Analyze Ethical Standards
Select a case from the Case Applications list at the end of Chapter 1 of your text, beginning on page 61. You can also choose to use another case if you prefer to do so.
I. Situate yourself as an I/O psychologist for the company by summarizing your role as advisor to leadership, sales, or human resources.
II. Use the framework outlined in the text:
Identify the issue.
Establish the facts.
Identify options.
Assess consequences for each option, including doing nothing.
Use the Table of Pros and Cons.
Apply the principles.
Answer the following:
Can I defend these principles to the company’s board of directors?
Can I explain them in court?
Can I explain them to the media?
Can I explain them to my fellow workers?
Can I explain them to my family?
Following these principles, how will I feel about this decision a year from now?
Would this decision seem right 20 years from now when someone writes my biography or the history of my organization?
Describe your course of action.
Outline the short-term fix to the long-term solution.
What are the lessons learned?
***** Write a 5 page paper addressing the above.
******These are the Cases or yu can choose one of your own.
Cases
Case 1.1: Getting Funded
It’s hard to be a start-up. To get funding from major venture capitalists with deep pockets requires
having a good story. NOTHAM Foods’s story had two parts that the company’s charismatic founder
Daniel Certech regularly pitched to investors. The first was about its rapid growth in sales. The second
dealt with the scientific advances it was making in the use of plant proteins that could be used to feed
the 9 billion people who would inhabit the planet by 2050. However, Jane Ireland, a newly hired
accounting employee, noticed that to boost sales the company was systematically buying back its own
inventory, expensing the buybacks as marketing costs under the category of Inventory Consumed for
Samples and Internal Testing. This practice did not seem right, though she did not know if it was illegal.
In the company lunchroom, she remarked to Anne Spinoza, a colleague and a friend who did research on
plant proteins, “It’s just a matter of time when there will be consequences. Investors will figure this out
when they scrutinize our accounting. They could pull financing and we would not have the cash to keep
going. What if they thought they were duped and brought a fraud case against us?” Anne replied, “You
know, the yellow pea protein project on which I am working hasn’t yielded any results, but Daniel keeps
touting it as a winner.” What should Jane and Anne do?
Case 1.2: Recommending an Acquisition
Ira Koslowsky, a star employee, was on the fast track at Grandiose Private Equity, Inc. On his own he had
borrowed money, creating a stake for himself of about $1 million in LUBICATe, an up-and-coming
chemical company. Koslowsky studied the company carefully. It had patents on an exclusive catalytic
process, for which other firms surely would be willing to pay top dollar. In addition, he believed its
management were experienced pros who had done prior successful start-ups. He understood that they
were now ready to sell LUBICATe and move on. He wanted to recommend the sale of LUBICATe to
Grandiose. If Grandiose decided to buy the company, his investment in LUBICATe was likely to more
than triple in value. He did not think there was anything illegal in making the recommendation, but he
worried about how his bosses at Grandiose might respond if they found out about his stake in the
company. At the top of the organization he was pretty sure this kind of inside dealing commonly took
place, but nobody talked about it. From where he stood in the organization, the company seemed
awfully fussy about potential conflicts of interest. What should Ira do?
Case 1.3: A Fleet of Autonomous Vehicles
The year is 2025, and nearly 20% of all vehicles on the road are autonomously driven (self-driving). The
government has established strict guidelines for the algorithms that run these vehicles. In the event that
there is a choice between saving a few occupants in a vehicle and many pedestrians and occupants in
other vehicles, the autonomous vehicles must be programmed to swerve to avoid harm to pedestrians
and to the occupants of other vehicles. The justification for the policy is that the public interest is to
have the fewest number of people harmed in traffic accidents. You are outraged by this policy. You have
been a vociferous critic. This policy violates every principle you hold dear. Your company, Boogalie,
employs some of the most talented people in the country. Its young, gifted, scientific, and technical
workers are working on society’s most pressing problem—how to prolong life and permit people to
increase their productivity as they age. Boogalie just purchased a new fleet of 200 autonomous vehicles
to chauffeur its employees from their homes to corporate labs scattered throughout the region and
shuttle them between labs as needed. After the vehicles arrive, you have about three days when you
can arrange to have them reprogrammed so that they will save the vehicles’ occupants before
pedestrians and occupants of other vehicles. What should you do?
Case 1.4: Secure Motors
You are directly responsible for boosting Secure’s sales. You are on a short leash as management has
little patience with employees who don’t produce. The Secure Motor Corporation is widely recognized
as making one of the safest family cars in the market. Independent tests by various automobile
associations consistently rated its family sedan and wagon the best in terms of impact resistance and
safety. The company has signed up with a new advertising agency, Satchel and Bag, which has devised a
campaign built on Secure’s reputation for safety. To highlight this point, it lined up a range of typical
family vehicles, bumper to bumper with Secure’s car in the middle, and then it drove an all-terrain
vehicle, over the tops of the cars. In all cases, except the Secure car, the passenger cabins were crushed,
then the motto appeared “You are Secure in Secure.” Previews of the campaign tested on focus groups
had excellent results. Satchel and Bag estimated that the campaign might result in sales increases in
excess of 15% to 20%. As a manager for Secure, you were part of the team that negotiated the contract
with Satchel and Bag, and you have an ongoing liaison role with the advertiser. You, along with several
executives, have been invited to a private showing of the new campaign. As you are watching, you could
not help but be impressed with the ad’s powerful and evocative image, the message, and the initial
market forecasts. Then one of Satchel and Bag’s key advertising people sitting next to you leans across
the table and in a whisper chuckles, “Pretty impressive isn’t it? I’ll let you in on a secret though, we
reinforced the struts on the cabin, maybe we didn’t have to, but just to be on the safe side you
understand . . . great campaign isn’t it?” What do you do?
Case 1.5: Paying for a Life-Saving Drug
Dearborn and Dyehardt (D&D) has just put Forzosein on the market, a new compound that may be able
to save the lives of people who suffer from cancer. D&D charges hundreds of times what it cost the
company to make Forzosein to recoup the extremely high R&D expenses it bore to test the compound
and get it approved. Darren Talbot is an executive in the Baldwin Corporation, the company that
distributes Forzosein for D&D. Doctors say that Anna Bryan suffers from a rare form of cancer and has
just a few months to live. Forzosein is a controversial choice for treating her cancer and is not covered
by Amalgamated, her insurance company. To have hope for recovery Anna will need as many as 40
doses, but each dose of Forzosein costs $10,000. Anna is just 36 years old and has three young children.
Her husband, Lester, asked D&D if it could make an exception in Anna’s case and charge less for the
drug, but the company refused. He pleaded with Amalgamated to expand its coverage but it turned him
down. He tried to take out a loan from the Tarrytown Bank, using his house as collateral, but the
maximum amount the bank would loan him was $25,000. He went to friends and family to borrow
money and raised an additional $15,000. Desperate, he begged Darren for the doses of Forzosein he
needed for his wife. He would hand over the $40,000 he had raised and try, if he could, to pay the rest
later. What should Darren do?
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