This assignment explores the importance of business value and ethics through the analysis of case studies. It discusses relevant facts, ethical issues, primary stakeholders, possible alternatives, ethics of alternatives, practical constraints, and suitable actions to be taken in each case study.
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Business value and ethics
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Table of Contents INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 CASE STUDY 1..............................................................................................................................1 CASY STUDY 2..............................................................................................................................3 CASE STUDY 3..............................................................................................................................5 CASE STUDY 4..............................................................................................................................8 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9 REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
INTRODUCTION Values and ethics refers to code of conduct which governs transactions of business. In context to business values, it is defined as an informal term which comprises all types of values which drives the company togreat heights (Agwu, 2020). Similarly, ethics are moral principles thatdeterminesfundamentalpurposeoforganisationalexistence.Thepresentassignment analyses 4 case studies and includes answers of questions related to relevant facts, ethical issues, primary stakeholders, possible alternatives, ethics of alternatives, practical constraints and suitable actions to be taken in each case study. CASE STUDY 1 What are relevant facts? Relevant facts of case study are as follows: Rachel is Quality Assurance Engineer who is employed at large electronics enterprise. Rachel have responsibilities for final testing of organisational' products and works in the team that decides the duration to ship commodities to distributors for purpose of sale. The organisation in which Rachel work have contract with other venture that makes chips and business model of product is about releasing a new generation server in six months, which gives Rachel minimum time for conducting Quality Control Tests. It is difficult to perform responsibilities to perform every necessary tests for ensuring that products are defect free because of limited time between introduction on each upcoming new products.Shipping products without quality control tests will increase likelihood of failure leading to loss of consumers' data. What are ethical issues? According to case study, following are some ethical issues: Decision making issue:It is one of ethical issue for Rachel to make decision about conducting Quality Control tests of the chips that are manufactured by other company and are to be released in every six months. If Rachel makes decision to release the chips without testing then it is against its ethics as Quality Assurance Engineer. 1
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Compliance issue:It is expected from all businesses that they fully comply with safety regulations and other applicable civil rights legislation (Ape, 2019). If Rachel ships the product without testing then it is against the ethics of the position she is placed. Who are primary stakeholders? Primary stakeholders that are mentioned in case study are as defined: Rachel: Rachel is the person who works as Quality Assurance Engineer in big electronic firm. She have responsibility to test servers of company and works in the team that makes decisions about when new commodities are to be shipped for selling to distributors. Rachel'sCompany: It islargeelectroniccompanythathavecontractwith other businesses Customers: Customers are recipient of product, services or idea that they obtain from seller or supplier through exchange of money.Other entities: These are other businesses that makes chips that are incorporated into servers that are made by organisation wherein Rachel works. What are possible alternatives? Possible alternative for Rachel are as mentioned: Rachel's company can hire more number of candidates in department of Quality and Assurance so that Quality Control tests are conducted for all the products.Rachel can make contract with its customers and other businesses for number of products so that she is able to test and identify defects in batches and provide quality approved products as per demand. What are Ethics of Alternatives? Total quality management is ethics of alternative that must be emphasised by Rachel's company and other businesses so that quality of products are manufactured that will lead to minimum or no defects in chips which are incorporated in servers. With the approach, it will become necessary for the company to use quality of resources that will lead to quality of products (Barsky, 2019). Moreover, Rachel and her team can take few products from batch to test the quality and if they finds any defects in samples then can check quality of all products. Otherwise, if samples of batch shows quality at desired standards then they are processed for shipment. This will save their time and determine the duration to ship products with familiar defects. 2
What are possible constraints? Rachel's company can incur reputation loss if they will deliver defects in servers to customers. This can damage the position of company in market. Moreover, when customers will claim for the defect product they received then the company have to pay huge money so to settle the claims. Also, this could destroy career of Rachel due to processing products without checking quality and not working with allotted responsibilities. Furthermore, shipping defects can cause great harm to company this could reduce its customer base for servers and increase competition with other firms that delivers quality assured electronics products. What actions should be taken? Rachel must take action of conducting quality control tests of maximum products as possible so that the company ships products that are upto standards. Moreover, Rachel should recruit and select competence manpower for the department in order to test and approve quality of chips that are to be used in servers that are manufactured by the company. Furthermore, common good approach should be followed so that safeguard data of customers against familiar defects. REFERENCES Ape, J. A., 2019. Business Ethics Implementation.Available at SSRN 3316972. Barsky,A.E.,2019.Ethicsandvaluesinsocialwork:Anintegratedapproachfora comprehensive curriculum. Oxford University Press. 3
CASY STUDY 2 What are relevant facts? The relevant facts of the case study are as mentioned: Anne works as electrical engineer in Onerous which is computer hardware company. In the company, unfavourable scenario of favouritism is encountered in which newly hired people were given generous promotions for the working in prominent project and existing employees were asked to work as supporting roles as well as not given any kind of special recognition. Non confrontational peers of Anne are angry with the management decision and asked Anne for some advice as they have made planned to leave the firm if higher authority continues playing favourites.The manager of the company are stubborn and inflexible that made Anne to deal with the situation of its own. What are ethical issues? The identifies ethical issues in the case study are defined underneath: Unethical management: As per the case study, unethical management is one of ethical issue as managers have taken decision of promotions of workings on the basis of favouritism. Also, management is stubborn along with inflexible that is unfortunate reality which causes demotivation among workforce.Discrimination: In working world, there are some toxic due to power some employees have on others (Bonnafous-Boucher and Rendtorff, 2016). The current employees felt discriminationofallottedrolesandrecognitionbymanagersagainstnewlyhired employees. The ethical concern states that top managers must provide equal employment and recognition opportunities to all employees. Who are primary stakeholders? The primary stakeholders according to case study are as defined: Anne:Anne is broad professional experience that works as Electrical Engineer in a company. Anne provides advises or solves issues of its non confrontational co-workers for the decision making of management and dealing with situations. Management:Itisadministrationofentitythatcomprisesdevisingstrategies, coordinating efforts and providing recognition to employees for accomplishing objectives 4
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via applying available resources (Del Baldo, 2020). Management are responsible to allot workings and provide special recognition to staff.Employees:Thestakeholderthatcontributesexpertiseandpotentialtoconduct operational activities of business. Employees are hired to perform specific duties that are packaged into job. In the company, huge number of employees work against salary or wages. What are possible alternatives? Possible alternatives for Anne are as follows: Anne can proceed to management and discuss the situation with them in such manner that brings attention of managers towards the co workers contribution in the project. Also, Anne can share the thoughts of employees related to favouritism of management among newly hired and old manpower so that managers can stop playing favourites and give opportunities to all people at workplace. Anne could appreciate the working of its co-workers in front of all employees, especially the two newly hired employees about efforts of existing staff that motivates them to work with with the entity for longer durations.Anne can make its co workers understand that may be management have not done this purposefully or either they are testing abilities of newly hired and appreciating their workings to make them comfortable at organisation. What are Ethics of Alternatives? Fairness or Justice approach is one of ethics of alternative that management ofOnerous should adopt for providing equal opportunities to existing and new employees. Ethical options ensures that all staff members are treated equally at workplace (Hill, 2017). By using alternative, Anne emphasises towards the ways fairly or unfairly actions of management distribute benefits, recognitionandprojectsamongmembers.Fairnessrequiresconsistencywithintheways employees are treated and when all the employees are treated fairly then it boost their enthusiasm to work with corporate for longer period. What are possible constraints? Miscommunication is one of possible constraint that arises among decision making of management and thoughts of employees. If the situation continues, then management ofOnerous can face staff turnover as managers promotes working of newly hired employees more rather 5
than the current employees. Furthermore, it could face operational risk as as many of the employees that are aware about systems, policies and procedures can fail in performing effectively. What actions should be taken? Inordertodealwiththesituation,Anneshouldcommunicatetheissueswith management and share their thoughts of employees related to favouritism. Moreover, Anne should made employees understand that management have taken the asked them to play supporting role so to build confidence among newly hired people. This will make existing employees realise that all this was done to connect new candidates with organisational working (Johnsen, 2020). This will help Anne to retain its peers in the corporation and work with entity for longer period. REFERENCES Bonnafous-Boucher,M.andRendtorff,J.D.,2016.StakeholderTheoryandEthics. InStakeholder Theory(pp. 67-78). Springer, Cham. Del Baldo, M., 2020. Overview: Virtue Ethics and Managerial Control. InIntrinsic CSR and Competition(pp. 87-104). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Hill, A., 2017.Just business: Christian ethics for the marketplace. InterVarsity Press. 6
CASE STUDY 3 What are relevant facts? Relevant facts of the case study are below: Victoria is new employee that have started her new job at Boutique Investment Bank as analyst. The organisation have organised its annual summer outing whose location is some distance from Victoria's house. She is pleased by one of executives, Luke for offering drive to her home and in the duration of driving, Luke called Victoria for casual dinner. As Victoria felt pressured to accept as they both are working on a deal together, she accepted the dinner. Victoria thought that the dinner is great opportunity on business, rather, it turned into unexpectedoneasLukebroughtsomepersonalmatterswhichmadeVictoria uncomfortable and ill. Further, Luke invited Victoria at his house and she sees no way to move out of situation and had to visit Luke's house wherein Luke made direct advance towards her. At this time, Victoria had enough and asks the Luke that why is he creating such inappropriate circumstance for her. Further, Victoria calls cabs and reaches to her place.Victoria is not sure to discuss the situation with HR department and have fears that if she remains silent then advances will continue. What are ethical issues? Ethical issues in the case study are as follows: Privacy: As per the case study, it is analysed that private life of Victoria is affected from unwanted action of her co-worker, Luke. Victory have thought that whether she should discuss the situation with HR department or if she should forget it. The thought is impacting on their personal and professional life. Misbehaviour: All employees must behave ethically with co-workers whether they are at office location or other places (Jonson, McGuire and Cooper, 2016). In the case, Luke mis- behaved with Victoria in the evening on which annual summer outing was organised. There are certain personalities in company such as Luke which succumb to urge towards misusing their powers with peers. Who are primary stakeholders? 7
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In relevance to the case study, primary stakeholders are: The company:Boutique Investment Bank is also known as “The Bullpen” which is small and all male environment office in which Victoria is newly hired girl employee. Victoria: The stakeholder is recent college graduate who initially started a new job at The Bullpen.Victoria's colleague: Luke is Victoria's colleague who works at executive position in Boutique Investment Bank. Luke pleased Victoria a drive to her home, further invites for casual dinner and insists her to come to his house. What are possible alternatives? The possible alternative for Victoria is to become brave and act smartly with Luke. She should perform certain tactics that will made Luke realise his mistake and made him apologise to her. Instead of sharing the situation with HR department, Victoria can share the situation with top authorities of company or can ask to change her team so that she can work comfortably in the project. What are Ethics of Alternatives? Rights approach is effective ethics of alternatives to be used by Victoria as per case study. The approach emphasis on respect for human dignity and based on belief that human dignity is concerned with potential to select freely the ways to live lives and moral respect for having respect fro choices as rational and free people. Moreover, the moral duty is to respect others (Lefkowitz, 2017). With the approach, Victoria have right to tell circumstances which affects her livings or choices. Also, the approach provides right to do and say whatever a person wants to share without violating rights of others. What are possible constraints? Possible constraints in case with Victoria is professional risk if she shares the situation with HR department and if the department takes the circumstance for granted or do not emphasis more on it as the company has all male environment that do not support Victoria. This could damage her career as she only worked for two months in the enterprise. What actions should be taken? To handle the situation, Victoria should take p[roper actions of her own to make Luke realise his mistakes that his intentions and behaviour on the evening was wrong. She should work on the same project by taking lead on Luke so that women empowerment is more 8
supported in the company. Also, Victoria must ask or suggest HR department to hire female candidates. REFERENCES Jonson,E.P.,McGuire,L.andCooper,B.,2016.Doesteachingethicsdoany good?.Education+ Training. Lefkowitz,J.,2017.Ethicsandvaluesinindustrial-organizationalpsychology.Taylor& Francis. 9
CASE STUDY 4 What are relevant facts? Relevant facts about case study are underneath: Ilene Kennedy is graduate student of Santa Clara University and currently, she got job in contract sales wherein she have to sell office furnitures to large businesses. She is manufacturer's representatives that represents furnitures to dealers for further selling. The sales strategy of Ilene's boss was very different from that of Ilene as she only sells furnitures to dealers, designers and architects rather to end users. However, sales strategy of Ilene's boss is to sell directly to law firms and other entities by cutting ladders that are dealers, designers and other middlemen which is an aggressive tactic to make profits as selling to end customers helps the firm to make moire revenue by reducing cost of middlemen.When Ilene's boss explained her the chain of custody system, she became uncomfortable to work with the process as according to her it is unethical. This made her frustrated and made her quit the job. After six months of resignation from sales position, Ilene is breaking grounds in another industry. What are ethical issues? From the case study, the ethical issues that are analysed are as follows: Ethics in marketing practice:Different people favours different ethics in marketing so to sell products to market (Manasakis, 2018). In the case study, Ilene have different ways to sell the furniture while her boss that different perspective about sales in market that is ethical issue among the both.Toxic workplace culture:Organisations held with unethical management are more than plagues by toxic workplace culture. Leaders who believes in pressurising employees to make sell in other ways is sign of toxic workplace culture. In case with Ilene, she was not supported by her boss rather was pressurised to change her actions so to only sell furniture to end customers despite of having contacts with deals of other middlemen. Who are primary stakeholders? 10
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Ilene: She is graduate student of Santa Clara University which works as contract sales for selling high end office furniture to big entities. She prefers to make sells by having contacts with dealers, architects and designers that further sells furnitures to big entities. Ilene's boss: Ilene's boss is the other stakeholders who prefers to sell directly to end customers despite of using middlemen as it leads to making huge revenues for business. Middlemen: The middlemen are dealers, architects, designers and so on that further sell organisational products such as furniture to large entities. What are possible alternatives? It is advised to Ilene that she could have dealt with the situation of discomfort by explaining her boss the advantages of selling to dealers and designers. As the method results in more number of sales that selling directly to end consumers. What are Ethics of Alternatives? Virtue approach is ethics of alternative that emphasises towards attitudes and behaviours which enables a person to be and act in the ways that develops human potentials (Park and Elsass, 2017). For Ilene, the approach is ethics of alternative as it develops the moral virtues in herself to sell organisation products in ethical manner. What are possible constraints? Possible constraint is practice of breaking the chain of custody as the strategy results in more number of sales of furniture through dealers, architects and designers. This impacts in flow of furniture in the industry as selling directly to customers do not enhance demand and supply of products and also do not create brand image which selling to middleman do (Johnsen, 2020.). What actions should be taken? It is ethically forbidden to go out of sales chain as it provides huge opportunities to Ilene to show her skills and abilities on other industry. Also, Ilene have taken accurate action to switch to another industry and perform her responsibilities as per her own ways. REFERENCES Johnsen, C. G., 2020. Sustainability Beyond Instrumentality: Towards an Immanent Ethics of Organizational Environmentalism.Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-14. Manasakis, C.,2018. Businessethicsandcorporatesocialresponsibility.Managerialand Decision Economics.39(4). pp.486-497. Park, J. and Elsass, P., 2017. Behavioral ethics and the new landscape in ethics pedagogy in management education. 11
CONCLUSION From the assignment, it is concluded that ethics and values are key terms for business to perform its actions in market. Ethics serves as direction and guide to day to day duties and provides right way top conduct business. Similarly, having clear values helps organisational people to understand what they stands for and attain vision of firm. 12