BU113: Foundations of Business Administration
Prof. Bauer-Ramazani

1. Read Chapter 2 and Appendix II.
    
2. Read the Records case and prepare some notes to answer the following questions:

1. What are the facts?
    

2. What is the dilemma or ethical issue that you faced?  What values and norms are in conflict?
    

3. Who are the stakeholders involved?  In what way are they affected?
    

4. What alternative courses of action do you have?  What are the tradeoffs of each decision?
    

5. How should you solve this dilemma?  What guidelines could you use?
    

6. What are your personal beliefs or feelings about this issue?
    

What to do at the Record Store?

Situation:

A close friend gets a job as assistant manager of a record store.  You visit her and she gives you three compact disks saying, “The owner is really stupid and the inventory system is so bad here they never know what they have.  Even my manager takes stuff home.  You can have these if you want.”

You would:

1.     Take them since it is not wrong or illegal since even the manager takes disks.

2.     Take them since, whether it is legal or not, it is the owner’s fault for having such a bad inventory system and you will have done nothing wrong because an employee gave them to you.

3.     Take them even though you think it is wrong because you want the disks and don’t want to pay for them.

4.     Take them even though you think it is wrong because your friend was just being nice and you don’t want to embarrass her.

5.     Politely refuse, making up an excuse like you don’t really need them or you already have them.

6.     Refuse and counsel your friend that she is, in effect, stealing from the owners and that the fact that others are doing it doesn’t make it right.

7.     Report your friend to the owner.

See also OBSTACLES TO ETHICAL DECISION MAKING: RATIONALIZATIONS (Josephson Institute of Ethics)

• If It's Necessary, It's Ethical
• The False Necessity Trap
• If It's Legal and Permissible, It's Proper
• It's Just Part of the Job
• It's All for a Good Cause
• I Was Just Doing It for You
• I'm Just Fighting Fire With Fire
• It Doesn't Hurt Anyone
• Everyone's Doing It
• It's OK if I Don't Gain Personally
• I've Got It Coming
• I Can Still Be Objective