Business Ethics
Written Assignment #1
Business Ethics: Written Assignment #1 1. What are the ethical issues?
In this situation there are many ethical issues to consider. First of all the whole story is about Jane, the superior of Ralph who has a problem with alcoholism. The request from the detoxication center is the first ethical issue for Jane. If she urges Ralph to submit this blood test he would probably be known as an alcoholic and eventually saved in an industry wide database. Due to the fact that it looks like he could get a new job at a competitor, it wouldn’t be good to be known as an alcoholic, because of the fact that new employees with a preexisting condition such as alcoholism are not qualifiable for reimbursement for treatment of that illness. This faces Jane with her first morally problem.
The most complex ethical issue is the situation that arises with Michelle’s phone call. First of all it is an issue whether she gives out any kind of information, because internal company data are probably confidential. So she is in the dilemma whether to help her friend or not and whether to pass those confidential information or not. If she decided to hand on the information, automatically the second issue appears. If she reports Ralph’s actual situation truly to Michelle, he would probably not get the job. But if she would give a good report, he could get the job and COBA wouldn’t have to deal with Ralph and his problems anymore. If Jane inherently decides to give a report, she is faced with some more ethical issues. When reporting well, but dishonest, she would preserve the company from some problems. The company wouldn’t need to handle Ralph’s alcoholism and reports about Ralph’s negative servicing anymore and furthermore the company wouldn’t get in danger of eventually being sued, as it is obviously just happening, because of an former employee who was supposedly fired because of alcoholism. This could be a danger because before Ralph’s first detoxication they
Business Ethics: Written Assignment #1 1. What are the ethical issues?
In this situation there are many ethical issues to consider. First of all the whole story is about Jane, the superior of Ralph who has a problem with alcoholism. The request from the detoxication center is the first ethical issue for Jane. If she urges Ralph to submit this blood test he would probably be known as an alcoholic and eventually saved in an industry wide database. Due to the fact that it looks like he could get a new job at a competitor, it wouldn’t be good to be known as an alcoholic, because of the fact that new employees with a preexisting condition such as alcoholism are not qualifiable for reimbursement for treatment of that illness. This faces Jane with her first morally problem.
The most complex ethical issue is the situation that arises with Michelle’s phone call. First of all it is an issue whether she gives out any kind of information, because internal company data are probably confidential. So she is in the dilemma whether to help her friend or not and whether to pass those confidential information or not. If she decided to hand on the information, automatically the second issue appears. If she reports Ralph’s actual situation truly to Michelle, he would probably not get the job. But if she would give a good report, he could get the job and COBA wouldn’t have to deal with Ralph and his problems anymore. If Jane inherently decides to give a report, she is faced with some more ethical issues. When reporting well, but dishonest, she would preserve the company from some problems. The company wouldn’t need to handle Ralph’s alcoholism and reports about Ralph’s negative servicing anymore and furthermore the company wouldn’t get in danger of eventually being sued, as it is obviously just happening, because of an former employee who was supposedly fired because of alcoholism. This could be a danger because before Ralph’s first detoxication they