Business Ethics and Values: Case Study Analysis Report (BUS101)

This assignment presents a detailed analysis of four case studies focused on business ethics and values. Each case study explores relevant facts, ethical issues, primary stakeholders, possible alternatives, the ethics of those alternatives, practical constraints, and suitable actions to be taken. The first case study examines a quality assurance engineer facing time constraints in product testing. The second case study addresses workplace favoritism and its impact on employee morale. The third case study tackles a scenario involving a new employee facing inappropriate advances from a colleague. The fourth case study is not fully present in the solution. The analysis provides insights into ethical decision-making, compliance issues, stakeholder management, and the importance of ethical leadership within a business context. The assignment draws on research from various sources to support its arguments and recommendations.

Business value and
ethics

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 to great heights (Agwu, 2020). Similarly, ethics are moral principles
that determines fundamental purpose of organisational existence. The present assignment
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.
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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's Company: It is large electronic company that have contract with 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.
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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. Ethics and values in social work: An integrated approach for a
comprehensive curriculum. Oxford University Press.
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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
discrimination of allotted roles and recognition by managers against newly hired
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: It is administration of entity that comprises devising strategies,
coordinating efforts and providing recognition to employees for accomplishing objectives
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via applying available resources (Del Baldo, 2020). Management are responsible to allot
workings and provide special recognition to staff. Employees: The stakeholder that contributes expertise and potential to conduct
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 of Onerous
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,
recognition and projects among members. Fairness requires consistency within the ways
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 of Onerous
can face staff turnover as managers promotes working of newly hired employees more rather
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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?
In order to deal with the situation, Anne should communicate the issues with
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. and Rendtorff, J. D., 2016. Stakeholder Theory and Ethics.
In Stakeholder Theory (pp. 67-78). Springer, Cham.
Del Baldo, M., 2020. Overview: Virtue Ethics and Managerial Control. In Intrinsic CSR and
Competition (pp. 87-104). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Hill, A., 2017. Just business: Christian ethics for the marketplace. InterVarsity Press.
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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
unexpected one as Luke brought some personal matters which made Victoria
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?
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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
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supported in the company. Also, Victoria must ask or suggest HR department to hire female
candidates.
REFERENCES
Jonson, E. P., McGuire, L. and Cooper, B., 2016. Does teaching ethics do any
good?. Education+ Training.
Lefkowitz, J., 2017. Ethics and values in industrial-organizational psychology. Taylor &
Francis.
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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?
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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. Business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Managerial and
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.
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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.
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