Ethics & Business

Following the format described in “Written Submission Requirements,” using each of the three ethical “buckets” discussed in ‘Business Ethics’ analyze each of the following situations in one and half page essays each (total submission 4-5 pages). Stated another way, present analyses of each of the following three problems from the perspectives of each of the three “buckets” (a total of nine analyses).

Situation No. 1: One of your company’s major suppliers is having an annual “Customer Appreciation Golf Outing” which includes a round of golf at an upscale private country club, a box lunch, a hat, and a sleeve of golf balls (with your supplier’s logo on the hat and golf balls), dinner and moderate prizes. Total value: about $400.00. Your boss wants you to go because it’s a chance to get to know the supplier’s personnel as well as your peers in other companies. Discuss and analyze the ethical aspects of this situation.

Situation No. 2: You visit a supplier overseas and find that it is a major polluter of a local river. Amazingly, that doesn’t violate any laws in that country. Discuss and analyze the ethical and socially responsible aspects of this situation.

Situation No. 3: You and your boss followed a long-standing practice of not divulging a bidder’s price to other competing suppliers. Your boss retired and her replacement from the government sector sees things differently; she wants you to divulge suppliers’ prices, the way she did it in governmental situations. She argues such open sharing is the way to get the lowest prices and thereby reduce your company’s costs. Discuss and analyze the ethical aspects of this situation.