Business Studies

Based on the book, Mindf*ck, by Christopher Wylies.

Analysis & Relevance
Sound, fallacy-free, analytic reasoning, based on textbook principles, that creatively considers opposing viewpoints.

Language Use
No errors. Language use is pristine, i.e., grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence- and paragraph-structure.

ANSWER

What management dilemmas did Wylie encounter at Cambridge Analytica (CA)? 

A major management dilemma that Wylie encountered at CA was the issue of holding a massive dataset of the American Electorate, which was an unethical thing for them to do. This is since such an act was against the code of conduct and an act that infringed the rights of unknowing citizens.

Using the Markkula Ethical Decision-Making resource (Links to an external site.), how do CA’s strategic decisions measure up. 

According to the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, ethics has to do with all levels of acting ethically as individuals, creating ethical organizations, and making society ethical in the way that it treats everyone. This is clearly against what CA did in its decision-making. This is since the company failed to focus on the well-being of others and concentrated on making money without regard for others. The strategic decisions were based on ensuring that the company’s clients win the election, but did so by interfering with the personal data of other individuals without their consent which is a breach of the set ethical guidelines and the rule of law.

What was Wylie’s journey of discovery as he became more concerned about CA’s work? Are there generalities that you could see that might be useful for anyone facing an organizational dilemma? 

Wylie discovered multiple cases of documents which was the beginning of the exposure

of the company. He gave the Guardian including other media outlets the documents, where he exposed the secret working of Cambridge Analytica. These documents were centered on the unauthorized possession of personal private data from up to 87 million Facebook user accounts as a way of marketing and digital advertising campaigns.

The powerful organization, in which wrong-doings are publicized by the lonely whistle-blower, is a common situation in business. What different ways might Wylie have used to approach CA management to improve the ethics of the situation?  How much could he realistically have done differently?

Wylie could have approached the company before their actions and asked them about what they were doing was unethical. This could have prompted them to try and do something different for the campaign without infringing the rights of individuals in the country. Wylie could alternatively have contacted the authority and informed them of the misdoings in the company, which would have promoted immediate investigated and prevented any kind of misdoings that the company, led by its CEO did. Reporting to the authorities with immediate effect would also have helped ensure that tat Facebook was aware of what was going with their sites and the information of their clients, hence helping to stop any data infringement.

What role does statistical analysis play in algorithms like those Wylie talks about? Frame this in terms of common tests like ANOVA, multiple regression, confidence intervals, and the like. 

The main goal of statistical analysis is to find the distribution of data. This entails the range and frequencies of features on the data with respect to the population of interest. The population of interest is the only available data, meaning that ted at already describes the distribution perfectly. There are two types of statistical analysis that are commonly sued. They include descriptive and inference, also known as modeling. For descriptive statistics, there is a description of a huge chunk of data, which entails the use of summary charts, tables, without drawing conclusions about the population from the sample. For Statistical interference, it entails further studying of the collected data. It allows for firms to test the hypothesis and draw conclusions about the data.

Finally, what implications does this all have for business management? For civil society? 

By using statistical analysis well businesses can be able to thrive and be conversant with the needs of the consumers. This may include understanding what the consumer wants and dislikes, knowing what the most preferred goods and services are, and knowing the best timing for certain products and services. This can help a firm be able to grow and also increase the number of its prospective consumers. For the civil society, the use of statistical analysis can help it be knowledgeable to the citizens are going through and hence be able to work towards ensuring that they live in a better society.