Examining Ethical Issues In Business – A Reflection

Case Study 1: The Gold and Diamond Watch

The following study shall consider several of the diagnostic tools in order to conduct a reflection on the experiences that I have come across while working in different organizations. The context of ethics and sustainability is of main concern in this study. Ethics can be related to a special code of conduct or behavior that is expected from a business. Giving good pay to the employees, saying good quality products and services, giving higher returns to shareholders and taking up various acts of Corporate Social Responsibility also denotes several of the elements of a right kind of ethics in the business world. A business has to abide by the ethics in order to keep good touch with its stakeholders and ensure its proper sustainability in the market. Sustainability is one of the biggest concerns for a business and may be related to field such as environmental, social, technical and economical. The overall sustainability of a business helps it to carry out smoothly with all of its business operations.

Summary

Anderson Office Supplies, a wholesaler, sends Ryan, their 24-year-old salesman on his first overseas sales trip in the Middle East. There, he falls into a trap set by a dubious Arab man named Abdul. Abdul claims that if Ryan can get him a Rolex watch worth $10,000 he shall get him a deal worth A$5 million in return. Without verifying his credentials Ryan believes this man and embarks upon getting him the watch in order to secure the deal. Despite getting discouraged by his boss who is an honest man, he is undaunted. He gets a loan from a bank without considering his already precarious financial condition. While buying the watch he is discovered by the boss’ daughter who later fires him from his job. Later he receives an email from Abdul which says that the deal is closed as he has found another supplier.

Reflection

The above case clearly reveals that Ryan is the one to blame for his own downfall. Firstly, he should not have trusted the man without any proper credentials. Secondly, in spite of his boss’ warnings he proceeded with his own intentions without paying any heed to the advice. Therefore, when he is fired from the job he himself is solely responsible for this. However, I feel that firing Ryan from the job is a bit too harsh on the part of the boss. I believe this because he did not yet commit the fraudulent act. And given his mortgage and maxed out credit card he was in no position to lose his job. On one hand it was indeed very stupid of him to go for it in the first place but on the other I think that he should have been spared with a warning on humanitarian grounds.

Summary

All Asia Airways is a Chinese passenger airline company. In China, it can be seen that the company conducts business through the giving of expensive gifts and bribes to important officials of the government in order to secure advantages for the organization. But when the corporation expands to the United States, it has to adjust itself to a new legal framework as United States has a strict legislature against such underhand means adopted in business. However, this did not deter the staff of the organization to involve in illicit activities in order to secure deals. They often accepted invitations from suppliers for getting into deals with them. An employee of the purchasing section David Leong, came to know that out of the 20 planes of AAA 15 had faulty fuel pumps and had to be immediately grounded. This would imply huge losses for AAA that would run in millions of dollars. However, there was one way available to David to avert this disaster and that would be by bribing an official of an East European government owned manufacturer. David faced a dilemma and did not know what to do. If he let the planes be grounded his career at AAA was finished and if he chose to bribe David he might face imprisonment up to five years.

Reflection

Case Study 2: All Asia Airways

I believe that David should stop thinking about the option of bribing the official to get the supplies. This is because if he is found out to have engaged in illicit activities his entire life will be at stake. He will be imprisoned and his prospects of securing a job elsewhere will come to a crash. But if he chooses the other option, he can only lose his career prospects in AAA. It will only take a certain amount of effort on his part to seek employment elsewhere where he can again pursue his career.

Summary

A very costly Mercedes car was passing a crossing that had a traffic light which indicated the green colour. However, from the road near to it, a car came off at a high speed even after seeing a red signal and knocked down the Mercedes car. The Mercedez was so badly knocked down that it could not be repaired.

Reflection

The person who hit the Mercedes is clearly the one to blame in this scenario. Not only was he breaking the speed limit but he was not following the traffic signals. Therefore, he should be the one to pay compensation for the damage done to the Mercedes. This is primarily because I strongly believe that one should take responsibility for one’s actions and should be willing to fix things up if they produce undesired results

Summary

There had been a need to build a high speed railway line between Melbourne and Adelaide. For the purpose of laying down with the construction, the houses of Hicksville had to be obliterated. The houses costs around $55,000-70,000. The authorities were in an utter confusion and could not decide how could they rehabilitate all the people of the locality as the houses in the nearest town costs $125,000 each. The compensation or the plan of rehabilitation could not be decided upon by the concerned authorities.

Reflection

The government should either pay the inhabitants of the community the money with which they can buy new houses or they should be shifted elsewhere. I believe that a government has to act inclusively and fairly (see diagnostic 15). Our establishments should be driven by compassion and then only can they secure the consent of people for carrying out its activities.  

Summary

In an American Southern street, a male middle aged person was alleged for killing and raping many of the young girls and women in the area. The DNA tests of the crime spots and from the body of the victims points out to all those evidences which prove that he was responsible for all those kind of heinous crimes. There are only two kind of punishments available at the hands of the authority, that is the life imprisonment without parole or death penalty. Being the judge myself, I have to choose between the two of the options and decide which shall be more apt as per the call of the situation.

Reflection

I think that the middle aged man should be sentenced to capital punishment. I would have been in doubt about the conviction if the crimes were ones motivated by passion or there was not enough evidence against him. This case clearly reveals that this man lacks even a trace of humanity in him. Justice can only be served by putting him to death 

Summary

It was discovered by the authorities that a man had evaded the tax for quite a long time and the total amount that accumulated to be around mo0re than $4 million. The man had already done same kind of an offence time ago and it amounted to $2 million. Thus, the offence this time had been repeated by the person. In order to provide him with a suitable punishment for his offences, he either had to pay off a harsh penalty or serve a 6-month duration of gaol time.  However, the latter punishment has been rarely put of effect by former judges.

Reflection

After getting caught once the businessman should not have committed the same mistake again. In this scenario, quite evidently, he deserves gaol time. But a few other factors have to be considered here as well. Since he runs a business it can be assumed that there a number of people who are his employees and are therefore dependent on him. Thus, this time he should be subjected to bigger penalty so that he is discouraged from doing it a third time 

Conclusion

The importance of ethics and sustainability for an organization cannot be denied. There are various types of underlying concepts under the vicinity of the ethics which are much of a complex nature. There are many differences between ethics and sustainability. The companies have the responsibilities to maintain ethical behaviour and sustainability in the organizational sphere. The standard of sustainability advances the safeguarding of the biological community and the assurance of different types of life forms. The requirements of people as well as of other conscious creatures must be considered. In this manner, the rule of utilitarianism is good with that of sustainability. Therefore, the essential goal for associations, in this unique circumstance, is to build up a business system that coordinates reasonable practices in the generation of the components. Keeping in mind the end goal to maintain a business effectively, the activities need to hold fast to the exact sort of moral hypotheses and structures.