Reference no: EM131744640

Assignment

The nature of an organization's business and the environment the business operates in will guide management in ensuring that decisions are both legal and ethical.

In this project, you will expand your ability to make ethically responsible decisions by applying an ethical decision-making model to resolve a business ethics case. Begin with Step 1: "Ethical Analysis."

Step 1: Ethical Analysis

The ethical aspects of King's situation seem complex, and you realize that you need a structured way to think through the various possibilities and their implications. You know that there are many different schools of ethical thought and a variety of frameworks or approaches for analyzing ethical problems, but you decide that the best approach to this particular situation is Badaracco's Right vs. Right Framework.

Work through the Badaracco ethical analysis, considering the various options for action and the winners and losers for each option. What are your recommendations for the best ethical course of action?

When you've finished analyzing the ethical aspects of this case, continue to the next step, in which you'll consider any legal issues that could affect your decisions.

Badaracco's Right vs Right Framework

There are a variety of ethical frameworks that may be used instrumentally to analyze those difficult questions that businesspersons must regularly address. Some ethical issues present clear "yes" and "no" answers, a clear "right" and "wrong," but other ethical issues are much more difficult to address.

Professor Joseph Badaracco developed a framework for addressing those more difficult questions, and particularly those questions of "right versus right"; that is, when an ethical dilemma could result in multiple "right" responses, based in attempted adherence to multiple, conflicting ethical values that cannot simultaneously be fulfilled. Badaracco's framework aims to resolve ethical dilemmas involving conflicting yet legitimate moral values.

Step 2: Legal Analysis

In addition to the ethical aspects of King's situation, there may be legal implications that the human resources department needs to account for before moving forward with any plan of action. You realize that you need to review any relevant information about fraud that might affect what could or should be done about King, including employment at will.
Now that you've worked through possible legal implications and arrived at a recommended course of action for Friendly Digits's HR department, it's time to present your analyses, recommendations, and action plan in a memo to Mindy Wu, the director of HR.

Step 3: Write Your Memo

First, review how to write a memo. Once you have a sense of memos in general, use your outline and research notes to prepare your memo.

Be sure to meet the following requirements:

• Using the Badaracco framework and your legal analysis, prepare a memo for HR.

• Format your memo following the library's example. You must also include APA-formatted in-text citations and an APA-formatted reference list (do not format the body of the memo using APA style, just the reference list). See references and citations for details.

• Include a specific recommendation on what actions, if any, HR should take based on your analysis and conclusions.

Step 4: Submit Your Memo

• Submit your memo to the Embellished Résumé folder

• Before you submit your assignment, review the competencies below, which your instructor will use to evaluate your work. A good practice would be to use each competency as a self-check to confirm you have incorporated all of them in your work.

Now that you are familiar with basic US legal concepts, business forms, and structures, and now that you have completed an ethical analysis, you are ready to consider how to respond to common issues that occur when running a global business. You will analyze political, legal, economic, and cultural forces that impact multinational businesses operating across the globe.

In this project, your team will assess three scenarios involving a US-based company with global operations. Your team will need to advise the CEO regarding how to handle four cases involving overseas operations. The CEO will need advice on legal, business, cultural, ethical, and practical aspects of the issues facing her company.

Step 4: Human Resource Issues

Belinda has asked your team to advise John Smith, an American expatriate who oversees operations for Phone and Build in the Middle Eastern country Shining Sand. John is having some problems with some of his employees. Read more about the Human Resource Issues case.

In order to address John's issues, you will need background information on Employment Discrimination and Cross-Cultural Ethical Business Decision Making.

Belinda has asked you to include the following information in your memo. As you think about your answers to each of the following questions, take notes and create an outline for your memo:

• From solely an ethical perspective (not a legal perspective), what is the right thing for Phone and Build to do with respect to the disparity in pay and benefits between the US employees and the non-US employees in Shining Sand? Should expatriates be paid more than the local nationals of Shining Sand? Why or why not? How would you explain the reasons for the differences in salary and benefits if you were sent to Shinecall's offices in Shining Sand?

• What laws would govern these employment issues if Mohammed, Ali, Dan, and Sarah all worked for Phone and Build's headquarters in the United States? Describe each person's situation, the laws that apply, and what rights each person would have.

• Do the laws listed in your answer to the previous question apply to Mohammed, Ali, Dan, and Sarah as employees of Shinecall in Shining Sand? Describe the laws that would apply or not apply to each of the four individuals and explain your reasoning.

In the next step, you will write your memo.

Human Resource Issues Case

Phone and Build's subsidiary in Shining Sand, Shinecall, is a joint stock company directly controlled by Phone and Build and incorporated in Delaware.

Twenty-five expatriates from the United States and one from Germany are on the executive team at Shinecall. Two Shining Sand nationals are also part of the executive team. The rest of the 70 employees are all nationals of Shining Sand. The head of the human resources department at Shinecall mistakenly sent an e-mail listing the salary and benefit packages of one of the US executive expats to the two local Shinecall executives. The local Shinecall executives are angry because their salaries are much lower, and their benefit packages are completely different.

John has been dealing with the troubles in Shining Sand for a few months and has been consulting with the local national head of human resources. John decided to try to fix the problems by sending out two more expatriates from the United States on five-year contracts. One is 66-year-old Dan, who has a lot of international human resources experience.

The other is Sarah, a 42-year-old woman, with 15 years of experience in management. Shinecall has applied for visas and work permits for both Dan and Sarah, as required under Shining Sand law.The head of human resources wants to fire the top ranking local national executive, Ali, because she says he is the cause of all the trouble. She wants to replace Ali with Mohammed, a national of the country who would be glad to take Ali's place.

The employment law of Shining Sand requires mandatory retirement at age 65, so the labor office of Shining Sand is refusing to grant Dan a work permit. Although there is no local law prohibiting women from taking management positions, the labor office of Shining Sand refuses to grant a work permit for Sarah.

Step 5: Prepare Your Memo

Using your outline and research notes, write a memo for Belinda, the CEO. Be sure to meet the following requirements:

• Format your memo following the example linked above, including APA-formatted in-text citations and an APA-formatted reference list (do not format the body of the memo using APA style, just the reference list). See references and citations for details.

• Include a specific recommendation on what action, if any, the CEO should take based on your analysis and conclusions.

• Support your conclusions with references to legal principles and laws.

• The memo should be no more than five pages (double spaced, 12-point font; the reference list does not count towards page limit).

In the next step, you will read more details about the third case the CEO needs your help with.

Step 10: Case Three: Big Brain Solutions-Arbitration or Litigation?

You have made recommendations on two cases so far and have one more case to go. After setting aside a few hours to work, you open the Big Brain Solutions case file. In the next step, you will gather the information you need to write a memo for the VP about this case.

Case Three: Big Brain Solutions

Big Brain Solutions is a Colossal subsidiary in the consulting industry, located in Silicon Valley.

Early in 2014, Liz Bennett and Ralph Nickleby each applied to become administrative assistants at Big Brain Solutions. After successfully completing the interview process, both were hired and asked to sign contracts that contained the following provision: "If there is any dispute as to employment practices or employee/employer actions, this dispute will be decided via binding arbitration." Both Liz and Ralph signed their contracts after being given ample time to review them and to consult an attorney if they wished to do so.

Several months after he was hired, Ralph became addicted to cocaine. Around the same time, Liz became pregnant with her first child. When Liz experienced complications during her pregnancy, Big Brain initially agreed to grant her medical leave; but shortly thereafter, the company informed Liz that her position had been eliminated due to a "reorganization."

Fearing that Ralph might have trouble picking up the slack for the recently released Liz, Big Brain asked him to take a surprise drug test. Ralph was confused and alarmed and refused to take the test. Big Brain informed him that he was fired because of his refusal to take the test.

Liz decided to file a lawsuit in state court under the state and federal Family and Medical Leave Acts, which guarantee pregnant women a set number of weeks off for pregnancy. Ralph, on the other hand, submitted his case to an arbitrator.

Your task is to determine whether either Liz or Ralph's grievances could be heard by a court, and explain the reasons why or why not. Furthermore, you must determine what the likely outcomes will be if these cases are decided by an arbitrator. Communicate your findings to the vice president via memo.

Step 11: Gather and Analyze the Information

While you have some general awareness of the fact that there are means of alternative dispute resolution, you realize that you need to know a lot more about this subject before you can attempt to respond to the VP's questions. Some of the topics you should review include the following:

• What general procedures or rules govern a typical arbitration proceeding?

• Can a company force an employee to use arbitration (instead of a lawsuit) to settle an employment-related dispute because of a contract provision?

• Are there times when an arbitration clause might be invalid or unenforceable against an employee?

• What effect do claims based on specific federal or state laws have on arbitration provisions in employment contracts?

Based on the answers to the above questions and your review of the employment law material, what will the likely outcome be in Liz's case? In Ralph's? In the next step, you will use the information gathered in this step to create an outline that will prepare you to write the memo.

Step 12: Focus on Your Rationale and Conclusions: Create Your Outline

You've finished your research. You've reflected on how the facts and the law come together in this situation. You've analyzed the possible arguments and determined reasonable conclusions to the questions you've asked yourself. Now it's time to outline your memo.

Review your outline to make certain it covers all relevant points and progresses in a logical order. Identify the major points you want to make and be sure that you have adequately covered all the relevant arguments or reasons needed to support them. In the next step, you will use your outline to create a memo for the VP.

Step 13: Communicate Your Findings and Conclusions to the Vice President: Create Your Memo