Ethical Dilemmas. Business & Marketing Research Paper

Objective: You are going to understand how employees respond to ethical dilemmas in the workplace. You will consider how their work environment shapes the way they approach ethical dilemmas.
Directions: Give the following scenario to 3 employees who work full-time and then ask them questions. The employee’s position within the firm does not matter but ideally you interview people that work for different firms.
SCENARIO
The financial advisor team hosted a happy hour in a private room at a local cocktail lounge to celebrate the end of summer, as well as several consecutive quarters of high performance. The division's junior and senior financial advisors attended. As the evening progressed, Alex, one of the senior financial advisors, showed signs that he had had too much to drink. Among other things, he ordered several drinks for Francis, a junior advisor who has worked at the firm for about two years. By the end of the event, only a few other junior financial advisors remained in addition to Alex and Francis. Among the last to leave were Rory and Devon, who joined the firm a year before Francis.
On his way out, Rory noticed Alex and Francis at the bar. Rory, who also overindulged, recorded a short video of Alex swaying at the bar, and occasionally leaning close to Francis. The next day, Rory looked at the video, and saw that Francis flinched when Alex moved too close. Meeting Francis in the hallway, Rory asks Francis if everything was OK at the bar. Despite Francis’s reassurance that there was no trouble, Rory presses the point. “I’m fine. Please drop it. Don’t be weird,” Francis says. Rory is not convinced. Like every employee, Rory has taken a training course in sexual harassment. It is the firm’s policy that employees must report violations of the firm’s strict, zero-tolerance harassment policy. But Francis was clear: It was not Rory’s business. Also, Rory remembered that recording videos was not allowed at the firm. Rory was concerned that the rule might also apply to firm events outside the office.
Two days later, Devon pulls Rory aside on the way to a meeting. Apparently, someone else had recorded Alex at the bar and started circulating a video among the team. Rory is visible in the background of the video holding up a cell phone. Devon heard someone say that Human Resources would almost certainly have the video before the end of the day.
After reading the scenario, ask the employee to answer the following questions. Do NOT record the employee's name or the employer’s name. You can use pseudonyms or assign them numbers (e.g., Employee 1, Employee 2, Employee 3).
1. Should Rory report the situation to Human Resources? Why or why not? [Please provide 3-4 sentences explaining your position.]
2. Does your employer have a values statement? If so, do you remember any of the values?
3. Does your employer have clearly stated rules? If so, do they also explain the penalties or consequences associated with violating the rules?
4. Does your employer expect employees to comply with the law and professional standards over and above other considerations?
5. Does your employer expect employees to do anything and everything possible to further the firm’s interests?
6. Does your employer offer ethics training? If so, is the training face-to-face or on the computer? How long does the training last?

ANALYSES. In 3 single-spaced pages, analyze the data collected from the 3 employees.
Do the employees agree or disagree? Can you identify any patterns across the employee responses?
Which normative theories appear to underlie the employees’ response to Question 1?
Which stages of cognitive moral development are displayed in the answer to Question 1?
Do the employees’ work environments differ? Do any patterns exist between the employee’s work environment and their response to Question 1?
What are your recommendations for firms (in general) based upon these employees' responses?

GRADING. Papers will be graded based upon the depth of the analysis and the quality of the recommendation. At a minimum, the paper must address the cognitive moral development of the respondents, the relevant normative theories, and a recommendation for firms. Those papers that attempt to analyze the employees’ responses and understand the deeper meaning of the responses will receive higher grades than those that simply list employees' responses. You must include the responses to the interviews in the Appendix of your paper.

PAPER SUBMISSION. You must submit a paper copy & an electronic copy of your paper. Please put the responses to the interviews in the Appendix of your paper. Do NOT list the interviewees’ names or their company names. You can use pseudonyms such as “Interviewee 1” or “Sally.” The firm can be referred to as Firm A or Alpha, etc.

The paper should be roughly 3 single-spaced pages (no cover page). One version (either printed or online copy) must be received within the first 10 minutes of class (otherwise I deduct 10 points for each day of lateness). You can use any widely-accepted format for citations. You must cite any reference to course materials, my lecture or websites. If you use more than 3 words in a row from a source, make it a direct quote with quotation marks. Paraphrased sentences do not need quotation marks but they do require citations. Remember, if your grandma doesn’t know something, it isn’t considered common knowledge and you need a citation. I won’t accept your assignment if you haven’t signed a citation contract. Also I don’t read drafts. I will answer questions that I receive via email before 8pm on Wednesday December 4th.
I have setup the Final Project link so that you can VIEW your documents in Turnitin and note citation errors through Turnitin. If you find an error, you can upload a new paper until the deadlines.
PRESENTATION. In class you will present your analyses during a 2 minute presentation. You may not use Powerpoint slides but you may use notes.
Analyses: Remember that a persuasive paper not only explains why the author’s perspective is correct, it explains why other perspectives are incorrect (or at least unpersuasive). For your analyses on cognitive moral development and normative theories, you can write a more persuasive paper by explaining why your interviewees’ answers do not reflect the other stages of cognitive moral development or normative theories. This will create a more persuasive analysis for the reader.
Recommendation to Firms: You can’t write this section until you have conducted the other sections of the paper because the recommendation to firms will flow from the other analyses. To determine your recommendation, consider how your analyses (sections A through D) would impact firms in general. What recommendations can you make to firms (in general) about hiring or managing employees based upon your analyses of your 3 interviewees’ responses? While we normally do not make recommendations for all firms based upon a sample of 3 employees, I will let you do so for this assignment.
Some Citations for the Final Project
You are not required to use all of these readings in your final paper but here are the proper citations if you choose to use some of them:

1. Dees, J. G. & Elias, J. 1997. The Normative Foundations of Business. Harvard Business School Publishing.
2. Crain, W. C. 1985. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development. In Theories of Development. Prentice-Hall, pp. 118-136
3. Watkins, S. 2003. Ethical Conflicts at Enron: Moral Responsibility in Corporate Capitalism. California Management Review, 45: 6-19
4. Trevino, L. K., G. R. Weaver, D. G. Gibson, & B. L. Toffler. 1999. Managing ethics and legal compliance: What works and what hurts. California Management Review, 41: 131-151.
5. Friedman, M. Mackey, J. & Rodgers, T. J. 2005. Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business. Reason, Oct 2005, vol. 37.
6. Friedman, M. 1970. The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits. The New York Times Magazine, Sept. 1970.
7. Hess, D., Rogovsky, N., & Dunfee, T. W. 2002. The next wave of corporate community involvement: Corporate social initiatives. California Management Review, 44(2), 110-125.

The supplemental reading on normative theory:
Unal, A. F., Warren, D. E. & Chen, C. 2012. The normative foundations of unethical supervision in organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 107(1): 5-19.

My Lectures, Handouts or Interviews....
Citing my normative slides: Warren, D. E. Handout. September [date], 2019
Citing A lecture: Warren, D. E. Lecture. November [date], 2019.
Citing Interviews: Employee A. Interview. November [date], 2019.
Use endnote for citation, and contact me asap if you have question. Also, prepare a script for me that brings out the theme or core idea of the paper which I CAN use it for presentation around like 1-2minutes. And there are a lot of readings, please work hard, thank you. For the interview, the professor require us to interview a real person. However, we can make it up by providing different answers for the interview, because professor doesn't need the name of the firm and the person who was interviewed, and what she wants is the answers to be juicy.