The Utilitarian and Duty-Based Views on Code of Conduct

 1. what are the main ethical issues for professor Ballistico here?
 2. What options are open to him?how you assess these options?

1. Professor Ballistico has been conducting research on various side effects of food additives in frozen food His recent research shows that two substances ‘Lifelong’ and ‘Rotnever’ results in an increased risk of human allergies for those consumers who use these additives quite often. These additives are an important component in products of Foodcorp who is the market leader of frozen food industry and also provides funds to BigCity University so that they can set up their research centres and support its activities. The main ethical issue for Professor Ballistico here is that he cannot hide the results of his research from public and at the same time going against Foodcorp would mean there would be no further funding from Foodcorp for Bigcity university research centre.

2. Professor Ballistico has two options open to him, he could either declare his research results in public as he has always done with his early works or could speak to Foodcorp in private so that they could take appropriate actions without making it a public issue.According to me second option appears more appropriate at this situation because fund provided by Foodcorp are of high importance for BigCity University research centre and also Foodcorp should be give one chance to correct their mistake instead of straightaway spoiling the reputation of the company.

3. Professor should first discuss the matter with university management committee and then call for a meeting with the Foodcorp to inform them about the findings.In other to prevent such problems in future professor should encourage the university not to accept such huge funds from corporations and better seek for government funds. Once Foodcorp has solved the problem internally they should make the research public so that use of such additives could be avoided in future.

4. Corporate involvement in funding university and other public institutions is not in public interest because this gives them the power to actually run these institutions in their ways . When corporate get involved they look for return on their investment taking away the freedom from public institutions of working their ways.

5. An inability and unwillingness of government to fund higher education has lead to an increased number of corporation’s involvement in education sector (StateUniversity.com, 2014) . This has reframed educational values and ethics making educational institutes more like business centres with leaders and executives.

1. At this situation from an ethical point of view the engineer would prefer to protect the rights of people working under him because they possess the needed skills and expertise to handle challenging tasks. However he is in no position to do so because he needs the job and have no one to actually present the matter. All the members of senior management team are in support of hiring external contracts for the project.Deontology theory of ethics supports my position in this situation according to which he should adhere to my duties and obligations when analysing an ethical situation (Fisher & Lovell, 2006).

Major Stakeholders in a News Release

2. If I were the civil engineer I would make another attempt to talk to CEO about the capabilities and skills of my people. My response in this case differs from that in answer 1 because I feel it’s important to protect the rights of people working under me because public interest should always be kept above self interest (Erll, et al., 2008). It will also benefit the company I work for as it will result in saving huge operations cost and enhancing job satisfaction for internal employees.

3. My decision would be affected by a number of factors like; fear of losing my job/ position, job dissatisfaction, professional and work environment and my individual values and attributes (Ferrell, et al., 2012).

4. Different individuals view different situations from a completely different perspective. Every individual has their own set of values and beliefs (Keen, 2012). They belong to different personal, social and professional environment thus will react differently to different situations. Thus, anyone who reads this dilemma will not make similar decisions.

1. Use of employer’s resources for personal work has always been viewed as a serious ethical issue in ICT (Rogerson, 2009). In this case one of the employees has used employer’s laptop to visit websites that display material of explicit nature. He has conducted an unethical act which is restricted by strict company policy and code of conduct. Another issue involves him lending the employer’s laptop to his friend. According to the company’s code of conduct no one except the employees are allowed to use company IT equipments.

2. This situation presents two possible courses of action either forget about the case because company as of now needs the experience and expertise of the person involved or terminate him for not abiding by the code of conduct.

3. The first alternative when views according to utilitarian perspective appears wrong because it will create a wrong impression in the mind of other employees and they too would start taking the code of conducts for granted (McDermid, 2008). However from a duty-based view it appears correct because company cannot afford to lose experience and expertise of Paul at this critical time (Department of Occupational Therapy, 2008).

4. The second alternative appears correct from utilitarian perspective because it will inform the employees that code of conduct treats everyone equally and are to be strictly followed (Murithi, 2009). It will prevent such incidents from happening in future. However from a duty-based view it’s wrong because it will create big problems for the company who is planning launch of a new marketing scheme (Rezaee, 2009)

5. I would straight away terminate the involved employee in order to adhere to the code of conducts. Not taking the matter seriously will encourage other employees and will create a negative perception for the company (Trevin˜o & Brown, 2004).

6. The code of conduct helps restricting unethical and improper use of company resources however they are being run by the managers so it completely depends on them whether the code of conduct is truly and ethically enforced for not.

Deontology Theory and Ethical Decision-Making

1. It is a case of ethical dilemma wherein I am uncertain whether I should share the company’s confidential information with my best friend or now. Being an employee I should abide my duties and keep the information to myself until it’s officially out however at the same time i cannot break my friend’s trust by not informing him about the truth as he and his position will be equally affected by it.

2. Customers, employees and investors are the major stakeholders here. The new will have highest affect on customers using the herbicides, it will bring down the share prices which will affect investors like Freddie and his clients and all this will ultimately impact the employees.

3. I would use deontology theory to support my decision according to which I should abide by obligations and duties when analysing an ethical dilemma. My passing the information to Freddie would bring substantial affect on company’s share price even before the release of the article.

4. Yes there is a difference between my action over the information I was given and passing that information to Freddie.

1. Ethical tourism refers to the tourism that benefits people and environment of different destinations (travelmatters, 2014). It comprises of activities that involve local products and people thus benefiting the society.

2. com is an online travel agent that allows its users to book travel packages online from travel agents how claim to support ethical tourism. They themselves don’t offer travel packages rather perform pre-screening of holiday packages offered by tour companies in order to ensure that the travel will benefit local communities and have negligible negative impact on environment.

3. Tourism can be ethical by minimising negative impact it has on environment and society (Erll, et al., 2008). It should include activities that benefit the local community by using their product and services.

4. Ethical tourists can engage themselves in volunteer tourism which involves performing volunteering activities for underprivileged section of the society (travelmatters, 2014). They can become part of scientific and educational research, wildlife and forest conservation, and serving the local society. They should prefer travelling to nearby places and use local products and services that will ultimately benefit the local community.

References

Department of Occupational Therapy, (2008) Professional and Eductaional Conceptual Framework and Curriculum Philosophy. [Online]

Erll, A., Grabes, H. & Nünning, A., (2008) Ethics in Culture: The Dissemination of Values through Literature and Other Media. s.l.:Walter de Gruyter.

Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J. & Ferrell, (2012) Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making & Cases. New York: Cengage Learning.

Fisher, C. & Lovell, A., (2006) Business Ethics and Values. Essex: Pearson Eductaion Limited.

Keen, B., (2012) Applied Business Ethics: Power Living Through the Truth. Bloomington: iUniverse.

McDermid, D., (2008) Ethics in ICT: An Australian Perspective. Melbourne: Pearson Higher Education AU.

Murithi, T., (2009) The ethics of peacebuilding. Oxford: Edinburgh University Press.

Rezaee, Z., (2009) Corporate Governance and Ethics. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Rogerson, S., (2009) Ethical dilemmas in ICT. [Online]

StateUniversity.com, (2014) Government and The Changing Role of Education – Education As a Public Good, Standards and Efficiency, Equity and Accountability, Private Sector Alternatives, Conclusion. [Online]

travelmatters, (2014) What is Ethical Tourism?. [Online]

Trevin˜o, L. K. & Brown, M. E., (2004) Managing to be ethical:Debunking five business ethics myths. Academy of Management Executive, 18(2), p. 12.