Reference no: EM132860938

1.) Identify reasons a business organization and its various stakeholdersspecific key management policies/programs should be concerned about its ethical culture. What help to determine a strong or weak ethical culture?

2) Define trust and state why trust is important in a business ethical culture? What happens when trust is lost?

3) Put yourself in the role of the Recall Coordinator for Ford Motor Company in the Pinto Case study:

(a) Define cost-benefit analysis and discuss whether or not it is appropriate where human life is part of the cost calculation?

(b) How would Milton Friedman (define his theory) view cost-benefit analysis in the Pinto situation?

(c) How would Ed Freeman (define his theory) view it?

(d) How about the Golden Rule (define it), would there be a different result?

4. In the Pinto case study, as the Recall Coordinator:

(a) Identify the ethical dilemmas/conflicts and who are the affected parties (stakeholders) by your decision to recall or not to recall?

(b) What decision would you make? Which theory would it be based upon -the consequential (utilitarian) or the deontological (Kant's Categorical Imperative) and what would be the consequences of your decision?

5. What specific conditions would have to be present for you to blow the whistle about unethical conduct you observed at work? How would you go about it by identifying the specific steps you would take? What are the implications (risks) for you?

6. In this case scenario, Green Company, an environmentally sustainable company, has asked you to help design an ethics communication and training program for all Green Co. employees. Your meetings to date have been with the head of human resources. As you begin your research, Green's corporate counsel informs you that you will not be allowed to ask employees about ethical dilemmas that have occurred at Green. He specifically tells you to get your information from other sources such as press accounts of problems in the industry, or from other organizations with which you've worked. In addition, the head of human resources has told you that you'll be unable to meet the three most senior executives because they're busy negotiating a large acquisition. You will have access to other high-level managers who can tell you what they think the seniors want.

Based on what you have learned about business ethical cultures, identify the ethical problems presented in this case and decide if you should take the job. What should you do?

7. One way to tell if business decisions are ethical is to put them through an ethics check by asking three questions: (1) Is it legal? (2) Is it balanced? (3) How will it make me feel? Apply these three questions to the following ethical dilemma: your best friend forgot about a term paper due tomorrow, has not researched or written it, and asks if he could copy a paper you wrote for another instructor last semester. What is your decision and why?

8. Ninos and Ninas, Inc. is an adoption agency in Massachusetts that specializes in speedy adoptions of poor Hispanic-American infants. These poor infants, if not adopted, would end up abandoned on the street or malnourished in orphanages because their mothers cannot afford to care for them. The adoption fee charged by the agency is $15,000. Linda and Andrew have been accepted for adoption by the agency with a deposit of $10,000.

Soon thereafter, Carmen, the agency's director of adoption services, informs Linda and Andrew that a baby girl is now available. She instructs them to place in a post office box the final $5,000 fee payment and an additional, separate $2,500 in cash in an envelop, marking the envelope with cash for "Senior Jose." Carmen further explains that once they have paid the $5,000 adoption fee balance and additional cash payment, they can come to the agency the next day to pick up the little girl. When Linda questions the additional odd cash payment, Carmen tells her Senior Jose is an official in the social agency who handles the final adoption process and it is the way Ninos and Ninas Inc. has been doing business for 10 years.

How would you characterize the additional cash payment and does the adoption benefit to the infant girl justify the method for accomplishing that benefit? If you were Linda, would you go forward with the adoption? What ethical and/or moral theories would help in your decision?