Reference no: EM133465651

Assignment:

Picture yourself as one of five members of the Board of a non-profit organization focused on treating individuals addicted to prescription-induced opium. Your operating budget is $20 million but you want to expand your operation because you are making a very small impact on a problem that is growing exponentially in counties and communities across your state.

You are commissioned by the Board to raise funds and a very important decision is approved prior to the beginning of your task: whatever money is raised will be used not to increase salaries of board members and top management officials but, instead, to raise the salary of field experts - counselors, psychologists, nurses, etc. Moreover, and provided the money raised is substantial, it is agreed that more field experts will be hired and new facilities constructed near communities most ravaged by the addiction.

In spite of your best efforts, the sum of monies you raise from private donors in the first four months is quite insignificant. But entering the fifth month you receive an offer from one of very large pharmaceutical company. At the time you receive this offer, you face these two facts. First, there is circumstantial, albeit growing and persuasive, evidence that a star product of this company is directly responsible for causing the opium addiction in individuals suffering from physical pain. Second, the public at large are unawares because the media has largely ignored the problem and regulators, at best, are indifferent.

The offer: your organization will receive $80 million as a donation. This will enable you to: a) raise salaries of current managers, employees and field experts; b) triple the number of field experts; and c) double the number of facilities. In return, your organization will commit itself to an oath of privacy and secrecy. In other words, your organization will have to sign an agreement never to reveal any potential information that may be harmful to the prestige and operations of the pharmaceutical company.

You present the offer to your Board colleagues and a decision must be made: accept or reject the offer. During the discussion, you notice that the vote is evenly divided. Your vote will make the difference and turn the decision one or the other.

Question: Do you vote to accept or reject the offer? Please state your answer and explain why in one brief paragraph.