Case Study: Ethical Issues in 'A Good Team Player' Scenario

This case study analysis examines the 'Good Team Player' scenario, focusing on ethical issues within a company, particularly regarding the actions of Steven, the Assistant Department Manager, and Kristin, the newly appointed supervisor. The analysis highlights key facts, including Steven's lack of promotion despite his experience and the company's promotion practices based on favoritism rather than merit. It delves into ethical considerations like conflicts of interest and discrimination, emphasizing the importance of ethical guidelines. The study identifies stakeholders, outlines alternative courses of action for Steven, and discusses practical constraints. The response of Steven should be very specific. He needs to provide proper and adequate evidence to back his claim. All of the names which are mentioned needs to be documented and valid. This will ensure his responsible actions towards the organization and also benefit him to get a valuable position in the organization. The analysis concludes with a call for documented evidence and a responsible approach to resolving the issues, supporting ethical business operations and employee well-being.

A Good Team Player
Relevant Facts
According to the case study “A Good Team Player”, the main involved parties are Steven who is
the Assistant Department Manager and Kristin as the newly appointed supervisor of Steven’ s
work team of the same company. Steven has been working for the company for a pretty long
time and is quite relaxed with his experience as well as the working environment. There are
some issues which are unfortunate in the current company. There are a few relevant facts
backing the issues involved. Steven feels this after careful evaluation for a certain period of time.
He has been an employee of the organization for many years and still not received promotions
which he is entitled to, as a part of the company rules according to work experience. The
employees were chosen to be promoted in a bureaucratic decisional basis. They were favored
according to likes and dislikes of the top management and received benefits accordingly instead
of skill or experience evaluation and just picked according to managements wish.
Ethical issues
In order to run a business successfully, it’s essential for the leaders, Managers to make ethical
instructions, training and guidance to the employees so that organization can run smoothly.
("How Managers Can Encourage Ethical Behavior | Principles of Management", 2019). Ethics
are moral values that are believed to be better and appropriate in different situation and
circumstances ("What are Values, Morals, and Ethics? - Business Ethics, Culture and
Performance", 2019). All organizational individuals and personnel must maintain proper ethics
in order to make suitable business operations. Strict measures must be maintained so that these

principles are adhered to by every employee working in the company. Organizations have
ascertained that Managers who are more knowledgeable, experienced, educated have the
capability to run the organization with effective means and meets objectives smoothly. One of
the most critical issues faced by the organization as mentioned in the case is, conflict of interest.
Conflict of interest is a condition where there can be probable threats and skilled observations,
sincerity can be manipulated by certain parties of interest. ("The four tiers of conflict of interest
faced by board directors", 2019). Discrimination can also be considered as an ethical issue in this
regard. Steven spoke about the issue to his supervisor and manager Kristen which if proved
wrong could basically cause a great peril for the organization and its current operations. Stevin
declared that employees were being promoted and even allowed to work on overtimes based on
likes by certain individuals instead of their skills or judgment of quality work. Employees should
be provided with the opportunity of overtime only if proven capable of taking the responsibilities
perfectly. Some managers and leaders uphold discrimination practices in the organization
perceiving that they have all the power, authority and influence to take these unethical matters
without the liability to answer to none. It can be told that great power brings about exceptional
requirements for ethics because different circumstances and events can raise the interests for
misuse of power. Most of the employees are compelled and most certainly indulged to tolerate
these situations because of either prior knowledge of these specific events that keep happening
constantly in organizations or simply because they want to keep their jobs. For this reason, it’s
essential for the companies to provide proper guidelines and precise policies for the better
understanding of the employees. This single initiative can alone stop a lot of unethical practices
that keep causing issues and assist in various ways.

Stakeholders
The primary stakeholders are basically all the employees of the organization involved in every
organizational activities including Steven and Kristin according to the case. Stakeholder can be
defined as the people or group of people who are affected in an affirmative or unfavorable
manner for the necessary actions taken by the company and its policies. The stake of all the
employees is to oversee the benefits of the company and their main objective is to take every
initiatives necessary to make it happen.
Alternatives
There are some possible alternatives that the Steven could succumb to. These are:
 Steven could spill out the names of people who are involved in unethical practices which
would be beneficial for both the organization as well as Steven himself.
 He could necessarily refuse which would protect employees but affect the company and
even his own position.
 The best alternative is to assist Steven in finding out the issues and resolving them with
limited punishments which will improve co-ordination among employees as well as
prevent future mistakes.
Practical Constraints
Some of the important constraints include the negligence in providing equal opportunities to the
employees in terms of overtime, promotion and payment. Organization discrimination becomes a
burden which is extremely unethical causing extensive harmful effects for different employees
(Pratap, 2019). No possible solutions are being made for a long period of time which is basically
affecting the productivity function of the organization.

Response
The response of Steven of Steven should be quite specific. He should provide proper and
adequate evidence to back his claim. All of the names which are mentioned needs to be
documented and valid. This will ensure his responsible actions towards the organization and also
benefit him to get a valuable position in the organization.
Reference
1. How Managers Can Encourage Ethical Behavior | Principles of Management. (2019).
Retrieved 2 August 2019, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-
principlesofmanagement/chapter/how-managers-can-encourage-ethical-behavior/
2. What are Values, Morals, and Ethics? - Business Ethics, Culture and Performance.
(2019). Retrieved 2 August 2019, from https://managementhelp.org/blogs/business-
ethics/2012/01/02/what-are-values-morals-and-ethics/
3. The four tiers of conflict of interest faced by board directors. (2019). Retrieved 2 August
2019, from https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/articles/the-four-tiers-of-conflict-
of-interest-faced-by-board-directors/
4. Pratap, A. (2019). How discrimination harms workplace productivity?. Retrieved 2
August 2019, from https://notesmatic.com/2017/03/how-discrimination-harms-
workplace-productivity/