Understanding Ethical Decisions Through the Lens of Autonomy

Ab InBev Ethical Compliance Case Analysis Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville Ethical Lens Inventory and Himachal Assessment

1. Identify if you agree or disagree with the assessment and provide examples to support how the lens exemplifies how you make ethical decisions. If you are on the line between two lenses or in the middle of all the lenses, choose the one that most closely represents you for this discussion. I agree with the assessment of the ethical lens theory. According to the assessment, my preferred ethical lens is Responsibilities Lens. It says that my primary values are rationality and autonomy. I follow my head over following my heart (Ethical Lens Inventory). I would agree that this describes me best. While internally debating an issue, I usually think logically and practically about what the best solution would be. For example, I had to decide if I wanted to move to a different city after graduating with my undergraduate degree or not. I have lived in the same city for almost 15 years and went to university there. I have always wanted to move and explore other cities, but I decided that it wasn’t feasible to be a new grad with almost no work experience. I would have to look for my first job in a new city while also managing my first big move. My heart wanted to experience a different city, but my head decided that it was an adventure that would have to wait until I was more settled in the professional world. The Ethical Lens inventory also says that I have a “ considered preference for the value of autonomy – respecting the individual – over equality – giving priority to the group” (Ethical Lens Inventory). Although I believe that others can help guide you and give you advice, an individual has to choose their own path and explore it first to be satisfied with their journey. I believe that everyone deserves the right to choose how they live to fully express themselves. An individual can follow the path that somebody else has already taken but they will always think about the “what if” they had taken a different path that they made for themselves.

An individual needs to satisfy their internal needs to be content with where they are. And they may keep coming up with new goals they want to achieve, and they will need to at least start to achieve these goals to figure out if that’s what they really want. For example, since I lived in the same city throughout almost all of my education, I lived at home during university since that was the most cost efficient. But I always felt the need to live away from home and have autonomy about how I live my life. So, even though I didn’t move cities, I still moved out from the home I lived in for 15 years to experience the part of my internal need to be my own self and make my own decisions. I had to find a balance between my two primary values, rationality and autonomy, to be satisfied with my path. 2. Read Himachal Part A ONLY. Name of person Title e.g customer Rank Why Anil Nair Non-Executive Independent Director Independent Board Member Not most important because he is not specifically tasked with resolving ethical dilemmas. Neil Shah Non-Executive Independent Director Independent Board Member & Chair of audit and ethics committee Most important because he is the chair of the audit and ethics committee, and he is the one that got the call from Paul Joseph. Surendra Rawat Finance Director Executive Not most important because he deals with the finances, not the ethics. 3. Name the key stakeholders in the case (be sure here to list the name of the person and their title). Consider the stakeholder map in the lecture material. Which stakeholders would be the most important under your default lens and why? You can use a table to answer this question.

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I believe that Neil Shah is the most important under my default lens. Under the responsibilities lens, there is a separate process for resolving ethical dilemmas. My ethical task, as defined by the Ethical Lens Inventory, is “to identify principles that guide appropriate action” (Ethical Lens Inventory). The primary focus of this lens is seeking the truth. This lens promotes that those with the responsibilities lens have faith that those who seek truth will find the same ethical principles (Ethical Lens Inventory). Neil Shah is given information about an unfair advantage and has to decide if he should proceed without doing anything or if he needs to find out if there is truth to what Paul Joseph has told him. Joseph is the general manager of one of the companies that would be giving them a bid, so he has an incentive to lie about this to give them an upper hand. Under the responsibilities lens, Shah would need to find the truth and have faith that Paul Joseph is also seeking a fair chance with ethical principles by calling Shah and informing him about what he believes to be an unfair advantage. 4. What is the key ethical dilemma in the case? Analyze the ethics of the problem that occurred at Himachal. First, for each of the key stakeholders, assess how the dilemma impacts them, either positively or negatively. Then, using your default lens, analyze the ethical dilemma. For example, if you are in the Rights and Responsibilities lens, analyze the case from the perspective of Universalism (or Results = Utilitarianism; Relationship = Justice; Reputation = Virtue Ethics). Support your answer with material from Ethics Game, course materials, and the case. The key ethical dilemma in this case is that Neil Shah met with an executive from one of the companies that is supposed to submit bids to his company. He can either

disclose the meeting to the board or, informally mention it to the chair of the committee (Anil Nair) or do nothing. Just the meeting can be seen as ethically controversial. If Shah were to do something with the information, it could be seen as a bias towards IPL. This dilemma impacts Shah as a stakeholder and chair of the ethics committee with the struggle for him to find out all the facts of what really happened and deciding if this shows bias towards IPL. The second and third steps in decision making are to “obtain all unbiased facts” and to look at the alternatives (Sweida, 2). This affects Anil Nair and Surendra Rawat as voting members of the board that is deciding which bid to choose. They need to be given all the information, including if there was an advantage being provided to a specific bidder by someone in the company. With the responsibilities lens, universalism says that everyone should be treated the same all the time (Sweida, 13). This is not being followed if someone from the company is giving one of the bidders an advantage. A weakness of the responsibilities lens is that your “blind spot is that motive justifies the method” (Ethical Lens Game). The employee that may have leaked information too soon could have felt that this BPL deserved this bid and decided to help them, but this was not an ethical choice. Both companies had the right to send their bid. 5. Considering your analysis, after reading Part A, make a recommendation on what you think Neil should do. Your recommendation should be ethical under all four lenses. I think that Neil should find out if what Paul Joseph is saying is actually true or not. Do an analysis of the company and its employees and find out if anyone sent advance notice to BPL that they were moving up the deadline. This would be the way to find the truth, as stated by the responsibilities lens (Overview of the Four Ethical Lenses).

I also think Neil should tell the other voting members what has happened. This way, Neil does not have all the pressure on him to make the right decision, he can be impartial. This is one of the values of the relationship lens. The voting members should also look for another solution that could be a win-win solution for both companies. This would fall under the results lens and would give both companies a fair chance. They should also make it clear to their employees that bias is not accepted in their company. Their reputation stakes on being unbiased, which falls under the reputation lens. 6. Now Read Part B and critique the decision he actually made after reading Part B. Was your recommendation similar to what Neil did...how was it the same or how did it differ? Explain why with details from course materials and the case. I think Neil made the right decision by not bringing up the short notice to shorten the deadline directly. Asking questions to George and playing naïve forced George to share the change. The information about the change was given to the investment committee in a fair manner. My recommendation differs from what was actually done by Neil. What Neil did was actually a much better idea. This way, he did not look biased towards IPL, and he was able to get the person who changed the deadline to admit what happened directly to the committee. All Neil did was ask questions about the change. The chair of the investment committee, Anil Nair, eventually decided that multiple bids were more beneficial to the company. Nair was looking for what would be the most beneficial for the company, he wanted to do what was right and give both bidders a fair chance. This is one of the characteristics of Universalism, to do what is right, no matter the cost (Sweida, 13). They had to extend their timeline, which was not ideal but gave both bidders the opportunity to submit their bids.

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References Ethical Lens Inventory (n.d.)

Sweida, November 18 th , 2023, Ethical Theories. [Powerpoint Slides]. MBA-522-50B. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. https://bb.siue.edu/ultra/courses/_92361_1/cl/outline Sweida, November 16 th , 2023, Overview of the Four Ethical Lenses. [Document]. MBA-522- 50B. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. https://bb.siue.edu/ultra/courses/_92361_1/cl/outline

Ethical Lens Inventory and Himachal Assessment

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