Week Case study

CASE STUDY RUNNING HEAD: CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT

Case Study Assignment Week 4 Case 10.1 & Case 10.2 January 31, 2013 Team 1-A Bernadine Cotin Bogdana Bjeljac Niurka Munoz

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Case 10.1 Changing Jobs and Changing Loyalties In today’s market place there is no value in being loyal to a company. At any given time an employee can be subjected to termination or can be laid off by his or her employer, there are no guarantees. Since employees are a dime a dozen, in certain trades, there is no value in an individual’s tenure in a company. Unlike Japan, the American social culture of business does not view employees as a whole unit, rather as an individual entity. From the utilitarian point of view, Cynthia should do what is in the best interest of the company, and those employees that are involved on the special project for Altrue (Shaw, 2011). Should she choose to leave more people would be negatively impacted by her decision. When an opportunity presents itself we must carpe diem (cease the day), because there is never a guarantee that another opportunity will come around. How many chances will Cynthia have to work at Crytex, her dream job? In today’s work place employees are constantly on the go with their careers. “The average worker today stays at each of his or her jobs for 4.4 years, according to the most recent available data form the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but the expected tenure of workforce’s youngest employees is about half that” (Meister, 2012). From the utilitarian prospective it would be unethical for Cynthia to leave her position at Altrue, however if she acted upon the libertarian philosophy there wouldn’t be any ethical dilemma. “Best people are more likely to display loyalty to their careers than to you, their employer” (Johnson, 2005).

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Case 10.2 Two Who Made Waves for the Navy

Whistleblowers are known as those individuals, who call attention to possible wrongdoing within their organizations. Some individuals say, “whistleblowers are noble characters willing to sacrifice personally and professionally to expose organizational practices that are wasteful, fraudulent, or harmful to the public safety” (Barnett, 1992). In the opposite hand we have individuals who suggest that whistleblowers are, “disgruntled employees who maliciously and recklessly accuse individuals they feel have wronged them in order to attain their own selfish goals” (Barnett, 1992). With that being said, we strongly believe that both Storms and Ahearn qualify as whistle-blowers. After all, all they did was expose the wrongdoing within their organization. Despite the fact that whistle blowing would mess the good reputation of his seniors in Lemoore Naval Air Base, Storms was right in standing up for what he believed was ethical. His whistle blowing was permissible because it was a requirement as per moral ethics to ensure that honest was upheld. It was completely unethical for the defense contractors to overcharge for the spare parts that Storm has listed in his claim (Shaw, 2011). Based on the moral requirement to preserve the environment, Ahearn’s whistle blowing was permissible. His main motive was to ensure that he did not perpetuate water pollution. Considering that water pollution was completely against this believes he had every right to stand up and speak up no matter what employment punishment he was looking at.

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Many people faced with such an ethical dilemmas are torn between doing what is morally expected or then, and following their prudential concerns such as job security. Therefore, it seems like every individual “course of action is totally dependent on one’s priorities” (Barnett, 1992).

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References Barnett, T. (1992). Why your company should have a whistleblowing policy. SAM advanced management journal, (Autumn), 37-42. Retrieved from http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/old/12_00/basics/whistle/rst/wstlblo_policy.html

Johnson, L. (2005). Rethinking company loyalty. Harvard Management Update, 10(3), Retrieved from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5000.html

Meister, J. (2012, August 14). Job hopping is the 'new normal' for millennials: Three ways to prevent a human resource nightmare. Forbes Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2012/08/14/jobhopping-is-the-new-normal-for-millennials-three-ways-to-prevent-ahuman-resource-nightmare/2/

Shaw, W. (2011). Business ethics: A textbook with cases. (7th ed.). Boston, MA: WADSWORTH Publishing.