Assignment Background
Case studies provide an opportunity to apply the ethical frameworks to real business decisions. Working through an ethical reasoning framework will not only introduce students to a process of applying these ethical theories to real-life circumstance, the opportunity to practice this framework will increase the likelihood that students are comfortable leveraging this framework in their careers as business leaders.
Assignment Purpose
This case study is intended to provide students with an introduction to the application of an ethical reasoning framework to a real-world business decision. This directions for this cast study are the same as for WEEK 4’s case study, but this case is more complex and will require a bit more consideration to work through.
Assignment Requirements
- Read the
case. - Organize your thoughts into the Ethical Reasoning Framework, below:
- The Factual Analysis
- What are the facts of the case (for us, the business facts) that makes this an interesting situation? You are simply trying to make observations about the important business features of the case.
- Resist the temptation to think about your final recommendation here! You are using both your imagination and your knowledge of the institution of business to explore the facts of this situation first.
- The Rationalization Analysis
- This analysis consists of thinking about the actual or potential rationalizations that you (or the person making the decision) may have. Sometimes I think of them as “moral excuses.” They are things you tell yourself that shut down real moral thinking.
- Refer to the for explanations of the following rationalizations:
- Obedience
- Conformity
- Futility
- Hurry
- Ends justify the means
- Fixation
- Materiality
- Loyalty
- Relativism
- Action Analysis
- Identify three possible courses of action, then rank them as “bad, good and best.”
- Your recommendations should include an explanation of which, if any, of the rationalizations are valid.
- The Factual Analysis
