Ethical Issues And Possible Alternatives: Case Studies

Case Study 1

Discuss about the Utilitarianism And Knowledge Growth During Seeking.

What Are the Relevant Facts?

The facts that have been identified in the given scenario are:

• Rachel is the quality assurance engineer at a large electronics company
• There is a contract between the company Rachael works for and another software company, which makes, chips that are installed into the servers made by the company Rachael works for.
• Rachael has a limited timeframe for conducting the tests due to the business model of the product which requires new generation servers every six months
• Due to shortage of time the Quality Assurance team cannot perform all kinds of tests.
• Rachael cannot ship any product in which the server can malfunction
• Rachael however ships products even if there is a high chance of data loss of the clents

What Are the Ethical Issues?

• The relevant ethical issues to consider are:
• Whether it is ethical to ship products which have possibility of data loss of the clients?
• Whether Rachael’s work of testing the quality of the servers is done ethically?

Who Are the Primary Stakeholders?

The primary stakeholders in the given scenario are:

• Rachael
• The Clients of the company Rachael works for
• The Company which makes chips for the servers that are designed by Rachel’s company.

What Are the Possible Alternatives?

The possible alternatives in this scenario are the following:

• Rachael could do quality testing of the servers and not have them shipped until all the possibilities of mal function and data loss are resolved.
• Rachael can communicate the potential risks, that the clients of the company will be exposed to if all the necessary tests are not performed on the servers to the management of the company. She can advise the management that if the potential risks are not mitigated by the tests, the company’s reputation would suffer a massive blow in case of malfunction or data loss of the server.   
• She can also advice the management to have a meeting with the client and ask for an extension on the delivery of the product in order to assure that the products delivered to the clients are defect free.

What Are the Ethics of the Alternatives?

Utilitarianism- From the perspective of the ethical theory of Utilitarianism it can be said that the act of ensuring that products are defect free would be in the best interest of all the stakeholders involved in the given scenario.  The theory of Utilitarianism states that the actions of individuals should be aim to create the greatest benefit for most number of people (Alon & Lehrer 2017). The theory of Utilitarianism takes in to account the utility of actions to assess whether such action can be considered to be ethical or not.  Utility according to this theory can be defined as the well being of the most number of stakeholders involved in a scenario (de Lazari-Radek  and Singer 2017). Utility is derived by the summation of all the pleasures which results from the actions of individuals minus the efforts involved for performing such actions.  Thus it can be said that if all the tests are conducted not only will it benefit the clients but also the company’s reputation.  Compromising on the quality of the products to compete with the rival companies can be considered can be considered to be unethical

Rights and Duties- According to the ethical theory of Rights and Duties it can be said that the actions of individuals must be governed by certain duties (Thompson  2018).  Every individual is a member of the society and thus certain responsibilities are imposed upon individuals and certain rights are granted to them (Piacquadio 2017). An action of an individual can be considered to be unethical if such action infringes the right of another person. In this scenario it can be stated that Rachael has a duty to inspect the quality of the products sold by the company. The clients of the company have the right to have their personal data protected. Thus if the tests are not performed by Rachael the rights of the clients would be infringed.

Justice and fairness- According to the perspective of this ethical theory, it can be said that the actions of individuals must be fair to the other stakeholders in the consideration (Schminke,  Arnaud and Taylor 2015).  Justice means giving providing every person with what is deserved by him (Goldman. and Cropanzano 2015). Thus it can be said it would be unfair and unjust to provide the clients of the company with products which could be potentially defective.

Relevant Facts

What Are the Practical Constraints?

The practical constraint involved in this scenario is the shortage of time to conduct al the tests on the products

What Actions Should Be Taken?

Thus in this case Rachael should ensure not to ship the product until all the tests are conducted on them.

Case Study 2

What Are the Relevant Facts?

The relevant facts in this given scenario are:

• Anne is employed as an electrical engineer at a computer hardware company
• Anne’s co workers and two newly hired employees had been assigned on a new project.
• The newly hired employees had been given prominent roles and had been given promotions after the completion of the project.
• The coworkers of Anne who had played supporting roles were given not given any recognition and promotions.
• The co workers of Anne approached her and said that they would resign if the management of the company did not stop the practice of favoritism.

What are the ethical issues?

The ethical issues that can be identified in the given scenario are:

• Is the act of favoring certain employees by the management ethical?
• Should Anne approach her manager and inform them the intention of her co-workers to resign if favoritism is continued to be practiced by the management ?

Who Are the Primary Stakeholders?

The primary stakeholders involved in the case scenario are:

• Anne
• Anne’s coworkers
• The newly hired employees
• The management of Onerous

What Are the Possible Alternatives?

The possible alternatives in this given scenario are:

• In this given scenario Anne could inform the management about the occurrences of favoritism in the company
• If it is felt by her that informing the manager about the instances of favoritism being practiced in the company would be ineffective and futile she could even reach out to the higher authority to bring it to their attention.
• She should advise her co workers to report their grievances to the management of the company to bring to their notice.  

What Are the Ethics of the Alternatives?

Utilitarianism- According to the principle of Utilitarianism it can be said that the actions of individuals should be aimed to create the greatest benefit for the most number of people (de Lazari-Radek and Singer 2017).  The theory of Utilitarianism takes in to account the utility of actions to assess whether such action can be considered to be ethical or not.  Utility according to this theory can be defined as the well being of the most number of stakeholders involved in a scenario. Utility is derived by the summation of all the pleasures which results from the actions of individuals minus the efforts involved for performing such actions (Liu, Schucker and Law 2018).  Thus by applying the principles Utilitarianism it can be stated that Anne must inform her manager about the grievances of her co workers. The act of informing the management will create benefits for her co workers as well as other employees of the organization who might be adversely affected by the practice of favoritism in the workplace. If the management of the company takes steps to prevent favoritism, it would be beneficial to the majority of the employees in the company.

Rights and Duties – According to the principles of the ethical theory of rights and duties, it can be stated that individuals are considered to be members of the society and are granted some rights (Piacquadio, 2017). However, it is the duty of every individual of the society to respect and the rights of the others. The actions of individuals would be considered to be unethical if the same violates the rights of others. Thus in this case it can be said that it is the duty of Anne to report the problem to the management, otherwise the rights of her co workers would be infringed.

Ethical Issues

Justice and Fairness- The theory of justice and Fairness states that it is the duty of every individual to treat every person fairly ( Gasper 2016). Justice can be defined as giving equal opportunity every individual.  Thus it can be said that the act of favoritism in the company is inherently unethical as it does not provide equal opportunities to every individual and selected employees are favored. Thus it is the duty of the Anne to report complaints of her co workers to her manager and also advice her co workers to report their grievances to the higher authority.

What Are the Practical Constraints?

The practical constraint in this scenario is that the informing the manager would be futile and in effective as the manager of the company is strongly biased and stubborn

What Actions Should Be Taken?

In this case Anne must inform her manager about the grievances of her co workers. She must advise them to report formal complaints of favoritism to the higher management.

What Are the Relevant Facts?

The relevant facts that have been identified in the given case study are:

• Victoria is employed as a analyst at a boutique investment bank which has a all male work environment
• Luke, a senior executive of the bank has been making inappropriate advances to Victoria
• Luke had insisted Victoria to come to his house
• Luke had made a direct advance toward Victoria in is house
• Victoria being upset to be put in such an inappropriate situation by Luke leaves his house.

What are the ethical issues?

The ethical issues in consideration are:

• Whether Victoria should put up with such inappropriate and personal advances towards her by Luke, the senior executive?
• Whether Victoria should report the incident to the Human Resource department?
• Whether reporting such incident to the HR department of the firm will jeopardize her position in the firm since she has to work on the same project as Luke is working on?

Who Are the Primary Stakeholders?

The relevant stakeholders in this given scenario are:

• Victoria
• Luke
• The HR manager of the Firm “Bull pen”

What Are the Possible Alternatives?

In the given case study the alternatives that are available to Victoria in relation to the ethical dilemma faced by her are:

• Victoria can put up with the advances that Luke is making towards her in order to avoid the creation of any awkward situation in the workplace and to ensure that her position in the firm is not jeopardized.
• Victoria can more wisely approach the HR manager of the firm Bullpen and report a complaint of harassment and inappropriate advancement by Luke.
• She can also choose to ignore the incident like it never happened and keep working on the same project with Luke.

What Are the Ethics of the Alternatives?

Utilitarianism- The theory of Utilitarianism states that the actions of individuals should be aim to create the greatest benefit for most number of people de( Lazari-Radek and Singer 2017). The theory of Utilitarianism takes in to account the utility of actions to assess whether such action can be considered to be ethical or not.  Utility according to this theory can be defined as the well being of the most number of stakeholders involved in a scenario. Utility is derived by the summation of all the pleasures which results from the actions of individuals minus the efforts involved for performing such actions (Alon & Lehrer 2017). Thus by the application of the theory of Utilitarianism it can be stated that, the best alternative in the given scenario as available to Victoria is to complain to the HR manager about the inappropriate advances made by Luke towards her. Putting up with the harassment would be considered to be inherently unethical and as it would promote a culture of harassment in the workplace and would encourage Luke to keep making such inappropriate advances. It can be said that reporting a complaint to HR department about the incident will not only benefit Victoria in this situation, it would also be beneficial to all the women in the society.     

Primary Stakeholders

Rights and Duties- According to this theory of ethics it can be said that individuals in the society have been granted with some rights and have been imposed with some duties (Thompson  2018). In this case it can be said that it is an inherent right of Victoria to be not harassed in the workplace. It is the duty of Luke to not make any inappropriate advances to Victoria which makes her uncomfortable.  Thus Victoria must report the harassment to ensure that her right to not be harassed is not infringed.

Justice and fairness perspective- From the perspective of justice and fairness it can be said that every individual has the right to be treated fairly (Gasper 2016). According to the theory Justice and Fairness it can be said that justice means providing equal opportunities to every person. In this case, Victoria has been harassed by Luke; therefore she has not received fair and just treatment like the rest of the employees. The fact that she works in an all male work environment has made her a victim of harassment and therefore she need to report a complaint t o ensure that her right to not be harassed is protected.

What Are the Practical Constraints?

The practical constraint in this scenario is that the HR manager of the firm ‘Bullpen” is a single man who shares the same attitude as the firm which promotes all male culture at work.

What Actions Should Be Taken?

The ethical action in this scenario is to report the incident to the HR manager.

What Are the Relevant Facts?

The relevant facts that have been identified in the given scenario are:

• Ilene Kennedy is employed in a contract sales which sells high end furniture to large companies in North Caroline
• She has come to know of the strict chain of custody within the contract furniture industry
• The chain in this industry allows furniture manufacturers to sell furniture to the dealers, dealers in turn sell furniture to the designers and architects who were remodeling the law firms
• Illene’s boss has forced her to eliminate the dealers and directly contract the client as that would give them a higher profit margin.
• In many deals Illene had engaged in bidding against designers, dealers and architects she ad formally worked with
• When she raised the concern to her boss, he boss was not supportive of her.
• However for the last six months of her employment she sold furniture to dealers only as required by the chain.

What Are the Ethical Issues?

The ethical issues in consideration in this given case study are:

1. Is the sales strategy of Illene’s boss unethical or is just a form of aggressive tactic?
2. What Advice should be provided to Ilene regarding her discomfort at work?
3. How could this practice of breaking the chain-of-custody impact the industry?
4. Whether Illene has the obligation to bring broader changes within the system?
5. Is it ethically prohibited for Illene to to go out of the sales chain?

Who Are the Primary Stakeholders?

The relevant stakeholders in this given scenario are:

• Illene
• Illene’s boss
• The dealers, designers and the architects
• The furniture industry

What Are the Possible Alternatives?

The alternatives are:

1. The sales strategy of illene’s boss is not ethical. However, it is competitive and aggressive tactic.
2. Illene could be advised to perceive the act of increasing the sales revenue by removing the dealers, designers and architects as unethical and could be thus advised to engage in fair trading practices
3. Breaking the chain of custody could significantly and adversely impact the industry as it would eliminate the functions of the dealers, designers and architects which would put them out of work
4. Illene however, does not have the obligation to push broader changes in this industry. She is not obligated to be responsible for the actions of others. However, she can refrain from being involved in an unethical practice of trading
5. It is unethical for Ilene to go out of the sales chain

Ethics of the alternatives are:

According to the theory of Utilitarianism which intends to create the greatest benefit for the most number of people in the society it can be said that the act of illene’s boss is unethical (de Lazari-Radek and Singer 2017). The business strategy of Illene’s boss intends to put the desiners, dealers and architects out of business just for increasing the sales revenue. This act not only adversely affects the designers, dealers and architects, it also impacts the operations of the furniture industry adversely. Thus by the Utilitarian perspective it is unethical. Illene could thus be advised according to the Utilitarian perspective not to involve in the unethical trading perspective under pressure of her boss. However she does not have the obligation to bring broader changes as she is not responsible for the actions of others.

Assessing the facts of the case from the viewpoint of rights and duties it can be said that Illene does not have the obligation to conduct business by unethical procedures. It her duty to not engage in unethical trading practices and conduct business in an ethical manner. Thus,  it is unethical to go out of the sales chain. However she does not have the obligation or duty to push broader changes as it is not directly related to her.  

Assessing the facts of the case from the perspective of justice and fairness it can said that it is unfair and unjust to conduct business the way it is carried on by Illene’s boss. The dealers, designers and architects would suffer a huge loss if the chain is broken and business is conducted in an unethical manner. It I only fair that Illene did not succumb to the pressure of her boss and carried on business in the ethical way by not breaking the chain.   

What Are the Practical Constraints?

The practical constraint involved in this scenario is the pressure asserted over Ilene by her boss.

What Actions Should Be Taken?

Thus in the given scenario it can be said that the best action was to conduct business by not breaking the sales chain which was done by Ilene

de Lazari-Radek, K. and Singer, P., 2017. Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.

Alon, S., & Lehrer, E. (2017). Subjective Utilitarianism: Decisions in a social context.

Liu, X., Schuckert, M. and Law, R., 2018. Utilitarianism and knowledge growth during status seeking: Evidence from text mining of online reviews. Tourism Management, 66, pp.38-46.

Piacquadio, P.G., 2017. A fairness justification of utilitarianism. Econometrica, 85(4), pp.1261-1276.

Thompson, D.F., 2018. The possibility of administrative ethics. In Classics Of Administrative Ethics (pp. 79-92). Routledge.

Gasper, D., 2016. Ethics of development.

Schminke, M., Arnaud, A. and Taylor, R., 2015. Ethics, values, and organizational justice: Individuals, organizations, and beyond. Journal of Business Ethics, 130(3), pp.727-736.

Goldman, B. and Cropanzano, R., 2015. “Justice” and “fairness” are not the same thing. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(2), pp.313-318.