College of Business Administration

Social and Ethical Issues in Business

Cabrillo

GROUP MEMBERS:

Tanya Garza
Kim Guzman
Alfredo Carranza

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Ethical Issues in business are in an area that today's corporate management takes into consideration when making strategic organizational decisions. In lieu of this, many organizations place a high value on employees that come into an organization with the ability to analyze organizational situations with a perspective on the ethical as well as business characteristics that comprise many of these situations that an organization must deal with. This is important for the introduction of well-rounded business programs in today's universities. Social and Ethical Issues in Business is one of the classes that SDSU offers to give it's students a well rounded education in the field of business studies.

The social change project that was required of us in this class is an integral part of this well-rounded education. Our project gave us the chance to not only sharpen our skills at interpersonal communication, but also realize that there are groups in society that are affected by situations that we do not have to face. This realization is important in the growth of an individual's business savvy. In business situations a manager, or anyone with autonomy in making decisions, must also take into consideration groups in society that are affected by situations that he or she will never face, and even be affected by a situation caused by the decision that was initiated by the organizational decision maker.

The process of implementing a social change project began with a decision as to what organizations would benefit the most from our abilities and resources. Our group went through a process of brain storming on donors and beneficiaries that would best be serviced by our vision. At first our group designated the implementation of an English as a second language program in a lower income bracket elementary school in the South Bay area. After contemplation on the magnitude the project would entail we realized that our efforts would be insufficient in successfully completing the project.

As a result of this decision a new project was formulated. This project consisted of New Alternatives, Cabrillo The Cabrillo Day Treatment Program as the beneficiary or our efforts and various for profit and non-profit organizations as the donors. The Cabrillo program is designed to service severely emotionally disturbed children and adolescents who have been removed from their homes by the Department of Social Services. It also provides a structured environment where children can develop emotional stability needed to be successful in a long-term placement such as a group home, foster home or family re-unification.

We structured the program to benefit the children of Cabrillo by obtaining donations of clothes, toys, and art supplies from donor corporations. This plan of action let us utilize our time and effort most efficiently. We felt that the children of Cabrillo would have a more memorable holiday season with a variety of gifts that they would not otherwise receive. In this we realized that the frameworks of Virtue and Utilitarianism were used. The ethical framework of Virtue, because we donated our time and efforts and our donors had a chance to show their generosity to a group of children that has no personal connection to us. Utilitarianism was demonstrated because our donors had the opportunity to turn us away, but instead chose to be a part of a program that would have the best overall benefits to the children involved as well as themselves. The children would benefit from the gifts and our donors benefited from goodwill generated by our project, benefit does not always need to be monetary.

In the process of implementation of our project we ran into some obstacles in attaining organizations that were willing to participate in our donation project. The success of our project was realized in a relatively short period of time when agreements from Drew Ford, Target, Fair Housing Council, Expersoft, Legal Aid Society, and La Mesa Travel Lodge agreed with great willingness. The success of our project was also realized in a cost benefit analysis we conducted which summarized costs at approximately $85 and benefits at approximately $375. Therefore total monetary benefit was $290, in a strict business sense this project was a success.

Completion of the project is scheduled for December 17th with more donations expected and the possibility of obtaining Santa Claus to visit the center and distribute the gifts. This project gave us an opportunity to gain experiences that would have otherwise been unavailable to business students in a university program lacking ethical studies. It gave us an opportunity to give back to those that are less fortunate than we are during a time when it most matters, where children are without families.

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