Business Ethics: Theories and Applications

This assignment delves into the multifaceted realm of business ethics. It examines various ethical theories, such as virtue ethics and consequentialism, and their relevance to contemporary business practices. The assignment also analyzes ethical dilemmas faced by businesses, exploring case studies and real-world examples. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of ethical decision-making, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable business practices in fostering a responsible and ethical business environment.

Running head: CASE 4: CENTRELINK
Case 4: Centrelink
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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CASE 4: CENTRELINK
Executive Summary
This report deals with the ethical issues of the company in the market. The case study belongs to
a nurse and company that causes ethical issues in the company. This report deals with the
identification of the ethical issues of the company with the help of Doing Ethics technique and
ACS Code of Ethics. There are various recommendation provided in the report for mitigating the
ethical issues in the company.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Doing Ethics Technique..................................................................................................................3
Q1. What is going on?.................................................................................................................3
Q2. What are the facts?................................................................................................................4
Q3. What are the issues?..............................................................................................................4
Q4. Who is affected?...................................................................................................................5
Q5. What are the ethical issues and implications?......................................................................5
Q6. What can be done about it?...................................................................................................6
Q7. What are the options?...........................................................................................................6
Q8. Which option is best - and why?...........................................................................................7
ACS Code of Ethics.........................................................................................................................7
The Primacy of the Public Interest..............................................................................................7
The Enhancement of Quality of life............................................................................................8
Honesty........................................................................................................................................8
Competence.................................................................................................................................9
Professional Development...........................................................................................................9
Professionalism..........................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10

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References......................................................................................................................................12
Introduction
Ethical Issues in the business organization has become a common issue in the recent
world. These issues are replicating the business organization in many ways by interrupting the
normal procedure of work. The gaps and loopholes in the employees of the company has been
identified by the investigators.
This report deals with a case study of a retired nurse who applied for pension in
Centrelink. There are various issues with her pension, which are described in this report. This
report focuses on analysis of situation using the Doing Ethics Technique. The report deals with
the analysis of situation from an ICT professional point of view using the ACS Code of Ethics.
This report outlines overall analysis of the case scenario related to the retired nurse. The
use of the Doing Ethics Technique and ACS Code of Ethics has been depicted. There are
recommendations provided to mitigate the overall issues in the scenarios.
Doing Ethics Technique
Q1. What is going on?
In the case scenario, a retired nurse from Centrelink have applied for her pension. She
was informed about the payment of $8 fortnight and a Pension Card. However, she received a
letter stating that she would not get her pension, as her assets are over $18 million and an annual
income of over $770,000. However, this statement was proved wrong and stated as human error.
The Centrelink claimed this as an isolated accident. Meanwhile, another man claimed that his

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annual income was $6 million but this was not the case (Bednarz 2013). This scenario has been
creating various issues between the nurse and Centrelink.
Q2. What are the facts?
The facts of the case scenario has been operating with the insufficiency of the Centrelink.
The nurse is unable to take her pension due to a human error in the Centrelink ( Fernando and
Moore 2015). The value of her overall assets and annual income has been mentioned wrong.
This has stopped the process of her pension from the Centrelink. After investing about the case,
she found that it was a human error. Therefore, the Centrelink have to initiate her pension
process, as she was eligible for her pension in the case scenario (Crane and Matten 2016). It was
stated that she has an overall assets more than $18million and an annual income of $770,000.
This has stopped her pension, as it was not matching the eligibility criteria of obtaining the
pension. Therefore, ethical issues are prevailing in the Centrelink causing challenges for the
company and nurse.
Q3. What are the issues?
There are various issues prevailing in the organization. The delay in the pension of the
nurse is a major issue prevailing. The Centrelink has been illustrating the accident as an isolated
that have caused issues in the scenario. The overall issues of the scenario has been depicted in
order to maintain the ethical consideration of the company in the market (Ferrell and Fraedrich
2015). The Centrelink is unable to provide pension of the nurse due to human error. This have
questioned the services provided by the Centrelink. The gaps and loopholes in the employees of
the company has been identified by the investigators (Halinen and Jokela 2016). Another man
was asking for the pension stating about his annual salary to be $6 million. This part of the

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scenario has been depicted much as this is not the case. Therefotre, the nurse has been facing the
problems in receiving her pension from the Centrelink (de los Reyes, Kim and Weaver 2017).
Q4. Who is affected?
There are various stakeholders affected by the case scenario. The nurse is mainly affected
by the issues prevailing in the case study. The nurse is not able to get her pension form the
Centrelink that is a major concern for her. The organization is claiming about her assets and
annual income not eligible for getting pension (Reyes, Kim and Weaver 2016). Therefore, nurse
is affected both mentally and physically by the scenario. The company is also affected as the
investigation team have discovered the loopholes in the management of the company in the
market; the inability of the employees of the company has been enlightened with this case. The
company has stated this case as human error. Therefore, the employees of the Centrelink are also
affected by this act. This has caused decline in the brand image of the company in the market.
The brand image of the company has been negatively affected by this act. The nurse has claimed
against the Centrelink for nit providing her pension due to their human error.
Q5. What are the ethical issues and implications?
There are various ethical issues discovered in these case studies. The company is not
ready to provide the pension of the nurse. The nurse has claimed for her pension in the company.
The company have rejected her request related to the pension. Therefore, the nurse started
investigating about the problem (Sison 2017). The investigator have discovered reason for the
delay in the pension as human error. The employees of the company have failed in checking the
assets and annual income of the nurse. Therefore, the nurse is not able to get her pension. The

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ethical issues in the organization have caused major problems for the nurse, as she is not able to
get help pension in time.
Q6. What can be done about it?
The nurse have appointed investigator for investigating in her case. The investigator has
mentioned about the human error made by the employees of the company regarding the pension.
The company has able to identify the loopholes in the management (Ermasova et al. 2017). This
might help in providing the solution of the issues discovered in the company. The use of proper
management services in the organization have helped in maintaining the organization structure of
the company (de Waal Malefyt and Morais 2017). A proper training and motivation of the
employees might help in improving the skills of the employees. This helps in maintaining
cultural diversity of the work environment. The various analysis of ethical issues in the
Centrelink have helped in improving the quality of services provided by the company. The nurse
can claim for her pension legally and ask for penalty for wrong imitation of the letter sent to her
(Wagner-Tsukamoto 2017). The annual income and assets are incorrect according to the letter.
Therefore, the nurse can claim for the compensation fund as penalty along with the pension. This
help on maintaining a legal effort towards the company in future.
Q7. What are the options?
There are various options for mitigating the ethical misuses prevailing in the company.
The company can look for the training and motivation sessions (Betta 2016). This helps in
providing motivation and enhance the skills of the employees that might reduce the human error
in the company (Belle 2017). Therefore, these options have helped in mitigating the ethical
issues in the company. The nurse might legally claim for the compensation for the fraud case by

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the company. The company was not ready to provide the pension to the nurse that have caused
problems in her life. The use of the legal laws and acts might help in providing her pension on
time. The company stated as human error and an isolated accident that shows the casualness of
the company towards the services provided to the customers and employees.
Q8. Which option is best - and why?
There are many options discussed in earlier section that helps in providing solutions to
the ethical issues in the company. The best option is to provide training and motivation to the
employees of the Centrelink organization. There has been a human error due to which a problem
regarding the delivery of pension was stopped. Therefore, training and motivation helps in
providing solutions to ethical issues in company. The training helps in enhancing the skills and
techniques of the employees that encourages them and minimizes the human error (Sison 2017).
The motivation of the employees helps in m motivating them towards fulfilling the goal of the
company in the market the ethical issues has been orderly removed from the company that have
helped in maintaining the ethical issues in the company. The nurse is able to get het pension form
the company. The other operate who claimed that is annual salary is $6 million is out of the case
and had no connection with the case study. Thus helps in providing general category of the
ethical issues in the organization.
ACS Code of Ethics
The Primacy of the Public Interest
The public interest is more important than the business and sectional interest. In this case,
the ethical dilemma of the nurse is more important than the personal interest of the CentreLink.
The use of various techniques have helped in identifying the ethical issues in the case study. The

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personal interest of the nurse for not receiving her pension is an ethical dilemma for the company
(Prasad, Kumar and Kapoor 2017). The business interest of the company is not taken in priority
in this case.
The Enhancement of Quality of life
The enhancement of life of the affected people in the case study is important. In this case,
the most affected people is the nurse. The nurse is not able not obtain the pension (Husin 2017).
The company stated as human error and an isolated accident that shows the casualness of the
company towards the services provided to the customers and employees.
The pension might helped her in enhancing her life in the society. The pension of the
nurse has been stopped by the organization due to the human error (Thomas, Duessel and Meier
2017). Therefore, it is on highest priority to enhance the life of the nurse by providing pension to
her. The use of the pension might help in maintaining the balance of her life in the society. The
other affected people are the employees of the company the employees of the company have
been providing wrong information about the nurse that has stopped the pension of her (Kuespert
2017). Therefore, the enhancement of the skills of the employees is important in the case study.
Honesty
In this case, honesty is an important factor in maintaining the trust among the customers
and the company. The company has not followed the honesty factor of the code. The company
have not helped in maintaining the ethical dilemma of the code. The human error of the company
have not shown honesty to the nurse in getting her pension. The skills and knowledge of the
employees of the company have gone less and causing human errors (Hunt et al. 2017). These
errors have stopped the pension of the nurse in the case study. The nurse might legally claim for

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the compensation for the fraud case by the company. The company was not ready to provide the
pension to the nurse that have caused problems in her life. The use of the legal laws and acts
might help in providing her pension on time.
Competence
The competence factor of the company is not good that is causing human errors by the
employees. The competence of the employees has gone less as they have caused human errors in
the work. The nurse is not able to get her pension due to the lack of competence pf the
employees of the company in the market. The stakeholders of the company have worked
positively for mitigating the issues in the Centrelink. The various analysis of ethical issues in the
Centrelink have helped in improving the quality of services provided by the company (Belle
2017). The nurse can claim for her pension legally and ask for penalty for wrong imitation of the
letter sent to her. The annual income and assets are incorrect according to the letter.
Professional Development
The professional development of the employees in the Centrelink is very important for
the development of the company in the market the development of the professional activities of
the employee’s o company helps in meeting the goals and objectives of the company in the
market. The use of the new techniques have helped in maintaining the professional culture of the
company in the market. There are various training and motivation programs are started that helps
in improving the professional duties of the employees in the company the human errors done by
the employees in the company are minimized with the help of training and motivation sessions
(Sison 2017). The use of the new techniques in the company have helped in reducing the errors
in the work. The motivation of the employees helps in m motivating them towards fulfilling the

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goal of the company in the market the ethical issues has been orderly removed from the company
that have helped in maintaining the ethical issues in the company. The nurse is able to get het
pension form the company.
Professionalism
The enhancement if the integrity of the professions in the society is maintained by each
other. The company have helped in maintaining the ethical issues reacted to the delay in the
pension of the nurse in the case study. Therefore, the use of the techniques in enhancing the
professionalism have helped in enhancing the social integrity of the employees in the company
(Belle 2017). The nurse have received her pension that helps in increasing the trust factor with
the company. The respect for each employees in the company have increased with the
enhancement of the skills and knowledge.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the use of the analysis technique in the case study have helped in
understanding the ethical issues in the organization. This can be further illustrated by
maintaining different techniques for mitigating the issues in the Centrelink. The nurse is able to
receive her pension after investigating the case. The loopholes and gaps of the company has been
detected. With the use of the ACS Code of Ethics, the interest of the nurse has increased in order
to get the personal interest in the case. The use of the different code of ethics have helped in
maintaining the ethical issues in the company that remains stagnated for the nurse in order to get
the pension. These two techniques of analysis the ethical issues have helped in enhancing the life
of the nurse by obtaining the pension.
Recommendations

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It can be recommended that the use of these techniques helped in maintaining the ethical
issues of the company in the market. The nurse can take legal actions against the company for
not providing her pension on due date. The company have to improve its workforce that helps in
improving the services of the company in the market. The company might organize motivation
and training sessions that helps in increasing the confidence of the employees. The training
session of the employee helps in enhancing the skills of the employee for minimizing the ethical
issues in the company. The nurse might take any legal action against the company for stopping
her pension.

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References
Bednarz, T.F., 2013. Ethics in Business. Practical Ethics for Food Professionals: Ethics in
Research, Education and the Workplace, pp.75-91.
Belle, S.M., 2017. Knowledge Stewardship as an Ethos-Driven Approach to Business
Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 142(1), pp.83-91.
Betta, M., 2016. Aristotle and Business Ethics. In Ethicmentality-Ethics in Capitalist Economy,
Business, and Society (pp. 153-169). Springer Netherlands.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
de los Reyes, G., Kim, T.W. and Weaver, G.R., 2017. Teaching ethics in business schools: A
conversation on disciplinary differences, academic provincialism, and the case for integrated
pedagogy. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 16(2), pp.314-336.
de Waal Malefyt, T. and Morais, R.J. eds., 2017. Ethics in the Anthropology of Business:
Explorations in Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy. Taylor & Francis.
Ermasova, N., Ermasova, N., Wagner, S., Wagner, S., Nguyen, L.D. and Nguyen, L.D., 2017.
The impact of education, diversity, professional development and age on personal business ethics
of business students in Russia. Journal of Management Development, 36(3), pp.410-426.
Fernando, M. and Moore, G., 2015. MacIntyrean virtue ethics in business: A cross-cultural
comparison. Journal of Business Ethics, 132(1), pp.185-202.
Ferrell, O.C. and Fraedrich, J., 2015. Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson
Education.

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Halinen, A. and Jokela, P., 2016. Exploring Ethics in Business Networks: Propositions for Future
Research. In Extending the Business Network Approach (pp. 333-356). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Hunt, L., Frost, S.A., Newton, P.J., Salamonson, Y. and Davidson, P.M., 2017. A survey of
critical care nurses’ knowledge of intra-abdominal hypertension and abdominal compartment
syndrome. Australian Critical Care, 30(1), pp.21-27.
Husin, W.N.W., 2017. An Introductory Study on the Malay Work Ethics and Business Culture in
Malaysia. Advanced Science Letters, 23(1), pp.585-588.
Kuespert, D.R., 2017. Safety and ethics in ACS and major scientific and engineering societies: A
gap analysis. Journal of Chemical Health and Safety.
Prasad, N., Kumar, V. and Kapoor, S., 2017. Business Ethics: A Decision Between Right or
Wrong. Journal of Public Policy & Environmental Management, 1(1), pp.20-30.
Reyes, I.G., Kim, W.T. and Weaver, G., 2016. Teaching ethics in business schools: A
conversation on disciplinary differences, academic provincialism, and the case for integrated
pedagogy. Acad manag learn edu. doi, 10.
Sison, A., 2017. Handbook of virtue ethics in business and management.
Sison, A., 2017. Handbook of virtue ethics in business and management.
Thomas, G., Duessel, P. and Meier, M., 2017. Ethical issues of user behavioral analysis through
machine learning. Journal of Information System Security, 13(1).
Wagner-Tsukamoto, S.A., 2017. Economics, Management Ethics, and Business History: Adam
Smith–Then and Now.

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