Scenario 1:
James works in the accounting department of a
large firm. While going over the books for the past several months, James
notices that someone has altered the figures to increase earnings by several
thousands of dollars. He suspects that the errors, which are in the company’s
favor, are too consistent to have been honest mistakes. He knows that he should
report his findings through the company’s ethics hotline. However, he worries
that doing so will jeopardize his security and reputation with the company.
Scenario 2:
Mary owns a small toy manufacturing
company. One of her employees has noticed that one of the pieces on the most
popular toy can detach from the toy. This could pose a potential choking hazard
to young children who play with the toy. No customers have yet reported
problems with the toy. Mary wonders if she should report the potential hazard
before anyone gets hurt. However, the recall would cost her company money and
result in loss of sales during the busy Christmas season. As the scenarios
illustrate, making ethical decisions often requires a trade-off for an
organization or individual. After a scandal results from ethical wrongdoing,
the proper course of action seems clear. Even so, organizations continue to
struggle with making ethical decisions on a day-to-day basis as they weigh the
cost of making such decisions.
To prepare:
Choose a positive example from the past ten years
of a business organization whose leaders acted ethically when they encountered
an ethical dilemma. Select, analyze, and describe the ethical decision making
and actions in the organization.
Submit a 4-page (not including references
page) analysis of the ethical situation. Your analysis must include the
following:
An explanation of the ethical framework
applied by the organization to make its decision, including support for your
analysis from scholarly research
An examination of both the positive and
negative consequences of the decision, including the tradeoffs that the
leadership of the organization made in making their decision
A minimum of five references
