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CASE STUDY 1
Instructions
Applying your ethical statement.
Using the Ethical Vision Statement you developed over the semester, respond to the
following case-based scenarios referencing your statement and how it would guide your behavior
and decisions for action in these cases.
1. Begin the response with your personal ethical statement
2. Prepare a response to the following scenarios and demonstrate how your choices
relate to your personal ethical statement.
3. Your response should be at a minimum of 400 words for each scenario.
Sce nario 1 (10% of the final grade )
You and four coworkers are assigned an important project due to the COO at the end of
the quarter. This project will launch a new product that the organizatio n has made a large
investme nt in terms of employee hours, financ ia l assets, and its future in the industry. Your team
is responsible for the development of the marketing and distributio n strategy for the new product,
which is a critical piece of the new products and the companys success. You were appointed as
the lead for this team that has 90 days to launch the product. As the team lead you must develop
the plan, secure resources needed to complete the project from the COO, and ensure the final
plan will be impleme nted at the launch date.
As a team, the four of you agreed on the distributio n of work and to meet every Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday between 9 to 10:30 to report on the progress of the project, complete
tasks associated with the project, and troubleshoot issues that come up. This project requires
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close coordinatio n and reliance on your team members to complete. The first two weeks are
going very well, and you and the team are on schedule.
After the end of the third week, one of your team members indicates she is too busy to
attend all of the meetings due to their current workload, but she promises she will get their work
done by the deadline and send written reports to the team members before the meetings. Your
frustratio n and your other team members’ frustratio n is growing and there is a legitimate fear that
your team will not meet the goal of having the plan ready for launch.
Your reputation as a professiona l and manager, as well as all of the team members, could
be negative ly impacted, and the consequence for the company can be highly detrimenta l. This
project must be successful.
You are aware the team member who stated they are too busy to attend the meetings has
a challenging job within the organizatio n. You see her come to work at 7 a.m. and you are told
by others she often puts in 12-hour days. Within the unit she manages, there are 2 employees
who are diffic ult employees. They are very vocal about their dissatisfac tio n with the
organiza tio n, their supervisor, and the workload. You also learned this team member is facing
several personal issues as well. She has a child who has had a series of operations to correct a
medical condition that can be life-threa te ning and will need at least two more in the coming year.
In terms of the organizatio n, the company expects leaders to create a supportive
environme nt for all employees and to help employees to grow and be successful. Historica lly
your organiza tio n was one of the last in your industry to place women in leadership roles and
several years ago, there were multip le cases of sexual harassment and a hostile environme nt for
women and people of color. The organiza tio n has been proactive in addressing these issues and
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has a no-tolerance policy towards people who violate rules governing harassment and hostility
towards co-workers.
Using your personal ethics statement as a guide, how do you handle this situatio n?
Provide details on the steps you will take in addressing this issue and related this to your
personal ethics statement. Be very specific about what you will say to the team member and to
the team as a whole about the situatio n and the actions you have taken.
Sce nario 2 (10% of the final grade )
You are hired as a production manager within a small manufacturing firm that produces
wood furniture for homes. You ask the company owner who is the CEO what the environme nta l
manageme nt plan is. He responded that it is not your job to worry about that just make more
units.
After working there for a few weeks, you notice several processes which have
environme nta l implica tio ns, such as:
there is excessive use of cardboard and paper products in wrapping the furniture for
shipment.
The manufacturing floor is illumina ted with older and less effic ie nt lighting units
The plant is not using any sort of renewable energy source to heat the building or power
machine ry
The furniture is being shipped by a fleet of older trucks that are not fuel-effic ie nt
There is no recycling practice for refuse and scrap products
Wood stains, paint, and other chemicals are put into steel drums and stored on the
grounds and to your knowledge, are not disposed of properly
There are no paperless options for billing and invoice s to retailers and other customers
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The workers are often exposed to contamina nts, and not all of the machines have the
most modern safety devices.
Turnover among employees is high mostly because the pay is low and it is not a safe or
clean environme nt, which is true for the industry as well as this plant.
You can see the company is in need of an environme nta l manageme nt plan that is good
for the environme nt, the employees, and after an initia l investme nt, will save the company a
substantia l amount of money. Again, you raise this issue with the CEO, and he responds, We
dont have time for that nonsense. You just worry about production and getting that furniture out
to the retail stores. We are in business to make furniture and because when we do that, we make
money. This company has been making furniture for 75 years and never worried about the
environme nt the way you do.
What would you do in this situatio n and what are your choices? Using your personal
ethical statement, prepare a response. Identify the next steps you would take and justify these
according to your personal ethical statement.
Evaluatio n
The following rubric indicates the criteria students are to adhere to, and their relative
weights to the assignme nt overall.
Activity/Compe te ncie s De monstrate d % of
Final Grade
Conte nt /60
Articula ted personal ethical statement /15
Identified the key issues in the scenarios /15
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Described and presented arguments supporting the decisions made /15
Identified how the decisions relate to the personal ethical statement /15
Communicatio n /30
Uses langua ge clearly and effective ly /10
Informatio n organized intellige ntly and holistica lly (i.e. not simply
answers to questions)
/10
Proper introductio n and conclusio n to the paper /10
Atte ntion to De tail /10
APA formatting (title, headings & references) /10
Total /100