Q4- As you learned in the Learning Activity titled “Ethical and Unethical Business Behavior,” ( managers of corporations face ethical decisions daily. Who is the senior-level manager at ABC Widgets, Inc. in the unethical behavior example? What type of training would you recommend to ensure employees are equipped to make ethical decisions and to avoid what the senior-level manager at ABC Widgets did? What processes could you put in place to allow employees to make anonymous reports of unethical behavior? Finally, who would you designate to administer and manage ethical issues? Ethical and Unethical Business BehaviorAs you read this section about the basic concepts for ethical analysis, consider what actionsyou would have taken in the two examples provided of ethical dilemmas in a businessenvironment.Managers of corporations face ethical decisions every day. In business, acting responsibly isan important part of leadership and, ultimately, success. Responsibility is an essentialcomponent in ethical decision making. To be responsible is to accept the potential costs,reactions, and consequences for decisions that are made. The other key aspect of ethicaldecision making, and one that goes hand in hand with responsibility, is accountability.When accountability is in place, mechanisms are set up to determine where responsibilitylies. To be accountable is to accept responsibility.When there exists no clear path to determine who took what action within a corporation,organization, or other institution, it is very difficult to ensure ethical analysis or ethical action.Formal, legal, and political processes are in place, however, to keep businesses andorganizations in check. Liability and due process are two of these processes. Liability is a legalterm that means to be in a condition of being legally liable. To be liable is to be legallyresponsible. Liability, therefore, is the legal system's way of assuring responsibility andaccountability.When there are laws and legal decisions made in business, there must also be a system inplace for businesses and business managers to ensure these laws are applied fairly andproperly. Due process allows for just such a system. To have due process is to have a clearunderstanding of the laws that are in place within a society or political system and anunderstanding of how those laws can or cannot be applied to a person, organization, orbusiness or institution. Through due process, there is also ample opportunity to appeal tohigher levels of the law or justice system when unfairness, impropriety, or misapplication oflaws is believed to have occurred.What follows are two very different examples of a manager's behavior in a business setting.The first is a real-world example of unethical business behavior, along with the consequencesthat follow; the second is a real-world example of ethical business behavior, along with itsoutcomes or rewards.Unethical BehaviorMartin Shannon was a senior-level manager at ABC Widgets, Inc., a midsized manufacturer ofwidgets and widget parts and accessories in the great North West of the United States.Martin was employed with ABC Widgets for 18 years, working his way up the corporateladder in the company until reaching the level of senior vice president three years ago.In his role as senior VP, Martin made great efforts to expand the business of ABC Widgets,hoping to grow the company from a regional player to a nationwide distributor of widgets,widget parts, and widget accessories. Along the way, he had taken several "shortcuts" andissued additional cost-savings policies to more quickly achieve his lofty goals.Among these shortcuts, last year Martin signed off on a massive purchase of a less expensiveand lower grade of steel, one that had not been recommended or approved for themanufacture of mechanical parts that are exposed to high heat. And, though his company'swidgets were manufactured specifically for the purpose of exposure to high heat, beingintegral components in motorcycle engines, the purchase order went through with hisknowledge. Martin further complicated matters when he falsified material orderspecifications in the company databases, tracking processing systems, and in MIS reports.In the months that followed, seven near-fatal motorcycle accidents occurred. In each of theaccidents, careful analysis revealed that it was the widget, manufactured by ABC Widgets,that failed within the engine and caused the accidents. After further investigations into thematter by state and federal authorities, the purchase of lower grade steel was discovered,and Martin's company faced stiff fines and penalties. Public knowledge of the unethicalbehavior also resulted in catastrophic sales declines and Martin's tenure with ABC Widgetscoming to an abrupt end.It is important to note that neither the injuries to the motorcyclists nor the many lawsuitsand legal actions that ensued were what constituted Martin's behavior as unethical. It wasthe behavior itself, even had there been no injury, discovery, or penalty, that, by the verydefinition of the term, must considered to be unethical. Whether unethical behavior isdiscovered or goes undetected, it is unethical nonetheless.Ethical BehaviorDaniella Costa is a midlevel manager at the Croquette French Pastry Company. Her companyspecializes in gourmet French pastries that are delivered (fresh or frozen) to fine diningestablishments in New York City and its surrounding suburbs. Daniella has been with thecompany for eight years.Three months ago, Daniella's direct supervisor, who is vice president of sales and marketingfor the Croquette French Pastry Company, assigned her to the task of infiltrating more"healthy eating" establishments that have begun to pop up in several of the city's districts byway of emails, social media posts, and link invitations to the company website. WhenDaniella protested that the company's pastries, with their high butter and fat content, did notmeet the standards of the healthy eating establishments, her boss insisted that she find away...even if she had to "exaggerate" the healthfulness of their company's products in allelectronic communications with the healthy eating establishments and hide any references toproduct ingredients on the Coquette company website. Faced with the dilemma of either being dishonest (unethical) by falsifying information anddistributing that information via information technology or not performing to the level ofher boss's expectations-Daniella chose the latter. Two weeks after her conversation withher boss, she was fired for underperformance and failure to follow explicit directions.Three days later, after bringing the case of her dismissal to the attention of the company'spresident, Daniella was reinstated in her role as a midlevel manager and subsequently given apromotion. The senior vice president of sales and marketing who had dismissed her in thefirst place was sharply admonished and put on indefinite administrative leave.The real result, however, of Daniella's ethical behavior was that potentially millions ofcustomers who choose healthy eating establishments throughout New York City were notgoing to be the innocent victims of very "unhealthy" fare.

Note: Since you have asked multiple subpart question, we will solve the first three subparts as per…

Answered: Q4- As you learned in the Learning…

12th Edition

ISBN:9781259929434

Author:William Nickels

Publisher:William Nickels

Chapter1: Taking Risks And Making Profits Within The Dynamic Business Environment

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1CE