Business Ethics Activity

TeamBusiness Ethics Activity

Financial Disclosure

By law, corporations must disclose (reveal) financial information to the public, so the public and its investors can make sound financial decisions for themselves. This poses an advantage and disadvantage for corporations. If the company is doing well financially, then they will be in greater demand for investors to take a risk in their company. If the company is doing poor, financially, then they will lose out to competitors and be in less demand for investors to take a risk.

Enron, an energy distributing company was in a partnership with Arthur Anderson, an accounting firm. Arthur Anderson was responsible for auditing the financial books of Enron. Which means to examine, inspect, and report proper financial information to the public and Enron’s investors. Executives from both businesses secretly knew that Enron was in financial disaster and changed the numbers around in the financial books to show that the company was doing quite well. They shredded documents to hide the fact that Enron was in financial trouble. Enron executives later told their employees through emails that the company is growing and in good financial status. Enron employees were encouraged to invest in the company through their 401K, a retirement account. Several months later, Enron filed for bankruptcy and their stock price fell from $65 a share to $0.60 a share.

Use the three-step checklist to determine whether or not the actions above demonstrated ethical behavior.

Is this action illegal? Explain your reasoning.

Does the action violate company or professional standards?

Who is affected, and how, by the action?

People Affected

Negative Affects

Positive Affects

TeamBusiness Ethics Activity

Who Owns My Time?

Employers and employees have a unique relationship. The employee agrees to provide the employer with a fair day’s work. In return, the employer agrees to provide a fair day’s wage.

Situation 1: Kendra Nickel is a receptionist for Media Technologies. After the company installed voice mail, Kendra’s workload became lighter, so her supervisor assigned additional responsibilities, including some accounting tasks. Even with these assignments, Kendra is not always busy. To fill the time, she plays computer games.

Situation 2: At Cooks’ Corner, a kitchen equipment store, most employees work less than 40 hours per week. However, only employees who work a minimum of 40 hours per week are eligible for health insurance.

Use the three-step checklist to determine whether or not the actions above demonstrated ethical behavior.

Is this action illegal? Explain your reasoning.

Does the action violate company or professional standards?

Who is affected, and how, by the action?

People Affected

Negative Affects

Positive Affects

1)
2)

TeamBusiness Ethics Activity

Technology Temptations

Along with many benefits, technology also presents us with new temptations. Technology allows us to access information for many legitimate reasons, but it can also create ethical dilemmas. What do you think about the situations presented below?

Situation 1: Melissa Hoebbel collects overdue accounts for a large credit card company. She has access to records of all transactions for any customer. Melissa sometimes looks up the records of famous people. She checks to see where they use their credit cards and how much money they spend. She sometimes tells her friends about the buying habits of entertainers and politicians.

Situation 2: Chris Piekarski works for a not-for-profit organization. Recently, he found a list of computer passwords near a photocopier. He started using these passwords to look at other employees’ email files.

Situation 3: Azure Nelson is in college and works as a sales clerk in a bookstore. Occasionally, the scanner in the store is unable to read a bar code on a customer’s selection, and the clerk must enter the code using the keypad. Azure sometimes makes mistakes when she enters the code. As long as the customer does not object, Azure thinks it’s unnecessary to correct her mistakes.

Use the three-step checklist to determine whether or not the actions above demonstrated ethical behavior.

Is this action illegal? Explain your reasoning.

Does the action violate company or professional standards?

Who is affected, and how, by the action?

People Affected

Negative Affects

Positive Affects

1)
2)
3)

TeamBusiness Ethics Activity

Is Anyone Listening?

The Berman Company enjoys a reputation as a good place to work. The company strives to provide quality services for clients.

Situation 1: Grant Hartanov likes to be the first to know what’s going on in the office. One of the reasons he is so well informed is that he looks through the papers on the other employees’ desks.

Situation 2: To improve customer service quality, employees’ telephone calls are monitored. Monitoring is random and employees do knot know when a quality manager is listening to a call. Customer service representative Ryan Ward made a personal phone call while Megan Burke was monitoring the line. During the call, Ryan made plans for his weekend activities.

Situation 3: Darrin Moy used his office computer to prepare his resume and some cover letters. Darrin worked on these documents after hours and provided his own paper for printing. He later learned that his supervisor knew about his job search. The supervisor, Eric Forton, found the computer files while looking for a report that Darrin had prepared.

Use the three-step checklist to determine whether or not the actions above demonstrated ethical behavior.

Is this action illegal? Explain your reasoning.

Does the action violate company or professional standards?

Who is affected, and how, by the action?

People Affected

Negative Affects

Positive Affects

1)
2)
3)

TeamBusiness Ethics Activity

Community Involvement

Amanda Pierce, a certified public accountant, is a member of the Hoffman Estates zoning board. The board is reviewing a request to rezone a large section of property on the outskirts of town. The zone change would permit Circuit City, a national electronics retailer, and Wal-Mart, a national discount superstore to build property if the zoning is approved. Circuit City would feature computer, camera, radio, video, television, and other electronics products. A car sound system installation shop and electronic repair shop will be included. The Super Wal-Mart would consist of a grocery store, deli, auto repair and tire installation shop, toys, men’s and women’s clothing, pet accessories, electronics, sporting goods, automotive products, home accessories, a salon, eye care service, and a lawn and garden area. The plans also include a coffee, beverage, and sandwich shop.

Developers believe that Circuit City and Wal-Mart would improve the community and offer citizens quality merchandise at significantly lower prices than they are now paying. Local landowners are worried about their ability to sell the property unless it is rezoned; this is the only large piece of undeveloped land in Hoffman Estates. However, local retail storeowners have expressed fears that the giant retailers will force them out of business. Other business owners have pointed out that the closing of retail stores in the central business district will have a negative impact on other businesses and the community at large.

Amanda Pierce knows most of the people who have presented their side of this issue; some of them are clients of hers. Understanding the possible negative impact the new stores could have on many of her firm’s small retail clients, Amanda has decided to vote against the rezoning. In a three-to-two vote, the zoning board denies the rezoning request.

Use the three-step checklist to determine whether or not the actions above demonstrated ethical behavior.

Is this action illegal? Explain your reasoning.

Does the action violate company or professional standards?

Who is affected, and how, by the action?

People Affected

Negative Affects

Positive Affects

TeamBusiness Ethics Activity

At What Price, Safety?

Ford Motors assembles a safety system for passenger automobiles. This system substantially reduces severe injuries to drivers involved in accidents. In an effort to increase profits, Ford Motors recently took steps to cut costs and increase production. Ford Motors has begun using some less expensive components. These components increase the system’s estimated failure rate from 12 to 15 failures per 10,000 accidents. Despite this increase, the company continues to meet the government’s safety standard of 20 failures per 10,000 accidents.

Use the three-step checklist to determine whether or not the actions above demonstrated ethical behavior.

Is this action illegal? Explain your reasoning.

Does the action violate company or professional standards?

Who is affected, and how, by the action?

People Affected

Negative Affects

Positive Affects