Case Study Analysis: Business Ethics and Organizational Impact

This assignment analyzes a business ethics case study centered around Michael Vasquez, a product manager facing an ethical dilemma. His boss possesses confidential documents from a competitor, prompting Michael to decide whether to use the information for his company's benefit. The report examines ethical issues, applying utilitarianism and justice theories to guide Michael's actions. It assesses the ethics of the boss's actions, exploring the concept of whistleblowing and the factors influencing it. The analysis highlights the relevance of ethics to business success, concluding that Michael should internally blow the whistle to prevent unethical practices and protect the company's long-term reputation and ethical standing. The study underscores the importance of ethical policies and their impact on employee trust, fair treatment, and organizational integrity.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS BASED ON A CASE ANALYSIS
BUSINESS ETHICS BASED ON A CASE ANALYSIS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1BUSINESS ETHICS BASED ON A CASE ANALYSIS
Executive Summary
This report is based on the analysis of the relation of business ethics with the success of the
business organization. The presence of whistle blowers and their impact on the organization is
also analyzed.
The analysis is based on the case study of the dilemma of Michael related to the documents
provided by his boss about the confidential data of another company which is their closest
competitor.
The report concludes by stating that Michael can act as a whistle blower in this case and further
stop his boss from using the confidential information to generate profits for his company.
Further, he can bring changes in the organizational policies.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
About the case study........................................................................................................................4
Ethical issues in the case scenario...............................................................................................4
Actions to be taken by Michael based on two ethical theories....................................................4
Judging the beliefs of the boss to be ethical or unethical............................................................5
Michael’s judgement to blow the whistle................................................................................6
Factors leading to whistle blowing..........................................................................................7
Circumstances which lead to whistle blowing.........................................................................7
Relevance of ethics to a business with reference to the case study.............................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

3BUSINESS ETHICS BASED ON A CASE ANALYSIS
Introduction
Business ethics relates to the detailed study of right business practices and policies that
are essential to take care of controversial issues like insider trading, corporate governance,
corporate social responsibility and many more. Business ethics plays an important role in every
business. The ethics related to a business establishes a certain level of trust between the
employees of an organization. This practice in a business ensures the fact that everyone receives
similar and fair treatment.
The business ethics of an organization helps in distinguishing between right and wrong
that is done within an organization (Avakian and Roberts 2012). The aim of the business should
fair dealing with everyone, the ethics should always be same for all employees working in any
level in the organization, remedial measures should be taken if violation in ethics is detected,
guidelines need to be provided regarding the business ethics, the perception of right and wrong
should be the basis of the ethics (Brenkert and Beauchamp 2012). The importance of business
ethics lies on many factors,
 Satisfying the needs of the employees and people related to the business.
 The ethics set by the business helps in creating its credibility among the
employees.
 The correct utilization of the resources, that is, the employees of the organization
is based on the business ethics.
 The decision making process of the management is effected and improved with
the help of the business ethics.
 The organizations which have correct values and ethics prove to be profitable in
the long term basis.

4BUSINESS ETHICS BASED ON A CASE ANALYSIS
 The ethics of the business helps in safeguarding the interests of the employees in
the organization and the society at large.
About the case study
The case study is about a person named Michael Vasquez who is working as the product
manager in a technology start-up company. He loved his job and the risks and challenges related
to it. However, on a certain afternoon his boss showed him some documents which he had
obtained from the server of the company’s competitor. The documents were confidential.
Michael’s boss tried to convince him by saying he had obtained these documents from a
colleague and he had not breached any password. Michael is now in a dilemma whether to use
these documents or not. He has do decide whether to use this information for his company’s
welfare or not (DesJardins and McCall 2014).
Ethical issues in the case scenario
The ethical issues related to this case study is, that the information that has been obtained
by Michael’s boss is totally confidential to the other organization. The usage of this information
for the profit of Michael’s company is not right at all. This can provide a lot of gain to the
company, but the way in which this profit is gained, is unethical. This proves that the company
does not have the potential to work on its own strengths. The company is using the confidential
information of another company to generate their own profits (Hartman, DesJardins and
MacDonald 2014).
Actions to be taken by Michael based on two ethical theories
The two ethical theories based on which Michael can take an action about the scenario
are Utilitarianism and Justice.

5BUSINESS ETHICS BASED ON A CASE ANALYSIS
 The theory of utilitarianism states that any actions taken by an individual is
decided to be right or wrong on the basis of the consequences of these actions and
the effects that they have on the bulk of people related to a business. Michael can
use this approach to take his decision because with the help of this he can judge
that whether the decision of using the confidential data of another company will
have a negative impact on the reputation of his company and this in turn will
affect the people working in the organization. The organization will be affected
negatively because of fraud and the employees of the organization will also suffer
(Hoffman, Frederick and Schwartz 2014).
 The theory of Justice states the importance of the fairness level of the treatments
given to each and every individual in the organization and to its competitors as
well. The action taken by Michael’s boss is highly unfair for the organization
whose private data has been stolen. In this manner the company is trying to gain
from the weakness of others rather than its own strengths.
Judging the beliefs of the boss to be ethical or unethical
Michael’s boss has collected data related to pricing strategies, plans related to products,
partnership agreements and many other documents. These documents and the information
contained in them are always confidential to a particular company. Michael’s boss aims to earn
profits and develop the company based on the strategies and plans developed by its closest
competitor. This proves that the company itself does not have the ability to form its own
strategies and plans to generate profits for themselves (Jennings 2014). This step may help them
to earn profits.

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This is not entirely illegal according to law, but it is highly unethical. The reputation of
the company is at stake, because the leakage of this information can lead to a lot of problems for
the company. This will affect the lives of the employees related to this business. Although, any
type of information is not provided in the company’s policies and procedures regarding the
problem faced by Michael regarding unethical use of the information, the decision of using this
information for the company profits is unethical. The use of this information will give Michael’s
company an edge over its competitor, however, this step will not be right for the long term goals
of the company (Lawrence and Weber 2014).
Michael’s judgement to blow the whistle
A whistle blower refers to that person or employee of an organization who informs other
in the organization about any immoral, unethical or illegal practice, so that he can get the help of
the majority to bring a change in the practice. Whistle blowing can be of two types. One is
internal whistle blowing and the other is external whistle blowing. Internal whistle blowing
refers to the process where the whistle blower informs only the employees of the organization
about the unethical practice, so that they can together stop the management from taking such an
action.
In situations where the internal whistle blowers are subjected to punishment, the next
step that is taken is external whistle blowing (Miceli, Near and Dworkin 2013). In this process
the whistle blowers inform the government agencies and other external agencies like the press
about the unethical practice in the organization, so that suitable measures can be taken. In this
case Michael should blow the whistle internally, so that the unethical step that is about to be
taken can be stopped within the organization itself. In this manner, the unethical practice will be
stopped and the reputation of the organization will be saved as well.

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Factors leading to whistle blowing
Whistle blowing is effected by the ethics and morals of an individual. The whistle
blowers are those employees of the organization who have the capability to think about the
welfare of the organization and also its reputation rather than only focussing on its profit
generation. The mental strength and motivation to speak up against the organizational practices
helps the employees to become whistle blowers.
Whistle blowing in an organization requires a lot of courage so that the difficulties related
to this task can be overcome. All organizations do not have policies to provide the facilities to
the employees to give their feedback. The organizations which are intolerant to the feedback
provided by the employees or the internal reporting done by them, deems the whistle blowers to
be negative in character (Miceli et al. 2012). They are assumed to be bad team players and also
traitors to the organization.
Whistle blowing often leads to many negative consequences for the employees. These
include gaining negative reputation and job loss. Whistle blowers are an important part of an
organization. The organizations which have suitable policies to receive the feedback from the
employees and to encourage the whistle blowers prove to be much more successful. The
organizations should encourage the whistle blowing activities, so that any type unethical or
illegal practices can be stopped (Weiss 2014).
Circumstances which lead to whistle blowing
Whistle blowing is seen as a debatable practice. According to some people this practice is
never justified as the employees have obligations and commitment towards the organization.
However, the most basic obligation of an employee should be that he should harm any other

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individual or any organization (Michaelson et al. 2014). The circumstances in which whistle
blowing is justified are as follows,
 When a policy or a product of a particular organization can harm the society or
any other organization.
 The circumstances when the employee thinks that the harm that is caused to the
other individuals related to the organization is against his own morals.
 The situation in which the immediate senior of the employee does not take any
action on the unethical or illegal practices in the organization.
 When the employee has evidence regarding the unethical practices going on in the
organization.
 The employee has reasons to accept the fact that the step taken by him will have
implications or changes in the organization. This will motivate the employee to
take the risk of reporting against the unethical practice and bring a change in the
organization (Stanwick and Stanwick 2013).
The whistle blower can take the decision of reporting about the unethical or illegal
practices going on in the organization under these circumstances and bring a change
in the organizational policies.
Relevance of ethics to a business with reference to the case study
Ethics play an important role in the business. The values and morals of an individual
affects his ethical decisions in the organization. Every business should have a set of policies and
ethics so that every employee of the organization at every level gets fair treatment. The
organization should also take fair decisions with respect to other organizations who are its

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competitors (Wachs 2017). The unethical practices of an organization has a negative impact on
the reputation of the organization.
Unethical practices can help in achieving short term goals, however, there is a negative
impact on the organization in the long term. In this case, Michael’s boss is urging him to take an
unethical step by asking him to use the confidential information that he has collected from his
sources for the profit of his business (Waytz, Dungan and Young 2013). However, this can
provide only short term profits to the business. In the long term, the leakage of this news will
hurt the reputation of the organization and will destroy the trust of the employees as well as the
stakeholders and consumers on the organization.
Conclusion
The report can be concluded by saying that business ethics is an integral part of the
business. Unethical decisions or practices can only lead to the negative impacts in the long term.
The whistle blowers play an important role in stopping the unethical practices that are taken by
the management of the organization. In this case, Michael can act as the whistle blower of the
organization and bring a change in the business policies.

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References
Avakian, S. and Roberts, J., 2012. Whistleblowers in organisations: prophets at work?. Journal
of Business Ethics, 110(1), pp.71-84.
Brenkert, G.G. and Beauchamp, T.L. eds., 2012. The Oxford handbook of business ethics.
Oxford University Press.
DesJardins, J.R. and McCall, J.J., 2014. Contemporary issues in business ethics. Cengage
Learning.
Hartman, L.P., DesJardins, J.R. and MacDonald, C., 2014. Business ethics: Decision making for
personal integrity and social responsibility. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hoffman, W.M., Frederick, R.E. and Schwartz, M.S. eds., 2014. Business ethics: Readings and
cases in corporate morality. John Wiley & Sons.
Jennings, M.M., 2014. Business ethics: Case studies and selected readings. Cengage Learning.
Lawrence, A.T. and Weber, J., 2014. Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public policy.
Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Miceli, M.P., Near, J.P. and Dworkin, T.M., 2013. Whistle-blowing in organizations. Psychology
Press.
Miceli, M.P., Near, J.P., Rehg, M.T. and Van Scotter, J.R., 2012. Predicting employee reactions
to perceived organizational wrongdoing: Demoralization, justice, proactive personality, and
whistle-blowing. Human Relations, 65(8), pp.923-954.

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Michaelson, C., Pratt, M.G., Grant, A.M. and Dunn, C.P., 2014. Meaningful work: Connecting
business ethics and organization studies. Journal of Business Ethics, 121(1), pp.77-90.
Stanwick, P. and Stanwick, S., 2013. Understanding business ethics. Sage.
Wachs, M. ed., 2017. Ethics in planning. Routledge.
Waytz, A., Dungan, J. and Young, L., 2013. The whistleblower's dilemma and the fairness–
loyalty tradeoff. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(6), pp.1027-1033.
Weiss, J.W., 2014. Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-
Koehler Publishers.