet Me at Starbucks

Two black men were arrested after an employee called the police on them, prompting Starbucks to implement “racial-bias” training across all its stores.

Myanmar Amber

Myanmar Amber

Buying amber could potentially fund an ethnic civil war, but refraining allows collectors to acquire important specimens that could be used for research.

Negotiating Bankruptcy

Negotiating Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy lawyer Gellene successfully represented a mining company during a major reorganization, but failed to disclose potential conflicts of interest.

Pao & Gender Bias

Pao & Gender Bias

Ellen Pao stirred debate in the venture capital and tech industries when she filed a lawsuit against her employer on grounds of gender discrimination.

Pardoning Nixon

Pardoning Nixon

One month after Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency, Gerald Ford made the controversial decision to issue Nixon a full pardon.

Patient Autonomy & Informed Consent

Patient Autonomy & Informed Consent

Nursing staff and family members struggle with informed consent when taking care of a patient who has been deemed legally incompetent.

Prenatal Diagnosis & Parental Choice

Prenatal Diagnosis & Parental Choice

Debate has emerged over the ethics of prenatal diagnosis and reproductive freedom in instances where testing has revealed genetic abnormalities.

Reporting on Robin Williams

Reporting on Robin Williams

After Robin Williams took his own life, news media covered the story in great detail, leading many to argue that such reporting violated the family’s privacy.

Responding to Child Migration

Responding to Child Migration

An influx of children migrants posed logistical and ethical dilemmas for U.S. authorities while intensifying ongoing debate about immigration.

Retracting Research: The Case of Chandok v. Klessig

Retracting Research: The Case of Chandok v. Klessig

A researcher makes the difficult decision to retract a published, peer-reviewed article after the original research results cannot be reproduced.

Sacking Social Media in College Sports

Sacking Social Media in College Sports

In the wake of questionable social media use by college athletes, the head coach at University of South Carolina bans his players from using Twitter.

Selling Enron

Selling Enron

Following the deregulation of electricity markets in California, private energy company Enron profited greatly, but at a dire cost.

Snyder v. Phelps

Snyder v. Phelps

Freedom of speech was put on trial in a case involving the Westboro Baptist Church and their protesting at the funeral of U.S. Marine Matthew Snyder.

Something Fishy at the Paralympics

Something Fishy at the Paralympics

Rampant cheating has plagued the Paralympics over the years, compromising the credibility and sportsmanship of Paralympian athletes.

Sports Blogs: The Wild West of Sports Journalism?

Sports Blogs: The Wild West of Sports Journalism?

Deadspin pays an anonymous source for information related to NFL star Brett Favre, sparking debate over the ethics of “checkbook journalism.”

Stangl & the Holocaust

Stangl & the Holocaust

Franz Stangl was the most effective Nazi administrator in Poland, killing nearly one million Jews at Treblinka, but he claimed he was simply following orders.

Teaching Blackface: A Lesson on Stereotypes

Teaching Blackface: A Lesson on Stereotypes

A teacher was put on leave for showing a blackface video during a lesson on racial segregation, sparking discussion over how to teach about stereotypes.

The Astros’ Sign-Stealing Scandal

The Astros’ Sign-Stealing Scandal

The Houston Astros rode a wave of success, culminating in a World Series win, but it all came crashing down when their sign-stealing scheme was revealed.

The Central Park Five

The Central Park Five

Despite the indisputable and overwhelming evidence of the innocence of the Central Park Five, some involved in the case refuse to believe it.

The CIA Leak

The CIA Leak

Legal and political fallout follows from the leak of classified information that led to the identification of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

The Collapse of Barings Bank

The Collapse of Barings Bank

When faced with growing losses, investment banker Nick Leeson took big risks in an attempt to get out from under the losses. He lost.

The Costco Model

The Costco Model

How can companies promote positive treatment of employees and benefit from leading with the best practices? Costco offers a model.

The FBI & Apple Security vs. Privacy

The FBI & Apple Security vs. Privacy

How can tech companies and government organizations strike a balance between maintaining national security and protecting user privacy?

The Miss Saigon Controversy

The Miss Saigon Controversy

When a white actor was cast for the half-French, half-Vietnamese character in the Broadway production of Miss Saigon , debate ensued.

The Sandusky Scandal

The Sandusky Scandal

Following the conviction of assistant coach Jerry Sandusky for sexual abuse, debate continues on how much university officials and head coach Joe Paterno knew of the crimes.

The Varsity Blues Scandal

The Varsity Blues Scandal

A college admissions prep advisor told wealthy parents that while there were front doors into universities and back doors, he had created a side door that was worth exploring.

Therac-25

Providing radiation therapy to cancer patients, Therac-25 had malfunctions that resulted in 6 deaths. Who is accountable when technology causes harm?

Welfare Reform

Welfare Reform

The Welfare Reform Act changed how welfare operated, intensifying debate over the government’s role in supporting the poor through direct aid.

Wells Fargo and Moral Emotions

Wells Fargo and Moral Emotions

In a settlement with regulators, Wells Fargo Bank admitted that it had created as many as two million accounts for customers without their permission.

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case problem analysis 03 1 business ethics

  • Business Ethics Cases
  • Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
  • Focus Areas
  • Business Ethics
  • Business Ethics Resources

Find ethics case studies on bribery, sourcing, intellectual property, downsizing, and other topics in business ethics, corporate governance, and ethical leadership. (For permission to reprint articles, submit requests to [email protected] .)

In this business ethics case study, Swedish multinational company IKEA faced accusations relating to child labor abuses in the rug industry in Pakistan which posed a serious challenge for the company and its supply chain management goals.

A dog may be humanity’s best friend. But that may not always be the case in the workplace.

A recent college graduate works in the finance and analytics department of a large publicly traded software company and discovers an alarming discrepancy in sales records, raising concerns about the company’s commitment to truthful reporting to investors. 

What responsibility does an employee have when information they obtained in confidence from a coworker friend may be in conflict with the needs of the company or raises legal and ethical questions.

A manager at a prominent multinational company is ethically challenged by a thin line between opportunity for economic expansion in a deeply underserved community, awareness of child labor practices, and cultural relativism.

A volunteer providing service in the Dominican Republic discovered that the non-profit he had partnered with was exchanging his donor money on the black market, prompting him to navigate a series of complex decisions with significant ethical implications.

The CFO of a family business faces difficult decisions about how to proceed when the COVID-19 pandemic changes the business revenue models, and one family shareholder wants a full buyout.

An employee at an after-school learning institution must balance a decision to accept or decline an offered gift, while considering the cultural norms of the client, upholding the best interests of all stakeholders, and following the operational rules of his employer. 

A senior vice president for a Fortune 500 savings and loan company is tasked with the crucial responsibility of representing the buyer in a multi-million dollar loan purchase deal and faces several ethical challenges from his counterpart representing the seller.

Extensive teaching note based on interviews with Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz. The teaching note can be used to explore issues around whistleblowing, leadership, the blocks to ethical behavior inside organizations, and board governance.

  • More pages:
  • 2.1 Understanding Business Ethics
  • Introduction
  • 1.1 The Nature of Business
  • 1.2 Understanding the Business Environment
  • 1.3 How Business and Economics Work
  • 1.4 Macroeconomics: The Big Picture
  • 1.5 Achieving Macroeconomic Goals
  • 1.6 Microeconomics: Zeroing in on Businesses and Consumers
  • 1.7 Competing in a Free Market
  • 1.8 Trends in the Business Environment and Competition
  • Summary of Learning Outcomes
  • Preparing for Tomorrow's Workplace Skills
  • Ethics Activity
  • Working the Net
  • Critical Thinking Case
  • Hot Links Address Book
  • 2.2 How Organizations Influence Ethical Conduct
  • 2.3 Managing a Socially Responsible Business
  • 2.4 Responsibilities to Stakeholders
  • 2.5 Trends in Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
  • 3.1 Global Trade in the United States
  • 3.2 Why Nations Trade
  • 3.3 Barriers to Trade
  • 3.4 Fostering Global Trade
  • 3.5 International Economic Communities
  • 3.6 Participating in the Global Marketplace
  • 3.7 Threats and Opportunities in the Global Marketplace
  • 3.8 The Impact of Multinational Corporations
  • 3.9 Trends in Global Competition
  • 4.1 Going It Alone: Sole Proprietorships
  • 4.2 Partnerships: Sharing the Load
  • 4.3 Corporations: Limiting Your Liability
  • 4.4 Specialized Forms of Business Organization
  • 4.5 Franchising: A Popular Trend
  • 4.6 Mergers and Acquisitions
  • 4.7 Trends in Business Ownership
  • 5.1 Entrepreneurship Today
  • 5.2 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs
  • 5.3 Small Business: Driving America's Growth
  • 5.4 Ready, Set, Start Your Own Business
  • 5.5 Managing a Small Business
  • 5.6 Small Business, Large Impact
  • 5.7 The Small Business Administration
  • 5.8 Trends in Entrepreneurship and Small-Business Ownership
  • 6.1 The Role of Management
  • 6.2 Planning
  • 6.3 Organizing
  • 6.4 Leading, Guiding, and Motivating Others
  • 6.5 Controlling
  • 6.6 Managerial Roles
  • 6.7 Managerial Skills
  • 6.8 Trends in Management and Leadership
  • 7.1 Building Organizational Structures
  • 7.2 Contemporary Structures
  • 7.3 Using Teams to Enhance Motivation and Performance
  • 7.4 Authority—Establishing Organizational Relationships
  • 7.5 Degree of Centralization
  • 7.6 Organizational Design Considerations
  • 7.7 The Informal Organization
  • 7.8 Trends in Organizational Structure
  • 8.1 Achieving High Performance through Human Resources Management
  • 8.2 Employee Recruitment
  • 8.3 Employee Selection
  • 8.4 Employee Training and Development
  • 8.5 Performance Planning and Evaluation
  • 8.6 Employee Compensation and Benefits
  • 8.7 The Labor Relations Process
  • 8.8 Managing Grievances and Conflicts
  • 8.9 Legal Environment of Human Resources and Labor Relations
  • 8.10 Trends in Human Resource Management and Labor Relations
  • 9.1 Early Theories of Motivation
  • 9.2 The Hawthorne Studies
  • 9.3 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
  • 9.4 McGregor's Theories X and Y
  • 9.5 Herzberg's Motivator-Hygiene Theory
  • 9.6 Contemporary Views on Motivation
  • 9.7 From Motivation Theory to Application
  • 9.8 Trends in Employee Motivation
  • 10.1 Production and Operations Management—An Overview
  • 10.2 The Production Process: How Do We Make It?
  • 10.3 Location, Location, Location: Where Do We Make It?
  • 10.4 Pulling It Together: Resource Planning
  • 10.5 Production and Operations Control
  • 10.6 Looking for a Better Way: Improving Production and Operations
  • 10.7 Transforming the Factory Floor with Technology
  • 10.8 Trends in Production and Operations Management
  • 11.1 The Marketing Concept
  • 11.2 Creating a Marketing Strategy
  • 11.3 Developing a Marketing Mix
  • 11.4 Buyer Behavior
  • 11.5 Market Segmentation
  • 11.6 What Is a Product?
  • 11.7 Creating Products That Deliver Value
  • 11.8 The Product Life Cycle
  • 11.9 Pricing Strategies and Future Trends
  • 11.10 Trends in Developing Products and Pricing
  • 12.1 The Nature and Functions of Distribution (Place)
  • 12.2 Wholesaling
  • 12.3 The Competitive World of Retailing
  • 12.4 Using Supply Chain Management to Increase Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction
  • 12.5 Promotion Strategy
  • 12.6 The Huge Impact of Advertising
  • 12.7 The Importance of Personal Selling
  • 12.8 Sales Promotion
  • 12.9 Public Relations Helps Build Goodwill
  • 12.10 Trends in Social Media
  • 12.11 Trends in E-Commerce
  • 13.1 Transforming Businesses through Information
  • 13.2 Linking Up: Computer Networks
  • 13.3 Management Information Systems
  • 13.4 Technology Management and Planning
  • 13.5 Protecting Computers and Information
  • 13.6 Trends in Information Technology
  • 14.1 Accounting: More than Numbers
  • 14.2 The Accounting Profession
  • 14.3 Basic Accounting Procedures
  • 14.4 The Balance Sheet
  • 14.5 The Income Statement
  • 14.6 The Statement of Cash Flows
  • 14.7 Analyzing Financial Statements
  • 14.8 Trends in Accounting
  • 15.1 Show Me the Money
  • 15.2 The Federal Reserve System
  • 15.3 U.S. Financial Institutions
  • 15.4 Insuring Bank Deposits
  • 15.5 International Banking
  • 15.6 Trends in Financial Institutions
  • 16.1 The Role of Finance and the Financial Manager
  • 16.2 How Organizations Use Funds
  • 16.3 Obtaining Short-Term Financing
  • 16.4 Raising Long-Term Financing
  • 16.5 Equity Financing
  • 16.6 Securities Markets
  • 16.7 Buying and Selling at Securities Exchanges
  • 16.8 Trends in Financial Management and Securities Markets
  • 17.1 Learn the Basics of Business
  • 17.2 Developing Interpersonal Skills Is Key to Your Success
  • 17.3 Make Your Future Happen: Learn to Plan
  • 17.4 Going to College Is an Opportunity of a Lifetime—Never Drop Out
  • 17.5 Get Your Career Off on the Right Track
  • 17.6 Self-Test Scoring Guidelines
  • A | Understanding the Legal and Tax Environment
  • What philosophies and concepts shape personal ethical standards?

Ethics is a set of moral standards for judging whether something is right or wrong. The first step in understanding business ethics is learning to recognize an ethical issue . An ethical issue is a situation where someone must choose between a set of actions that may be ethical or unethical. For example, Martin Shkreli , former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals , raised the price of a drug used for newborns and HIV patients by more than 5000 percent, defending the price increase as a “great business decision.” 1 Few people would call that ethical behavior. But consider the actions of the stranded, hungry people in New Orleans who lost everything in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina . They broke into flooded stores, taking food and bottled water without paying for them. Was this unethical behavior? Or what about the small Texas plastics manufacturer that employed over 100 people and specialized in the Latin American market? The president was distraught because he knew the firm would be bankrupt by the end of the year if it didn’t receive more contracts. He knew that he was losing business because he refused to pay bribes. Bribes were part of the culture in his major markets. Closing the firm would put many people out of work. Should he start paying bribes in order to stay in business? Would this be unethical? Let’s look at the next section to obtain some guidance on recognizing unethical situations.

Recognizing Unethical Business Activities

Researchers from Brigham Young University tell us that all unethical business activities will fall into one of the following categories:

  • Taking things that don’t belong to you. The unauthorized use of someone else’s property or taking property under false pretenses is taking something that does not belong to you. Even the smallest offense, such as using the postage meter at your office for mailing personal letters or exaggerating your travel expenses, belongs in this category of ethical violations.
  • Saying things you know are not true. Often, when trying for a promotion and advancement, fellow employees discredit their coworkers. Falsely assigning blame or inaccurately reporting conversations is lying. Although “This is the way the game is played around here” is a common justification, saying things that are untrue is an ethical violation.
  • Giving or allowing false impressions. The salesperson who permits a potential customer to believe that cardboard boxes will hold the customer’s tomatoes for long-distance shipping when the salesperson knows the boxes are not strong enough has given a false impression. A car dealer who fails to disclose that a car has been in an accident is misleading potential customers.
  • Buying influence or engaging in a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest occurs when the official responsibilities of an employee or government official are influenced by the potential for personal gain. Suppose a company awards a construction contract to a firm owned by the father of the state attorney general while the state attorney general’s office is investigating that company. If this construction award has the potential to shape the outcome of the investigation, a conflict of interest has occurred.
  • Hiding or divulging information. Failing to disclose the results of medical studies that indicate your firm’s new drug has significant side effects is the ethical violation of hiding information that the product could be harmful to purchasers. Taking your firm’s product development or trade secrets to a new place of employment constitutes the ethical violation of divulging proprietary information.
  • Taking unfair advantage. Many current consumer protection laws were passed because so many businesses took unfair advantage of people who were not educated or were unable to discern the nuances of complex contracts. Credit disclosure requirements, truth-in-lending provisions, and new regulations on auto leasing all resulted because businesses misled consumers who could not easily follow the jargon of long, complex agreements.
  • Committing improper personal behavior. Although the ethical aspects of an employee’s right to privacy are still debated, it has become increasingly clear that personal conduct outside the job can influence performance and company reputation. Thus, a company driver must abstain from substance abuse because of safety issues. Even the traditional company holiday party and summer picnic have come under scrutiny due to the possibility that employees at and following these events might harm others through alcohol-related accidents.
  • Abusing power and mistreating individuals. Suppose a manager sexually harasses an employee or subjects employees to humiliating corrections or reprimands in the presence of customers. In some cases, laws protect employees. Many situations, however, are simply interpersonal abuse that constitutes an ethical violation.
  • Permitting organizational abuse. Many U.S. firms with operations overseas, such as Apple , Nike , and Levi Strauss , have faced issues of organizational abuse. The unfair treatment of workers in international operations appears in the form of child labor, demeaning wages, and excessive work hours. Although a business cannot change the culture of another country, it can perpetuate—or stop—abuse through its operations there.
  • Violating rules. Many organizations use rules and processes to maintain internal controls or respect the authority of managers. Although these rules may seem burdensome to employees trying to serve customers, a violation may be considered an unethical act.
  • Condoning unethical actions. What if you witnessed a fellow employee embezzling company funds by forging her signature on a check? Would you report the violation? A winking tolerance of others’ unethical behavior is itself unethical. 2

After recognizing that a situation is unethical, the next question is what do you do? The action that a person takes is partially based upon his or her ethical philosophy. The environment in which we live and work also plays a role in our behavior. This section describes personal philosophies and legal factors that influence the choices we make when confronting an ethical dilemma.

Justice—The Question of Fairness

Another factor influencing individual business ethics is justice , or what is fair according to prevailing standards of society. We all expect life to be reasonably fair. You expect your exams to be fair, the grading to be fair, and your wages to be fair, based on the type of work being done.

Today we take justice to mean an equitable distribution of the burdens and rewards that society has to offer. The distributive process varies from society to society. Those in a democratic society believe in the “equal pay for equal work” doctrine, in which individuals are rewarded based on the value the free market places on their services. Because the market places different values on different occupations, the rewards, such as wages, are not necessarily equal. Nevertheless, many regard the rewards as just. A politician who argued that a supermarket clerk should receive the same pay as a physician, for example, would not receive many votes from the American people. At the other extreme, communist theorists have argued that justice would be served by a society in which burdens and rewards were distributed to individuals according to their abilities and their needs, respectively.

Utilitarianism—Seeking the Best for the Majority

One of the philosophies that may influence choices between right and wrong is utilitarianism , which focuses on the consequences of an action taken by a person or organization. The notion that people should act so as to generate the greatest good for the greatest number is derived from utilitarianism. When an action affects the majority adversely, it is morally wrong. One problem with this philosophy is that it is nearly impossible to accurately determine how a decision will affect a large number of people.

Another problem is that utilitarianism always involves both winners and losers. If sales are slowing and a manager decides to fire five people rather than putting everyone on a 30-hour workweek, the 20 people who keep their full-time jobs are winners, but the other five are losers.

A final criticism of utilitarianism is that some “costs,” although small relative to the potential good, are so negative that some segments of society find them unacceptable. What if scientists deliberately killed animals by breaking their backs to conduct spinal cord research that someday could lead to a cure for spinal cord injuries? To a number of people, the “costs” of killing these animals are simply too horrible for this type of research to continue.

Following Our Obligations and Duties

The philosophy that says people should meet their obligations and duties when analyzing an ethical dilemma is called deontology . This means that a person will follow his or her obligations to another individual or society because upholding one’s duty is what is considered ethically correct. For instance, people who follow this philosophy will always keep their promises to a friend and will follow the law. They will produce very consistent decisions, because they will be based on the individual’s set duties. Note that this theory is not necessarily concerned with the welfare of others. Say, for example, a technician for Orkin Pest Control has decided that it’s his ethical duty (and is very practical) to always be on time to meetings with homeowners. Today he is running late. How is he supposed to drive? Is the technician supposed to speed, breaking his duty to society to uphold the law, or is he supposed to arrive at the client’s home late, breaking his duty to be on time? This scenario of conflicting obligations does not lead us to a clear ethically correct resolution, nor does it protect the welfare of others from the technician’s decision.

Individual Rights

In our society, individuals and groups have certain rights that exist under certain conditions regardless of any external circumstances. These rights serve as guides when making individual ethical decisions. The term human rights implies that certain rights—to life, to freedom, to the pursuit of happiness—are bestowed at birth and cannot be arbitrarily taken away. Denying the rights of an individual or group is considered to be unethical and illegal in most, though not all, parts of the world. Certain rights are guaranteed by the government and its laws, and these are considered legal rights. The U.S. Constitution and its amendments, as well as state and federal statutes, define the rights of American citizens. Those rights can be disregarded only in extreme circumstances, such as during wartime. Legal rights include the freedom of religion, speech, and assembly; protection from improper arrest and searches and seizures; and proper access to counsel, confrontation of witnesses, and cross-examination in criminal prosecutions. Also held to be fundamental is the right to privacy in many matters. Legal rights are to be applied without regard to race, color, creed, gender, or ability.

Concept Check

  • How are individual business ethics formed?
  • What is utilitarianism?
  • How can you recognize unethical activities?

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case problem analysis 03 1 business ethics

Business Ethics Mini-Case Analysis

  • By: Richard H. G. Field & Carolina Villegas-Galaviz
  • Publisher: NeilsonJournals Publishing
  • Publication year: 2023
  • Online pub date: January 02, 2023
  • Discipline: Corporate Social Responsibility , Managing Conflict , Employee, Industrial & Labor Relations
  • DOI: https:// doi. org/10.4135/9781529610932
  • Keywords: actors , business ethics , conflicts of interest , law , lease , persons , South Korea , students , tipping , trust Show all Show less
  • Contains: Content Partners | Teaching Notes Region: Global Industry: Administrative and support service activities | Employment activities | Other personal service activities Organization: fictional/disguised Organization Size: Medium info Online ISBN: 9781529610932 Copyright: © 2021 NeilsonJournals Publishing More information Less information

Teaching Notes

Using the analytic framework of normative logic presented in Fisher, Lovell, and Valero-Silva (2013: 140-141), provided here are five original business ethics mini-cases that may be used to teach and practice case analysis. We have taken the six questions that are used in the analytic framework of normative logic to solve ethical problems and have adapted them to seven steps that can be applied to conflict resolution of mini-cases in class. Then the adapted normative logic model has seven steps: Describe the “fundamental needs of humankind” as they relate to the case, for example, caring, supporting, reciprocity, fairness, trust; Explain the established norms, values, and laws that can be seen to apply in this case; State in brief the facts of the situation; Examine the network of circumstances that preceded the situation (come to an understanding of how the actor came to this point); Generate at least three alternative positions and actions open to the actor in the case; Speculate on the hypothesized consequences of the different positions or actions the actor in the case may take; and Choose among the alternative positions the actor in the case might take and give your informed and judged reason for making that choice. A suggested answer is provided for one case, which could be reproduced as a class handout for students to examine after having done their own analysis and having discussed the case as a class.

1. Introduction

It is well known that there are many ethical theories, within business most of the studies cover virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics. But when it comes to apply ethical theories it could be tricky if managers decided to select one specific theory and ignore the rest of them. For instance, ethics of justice may be necessary to resolve some ethical questions in management, but insufficient if we do not take into account the context and apply virtue ethics and what prudence and self-control have to say to the specific situation. Hence, in this kind of situation, debate and discussion are essential: in groups, this means teams of an organization debate about what to do, or in a person’s own head, as when a manager needs to think consciously before making a decision ( Fisher et al., 2013 ). In this scenario appears discourse ethics is the way to solve this kind of situation.

According to Fisher et al ., (2011: p. 139), “discourse ethics is a normative approach that deals with the proper processes of rational debate that are necessary to arrive at a resolution of ethical questions. It does not lay down what is right and wrong, but it does distinguish right and wrong ways of arguing about right and wrong. It is an ancient idea that the process of argument, or rhetoric, is key to discovering the truth.” This definition aligns with the idea of Habermas (1981) that it is social interaction and discourse that develops knowledge, and that debate (when it is free of compulsion) can resolve disagreement. Hence, through discourse, one can find consensus on ethical problems in business.

Fischer (1983) proposes a method called normative logic, based on the way people discuss and decide normative issues every day in common places, even if they do not share the same point of view of ethical theories or values. The conclusion of Fischer’s study was that people resolve ethical problems in their everyday life by drawing upon their understanding of the following six things:

“The consequences of the different positions or actions they may take; the alternative positions and actions open to them; established norms, values, and laws; the facts of the situation; the network of circumstances that preceded the situation; and the “fundamental needs of humankind.”” (Fisher et al . 2011: 140–141.)

Fisher, et al ., (2011), brought this analytic framework of normative logic proposed from Fischer (1983) , and they stated that with it people can construct ethics cases and choose a particular action. This means that answering these six questions through social discourse, groups or individuals could find a way to solve ethical problems and make a decision in a dilemma. We took this framework and adapted it for use in a business class by adding one more step (this leads to seven steps that correspond to the six questions). To use the analytical framework, ethical actors may undertake the next seven steps:

  • Describe the “fundamental needs of humankind” as they relate to the case? for example, caring, supporting, reciprocity, fairness, trust, responsibility, honesty, empathy.
  • Explain the established norms, values, and laws that can be seen to apply in this case (assume the local context for your business school).
  • State in brief the facts of the situation (separate beliefs and opinions in the case from the facts – the facts are beyond dispute).
  • Examine the network of circumstances that preceded the situation (come to an understanding of how the actor came to this point).
  • Generate at least three alternative positions and actions open to the actor in the case (these are viable alternatives that reasonable people in the class might choose – avoid the “straw man” alternatives that are easily dismissed).
  • Speculate on the hypothesized consequences of the different positions or actions the actor in the case may take – be reasonable yet go beyond “Who knows?” to find what might have a good chance of happening.
  • Choose among the alternative positions the actor in the case might take and give your informed and judged reason for making that choice (not “all the other choices are bad”).

In the final step, students should be aware that they will end up in an ethical framework or perspective. Here they should know that there are three pillars that commonly differentiate ethical theories: “Deontology – the pillar of probity; Teleology – the pillar of consequences; Virtue ethics – the pillar of ethical character and culture,” (Fisher et al ., 2011: p. 104).

In the course professor’s teaching of Business Ethics to MBA students, he has developed five mini-cases to work through using this framework. In practice, the class is divided into small groups and each student is given a page with the mini-case of just a paragraph in length and the prompts of the normative logic analytic framework. They then as a group work through the mini-case, step by step, following the prompts. When they are mostly done, he asks each group to write their alternatives on the whiteboard along with an indication of their choice. Then the class as a whole examines all the alternatives and notes which are most common and which are uncommon. A set of all unique alternatives may be generated to give the total set of possibilities seen by the class as a whole. Choices are examined across the groups, with variance in choice normally being present. This can lead to a useful discussion about the different choices made and the pros and cons of each. When many or all groups generate exactly three alternatives, the point may be made that more alternatives explored often lead to a more creative or indeed a better answer.

The five mini-cases are best done one per class, with time in-between for the lessons of the analytic method to sink in. Provided here are the mini-cases and a sample analysis of one. A separate teaching note provides sample analyses of the other four. After a class discussion of the alternatives and choices the course professor may hand out the sample answers for the students’ consideration. It is also possible for each professor of business ethics to generate their own set of mini-cases. Ask your class as an assignment to write a paragraph describing an actual situation that takes place in a business context and that ends with a dilemma. Collect these, select the best five, edit for clarity and completeness, and ask for the students’ permission to use these in future classes.

2. Case Analysis: Teaching in South Korea

When John was approaching the end of his six months of teaching in South Korea, he received a phone call from the HR department of his employer. They had discovered that John had received a $1000 reimbursement for his flight to South Korea, but because he would only be staying six months, this error would be corrected by deducting the amount from his last paycheck. John was upset because he had told the company that he could only stay six months. He didn’t know the reimbursement applied only to those who stayed a full year. Upon returning home from South Korea, John was at his bank and discovered that his last paycheck was all there! The $1000 had not been deducted. What should John do?

  • Describe the “fundamental needs of humankind” as they relate to the case? for example, caring, supporting, reciprocity, fairness, trust – here duty, honor, and integrity are central. You are a professional teacher who noticed the error. To not pay it back risks losing your own integrity, which presumably has a higher value than $1000. It is your duty to take action once you have noticed the error. To wait until contacted by the South Korean company misses your responsibility to act.
  • Explain the established norms, values, and laws that can be seen to apply in this case (this analysis assumes the Canadian/Alberta context) – if you have received funds you are not entitled to, you should make the other person aware of the mistake and reimburse them. It is wrong to cause the other party to suffer from their mistake once you notice it. It is not illegal to keep the funds as it is not beyond dispute that you have noticed the error. At a grocery store, you receive too much change from the cashier. If you do not notice, the error goes undetected and the cashier is short at the end of the day and may have to make up the missing money. If you do notice, you are expected to return the money given to you in error. That the case involves a large South Korean corporation does not change how the issue is seen in a Canadian/Albertan context.

From a South Korean point of view, relationship and reputation are very important. If they feel they have lost face with you, they will be embarrassed, and it may affect any future dealings you have with them. You need to understand the cross-cultural aspects of this case.

The amount of the deduction not made is relevant. If it was very small, say $20, it is not worth the time to pursue. If the amount was very large, say $2500, then action becomes even more imperative as it becomes too large an amount to ignore. The amount in this case of $1000 is material, it is significant enough to require action.

  • State in brief the facts of the situation (separate beliefs and opinions in the case from the facts – the facts are beyond dispute) – John was told that he had received a reimbursement in error and that this would be corrected in his final paycheck by deducting the $1,000. He was upset by this but did not act in South Korea to get the company to change their mind. He expected his final paycheck would show the $1000 deduction.
  • Examine the network of circumstances that preceded the situation (come to an understanding of how the actor came to this point) – John went to South Korea for a six-month teaching contract. He thought that $1000 of his flight would be reimbursed by his South Korean employer. The South Korean employer was not totally clear on the policy of reimbursement applying only to those staying a full year. It looks like the South Korean company is offering an enticement to stay the full year, likely because previous teachers have left early, causing more expense in bringing in their replacement teachers.
  • 1. Call the HR department in the South Korean company to inform them that a deduction was not made.
  • 2. Call the person who hired you at the South Korean company, inform them that the deduction was not made, and use the opportunity to negotiate for only a $500 reimbursement to the company as you worked for six months.
  • 3. Call the person who hired you and thank them for not deducting the $1000 and let them know you appreciate the change in policy.
  • 4. Do nothing. Wait to see if the South Korean employer notices the missed deduction. If nothing happens in about six months, you figure they have missed it, written it off, or forgotten about it.
  • 5. Do nothing. Spend the money. If contacted by the South Korean company asking for their $1000, tell them that the money is gone, and you won’t be heading back to South Korea anytime soon.
  • 6. Write a check for the $1000 payable to the South Korean company. Send it to their HR department with a note explaining that the deduction was not made.
  • 1. They are likely to ask for a check. If they do, you have to send it.
  • 2. For your honesty, in Canada you would expect them to agree to splitting the difference, and so you would repay $500. In Korea, there might be another norm. Perhaps a student in the class has experience in South Korean culture and can speak to that question.
  • 3. It is likely that because of potential loss of face, the Korean employer will agree that you should keep the money. This action may have been chosen with an honest intent. However, it is more Machiavellian to have chosen this course of action with the intent to use their care about loss of face against them.
  • 4. You’ll be thinking of this $1000 for a long time. For sure, for six months you will be on edge. You will be wary of spending the money in case it is asked for. Twenty years from now you’ll regret not calling, and as time goes by it will be too late to do anything.
  • 5. You may decide to go back to South Korea or ask for a reference from this company and find that they are not keen on supporting you. Less likely but possible is that on a flight from Japan your flight is diverted to land in South Korea due to a storm and you are arrested for fraud.
  • 6. Your check is cashed even though you may have secretly hoped it wouldn’t be. You move on with your life and if you ever go back to South Korea, you have a clear conscience and a good reference.

Choice 2 is the best. It is a chance to do the right thing and repay some of the money but also recognizes that you spent six months in South Korea. Explore with your class if local norms result in another choice being more appealing.

3. Mini-Case: The Waiter and the CEO

A young, and idealistic man, had, before his MBA studies, a job as a waiter. He vows never to purchase or promote the products of a particular brewery, because of its social policies. One day, at an executive cocktail party, he is offered a large tip by an older man, who attaches the condition that he must use the money to buy products from the brewery. Puzzled, our handsome hero asks “Why?,” and is handed a business card indicating the older man is the CEO of the brewery. What should our idealist do?

4. Mini-Case: The MBA Notes

Andrew is in the full-time MBA program and getting ready for finals. Bob, a fellow student in his study group, asks for Andrew’s notes from a class, because Bob wasn’t at a number of classes. Bob offers complete notes from ano: ther class as part of the deal. However, Bob asks Andrew to keep the trade quiet because another student, Cyndi, asked for Bob’s notes and Bob said “No.” Later, after the deal between Andrew and Bob has taken place, Jenny mentions to Andrew that she is really struggling in a certain class (the one Andrew has Bob’s notes for) and has found that her notes aren’t good enough. Andrew really wants to help Jenny. What should he do?

5. Mini-Case: The Drunk Driver

Brady is a criminal law student whose mother was killed by a drunk driver when he was 12. Now he’s articling with a firm and has been assigned to defend a man charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. Brady hasn’t seen the man’s file yet. Should he defend him? What if he was found at a police stop to be over the legal limit for the percent of alcohol in the bloodstream, but didn’t harm anyone? What if he had an accident and an innocent person in the other car was killed? If Brady refuses to defend the drunk driver he may lose his articling position and never pass the bar exams. He always dreamed of being a lawyer so he could prosecute people like the drunk driver who killed his mom and get justice.

6. Mini-Case: Managers Renting Buildings

A privately-owned company leases several buildings from members of its senior management team. The lease terms are at normal market rates and longer than industry norms. Is there a conflict of interest for the senior managers who, as owners of buildings, lease them to the company they work for? When a new CEO is hired, should the new CEO be made aware of these leases during the interview process, when hired, or not at all? When hired, what should be done about the leases?

This case was prepared for inclusion in Sage Business Cases primarily as a basis for classroom discussion or self-study, and is not meant to illustrate either effective or ineffective management styles. Nothing herein shall be deemed to be an endorsement of any kind. This case is for scholarly, educational, or personal use only within your university, and cannot be forwarded outside the university or used for other commercial purposes.

2024 Sage Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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Learning on the Web (AACSB)

Lessons in Community Living

Executives consider it an honor to have their company named one of Business Ethics magazine’s “100 Best Corporate Citizens.” Companies are chosen from a group of one thousand, according to how well they serve their stakeholders—owners, employees, customers, and the communities with which they share the social and natural environment. Being in the top one hundred for five years in a row is cause for celebration. Two of the twenty-nine companies that enjoy this distinction are Timberland and the New York Times Company.

The two companies are in very different industries. Timberland designs and manufactures boots and other footwear, apparel, and accessories; the New York Times Company is a media giant, with nineteen newspapers (including the New York Times and the Boston Globe ), eight television stations, and more than forty Web sites. Link to the Timberland Web site ( http://www.timberland.com/corp/index...ge=csroverview ) and the New York Times Company Web site (www.nytco.com/social_responsibility/index.html) to learn how each, in its own way, supports the communities with which it shares the social and natural environment. Look specifically for information that will help you answer the following questions:

  • How does each company assist its community? To what organizations does each donate money? How do employees volunteer their time? What social causes does each support?
  • How does each company work to protect the natural environment?
  • Are the community-support efforts of the two companies similar or dissimilar? In what ways do these activities reflect the purposes of each organization?
  • In your opinion, why do these companies support their communities? What benefits do they derive from being good corporate citizens?

Career Opportunities

Is “WorldCom Ethics Officer” an Oxymoron?

As you found out in this chapter, WorldCom’s massive accounting scandal cost investors billions and threw the company into bankruptcy. More than one hundred employees who either participated in the fraud or passively looked the other way were indicted or fired, including accountant Betty Vinson, CFO Scott Sullivan, and CEO Bernard Ebbers. With the name “WorldCom” indelibly tarnished, the company reclaimed its previous name, “MCI.” It was put on court-imposed probation and ordered to follow the directives of the court. One of those directives called for setting up an ethics office. Nancy Higgins, a corporate attorney and onetime vice president for ethics at Lockheed Martin, was brought in with the title of chief ethics officer.

Higgins’s primary responsibility is to ensure that MCI lives up to new CEO Michael Capellas’s assertion that the company is dedicated to integrity and its employees are committed to high ethical standards. Her tasks are the same as those of most people with the same job title, but she’s under more pressure because MCI can’t afford any more ethical lapses. She oversees the company’s ethics initiatives, including training programs and an ethics hotline. She spends a lot of her time with employees, listening to their concerns and promoting company values.

Higgins is a member of the senior executive team and reports to the CEO and board of directors. She attends all board meetings and provides members with periodic updates on the company’s newly instituted ethics program (including information gleaned from the new ethics hotline).

Answer the following questions:

  • Would you be comfortable in Higgins’s job? Does the job of ethics officer appeal to you? Why, or why not?
  • Would you find it worthwhile to work in an ethics office for a few years at some point in your career? Why, or why not?
  • What qualities would you look for if you were hiring an ethics officer?
  • What factors will help (or hinder) Higgins’s ability to carry out her mandate to bolster integrity and foster ethical standards?
  • Would the accounting scandals have occurred at WorldCom if Higgins had been on the job back when Vinson, Sullivan, and Ebbers were still there? Explain your opinion.

Team-Building Skills (AACSB)

What Are the Stakes When You Play with Wal-Mart?

In resolving an ethical dilemma, you have to choose between two or more opposing alternatives, both of which, while acceptable, are important to different groups. Both alternatives may be ethically legitimate, but you can act in the interest of only one group.

This project is designed to help you learn how to analyze and resolve ethical dilemmas in a business context. You’ll work in teams to address three ethical dilemmas involving Wal-Mart, the world’s largest company. Before meeting as a group, every team member should go to the BusinessWeek Web site ( http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...2001_mz001.htm ) and read “Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?” The article discusses Wal-Mart’s industry dominance and advances arguments for why the company is both admired and criticized.

Your team should then get together to analyze the three dilemmas that follow. Start by reading the overview of the dilemma and any assigned material. Then debate the issues, working to reach a resolution through the five-step process summarized in Figure 2.2 “How to Face an Ethical Dilemma”:

  • Define the problem and collect the relevant facts.
  • Identify feasible options.
  • Assess the effect of each option on stakeholders.
  • Establish criteria for determining the most appropriate action.
  • Select the best option based on the established criteria.

Finally, prepare a report on your deliberations over each dilemma, making sure that each report contains all the following items:

  • The team’s recommendation for resolving the dilemma
  • An explanation of the team’s recommendation
  • A summary of the information collected for, and the decisions made at, each step of the dilemma-resolution process

Three Ethical Dilemmas

Ethical Dilemma 1: Should Wal-Mart Close a Store because It Unionizes?

In February 2005, Wal-Mart closed a store in Quebec, Canada, after its workers voted to form a union. The decision has ramifications for various stakeholders, including employees, customers, and stockholders. In analyzing and arriving at a resolution to this dilemma, assume that you’re the CEO of Wal-Mart, but ignore the decision already made by the real CEO . Arrive at your own recommendation, which may or may not be the same as that reached by your real-life counterpart.

Before analyzing this dilemma, go to the Washington Post Web site (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Feb10.html) and read the article “Wal-Mart Chief Defends Closing Unionized Store.”

Ethical Dilemma 2: Should Levi Strauss Go into Business with Wal-Mart?

For years, the words jeans and Levi’s were synonymous. Levi Strauss, the founder of the company that carries his name, invented blue jeans in 1850 for sale to prospectors in the gold fields of California. Company sales peaked at $7 billion in 1996 but then plummeted to $4 billion by 2003. Management has admitted that the company must reverse this downward trend if it hopes to retain the support of its twelve thousand employees, operate its remaining U.S. factories, and continue its tradition of corporate-responsibility initiatives. At this point, Wal-Mart made an attractive offer: Levi Strauss could develop a low-cost brand of jeans for sale at Wal-Mart. The decision, however, isn’t as simple as it may seem: Wal-Mart’s relentless pressure to offer “everyday low prices” can have wide-ranging ramifications for its suppliers’ stakeholders—in this case, Levi Strauss’s shareholders, employees, and customers, as well as the beneficiaries of its various social-responsibility programs. Assume that, as the CEO of Levi Strauss, you have to decide whether to accept Wal-Mart’s offer. Again, ignore any decision already made by your real-life counterpart, and instead work toward an independent recommendation.

Before you analyze this dilemma, go to the Fast Company Web site ( http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html ) and read the article “The Wal-Mart You Don’t Know.”

Ethical Dilemma 3: Should You Welcome Wal-Mart into Your Neighborhood?

In 2002, Wal-Mart announced plans to build forty “supercenters” in California—a section of the country that has traditionally resisted Wal-Mart’s attempts to dot the landscape with big-box stores. Skirmishes soon broke out in California communities between those in favor of welcoming Wal-Mart and those determined to fend off mammoth retail outlets.

You’re a member of the local council of a California city, and you’ll be voting next week on whether to allow Wal-Mart to build in your community. The council’s decision will affect Wal-Mart, as well as many local stakeholders, including residents, small business owners, and employees of community supermarkets and other retail establishments. As usual, ignore any decisions already made by your real-life counterparts.

Before working on this dilemma, go to the USA Today Web site ( http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...wal-mart_x.htm ) and read the article “California Tries to Slam Lid on Big-Boxed Wal-Mart.”

The Global View (AACSB)

Was Nike Responsible for Compensating Honduran Factory Workers?

Honduras is an impoverished country in which 70% of its residents live in poverty. Jobs are scarce, particularly those that pay decent wages along with benefits, such as health care. It is not surprising then that workers at two Honduran factories making products for U.S. companies, including Nike, were extremely upset when their factories closed down and they lost their jobs. Even worse, the owners of the factories refused to pay the 1,800 workers $2 million in severance pay and other benefits due to them by law. Although the factory owners had been paid in full by Nike for the apparel they produced, the workers argued that Nike should be responsible for paying the $2 million in severance that the factory owners had not received.

Nike’s original response was to sympathize with the workers but refuse to pay the workers the severance pay they had not received from the factory owners. This stance did not settle well with student groups around the country who rallied in support of the unpaid workers. In the end Nike gave into pressure from the students and paid $1.5 million to a relief fund for the employees. In addition, the company said it would provide vocational training and health coverage for the unemployed workers.

To learn more about this case, read the following:

  • Nike Press Release: Nike Statement Regarding Vision Tex and Hugger (April 20, 2010) www.nikebiz.com/media/pr/2010...rHonduras.html
  • Working in These Times: Honduran Workers Speak Out Against Nike’s Labor Violations (April 21, 2010) http://inthesetimes.org/working/entr...or_violations/
  • New York Times : Pressured, Nike to Help Workers in Honduras (July 26, 2010) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/bu...al/27nike.html
  • Time Magazine : Just Pay It: Nike Creates Fund for Honduran Workers (July 27, 2010) www.time.com/time/printout/0,...006646,00.html
  • Nike Press Release: Nike and CGT Statement (July 26, 2010) www.nikebiz.com/media/pr/2010...statement.html
  • Do you think Nike was responsible for compensating the workers in Honduras? Why did it change its stance?
  • Did the students, universities, and workers themselves have all of the information they needed before becoming involved in the protest? Are their facts accurate?
  • Should students be activists? Do companies such as Nike ignore them at their own peril?

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Sample Case Analysis

This page shows a sample case analysis for the course  Genomics, Ethics, and Society .

Below is a "model" answer to the whitebark pine case . The case doesn't focus on genomics, but nonetheless, the way the model answer is laid out should help you to see what's being asked for. You should refer back to this model when you are writing up case studies of your own. While undergraduates should find this model useful, it's more like a graduate case study in terms of length and complexity. By a "model" answer, we don't mean that this answer is perfect; and obviously there's much more that could be said. But an answer with this kind of structure, content, and use of resources, would get a strong A.

When you analyse a case study, you're usually considering a complex situation where many different interests and values are at stake. This makes it easy to get tangled up in your answer too: so here's some tips for answering the case study well.

  • Write a clear introduction in which you (a) identify what you are going to talk about (b) give some idea of how you are going to structure the paper by setting up "signposts"; and (c) outline what view or policy position you're going to argue for. (Usually case studies ask you to recommend a view, policy or position.) You may be able to say much more than you have room for; if so, be explicit at the beginning about what you're not discussing for space reasons, so the person grading knows you did think about it! 
  • Stick to the structure you've outlined.
  • In the course of analyzing the case, be sure to explain what values you think are at stake, where appropriate, who the stakeholders are, and why this case is likely to be contested.
  • In some cases it may be useful to consider the perspectives of different stakeholders and different ethical theories: for instance, will someone who is worried about violating rights regard the ethical issues differently from someone who is concerned about maximizing overall good (say in terms of human welfare?)
  • Where you use terms such as "liberty" "utilitarianism" "wildness" or "rights" make sure that you explain how you are using them as if to someone who is unfamiliar with the terms.
  • Make an argument for which approach or approaches you think is/are best in the particular situation being described, and why. However, while doing so you should also explain the difficulties with the view for which you’re arguing, what someone might say who disagreed with the argument, and why their objection is not a good one/there’s a good response to it, etc. If you are really ambivalent about the case, say so and explain why.
  • You should reference carefully, both in-text and in the reference section. If you quote or paraphrase anything, or you're dependent on a publication, you must provide an in-text reference. We don't mind what referencing system you use in your references, but your references should be detailed enough for us to find them (ie not just author and title).

Drawing on the whitebark pine case, here's just an example how you might find the ethics assessment process useful:

Ethics Assessment Process and the Whitebark Pine Case

1) seeing the problem.

What are the main ethical issues and conflicts presented in the case?

The case asks us to focus on the selection of rust-resistant strains and the assisted migration of WBP. While the selection of rust resistant strains doesn't raise all the ethical problems that GM does, it still means that there's enhanced human intervention and deliberate action involved in what trees end up existing (which may raise value questions about loss of wildness). Assisted migration raises a number of ethical issues and potential conflicts, primarily (a) the value of protecting a species from extinction (b) the possible ecological disvalues (and values) of deliberately introducing a species into a new area (c) the possible loss of wildness (d) cultural, historical and aesthetic values - could these be preserved? (e) questions about who owns the land where the trees would be moved (property rights, perhaps indigenous peoples, questions of environmental justice) and relevant consultative processes (f) potential effects on sentient animals, especially Clark’s Nutcrackers. From some ethical perspectives there could be "in principle" objections here. For instance, it might be argued that in principle humans shouldn't "interfere" in nature to move things, or that if moving WBP infringes on the rights of indigenous peoples, it is unethical in principle. On the other hand, an ethical approach that focuses on consequences will attempt to weigh and balance the values involved and make a decision based on what is likely to bring about the best outcome overall.

Who are the stakeholders and what are their respective positions? What decisions and/or impacts do they face?

Some of the issues here  involve very general groups of stakeholders: eg those who maintain that all species are valuable, so will want to protect the WBP; those who value the unusual aesthetics of the whitebark pine (these may be hikers and photographers) so may want it to be saved (this will depend on whether the aesthetic value is tied to current geographic location; if it is then moving it won’t save the value). It might be argued that future generations of humans are stakeholders; they would never get to see or enjoy landscapes created by this iconic species. More specific groups of stakeholders include:  biologists doing the research, both those working on genetic selection of the tree and those involved in planning assisted migration – they are likely to be in favor of both actions, and to see it as developing their research and conservation work. There are also likely to be biologists who oppose  all plans for assisted migration, primarily because they are concerned about moved organisms becoming invasive.  All those who generally oppose genetic selection of wild organisms are likely to oppose it in this case. Those who own/live near potential relocation sites have a clear stake in what may happen, though these individuals may be in favor of or opposed to the relocation, depending on the predicted ecological/cultural consequences of moving it and the forms of consultation involved. If sentient non-humans can be stakeholders, Clark’s Nutcrackers should be considered, but it’s difficult to make sense of what the relocation might mean for individual Clark’s Nutcrackers, since the relocation would not occur until the trees were mature enough to have seeds. The nutcrackers then moved will likely be harmed; but either they or their offspring may over time also be benefited. It could be argued by some that species themselves are stakeholders, though that view would be difficult to defend.

2) Empirical Issues

What empirical information is most important for addressing the main ethical questions?

What empirical facts are widely accepted, based on scientific evidence and peer review, about this issue? What empirical issues are contested or uncertain? How good is the information we have? Is it reliable?

Is there other information it would be useful to have? How could we go about obtaining this information? What should we check on or verify? Are there obvious ways of doing this?

There is some reasonably uncontested empirical information: that the WBP is threatened, that climate change means its climate envelope will move (though there is disagreement about the precision of climate models). Research suggests that rust resistant WBP is possible, and there are already strains of WBP in existence that are more resistant than others. The most important empirical information needed in terms of the relocation is: what are the ecological impacts of relocating likely to be? Also needed is empirical information about how people in recipient communities would regard the relocation. This information could be collected, though trial sites would take a long time to become established.

3) Conflicting Values

What values are at stake in the case?

Values at stake include:

  • Wildness : (loss of wildness/naturalness in selecting strains; loss of wildness in human-caused relocation; possible loss of wildness in relocation site)
  • Aesthetic value : whitebark pine has high aesthetic value
  • Cultural/historical value:  the iconic value of the tree as a symbol of the harshness and challenges of the American West
  • Justice : Might be a cause of procedural and distributional environmental injustice if transplanted onto indigenous lands without adequate consultation or against their will (or other private lands)
  • Species values : If it’s thought that species have moral status, then causing extinction is wrong (and this is human-caused, even if not intentionally). On the other hand, if assisted migration of WBP threatened other species then assisted migration would be problematic for this reason.
  • Suffering and welfare:  On many ethical views, suffering is a disvalue. If translocating Clark’s Nutcrackers causes them or individuals of other species suffering, that would be a problem. If translocating WBP provided habitat or food for other species eg individual bears and enhanced their welfare, that would be positive.

Which values have priority for which stakeholders?

Will particular decisions lead to the sacrifice of specific values? Is there any way of avoiding this?

Any decision here is going to involve the loss of wildness, which may be of concern to wilderness defenders – at least, those who value places fee of human influence. This wildness loss can’t be avoided. Any context-related value will be lost too, whatever is decided. It may be possible to avoid justice problems at the relocation site by adequate consultation & respect for local residents’ and indigenous peoples’ concerns and preferences. There may also be ways of minimizing suffering to Clark's nutcrackers, but this is likely to make the operation more expensive.  Not acting to save the WBP will involve loss of its aesthetic value for present and future generations.

4) Moral Imagination

Given the goals and objectives of the decision-makers, are there alternative courses of action that could be taken that fall outside the obvious parameters of this case? Can these be adopted without sacrificing any other goals or objectives?

When there are threats from climate change, organisms have to either adapt where they are or move. WBP additionally faces current problems from rust and beetles. Natural adaptation  in situ  alone is unlikely to happen, and moving the WBP without making it rust-resistant risks the same problems following it to the new location. And it’s unlikely the species will survive in its current locations, even if rust-resistant strains were introduced. So, the remaining alternative option (given that climate change is unlikely to stop) is just to let the tree become extinct and do nothing. This sacrifices species and aesthetic values, but is less ecologically risky in the reception ecosystem, is unlikely to cause new suffering (after all, the animals that lose WBP seeds for food in its current range will lose the seeds even if there is new WBP 600 miles north; and nutcrackers won’t have to be relocated) and avoids any justice concerns at the relocation site.

 5) Moral Justification

Among the available alternatives, which can be reasonably ethically defended?

Of the ethically defensible alternatives, is there one that's clearly the best? 

Both the main options (do nothing; move) can be ethically defended. For particular empirical reasons in this case, “move” may look best. However, judgment about this really depends on which values are prioritized and how precautionary you are.

6) Moral Criteria

Taking each alternative response to the case in turn (may not all be relevant to every case).

NB: In this case, whatever is done, some things are lost. For instance, those who value WBP as important cultural symbols of the American West, in their particular geographical locations, are going to lose this value whatever happens, since they can’t be preserved in their current location

Harm and Benefit :  Does this alternative cause harm? Does it cause less harm than the other alternatives? Does it bring about benefits?

  • Do nothing:  Likely extinction of WBP. If species can be harmed, this causes species harm, but this argument is difficult to defend. If future people can be harmed, and if loss of a species can harm them, WBP extinction does harm them.
  • Move without rust selection  This risks future harm to trees through WPBR and beetle, even in the new location. It’s possible that if ecosystems/species can be harmed that WBP in the new location could harm them (but there’s also a possibility of benefit). Possible harms to nutcrackers.
  • Select and move :  Less risk of harm to trees in future. Small risk of harm to other species/systems from relocation. Also risk of harm to nutcrackers.

Justice : How does this alternative distribute harms and benefits or other natural and social goods? Are those affected meaningfully involved in decision-making?

  • Do nothing : The species going extinct may affect some people’s interests, but it’s not really an injustice. It would be difficult to consult about not saving the tree, other than by surveys.
  • Move (select or not) : The main location of a possible injustice to people lies in the move to new habitat without consultation or against the will of those who live there or own the land.

Other human values : Does this alternative have significant impacts on privacy, liberty, or other human values?

Moving could impact on property rights.

Environmental values : Does this alternative have significant impact on the non-human world?

All options have significant impacts on the non-human world, either by letting a species go extinct, or by selecting forms resistant to disease/ moving them to a new ecosystem. This is really a case where different environmental values are in conflict AND sometimes the same values are in conflict (eg moving WBP may save one species and threaten others, may protect one aesthetic value while changing another etc)

Ethical theories : What might different ethical theories say about what should be done?

  • Consequentialist approaches will sum values; what values count will depend on the approach. Utilitarians, for instance, will sum pleasure net of pain over time; this will include humans and sentient animals. So the impacts gains/losses of values on human happiness will matter; so also impacts on Clark’s nutcrackers and other animals that use WBP for food or habitat.
  • Rights theories: Relocation, if not handled appropriately, could violate property rights, or the rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination over their own land. If animals have rights, relocation of Clark’s nutcrackers, if this constituted a serious harm to individual birds, would violate their rights. If rights are regarded as inviolable or virtually inviolable, these hurdles would have to be overcome for the relocation to be ethically permissible. If it could be argued that species have rights (which is doubtful) then the WBP might be argued to have a compensatory “right” to relocation, since humans are in part at least responsible for their being endangered.
  • Virtue theory: As this is primarily a policy issue rather than a personal or professional issue, virtue theory is less helpful in thinking about this case.

7) Other Criteria

Practicality : Are specific alternatives really feasible?

All the considered alternatives are at least plausible. The relocation has had trials and is short-term successful (over a couple of years); selected rust resistance is currently being trialed. There may be hurdles to both, but not evident at the moment.

Publicity : How would the public react to different alternatives?

Reactions will be mixed. Some will want to save the species. Others will regard the relocation as unacceptable interference in "nature" or the wild, with potentially bad consequences.

Collegiality : How would one's peers react to different alternatives?

Not so relevant here.

Reversibility : Can a decision made be revisited?

If the tree goes extinct, while de-extinction is perhaps possible, it’s unlikely. If it’s relocated, and proves to be invasive, it’s easy to remove (slow growing, slow to reproductively mature, easy to locate, needs nutcrackers). It seems likely that most of the potential ecological harms of any move could be reversed.

Continue to Sample Case Response

NB: The case study and case analysis here draws on: Palmer, C. & Larson, B. 2014. "Should we move the Whitebark Pine?"  Environmental Values  23: 641-662.

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 2055332. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Deepening Ethical Analysis in Business Ethics

  • Editorial Essay
  • Published: 18 December 2017
  • Volume 147 , pages 1–4, ( 2018 )

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  • Michelle Greenwood 1 &
  • R. Edward Freeman 2  

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The last two years at the Journal of Business Ethics have been very exciting. In the first year, we immersed ourselves in the legacy of the previous editors (see Freeman and Greenwood 2016 ) and experienced just how strongly various scholarly communities felt about the journal. In the second year, we put in place many changes aimed at broadening the intellectual base of the journal and reinvigorating a more distinct focus on ethics (see Greenwood and Freeman 2017 ). We speak often about the necessity for centrality of ethics to the scholarship published at the journal, but what does this mean? Indeed, the question of what we look for in articles submitted to the Journal of Business Ethics is often asked. As you can imagine, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. However, in partial response to the question, we would say that we look for depth–depth of ethical analysis—that can take many different forms. Here are some of the different ways in which ethical analysis can be brought to life through deep consideration.

Depth Through Epistemic Awareness

As a researcher, having awareness of your situatedness, why you make certain decisions (and not others), what biases you bring, what assumptions you make, and being upfront about these, brings reflexivity and, through this, deeper ethics to your research. Early in the journal’s history, Dachler and Enderle ( 1989 ) proposed that it was insufficient for us to be concerned with the ethical nature of our research methods and political consequences of our research outcomes. To be ethical, we need also to take responsibility for our conceptual frameworks and their embedded assumptions. Of import are the implicit choices we make when generating our knowledge, as it is “through that process that a particular reality is in fact created , since implicit assumptions and their corresponding values govern what one expects to see” (Dachler and Enderle 1989 , p. 602, their emphasis).

This reflexivity and honesty is well demonstrated in Wilcox’s ( 2012 ) article, “Human resource management in a compartmentalized world: Whither moral agency?”, which reports on her ethnographic study exploring the moral agency of HR managers in a large Australian company. Throughout the paper, the author explains what she did, why she did it, and how she did it in a clear, rich and unassuming voice. From the outset, Wilcox is explicit in an organic manner: She tells us that her focus is on the practice rather than the conceptualization of HRM; that her study is positioned at the intersection of social science and ethics; that she works with critical realist ontology; that she believes researchers develop “shared social positions” within their social locations; that the narratives she presents are necessarily partial; and more. Her methodology section is truly a methodology section as it provides an inquiry into her method. And it does so as a story in which she is clearly located. It is not only the choices that Wilcox has made that makes this paper deeply ethical, it is the way in which she has exposed her choices, and the way in which each choice is part of a coherent and respectful whole.

Epistemic awareness may be vital to ethical sensitivity in individual studies, but it may not be sufficient when considering the field of business ethics writ large. In their article “Epistemic Healing: A Critical Ethical Response to Epistemic Violence in Business Ethics,” Khan and Naguib ( 2017 ) contend that epistemic violence, which in the context of management and organization studies they take to mean the “silencing, subjugating, diluting, and distorting Global South voices,” is pervasive in business ethics. They argue, as example, that Islam in Islamic business ethics (IBE) is almost unrecognizable in the manner in which it has been reduced and shaped to fit Western knowledge formations and business case justifications for ethics. Importantly, they note that “[g]iven that epistemic violence is based on silence, epistemic healing perforce must be about voice” and they subsequently outline an epistemic healing process based on invocation of traditional ideas within Islam to address ethical questions.

We would concur that many strands of business ethics research have displayed adverse tendencies to foreclose on what is ethical and rush to finding a solution within a narrow Western cannon. Furthermore, we acknowledge the manner in which institutional arrangements favor knowledge producers and knowledge production within narrow communities of scholars, and the related barriers that exist to outsider or nonconforming voices. Thus we support the call by Khan and Naguib ( 2017 ) for epistemic healing in business ethics that “requires identifying and then calling back to the center of discussion in business ethics knowledge traditions of the other that it has excluded and made peripheral.”

Depth in Particular Ethical Frameworks and Theoretical Concepts

Many articles in business ethics simply mention ethical vocabularies or refer to the “big three” theories of classical Western analytic ethics. This textbook approach to ethics often results in shallow analyses that furnish the tautological conclusion that “right or wrong” depends on what criteria are used. We want to encourage scholarship in business ethics that goes much further and deeper and produces more useful results. One way of achieving this is to drill deep into particular ethical frameworks or particular conceptual/theoretical areas. In this way, we can apply a number of interconnected concepts from the same thinker or area of research to better understand a phenomenon, and also to extend the explanatory power of the theory. In the best of these papers, business ethics theory is advanced, connected to business practice and linked to clear implications for solutions to problems.

For example, “Peace through Commerce” is a well-known area of work in business ethics, pioneered by Fort ( 2009 ) and others. In “Business in War Zones: How Companies Promote Peace in Iraq,” Katsos and AlKafaji ( 2017 ) analyze the peace through commerce literature and its main contribution to connecting business and ethics. They examine the arguments about how different kinds of businesses and businesspersons can be “peace enhancing.” They go on to report the results of a six-month study in Iraq based on qualitative interviews with Iraqi business people. The authors conclude that the literature is incomplete as it stands. In fact, they suggest that there are at least two additional ways that business and peace are explicitly connected—local commitment and capacity-building—that are missing from the literature. They argue that these are not often seen as part of the ethical “peace building” that goes on, and they are important concepts. Thus, the Peace through Commerce literature in business ethics is strengthened, its connection to the real world of business is enhanced and additional areas are opened for research.

The tax avoidance literature has become more important as questions of fairness and good policy have come to center stage in recent years. In “Multinational Tax Avoidance: Virtue Ethics and the Role of Accountants,” West ( 2017 ) deepens our understanding of McIntyre’s virtue ethics theory by showing how it can be applied to this important policy and ethical issue. He argues that tax avoidance is better understood and is more likely to be resolved using McIntyre’s virtue ethics, rather than the more usual utilitarian and deontological ways. He links McIntyre’s ethics, and a particular example of the role of the accountant as participating in an ethical “practice”, with the accounting theory idea of the “fraud triangle”. This notion, from Cressey ( 1953 ), is based on the interconnetion of the pressure, opportunity and rationale for fraud. The resulting arguments deepen our understanding of virtue theory, connect important concepts in business ethics to the real world of practice, and offer a novel approach to a real problem.

Depth from Engaging with “Non-Ethical” Theory

The breadth of the field of Business Ethics ensures that theories from many disciplines are brought to the service of ethical analysis. Unfortunately on many occasions, while there might be sophistication in the theoretical framework invoked, there is often a shallowness in manner in which “ethics” are considered. We have seen across diverse topics such as leadership, governance, professional practice a foreclosure on what is ethical. For example, diversity on boards is assumed to be inherently ethical or bribery is inherently unethical. Where theoretical frameworks that do not explicitly focus on ethics are employed, the authors have a tremendous opportunity to not only bring this framework to business ethics scholarship but also to contribute to the theoretical frameworks such that ethics, or certain ethical issues, are considered more centrally.

The concept of identity work, well explored in organizational studies, provides a valuable lens for thinking about the tension experienced by sustainability managers, managers whose personal and professional goals include advancing the environmental and social responsibilities of the firms for which they work. In their article “‘Activists in a Suit’: Paradoxes and Metaphors in Sustainability Managers’ Identity Work,” Carollo and Guerci ( 2017 ) “investigate what the paradoxical tensions affecting sustainability managers’ identity work are, and how these managers cope with them” through a qualitative empirical study analyzing 26 interviews with sustainability managers. The lens of identity work allows for individuals to be seen as having multiple dynamic enactments that are highly contextualised. In addition to sustainability managers negotiating various roles or characters, e.g., green change agent, rational manager and committed activist (Wright et al. 2012 ), they are engaged in forming, strengthening, or revising the very idea of “the sustainability manager” and even the concept of sustainability itself. Furthermore, conceptualizing individual’s experience of organizational paradoxes, such as the apparent contradiction between sustainability ideals and more narrow organizational goals, in terms of their own balancing of multiple tensions through identity work, serves to connect these levels of analysis. This leads to our suggestion for further research around the theorization of identity work in business ethics such as the potential extension of identity work toward a conceptualization of “sustainability work” or even “responsibility work.”

Practice theories provide another example of a framework that could be richly mined to problematize current ethical concerns. The consumption of luxury goods has often been assumed to be a moral transgression on the grounds that it is wasteful, lavish and more. In “Understanding Ethical Luxury Consumption Through Practice Theories: A Study of Fine Jewellery Purchases,” Moraes et al. ( 2017 ) challenge this assumption in their investigation of high-end consumers’ practices regarding the consumption of blood-free diamonds and vintage precious jewelry. Rather than employing a more traditional ethical theory, the authors use practice theory to explore the intentionality and routinization of ethical consumer choices, which they explicitly define as “choices that go beyond economic criteria and encompass moral beliefs about animal, people and environmental welfare” (p. 526). A practice lens is particularly appropriate as the authors are concerned with the manner in which “(un)ethical and (non-) ecological forms of consumption are embedded in the prevailing organization of practices and related to what people consider a normal way of life” (p. 531). Their findings illustrate the “complex interconnections between different practices, as well as the interrelatedness among object, doing and representations” (p. 540).

Depth Through Connecting Ethical Theory to Business Practice

A related way to augment ethical analysis is to directly connect ethical analysis to business concepts and theories. Much of management and business theory subscribe to a separation fallacy so that business theory and management thinking seems to be at odds with ethical analysis. Many business frameworks, from sophisticated theory published in top journals to ideas used in consulting and business problem solving, could be improved and deepened by surfacing otherwise implicit ethical analysis.

In “Integrating Care Ethics and Design Thinking,” Hamington ( 2017 ) takes on the recently popular notion of “design thinking” and shows how it can be enhanced by paying attention to the literature on the ethics of care. Design thinking originated in engineering and architecture but has recently become a fairly standard approach to business problem solving. While both design thinking and care ethics are somewhat difficult to pin down precisely, Hamington locates the similarities in their relational approach to understanding how the world works, and in three core ideas of inquiry, empathy, and cultural change. He establishes a concept of “caring design” that provides a basis for care ethicists to offer positive approaches to ethical challenges and for design thinking practitioners to better understand the human element in design. The analysis requires an in-depth understanding of both the ethics of care literature and the kinds of problems and methods where design thinking is useful, enhancing our understanding of both ideas.

Depth by Problematizing Thinking in Business Ethics

Ethics has a long tradition of asking difficult questions about human institutions and the way that we live together and treat each other. Often ideas that are taken for granted by a particular era or group in society are problematized by a later era or a group that thinks differently. Asking hard questions may well be the most significant impact of ethical thinking on civilization. We can enhance research in business ethics by continuing this tradition. It is often thought to be the case that such problematizing is done through conceptual analysis focusing on theory or deep qualitative methods focused on fine-grained experiences. These are sure methods for asking difficult questions and shining light on that which is taken for granted. However, we can also bring the full force of our thinking with large quantitative empirical methods to this approach and thus add further depth.

In “MBA CEOS, Short Term Management and Performance,” Miller and Xu ( 2017 ) analyzed a sample of 5004 CEOs and determined that CEOs with MBAs were more likely to manage through short-term tactics such as managing earnings in an upward manner and restricting R&D expenditures, and that these strategies are correlated with increases in MBA CEO compensation. The idea is that essentially misleading performance indicators are thus produced that makes a company appear to be preforming better in the short term than it actually is doing. Ultimately, these tactics hurt market evaluation of these firms, perhaps damaging their reputation in both capital markets and in society. Miller and Xu argue that both of these strategies can be the source of ethical lapses. They set the stage for more research in this area, and for a careful rethinking of business schools and MBAs.

In “When do Ethical Leaders Become Less Effective? The Moderating Role of Perceived Leader Ethical Conviction on Employee Discretionary Reactions to Ethical Leadership,” Babalola, Stouten, Camps and Euwema ( 2017 ) argue that the current theories of ethical leadership are inadequate along several dimensions. Leaders’ perceived ethical commitment helps to predict both employee organizational citizenship behavior as well as deviance from such behavior. They suggest that adequate theoretical models need to draw on ideas of how group engagement works as well as a more nuanced understanding of moral commitment. They also develop and test their ideas in a unique context of two studies in Nigeria, suggesting that the typical test of ethical leadership theories in both Eastern and Western society has overlooked the subtleties that they find. The first study was a field-based questionnaire while the second study was a scenario-based experiment, both yielding novel insights. They offer the surprising conclusion that “when ethical leaders were perceived as more flexible in their ethical convictions, employees respond positively by engaging in more organizational citizenship behavior and less deviance” and that a more rigid ethics led to the opposite behavior. So, employees’ perceptions of a leaders’ ethics turn out to be an important piece of the ethical leadership puzzle.

As our community of scholars continues to examine the central ethical role of business in our societies all over the world, there are many ways to make this work deeper and more meaningful. We have outlined five ways that such work can proceed, but we are certain there are many more. Our focus has been on (1) epistemic awareness, being aware of our own lens and subject position, and not assuming its singularity; (2) working deeply with one theory or set of ideas rather than moving textbook style through a range of established positions; (3) engaging with theoretical frameworks from other fields in a way that builds capacity for those frameworks to analyze ethical issues; (4) using ethical analysis to connect business theories and practice; and (5) problematizing ethics by not taking anything for granted and being prepared to ask difficult questions. Our editorial team will be working with our community to find ways to make our research deeper and more relevant. We want to ensure that the Journal of Business Ethics has an important place in the conversations that need to be had about how to remake our institutions in order to enable more people to live better.

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Greenwood, M., Freeman, R.E. Deepening Ethical Analysis in Business Ethics. J Bus Ethics 147 , 1–4 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3766-1

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Published : 18 December 2017

Issue Date : January 2018

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3766-1

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Unpacking Case Problem Analysis 03.1 Business Ethics: An In-Depth Overview

case problem analysis 03 1 business ethics

The world of business is rife with ethical dilemmas, from personal biases to questionable practices. In order to navigate this complex landscape, it’s important to have a thorough understanding of business ethics and how they play out in real-world scenarios. In this article, we’ll be delving into Case Problem Analysis 03.1 Business Ethics and taking an in-depth look at how businesses can approach ethical decision-making.

Introduction to Business Ethics

Business ethics refer to the set of moral principles and values that guide the behavior of individuals and organizations in a commercial environment. In today’s business world, it’s essential for companies to operate with integrity and transparency, as customers and investors alike demand accountability from those they engage with. Business ethical principles help to guide decision-making across all areas of an organization, including governance, management, and operations.

Case Problem Analysis 03.1 Business Ethics

Case Problem Analysis 03.1 Business Ethics is a case study that explores a scenario in which a CEO of a company makes a questionable decision. The case study revolves around a fictitious company named H2O, which manufactures bottled water. In this scenario, the CEO made a decision to increase the price of bottled water by 50% during a drought, when the demand for water was high. This decision was met with strong criticism from consumers, who viewed it as a form of price gouging.

Key Takeaways from the Case Study

The case study highlights several key takeaways that can help organizations approach ethical decision-making more effectively. Firstly, it’s important to consider the impact of decisions on all stakeholders, including customers, employees, and shareholders. In the case of H2O, the CEO’s decision had a negative impact on customers, which in turn affected the company’s reputation and bottom line.

Secondly, it’s important to be transparent and communicate effectively during times of crisis. In the case of H2O, the CEO failed to effectively communicate the reasons behind the price increase, leading to widespread public outcry.

Finally, it’s important to be proactive in identifying potential ethical issues and addressing them before they become a problem. This requires a culture of ethical responsibility throughout the organization, with clear policies and procedures in place to guide decision-making.

Business ethics are an essential aspect of today’s business landscape, helping to promote integrity, transparency, and accountability. The Case Problem Analysis 03.1 Business Ethics highlights the importance of considering the impact of decisions on all stakeholders, communicating effectively during times of crisis, and proactively addressing potential ethical issues. By approaching ethical decision-making with these principles in mind, organizations can build a reputation for ethical responsibility and earn the trust of their customers and stakeholders.

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How to Tackle a Case Problem Analysis 03.1 Business Ethics: Tips and Tricks

By knbbs-sharer.

case problem analysis 03 1 business ethics

Introduction

Business ethics play an essential role in the success of any organization. Ethics help a company build its reputation and establish trust with its stakeholders. In the case of problem analysis, the role of ethics is even more critical. This article aims to provide tips and tricks on how to tackle a case problem analysis 03.1 business ethics.

Understanding the Problem

The first step in tackling any problem analysis is to understand the problem thoroughly. In the context of business ethics, this means identifying the ethical dilemma in the case. For example, it could be a question of whether a company should prioritize profits over social responsibility. It is essential to read the case several times to fully understand it and identify all the ethical issues involved.

Identifying the Stakeholders

The next step is identifying the stakeholders involved in the case. This includes customers, employees, shareholders, regulators, and the community. Understanding their perspectives on the issue is essential in formulating a solution that is ethical and satisfies all parties involved.

Analyzing the Alternatives

A crucial aspect of problem analysis is analyzing the various alternatives available. When it comes to business ethics, the alternatives must be analyzed based on their ethical implications. It is crucial to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each alternative before arriving at a decision. In some cases, there may not be a clear-cut solution, and it is essential to identify the best possible course of action.

Ethical Decision-making

In business ethics, ethical decision-making is critical. Decision-making should be based on ethical principles such as fairness, justice, and integrity. It is essential to consider the impact of the decision on all stakeholders involved and ensure that it is consistent with the company’s values.

Case Studies

To understand how to tackle a case problem analysis better, let’s look at two case studies. The first case study involves a food company that discovered a harmful chemical in one of its products. The company had to decide whether to issue a recall or risk damaging its reputation by keeping quiet. In this case, the ethical decision would be to issue a recall to protect the safety of the customers.

The second case study involves a technology company that learned that one of its suppliers used child labor in their factories. The company had to decide whether to continue using the supplier or cut ties with them. In this case, the ethical decision would be to cut ties with the supplier to avoid supporting child labor.

In conclusion, tackling a case problem analysis 03.1 business ethics requires a thorough understanding of the problem, identifying the stakeholders, analyzing the alternatives, and making decisions based on ethical principles. By following these tips and tricks, individuals can make ethical decisions that benefit the company and all parties involved. It is essential to prioritize ethics to build a trustworthy and successful business.

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Business analysis ethics

case problem analysis 03 1 business ethics

Ethics are defined as the upstanding principles that direct a person’s behavior when performing their duties.

It requires an understanding and focus on the equity, consideration, and moral behavior of business analysis activities and its relationships.

Ethical behavior includes the contemplation of the impact that a suggested solution can have on the stakeholder groups and working with them to ensure that those groups are treated as fairly as possible.

Fair treatment does not require the results to be favorable to a particular stakeholder group, but it requires that the affected stakeholders understands the reasons why those decisions were made.

The recognition of ethical issues allows the business analyst to identify when ethical problems might occur and recommend resolutions to those problems.

Behaving ethically and thinking of the ethical impacts on others allows the business analyst to gain the respect of the stakeholders.

The ability to see when a proposed solution or requirement may present ethical difficulties to an organization or its stakeholders is an important consideration that business analyst can use to minimize risks.

Some examples of ethical dilemma examples include the following :

  • If the proposed solution might endanger the job security of a group of workers. For example, automating a production assembly line might make the current assembly line workers redundant.
  • Implementing new quality assurance processes might increase the workload of the current employees.
  • Utilizing inside knowledge for your own profit. For example buying shares in an organization because you know that they might soon be a profitable industry merger.
  • Offering a client a substandard product due to budgetary and time limitations.

How do you identify potential ethical problems ?

There are some ways in which you can identify and resolve ethical issues and they include the following:

  • The prompt recognition and resolution of ethical dilemmas.
  • Feedback from the stakeholders confirming that they feel that the decisions and actions were transparent and fair.
  • The decisions were made with all the stakeholders being considered.
  • The reasons for those decisions were clearly communicated and understood.
  • That any conflicts of interest were quickly disclosed
  • That the business analyst’s abilities, work quality, and failures or errors were honestly stated.

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