Business Ethics Case Study: Analyzing Values and Ethical Alternatives

This report examines business values and ethics through the analysis of four case studies, each presenting distinct ethical dilemmas. The report assesses these cases to identify the best ethical alternatives, balancing ethical considerations with practical constraints and stakeholder interests. The cases involve situations such as a quality assurance engineer facing pressure to ship potentially defective products, an employee witnessing favoritism in promotions, taking credit for work, and the ethical considerations of a new software package. The analysis considers the ethical issues, primary stakeholders, and potential alternatives for each case, ultimately recommending solutions that prioritize ethical conduct while minimizing negative impacts on the company and its stakeholders. The report emphasizes the importance of seeking alternatives to unethical actions and upholding the rights and interests of all parties involved.

Running head: BUSINESS VALUES AND ETHICS
BUSINESS VALUES AND ETHICS
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Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to elaborate on how business values and ethical alternatives play
an integral role in the company’s long term success and brand image. However, besides
companies sometimes having to take unethical routes despite that, often times, employees too
find themselves in ethical dilemmas. Analyzing four case studies of ethical dilemmas in
business and in work life, the report assesses each of those cases to figure out the best ethical
alternative, that not only obeys ethics, but also sustains the positives from the situation. The
report concludes that alternatives must be sought for, instead of going along with the ethical
violations.
Table of Contents

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Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Discussion..................................................................................................................................4
Case 1.....................................................................................................................................4
Case 2.....................................................................................................................................7
Case 3...................................................................................................................................10
Case 4...................................................................................................................................14
Conclusion................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
Ethics in business play an important role in determining the consequences and
morality of the business. Often times, companies and employees find themselves in dilemmas
of what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes, choosing to do what is right, might not be
fruitful for the company or for the employee’s career (Strobel, Tumasjan and Welpe 2015).
Hence, the entity has to look for alternatives which might not be ethical, just to serve the
purpose of his her career, or of the company as a whole (Fleischman et al. 2017). The aim of
this report is to recommend alternatives to businesses and employees through which they can
not only protect the company and their careers, but also maintain ethics in the actions that
they take, protecting the rights of the stakeholders as much as possible.
To serve the aim of this report, four distinct case studies will be taken up and
analysed, and possible alternatives will be attempted to be provided for each case. Every case
study has its own ethical dilemma, and factors such as ethical issues, practical constraints,
primary stakeholders and ethics of possible alternatives will be considered in the discussion
for each case, to analyse and recommend the ethical alternatives for the case.
Discussion
Case 1
1. The relevant facts in this case are as follows-
 Rachel is a quality assurance engineer at an electronics company, responsible for
testing and shipping of finished products to the distributors.
 The company has a contract with another company which manufactures the chips that
Rachel’s company incorporates into the servers that they ship.
 Rachel has limited time for quality assurance since the policy is to release a new
generation of servers in the market every six months.

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 Rachel will not ship a product which can cause physical harm to a computer, but can
consider shipping one even if it results in data loss of the user.
 Competitors will get ahead if Rachel does not do so.
2. The ethical issues related to this case are-
 Customers can lose out on valuable data from their computers, without any of it being
their faults.
 Selling a defective product in the market violates the rights of the consumers, who are
paying their hard-earned money to purchase the product.
 In case of malfunction, not only would it defame Rachel’s company, but also the other
company which makes chips for them. Hence, for the negligence of one company, an
innocent company stands the chances of suffering from the situation too.
3. The primary stakeholders in this case are-
 Rachel, who is in charge of quality assurance.
 The company that is producing the servers to be distributed to the market.
 The company that is producing chips for Rachel’s company, to be incorporated into
the servers.
 The buyers who are paying their money in order to purchase the product.
 The distributors who are letting the defective products reach the market.
4. The possible alternatives in this case are-

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 Rachel can keep shipping defective servers to the market, which pose a threat to
users’ valuable data, and waste their money spent on the server.
 Rachel can test the quality of each server, even if it means letting the competitors get
ahead, and put her company behind in the market.
 She can request the higher authority to let the human resource manager to recruit
more quality analysts in the team, so that the task can get easier to perform and all the
products can be well analysed and tested before shipping them out to the market.
5. The ethics of the discussed alternatives are as follows-
 The first alternative would benefit the company in the short run, but the customers
might suffer. Hence, if one of the primary stakeholders in the case suffers, it can
potentially lead to a downfall in the business that the company does (Portal, Abratt
and Bendixen 2018). Neither does the company does justice to the purchasers for
purchasing their products since they cannot give the assurance that their product will
not prove to be harmful to them. This alternative also does not make the benefits and
losses equally distributed, since while the company will only gain from it, the
customer might suffer, and subsequently, the chip manufacturing company as well.
 The second alternative is ethical in all true senses, but the company will not benefit
from it. Customers will purchase from the rival company, incurring losses to Rachel’s
company. None of the stakeholders’ rights will be violated by this alternative though,
but although it does justice to one consumer, it ruins the business of the company
itself (Conrads, Ebeling and Lotz 2015), which Rachel will be responsible for.

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 The third alternative makes sure that no party is harmed. Justice is served to all the
stakeholders, and the benefits and burdens are distributed equally in this case (Scott.
2016).
Rights and duties-
It is the company’s right to make profits, and its duty to ensure that it does not betray or
harm the interests of other parties involved in its business, and provide quality products for
the price that it charges
6. The practical constraints in the scenario are-
 The brand value and image of the company could fall terribly if a mass number of
servers begin affecting the computers of the purchasers. Rachel will obviously be held
accountable for her negligence. The brand image of the chip manufacturing company
would also fall when people come to realise that they are the ones in partnership with
the company (Wilson 2017).
The action that is the safest to take for Rachel in this scenario would be to go for the third
alternative, and ask the higher authority to provide support with more employees in the team
since so much of work is getting impossible to be done by the current number of team
members at the moment, and may result in casualties. If denied from the higher authority,
Rachel should first distribute the products which are known to be free of defects. If that does
not suffice the competition, she should distribute the defective ones as a last resort. Perhaps,
the best solution for the company as a whole would be to have a warranty period ensured to
its consumers, so that competition and ethics both can be served with justice (Alqahtani and
Gupta 2017). But that of course, is not in Rachel’s hands to implement.

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Case 2
1. The relevant facts in this case study are as follows-
 Anne is an established electronic engineer at a company called, ‘‘Onerous’’, familiar
with the favouritism that goes on in the company.
 Some new hires in an important project were given prominent roles, while two of
Anne’s co-workers were given supportive roles to play in the project.
 Upon the completion, the new hires were given immediate promotions, while Anne’s
co-workers were not recognised that way.
 The co-workers seek advice from her, threatening to leave the company if the
favouritism in the company continues.
 Anne feels that even if she brings the matter up to the management, it will be of no
use.
2. The ethical issues related to this case are-
 The current scenario of favouritism in the company is affecting the career of the
employees and depriving them of their much deserved rewards (Safina 2015).
 Anne cannot let her co-workers down by looking away from the matter, since it would
look as if she is hardly bothered by the injustice that is taking place in the company.
 Taking the matter up to the manager by herself, would be acting out of her way in
Anne’s case, since she has no right to argue on the decisions of the management as
that is deemed unethical.
3. The primary stakeholders in this case are-
 Anne.

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 The co-workers of Anne.
 The management of the company, since they are the ones who are playing favourites
according to what best suits their purpose.
 Other workers who are against the favouritism of management.
 Workers who think that the favouritism of the management will benefit their careers,
or are just simply inclined towards the management for one reason or another.
4. The possible alternatives in this case are-
 Anne can give it a try and try to confront the manager and complain about the
misconduct and injustice being done in the company.
 Anne can look away and give up on the matter, knowing that the stubbornness of the
management will only make her attempt a futile one.
 Anne can act smart, and use her experience in the company to note down all the
incidents of favouritism that the management has conducted, and advice her co-
workers to use it as a support to their claims, when they take the matter to the
manager or possibly a higher authority figure.
5. The ethics of the discussed alternatives are as follows-
 Taking the first alternative would mean that Anne would be acting out of her
jurisdiction (Banks 2016), since she was not the one affected by the promotion of the
new hires in any way. Hence, it would not be an ethical alternative. However, taking a
stand on this would mean that she will be fighting for the rights of her co-workers and
also the employees who have been similarly affected. From the justice and fairness
point of perspective, this seems to be the right way to go, since every worker must be

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rewarded with what is rightfully theirs (John, Knyazeva and Knyazeva 2015), and if
not, justice must be served in one way or the other.
 The second alternative will be unethical of Anne as an individual (Griffin, Kruger and
Manturana 2017). The other stakeholders in the case would suffer. Stakeholders
concerned in this case will not be able to get a reward or information on why they
were deprived of a reward; something which is rightfully supposed to be given to
them, and hence, justice will not be served in the workforce.
 The third alternative ethically serves the benefits of all the parties involved in this
case. Anna would be ethical in helping her co-workers fight the injustice and justice
will be served to many workers who have been victims of favouritism in the
company, if the manager does look into the matter. However it might not go as well
with the workers who are inclined towards the management.
Rights and duties-
It is the right of the deserving employees to be promoted or rewarded for the hard
work that they have put into their services for the company, and the company’s duty to ensure
the same.
6. The practical constraints in the scenario are-
 Favouritism in the company is restraining employees with high potential to grow in
their careers, as management only favours whom it want to favour. If this continues,
efficient employees may leave the company, and on top of that, the company might
not have deserving and efficient employees at the higher level, causing losses to the
company in the long run (Maswabi and Qing 2017).

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It is important in such a situation, the safest and yet the most ethical thing to do for Anne
would be to go with the third alternative, as neither will it be unethical of her, nor will it be
unethical for the co-workers to go and attempt at claiming their arguments. To add to that, it
can benefit the rest of the employees in the future if proper measures are taken about it by the
higher authority. It might not go well with the workers inclined towards management
however, but this is the only action which Anne can take which is ethical of her, and serves
justice to the majority and in general.
Case 3
1. The relevant facts in this case study are as follows-
 Victoria is a new employee, working at a small boutique investment bank.
 The work environment is that of an all-male environment in the office, known as
‘‘The Bullpen’’.
 Just two months into Victoria’s tenure in the office, she learns about its upcoming
summer outing, which is not very near to her place.
 Luke, who is an executive, offers to drive Victoria home, which she accepts.
 Luke also invites her over for a casual dinner, which she accepts as well, thinking it
would make things better for the deal which they currently working on.
 However, Luke brings up personal matters during their conversation, and also insists
that Victoria comes over to his place.
 At his house, Victoria feels uncomfortable when Luke makes a direct advancement
towards her, and stops him. She immediately leaves the place.
 Victoria is left in a dilemma. She thinks that the HR will hardly be of any help, since
he himself supports the all-male environment. Furthermore, Luke and her have to
work together on the deal, and her complaint might only imply tougher situations in