Ethical Compass
You will be presented with three scenarios, each of which is followed by a writing assignment of at least 200 words. In your response, you can reply to the Points to Consider and/or provide your own reaction to the scenario. I have pasted the three scenarios below. The book for this class is: Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How To Do It Right, 7th Edition, Travino, L.K., and Nelson, K.A.
One of the objectives of this course is to: Clarify personal values and develop a personal code of managerial ethics.
This activity, in which you take a reading of your ethical compass, will help meet this objective by creating a journal for personal reflection. You will be assigned the activity three times as you move through the course:
- Prior to beginning the course 2. Week 4 as part of the topic Finding Your Ethical Voice 3. Week 8 as a course-culmination exercise
Your assignment is to respond to all three scenarios with 200, or more, words per response.
Scenario 1
You are asked to work on an extra project at work. Your boss says that the project should take you 20 to 25 hours and that he/she will pay you $25/hour for getting it done over the upcoming three-day weekend. Your boss wants it done as quickly as possible since he needs to revise it before using it in a presentation Tuesday afternoon. You make a promise to hand it in ASAP, Tuesday morning at the latest. Once you start working on it you find a lot of useful content on the Internet and copy it into your project and since you have an event you want to attend Sunday and Monday you finish it early Sunday afternoon. However, you do not send it to your boss until Monday evening. In your e-mail you explain you worked very hard on it and that it took all weekend, 23 hours.
Points to Consider
You had told your boss weeks ago you had an event over the long weekend. With that in mind did you do anything wrong? What other things did you do right or wrong? Why do you feel they were right/wrong? If you think you did something wrong. What should you have done?
Suggested response length: 200 words
Scenario 2
Two young men, brothers, had gotten into serious trouble. They were secretly leaving town in a hurry and needed money. Karl, the older one, broke into a store and stole a thousand dollars. Bob, the younger one, went to a retired old man who was known to help people in town. He told the man that he was very sick and that he needed a thousand dollars to pay for an operation. Bob asked the old man to lend him the money and promised that he would pay him back when he recovered. Bob wasn’t sick at all, and he had no intention of paying the man back. Although the old man didn’t know Bob very well, he lent him the money. So Bob and Karl skipped town, each with a thousand dollars.
Points to Consider
Which is worse, stealing like Karl or cheating like Bob? Why is that worse? What do you think is the worst thing about cheating the old man? Why is that the worst thing? In general, why should a promise be kept? Is it important to keep a promise to someone you don’t know well or will never see again? Why or why not? Why shouldn’t someone steal from a store? What is the value or importance of property rights? Should people do everything they can to obey the law? Why or why not? Was the old man being irresponsible by lending Bob the money? Why or why not?
Suggested response length: 200 words
Scenario 3
You work for a company that manages caregivers for disabled adults and children that need assistance with daily living. You love your job because you get to help people. The people you manage work anywhere from 20 to 45 hours a week at $12/hr. Most of them are liked by your clients and are good workers. The funding for the services comes from the state and federal government via Medicaid. All of the clients qualify for Medicaid.
The state agency that manages the money is over budget and they are implementing policies that say workers can only work the hours that the client is entitled to as determined by a schedule. Workers and clients have no flexibility as to when and how they provide or get services. For example, you know some workers and clients coordinate hours so workers go to the job site four days instead of seven but work more hours on those days. It works better for both parties and no one is cheating on hours.
You know the new system will drive some of your best employees away and will cause many clients to lose services and others to get poorer quality services.
Points to Consider:
What do you do? What is wrong or right with the situation? Who, if anybody, is at fault? What would happen if you just ignore the new system? Are you tempted to find a way to cheat the system? What solution might you suggest?
Suggested response length: 200 words
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