Reference no: EM133338473
Assignment:
Case: Too good to be true. Jeff McDonald worked as a construction projects manager for St. Elmo's hospital. St. Elmo's was one of the oldest and most prestigious not-for-profit healthcare groups in Cleveland, Ohio. The hospital had been founded by Jesuit missionaries in the 1840s in a simple log cabin to provide relief for local women, with a clean place to give birth. St. Elmo's had grown over the centuries to become a sprawling 800-acre medical campus that provided care to residents of Cuyahoga County. True to its roots, St. Elmo's had just announced an$80million addition to its Women's Center. The addition would provide state-of-the-art cancer care for women of all ethnicities and socioeconomic standards. McDonald was the project manager in charge of collecting and evaluating bids from a number of local and national general contractors. McDonald had received dual degrees in construction management and business finance from Case Western University about a decade ago.
One October evening, Jeff received a call from Max Cook, an old friend and confidant from his days in the Delta Epsilon fraternity at Case. Cook, who McDonald had lunch with about every year, told Jeff that he had an extra seat to the upcoming Cleveland Browns-Pittsburgh Steelers game and asked Jeff if he would attend. Jeff, a lifelong Browns fan, accepted the invitation almost before Cook had finished speaking.
The day of the game, Max picked up Jeff and they took an Uber to the stadium. Jeff soon found himself in one of the stadium's luxury boxes, one owned by Jacob's Brothers construction, an Akron, Ohio-based general contractor with a large healthcare business. Max explained that he had received the tickets from a work colleague who knew Peter Jacobs, a principal owner of Jacob's Brothers. Jeff soon found himself in conversation with Peter and about a dozen other Jacob's Brothers executives. He began to feel very uncomfortable.
Discussion Questions
1. What are the ethical risks in this situation?
2. What would you advise Jeff to do now?
3. What should Jeff do later?