Assignment 3.2: Ethical Dilemma (Case Study)

Assignment Overview and Deliverables 2 page APA formatted paper with your responses to the discussion questions regarding the Ethics Dilemma from Chapter 8 (listed below). Perform the following tasks: Step 1 – Review the following Ethics Dilemma from Chapter 8: Rule are rules. Or are they? An incident at a Safeway store in Hawaii made international headlines after the police were called on a couple who failed to pay for two sandwiches costing $2.50 each. The couple had bought $50.00 worth of groceries and said they intended to pay for the sandwiches, which they’d eaten while shopping. The couple was with their 2-year-old daughter and the mother was about 8 months pregnant and said she had felt lightheaded before eating one of the sandwiches. Despite the couple’s request to just let them pay for the sandwiches, the store manager, trying to follow company policy, called the police, leading to the arrest of both parents and their separation from their young daughter for more than 18 hours. Safeway did ultimately drop the shoplifting charges and apologized to the couple. But ‘by rigidly following a rule, the store may have turned a $5.00 theft into a much bigger dent in its reputation and bottom line.” Step 2 – Respond to the following questions regarding the Safeway theft case you read in Step 1: 1.What is your opinion of the case and the decision of the store manager to contact the police? What management strategy is illustrated in this case study? 2.Was this a “good” business decision for Safeway? 3.What potential ethical issues to you identify in this scenario? 4. If you were in the position of the store manager, what would you have done in this situation?