Question

In this exercise, decisions will be made in ethically ambiguous situations and then analyzed. As in the real world, all the background information on each situation will not be available, and assumptions will need to be made.It is recommended that the exercise be completed before reading the following mat e rial, and then revisited after you have completed the chapter.Name:Date:Part ISTEP 1Make decisions in the following situations. You will not have all the background information about each situation; instead you should make whatever assumptions you feel you would make if you were actually confronted with the decision choices described. Select the decision choice that most closely represents the decision you feel you would make personally. You should choose decision choices even though you can envision other creative solutions that were not included in the exercise.Situation 1. You are taking a very difficult chemistry course, which you must pass to maintain your scholarship and to avoid damaging your application for graduate school. Chemistry is not your strong suit, and because of a just-below-failing average in the course, you must receive a grade of 90 or better in the final examination, which is 2 days away. A janitor who is aware of your plight informs you that he found the master copy of the chemistry final in a trash barrel and saved it. He will make it available to you for a price, which is high, but which you could afford. What would you do?(a) I would tell the janitor thanks, but no thanks.(b) I would report the janitor to the proper officials.(c) I would buy the examination and keep it to myself.(d) I would not buy the examination myself, but I would let some of my friends, who are also flunking the course, know that it is available.
Situation 2. You have been working on some complex analytical data for 2 days now. It seems that each time you think you have them completed, your boss shows up with a new assumption or another "what if" question. If you only had a copy of a new software program for your personal computer, you could plug in the new assumptions and revise the estimates with ease.Then a colleague offers to let you make a copy of some software that is copyrighted. What would you do?(a) I would readily accept my friend’s generous offer and make a copy of the software.(b) I would decline to copy it and plug away manually on the numbers.(c) I would decide to go buy a copy of the software myself for $300 and hope I would be reimbursed by the company in a month or two.(d) I would request another extension on an already overdue project date.Situation 3. Your small manufacturing company is in serious financial difficulty. A large order of your products is ready to be delivered to a key customer, when you discover that the product is simply not right. It will not meet all performance specifications, will cause problems for your customer, and will require rework in the field; but this, you know, will not become evident until after the customer has received and paid for the order. If you do not ship the order and receive the payment as expected, your business may be forced into bankruptcy. And if you delay the shipment or inform the customer of these problems, you may lose the order and also go bankrupt. What would you do?(a) I would not ship the order and place my firm in voluntary bankruptcy.(b) I would inform the customer and declare voluntary bankruptcy.
(c) I would ship the order and inform the customer after I received payment.(d) I would ship the order and not inform the customer.

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

Situation 1: a) I would tell the janitor thanks, but no thanks. It would be wrong to cheat in the exam.

Situation 2:(c) I would decide to go buy a copy of the software myself for $300 and hope I would be reimbursed by the company in a month or two. Getting a copy of the software for the price would guarantee that are no copyright infringement problems which would affect the company and my job as well. Management would be happy at my dedication as I am willing to go an extra mile for the company and would likely reimburse me for expenses

situation 3: (b) I would inform the customer and declare voluntary bankruptcy. It is important that I inform the customer and let him know why the shipment didn't go through. Customers appreciate honesty and trustworthiness of sellers. He may be willing to help the company not declare bankruptcy by ordering anyways. However it is more important to not cheat the customer than it is for business to go bankrupt.