Coporate Social Responsibility

1. Professor Ballistico is the director of the Foodcorp Centre for Food Science at BigCity University. The Foodcorp donated the money to the University in order to set up the research centre and to fund its activities. Professor Ballistico had a recent research which showed the results of the higher risk of the additives. However, the additives in the research were common in the products of the Foodcorp. The main ethical issue is that if Professor Ballistico publishes the results, it is possible that the Foodcorp will go trouble and the funding to the University will be affected. The University relies on the funding. If the results are not published, the responsibility to report the risks of the additives of Professor Ballistico will be undermined. It will violate the ethical conduct of Professor Ballistico and affect the objectives of the study.

2. The first option available to Ballistico is publishing the results of the latest tests which showed that the two food additives significantly increase the risk of human allergies for long-time consumption. This is actually a successful piece of research and can make them more famous. Most importantly, this allows the public to know the side effects of consumption of food additives and hence Ballistico has complied with the ethical standard. However, this action will greatly affect the Foodcorp which sponsored the university to carry on the study.
Another choice is to privately tell Foodcorp about their results before announcing the report so that Foodcorp can take appropriate action to deal with the food additives and it can prevent great loss. However, Ballistico will violate the ethical standard as it will cause unfairness to other food manufacturers and it harms the public interests.
The third choice is to discuss the problem with the principal of the university. This allows the team to make the decision but the team may request not publish the result or amend the result due to the fund provided by the