Management Help

The homework is in essay format.

Part I asks questions pertaining to the assigned course readings and our seminar discussions. There are four questions in part I. If there is information used from the text or outside resources, cite them using APA format. Please give a full citation of any sources used at the end of each answer. There is no required “length” for each answer, however, please answer each question in its entirety.

PART I

1. To what extent do our moral ideas reflect the society around us, and to what extent are we free to think for ourselves about moral matters?

2. Explain distributive justice and how it relates to employee motivation.

3. Explain the utilitarian, libertarian, and Rawlsian views of justice. How are they similar? How are they different?

4. Are corporations moral agents? Do they have moral responsibilities?

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Part II asks that you read the attached case study and answer the following questions. Part II has four questions. Outside research is needed to support the answers. This case study will require use of the knowledge gained from this course and use it in a real world situation.

Part II: Case Study

“Anything for you?” the waiter asked Betsy Sugarman. She and Zach exchanged glances.

“No, I’m all set,” Betsy said. “Just the menu.” She sighed and turned to her husband. “It doesn’t feel quite the same to celebrate without wine.”

“I’ll stop drinking, too, if you want—in solidarity,” Zach said.

Betsy smiled feebly. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be pregnant. She absolutely did. She had always wanted children. She just hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly.

“You should be thrilled, Bets, wine or not. This is exciting. The next phase of our life.” Zach took her hand in his. He’d suggested this dinner at their favorite restaurant, Luna Park, because it was where they toasted all their milestones: their engagement, Betsy’s acceptance to business school, Zach’s landing his first big client after he started his own media production company. It seemed only appropriate to celebrate the baby news here, too. But Betsy was feeling more anxious than festive.

“I am happy,” she said. “I really am. I’m just not sure about the timing. And yes, I know, it’s never exactly the right time. But this job—it’s my dream job.”

“And you’re still going to get it,” Zach said. “There’s no reason why the head of overseas operations can’t also be a mom.”

Betsy had worked at Caston Pharma, a biotech firm south of San Francisco, ever since graduating from Stanford Business School five years earlier. At first she’d been disappointed with the company. It wasn’t as fast-paced as she’d expected, and opportunities to move up were few and far between. Her mentors had told her to trust the system, to be patient, to wait for the right opportunity. Finally, a few months earlier, she had found it.

Tom DeHart, the president of Caston’s international division, wanted a short term director of overseas operations, someone who would spend the next 18 to 24 months traveling frequently to Caston’s non-U.S. entities. The role came with a mandate to build ties and learn the intricacies of the global business while working toward something even bigger and better: a senior-level line management position abroad.

Betsy had been interviewing with Tom, and two weeks before, he’d told her she was the front-runner for the job.

This wasn’t just the perfect career opportunity. It was what Betsy and Zach wanted in life: to live, work, and eventually raise a family overseas. Zach was from Australia, and they’d met in Indonesia, in the Peace Corps, right after college. In the kitchen of their Noe Valley apartment they kept a map of the world and put pins in places where they would consider living.

There were so many of them that Zach had jokingly suggested they start putting the pins in places they wouldn’t consider instead.

The waiter put Zach’s Pinot Noir in front of him. Zach raised it for a toast, but Betsy looked down at the table.

“Bets, you’ve got to shake this,” Zach said. “You are the master of making things possible. We’ll figure it all out. Anyway, I thought you said Tom was a parent. Won’t he understand?”

“He might. I don’t know him all that well. He seems like a great guy, but I don’t want to disappoint him. He acted very excited about my taking the job last time we spoke. We both were.”

“What did he say, exactly?”

“He talked a lot about the travel, and wanted to be sure I was all right with it. He said it can be really hard—that I would need a ton of stamina. What am I going to tell him?”

“OK, let’s think this through. What are the arguments for and against telling him you’re pregnant?” Zach took a cocktail napkin, turned it over, and drew a line down the middle, writing “Pros” on one side and

“Cons” on the other. Betsy had done this sort of thing numerous times for him. She was the organized one in the relationship. She used a spreadsheet to plan vacations, map out career plans, arrange summer and winter clothes.

Betsy appreciated how hard Zach was trying, but she couldn’t muster the energy to play along. “I’m just not sure I can have a baby and do this job,” she said.

A Higher Standard

The next morning Betsy dropped off her laptop at her desk, poured herself a decaf coffee (though she desperately wanted a regular one), and walked up to the third floor to see Cara Quinn, one of the HR directors. Winded, she paused a moment outside Cara’s door, surprised at how tired she felt so early in the pregnancy.

“Betsy, what are you doing?” Cara asked, spying her in the hallway. Cara was known around the company for being tough and incredibly efficient. Her office was perfectly tidy, nothing out of place. She made Betsy look like a slob, and that wasn’t easy.

“I’m wondering if you know when Tom will make his decision,” Betsy said.

“Why? You aren’t having second thoughts, are you?”

“No, no. I just want to be sure I’m prepared.” Betsy looked at the empty chair in the room. Cara caught her gaze but didn’t invite her to sit.

“I’m glad to hear that, because I think you’re the right person for this job,” Cara said. “Perfect, in fact. You’re a hard worker—focused and committed. You can handle the pressure. Tom needs someone who is going to see this thing through.”

“Yes—as I’ve said all along, it’s exactly what I’ve been waiting for.”

“Good. Tom’s travel schedule isn’t set yet, but he should be back next week. Be sure you’ve got your ducks in a row. Tom likes you and he knows your track record, but you still have to prove yourself. Lots of other people are vying for this job. It’s not fair, of course, but as women, we have to work harder than everyone else. We’re held to a higher standard. Not just at Caston

but everywhere.”

Betsy wasn’t sure she agreed, so she didn’t say anything.

“I have a meeting now,” Cara said. “Are we finished here?”

“I’ll Feel Like a Fraud”

Back at her desk, Betsy sent an e-mail to her friend Marissa Guallart, asking if she was free for lunch. The two women had started at Caston on the same day, and even though they were now in different divisions, they still relied on each other for career advice.

When Marissa arrived at her office, Betsy asked her to come in and shut the door.

“Uh-oh, you never ask me to shut the door,” her friend said, sitting down.

Betsy told her about the pregnancy.

“Congratulations!” Marissa stood up to hug her. “That’s wonderful.”

“I know, I’m excited…Actually, part of me is excited and the other part is terrified.”

“Wait—isn’t this what you and Zach wanted?”

“Yes. But the timing isn’t good.”

“It never is,” Marissa said. She and her partner, Shannon, had two kids under the age of two. They had both wanted to be pregnant, so they’d tried at the same time and ended up having their two girls just three months apart. “Well, can you still do the job?”

Betsy appreciated how quickly Marissa turned to the practical. It was one reason they got along so well.

“Yes, I think so,” she said. “I was up last night analyzing it. The job would start next month. I could travel for at least the next three months and work right up to my maternity leave—assuming all goes well, of course.”

“And would you take the full four months of leave?” Marissa asked. Caston had a very generous maternity policy by U.S. standards.

“I’d want to. And then, once I was back, I’d have to be on the road a lot. But Zach’s schedule is flexible. He and the baby could come with me some of the time. He’s game for it.”

“I see you’ve thought it all through, as usual,” Marissa said. “So what’s the problem?”

“I have to figure out what to tell Tom.”

“Tell him what you just told me. You’re pregnant, but you’re very excited about the job, and here’s how you’d make it work. What else is there to say?”

“But I’m barely pregnant. I haven’t even told my sister yet. I don’t want to tell Tom.”

“Well, you know me; I’m an open book, even at the office. But I get that you’re closer to the chest about these things.”

Zach had always attributed Betsy’s penchant for privacy to her East Coast upbringing.

“Why don’t you tell HR first and see what they say?”

“Tom’s working with Cara on this search.”

“Oh. She’s scary.”

“Besides, I don’t want to tell anyone else. My sister has had two miscarriages. I just want to be sure everything’s OK first.” Betsy put her head in her hands. “But if I don’t tell Tom now and he gives me the job, I’ll feel like a fraud. If I tell him two months in, he’ll assume that I knew I was pregnant.”

“Man, they sure don’t teach you how to handle these things in business school,” Marissa said.

None of His Business

When Betsy saw that her mother was calling on her BlackBerry, she picked up immediately. They’d been playing phone tag for a week now, since their first conversation about the baby. “Mom.”

“Hey, honey. I’m on my way into Boston for a meeting. Can we talk now?”

Betsy said she needed advice from her, not only as a mother but also as a boss. Her mother and her grandmother had always worked, helping to run the family business: a chain of hardware stores in the Northeast. Both the older women were role models for Betsy; they had taught and shown her that being a working mother wasn’t always easy, but it was definitely worth it.

“I just heard that Tom’s going to be in the office on Monday,” Betsy said, “and he wants to make a decision by the end of the week. I have to decide what I’m going to say to him.”

“Say ‘I’m ready for the opportunity and I can’t wait to get started,’” her mother replied.

“But, Mom isn’t that almost like lying? I’m not telling him the whole truth.”

“Please, Betsy. I raised you to be honest—not to shoot yourself in the foot.”

“Wouldn’t you want to know if Heather was pregnant? If she was going to need to take time off?” Heather was the head buyer for the family’s stores. She spent most of her time on the road at trade shows.

“I’d want to know when Heather was ready to tell me. Given what’s happened with your sister, you can’t take this for granted. What if you tell Tom and then in a few weeks you have bad news? It’s none of his business.”

“I know, I know. That’s what Zach says.”

“Betsy, you aren’t the first working woman to get pregnant. It happens all the time, and we all adjust. You said last week that you and Zach had figured it out. It sounded to me like you have a good plan.”

“I know, but I’m not sure Tom will see it that way. And there are a lot of other people—people without kids—who want this job.”

“All the more reason to keep this to yourself for now. You’ve been a superstar at Caston. Sure, Tom may be irked when you do tell him, but you will already be doing the job better than anyone else could. Soon he won’t care if you told or didn’t tell. He’ll just be happy to have you on his team. He’ll do whatever he can to keep you.”

Betsy knew her mother was biased, but she appreciated the encouragement.

Still, she wasn’t sure. “Maybe I should step aside,” she said. “Maybe it’s just bad timing.”

“Sweetheart, that doesn’t sound like you. You love a challenge. You said yourself that his job is a once-in-a-career opportunity. I’d hate to see you pass it up.”

PART II:

1. What does U.S. law say about information disclosure regarding pregnancy and medical conditions? Is Betsy legally required to tell Tom about her pregnancy?

2. Can Tom legally choose not hire Betsy because she is pregnant? Are there any ethical implications for this decision?

3. From the Libertarian perspective, is it ethical for Betsy NOT to disclose to Tom and HR that she is pregnant? Explain your answer.

4. If you were in Betsy’s place, would you tell Tom about the pregnancy? Why or Why Not? Please support your answer using concepts from this course