Week 1 Assignment

Opening Decision Point – Pg 38

Found iPod: What Would You Do?

Imagine that you are the first person to arrive for your business ethics class. As you sit down at your desk, you notice an iPod on the floor underneath the adjacent seat. You pick it up and turn it on. It works just fine, and it even has some of your favorite music listed. Looking around, you realize that you are still the only person in the room and that no one will know if you keep it. A quick check suggests that the iPod’s security features have not been activated, so nothing is preventing you from using it. Not being able to decide immediately, and seeing that other students are beginning to enter the room, you place the iPod on the floor next to your own backpack and books. As the class begins, you realize that you have the full class period to decide what to do. • What would you think about as you sat there trying to decide what to do? • What would you do? Now let us change the scenario. Instead of being the person who finds the iPod, imagine that you are a friend who sits next to that person. As class begins, your friend leans over, tells you what happened, and asks for advice. The lesson for today’s business ethics class is Chapter 2 of your textbook, Business Ethics: Decision Making for Personal Integrity and Social Responsibility. Finally, imagine that you are a student representative on the judicial board of your school. This student decides to keep the iPod and is later accused of stealing. How would you make your decision? • What are the key facts you should consider before making a decision, as either the person who discovered the iPod, the friend, or a member of a disciplinary panel? • Is this an ethical issue? What exactly are the ethical aspects involved in your decision? • Who else is involved, or should be involved, in this decision? Who has a stake in the outcome? • What alternatives are available to you? What are the consequences of each alternative? • How would each of your alternatives affect the other people you have identified as having a stake in the outcome? • Where might you look for additional guidance to assist you in resolving this particular dilemma? Opening

Decision Point- Pg 58

Ethical Oil: Choose Your Poison

In the fall of 2011, a Canadian organization called EthicalOil.org started a public relations campaign aimed at countering criticism of commercial development of Canada’s oil sands, a set of oil-extraction sites that require the use of hot water and steam to extract very heavy crude oil from sands buried deep beneath the earth’s surface. Critics have aimed harsh criticism at the oil sands development, claiming that this method of extracting oil does immense environmental damage along with posing risks to human health. EthicalOil.org seeks to counter such criticism by pointing out the alternative: Anyone choosing not to buy oil harvested from Canada’s oil sands, they argue, is effectively choosing oil produced by certain nondemocratic Middle Eastern countries with very bad records of human rights abuses. Who could be in favor of supporting countries engaged in human rights abuses? Thus, the claim is that Canadian oil, far from being worthy of criticism, is indeed “ethical oil.” Of course, the fact that EthicalOil.org says oil from Canada’s oil sands is “ethical oil” does not make it true. Remember, the gas you put in your car is refined from oil. Imagine you have the choice, as a consumer, between (1) buying gas for your car that comes from a country where oil extraction does vast environmental damage and (2) buying gas from a country where the profits from that oil help support a dictatorship with a history of human rights abuses. Which gas will you buy? Why? Are you willing to pay a bit extra to get oil that is more ethical, whatever that means to you? Next, imagine that you are responsible for securing a contract to provide gas for your company’s fleet of vehicles. If the choice is available to you, will you choose the most environmentally friendly gas? Or the gas least associated with human rights abuses? Or will you just go with the cheapest gas available? Finally, consider whether the choice between buying gas that harms the environment and gas that contributes to human rights abuses exhausts the alternatives in these scenarios. Are there other courses of action available to the individual car-owning consumer? To the manager responsible for procuring gas for the company fleet? Source: Adapted from Chris MacDonald, “Ethical Oil: Choose Your Poison,” Canadian Business [Blog], September 21, 2011, www.canadianbusiness.com/blog/business_ethics/46555 (accessed July 19, 2012). Decision Point Ethical Oil: Choose Your Poison tightly linking the compensation of all employees—including senior executives— to performance. 14 Developing such habits, inclinations, and character is an important aspect of living an ethical life. (See the Reality Check “Fooling Ourselves” earlier in the chapter.) Ethical Decision Making in Managerial Roles