Guidelines for Part B Portfolio (Appendix E)

Note: The examples given in the guidelines are for demonstration purposes only and may not include adequate elaboration. Please do not copy to your work.

Seminar Five: Exploring Ethical Dilemmas and Vignettes (1) To submit: Individual reflective statement Guiding Reflective Question What are the ethical issues raised by the cases studied? Guidelines Just mention the ethical issues of ONE case.

What are the common themes between them?

Compare the ethical issues of at least TWO cases. Identify what common themes apply to the cases. E.g., both Free Drinks and Produce Toys cases talk about human greed.

Where these the themes identified by your peers? Identifying the problem: How do Individual Factors impact upon the ethical dilemma identification by the people in the case study?

Describe the case contents that enable you or your classmates to identify the common themes. A list of possible individual factors are listed in Lecture 3, Slides 9-16. Explain how individual factors can affect the main actors in the case you selected to look at the ethical issues. E.g., gender may be an individual factor. In the case of Facebook, the female HR manager may perceive checking out others on facebook is a minor issue. E.g., the moral development stages of the individual can be another individual factor. In the case of Free drinks, the friends of the main actor may operate at the preconventional stage (focusing on rewards and punishments) and therefore do not see there are any problems with getting price discounts with the bar tender. They think it is ok as long as they benefit from the discounts. On the other hand, the main character may operate in the post conventional stage (hold normative ethical principles) and is therefore not comfortable with the price discounts offered by the bar tender. He thinks honesty is important and it counts more than the financial benefit.

Are there any Organisational Factors here which may influence ethical dilemma identification by the

A list of possible organizational factors are listed in Lecture 3, Slides 21-26. E.g., authority may be an organizational factor. In the case of Facebook, the HR manager asked the intern to open her facebook account. In her organization, maybe authority of bosses is highly regarded and therefore the manager did not see

various actors in the case study?

anything wrong with asking the intern to show her private information on facebook. She may not realize the implied coercive power from her job position over the intern.

Could, or perhaps should, professional codes of ethics and corporate codes help here? And if not, why not?

The effectiveness of codes of ethics is evaluated in Lecture 4, Slides 8-9. E.g., codes of ethics could be very abstract in wordings. In the case of Facebook, maybe the code of ethics already specified employee privacy could not be intruded. But intrusion may have very different meanings to different people. Maybe the HR manager thinks facebook is an open platform and she has therefore not intruded in the privacy of the candidate whom she tried to investigate.

Do perceptions of reward and punishment can affect ethical business dilemma identification by the actors at all?

Whether the decision will lead to rewards or benefits may affect the perception of the main actors. E.g., in the case of Produce Toys, the manager may lose his performance bonus if he could not identify a supplier outside Thailand that offers a cheaper price. This may have made the manager hesitant in turning away from the Thai supplier.

Are these things important? Develops a response: Can you link your solution to and rationalise it using any of the various moral philosophies?

Are the individual factors, organizational factors, codes of ethics, and perception of rewards and punishment important to the actors? Which one is more important? Describe your solution if you were the main actor in the case you selected. Use theories to justify your solution. E.g., you may decide to use the Thai supplier in the Produce Toys case. It is based on the utilitarian perspective that more people can benefit (the employees in your firm and the poor families in Thailand) as compared to the loss of education opportunities of the child labor.

What kind of influence does the concept of moral intensity (p.164-165 of C&M) have on your response?

Moral intensity is covered in Lecture 3, Slides 19. E.g., you may decide to continue to take the price discounts offered by the bar tender in the case of Free drinks. It is not because you are dishonest or greedy. Just in terms of moral intensity, you consider the negative consequences are minimal and unlikely. The boss of the bar is not likely to find out the price discounts and it involves a small amount of money only.

Have you in your response considered all the relevant individual, organizational, opportunistic and moral intensity considerations together as a whole?

You may also justify your solution based on individual factors, organizational factors, and rewards and punishment, in addition to the theories and moral intensity considerations discussed in the above two questions.