College of Business Administration

Social Responsibility:

The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business

Discussion Questions for Weekend 2:

The first set of six questions relate to the `Johnson Controls' Case...

1) What do you see as the fundamental moral dilemma in the Johnson Controls case? Cast this in terms of the following formulation: The moral dilemma represents a conflict between ___________ and ___________ .

2) In your own words, briefly describe the issues within the Johnson Controls case. Frame these issues using the values set present within Friedman's argument.

3) As the director of human resources for Johnson Controls, would you support or change the policy on women performing lead-exposure tasks? What ethical justification can you provide for your position?

4) What ethical justification can be provided for giving--or not giving-- women the choice to accept the risk of exposure?

5) To what extent should a woman have the right to make decisions that will affect not only her health but the health of her unborn child? To what extent should a woman's consent to or acknowledgment of danger mitigate an employer's liability? What if a child born with lead-induced birth defects sues? Should the mother's consent apply as a defense?

6) The U.S. Supreme Court eventually decided Johnson Controls' policy was discriminatory and a violation of Title VII (International Union v. Johnson Controls, Inc. 5. At what times, if any, should discrimination issues be subordinate to other issues, such as the risk of danger to unborn children?

7) In The Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility, Archie Carroll seems to suggest that there are hierarchical interests with which corporations are involved. These interests range from economic to legal, social and ethical [see also Treveno/Nelson pp. 28-30]

*Is Archie correct in his evaluation?
*What is implied by the metaphor of hierarchy?
*How might this model be applied in the context of the organization with which you are currently employed?

8) What is the "link between the firm's ethical responsibilities or perspectives and its major stakeholder groups"?

9) Is affirmative action normatively justifiable? If so, how might both organizational as well as public policies be crafted to better reflect the ethical claim that reparations need to be made on behalf of those who have been the 'victims' of past unjust discrimination?

10) What are the core ethical criticisms of utilitarianism? How might these best be remedied?

11) Consider your response to the following discussion case vignettes (Trevino/Nelson pp. 139-140):

Employment Basics
You've recently been promoted to a supervisory position and are now responsible for coordinating the work of four other employees. Two of these workers are more than 20 years older than you are, and both have been sith the company much longer than you. Although you've tried to be supportive of them and have gone out of your way to praise their work, whenever there is some kind of disagreement, they go to your boss with the problem. You've asked them repeatedly to come to you with whatever issues they have; they just ignore you and complain to other workers about reporting to someone your age.

*Design a strategy for dealing with these workers and your manager

Diversity
After two years of sales calls and persuasion, a large, multinational petroleum company--Big Oil Ltd.--decides to sign with your employer, Secure Bank. Since Big Oil is headquartered in Saudi Arabia and most of the meetings with the client have been in the Middle East, Secure Bank's senior executive in charge of oil and oil products companies--Julie--has not attended. Although the Secure Bank employees who have met with the company have told the Big Oil executives that the lead on their account will be a woman, the news must not have registered, perhaps because of language difficulties. Today, the Big Oil reps are in Chicago to sign on the dotted line and meet with Secure Bank's senior managers, and of course, they've met with Julie. A member of the original Secure Bank sales team calls you to say that Big Oil's senior team member has told him that Julie will not work on their account, period. Because of cultural issues, Big Oil execs are uncomfortable dealing with women from any country.

*As Julie's manager, what do you do?

Effective Supervision
You return from vacation and find that while you were away, your assistant forged your name to a cash advance to cover the cost of office supplies. Although the purpose of the advance is appropriate, you're frankly shocked that your assistant would forge your signature.

*How do you handle this employee?

Blowing the Whistle
A young man you manage tells you that one of your female peers has made a sexual advance toward him. Your peer is married, has children, and is a popular and respected department head. The young man is very flirtatious and has mentioned unwanted sexual attention from other women in the company on at least two other occasions. However, this is the first time he has named names and has made what appears to be a "formal" complaint.

*How do you handle this?

12) Trevino/Nelson (p. 145) argue that:

The ideal is to make the organizational environment one that supports ethical conduct and "integrity." Integrity is defined as that quality of state of being complete, whole, or undivided. So the ultimate goal is to bring these multiple ethical selves together--to support the idea that a business person can be equally ethical at the office and at home. But managers should pursue that goal with the practical understanding that many people find it quite possible to divide themselves into multiple ethical selves.

What practical prescriptions might you offer organizations who want to encourage 'integrity' on the part of their employees? How might corporate reward systems be structured to promote 'integrity'?

13) It has been noted earlier in discussions related to Schwartz's The Battle for Human Nature that assumptions concerning human nature have a profound impact on our attempts to control human behavior. Trevino/Nelson (p. 215) suggest the following:

Mainstream economics rests on the assumption that human beings are driven by self-interest and opportunism and are likely to shirk responsibility. Acceptance of this assumption logically leads to change efforts focused almost exclusively on behavioral control.
However, we believe that human beings are essentially good and open to growth and change. Most employees prefer being associated with a just organization that supports ethical behavior and disciplines unethical behavior. Given this type of environment, most individuals can be expected to choose ethical behavior.

What are the workplace policy implications of your view of human nature?

14) Trevino/Nelson (p. 282) offer four principles for the resolution of ethical dilemmas in the international context:

*The inviolability of national sovereignty--multinationals are expected to respect the "host country's economic and social development and its cultural and historical traditions."
*Social equity--pay scales are expected to insure equity between genders, as well as racial and ethnic groups.
*Market integrity in business transactions--restrictions on political payments and bribes assume that these "inject non-market considerations into business transactions."
*Human rights and fundamental freedoms--this principle is based on belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every individual and equality of rights of all human beings. However, this principle often competes with other principles...

Are there universal human rights--and if so, what are they?

15) For Rachels, the answer to the question "What, in the final analysis, is the truth?" is summarized in the phrase morality without hubris. This model suggests...

We ought to act so as to promote impartially the interests of everyone alike, except when individuals deserve particular responses as a result of their own past behavior.

Can all of ethics be so tidily summarized?

Return to Professor Dunn's home page.