article scripts

Exam 2

script #1: The Covid-19 Pandemic and Labor Rights and worker dignity. What do employees deserve during something as catastrophic as the Pandemic? Answer how you’d like. Pick a specific company or talk more generally. Pick 2-3 “things” employees deserve and answer in no fewer than 4 paragraphs.

Script #2: Describe two changes in the U.S. employment relationship over the past 40 years, the potential causes for each change, and the consequences of each change for society (hint: material from the reading on "The Employment Relationship and Inequality").

Identify and explain one way you can address workplace discrimination as an individual (whether you are a manager or not) and TWO ways you could address workplace discrimination as an organization (hypothetically, if you were a CEO).

Answer in 4 paragraphs.

Note: Saying something related to "I won't discriminate" or "I will treat people fairly" doesn't count and will get you zero points.

script #2 for the day: You often catch your boss "mansplaining" to your coworkers. First, explain "mansplaining" to your boss. Then, explain why it is harmful and how they can begin to overcome this behavior. Answer in 4 paragraphs.

script #3 for the day: Your boss comes to your desk and says to you, "Ugh, I'm supposed to tell you to put pronouns in your email signature from now on. We all know you're a ___(Insert his assumption of your gender identity here). This is so unnecessary." How might you respond to your boss? Respond as if you were directly speaking to your boss. Respond with 4 paragraphs.

short answer script: Compare and contrast the positives and negatives of the environmental strategy of fast fashion firms like H&M. That is, what are some pros and cons of their approaches to environmental sustainability (how we've defined it in class)? Are there pros? Cons? 3paragraphs

Think back to the Rana Plaza case and the Wettstein article on "complicity" of human rights abuses. First, how were the corporate and state actors who were involved in the disaster complicit in human rights violations? Second, if you could go back in time to any point before the disaster, what steps would you have advised any of the organizations to take in this case? 4 paragraphs

1. Revised script: As discussed in Michael Sandel's TED Talk on market societies, what is the difference between a market society and a market economy? Subsequently, what is one clear downfall (in his estimation), of putting a price on everything? Answer is 3-4 paragraphs. 

https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_sandel_why_we_shouldn_t_trust_markets_with_our_civic_life?language=en

2. Gentrification: Pretend your friend is confused about gentrification and how a business could affect (positively or negatively) gentrification. Explain gentrification to your friend and then explain how businesses can contribute to this phenomenon in positive and negative ways (At least one of both). Please respond in at least 4 paragraphs.  https://www.ted.com/talks/liz_ogbu_what_if_gentrification_was_about_healing_communities_instead_of_displacing_them/transcript

3. Revisiting Wayfair: Let's return to the Wayfair situation again. Pretend again that you are on the board of Wayfair and the first order of business in front of you is whether to accept the $200,000 government contract to supply furniture to a border detention camp. You must decide what to do. Fulfill the order, reject it, or something else. What action do you take? Answer in just 2-ish paragraphs. 

4. Environmental Sustainability: Pretend you are on a job interview for a corporate position at a Fast Fashion firm. The interviewer asks you what actions you would recommend the company take to become more eco-friendly. First, explain to the interviewer the difference between greenwashing, green initiatives/eco-friendly initiatives, and genuine environmental sustainability. Then, explain two company-level initiatives they could take toward environmental sustainability (two paragraphs). Finally, it is important for the company to learn the scope of the problem, so you must explain two initiatives that are beyond the individual company's control in bringing about environmental sustainability in the industry (such as government level, Global/UN level, etc.). Answer in 2 paragraphs. 

Environmental sustainability

1] uses only natural resources that are consumed at a rate below their natural reproduction, or at a rate below the development of substitutes

[2] do not cause emissions that accumulate in the environment at a rate beyond the capacity of the natural system to absorb and assimilate these emissions

[3] Finally they do not engage in activity that degrades eco-system services

5. Labor Rights: Describe two changes in the U.S. employment relationship over the past 40 years and the potential causes for each change (hint: material from the reading on "The Employment Relationship and Inequality"). Please answer in roughly 3 (or more) paragraphs.

6. Last, as we talked about, there will be one short answer script based on a short case about environmental sustainability. This case will integrate many of our class topics from environmental sustainability to human rights to labor rights to shareholder value ideology to discrimination. I will open the case for you to read the day of the exam. Not before. All I will ask of you is to read the case thoroughly and take notes on your evaluation of it before you open the short answer exam. Then, you are ready to answer my question about the case. The question is not unlike the Wayfair question. You will have to make a decision that affects many people's lives and is a contentious issue. I will only grade it based on your critical thinking. Don't worry about spelling, the "right" answer, etc.