Introduction
Business ethics is a complex issue since new ethical challenges emerge daily in any organization. The management and the employees have to use the appropriate ethical judgment techniques to determine the right course of action. Companies have to ensure that all the employees observe the set ethical guidelines. The following discussion analyzes several ethical cases to determine the possible courses of actions may be taken.
Case 1
According to the organizational policy, the employees have to be refunded for their expenses based on the upper limit of each expense identified. Susie decision not to reimburse the employee’s expenses fully may be due to her interpretation of the organization’s policy, which clearly states the type of expense and the limit for reimbursement. She is right in the perspective that the expenses incurred by the employee were related to hotel expense only, hence the expenses should be reimbursed based on a $90 limit. The extra amount incurred by the employee does not relate to food, which could have made it compulsory for the firm to refund the worker. In addition, she is a new employee, hence she may not be aware of previous accounting practices. The employee claimed that the refund based on the type of the expenses has never been an issue before, hence she should be fully compensated.
The employees claim for full refund irrespective of the type of expense incurred is also justifiable. Previous refund claims by the employee have been granted irrespective of whether it was hotel expenses or hotel and food cost. Therefore, the employee is entitled to the claim, since he or she has been receiving the full refund. In addition, the total amount to be refunded does not exceed $130, which is set to be the total limits for both hotel and food expenses.
I would side with the employee claim since he has always received the refund, hence it was his or her believe that he or she would be reimbursed after the claim. In addition, the employee has been at the firm for a longer period than Susie, hence he or she understands the organization accounting practices.
Case 2
In this scenario, Cal is in an ethical dilemma since he has to choose whether to write or not write a recommendation for Harry. One of the options available is to refuse to write the recommendation letter. This is because Harry was involved in some financial irregularity hence not fit to work for another firm. The consequence of this action is that their friendship may be broken.
The second option is to write a recommendation letter and fail to mention why Harry was retrenched by the firm. Cal may base this judgment on the strong friendship bond they have built with Harry over the years or due to his belief that the mistake was due to new regulations. This action may improve their friendship, however, Cal may also be fired if the organization discovers that he wrote the recommendation letter.
Case 3
Stan has two options; he can decide to tell Jim that he one of the employees to be laid-off or lie to him. Stan is dealing with secrecy and trust values. At a personal level, he is obligated to tell his team member Jim the truth. However, he was asked by the manager to keep the information confidential.
If Stan fails to tell his friend the truth that he knows he will be laid-off, the level of trust between them may reduce. Failure to tell Jim about the lay-off may enhance the trust between him and the manager. If he tells Jim, the manager may fail to trust him again with confidential information. In addition, he may be suctioned for failing to observe secrecy.
Case 4
In this case, the internet company has to determine if money is more important than the users’ privacy and freedom. If the firm’s management cannot renegotiate the contract with the government to ensure the users’ privacy and freedom are observed, then it should not invest in the country. Although the new venture will increase the returns for the organization’s stakeholders, it will be at the expense of the country citizens’ rights to privacy and freedom.
In the U.S., where the company was founded, users’ privacy and freedom are observed. If the firm opts to do business in the country, it should inform the users that their browsing history is being monitored. In addition, it should state that internet browsing will be censored hence users should be careful. It is crucial to inform the users on all the terms and conditions for using the company services.
Case 5
The school should suspend the graduation for all the students who cheated the exam. This will ensure that integrity and honesty are restored in the school. The school can also show leniency if there were no rules prohibiting such actions by the student. This can be done by providing another exam for the students. The instructor should report this issue to the school administration or fail all the students caught cheating during their online exams. The instructor can also provide another exam and warn the students against such actions in the future.
The students, in this case, should report to their instructor about their act and explain why they did it. If the school had an honor code, the solutions would be different since it would be presumed that the students knew that they were doing an unethical act, hence a harsh punishment would be recommended such as course cancellation.