CHAPTER 1 CASE STUDY

Questions to Consider

1. Which issue is more disconcerting- the fact that a board member leaked confidential information about the firm or the tactics used to investigate the leak? defend your position.

The more disconcerting issue is the fact that a board member leaked confidential information because it's against the company regulations, even though they leak information the three hired detectives can easily trace the board member through their telephone records and social security numbers. 

2. Can the use of pretexting to gain information ever be justified? is it consider legal under any circumstances.

              Pretexting to gain information in a situation based on the vignette it is totally illegal because it is not your part to gain or collect information for the company you have to stick for the kind of task assigned to you to to pretext and do other things without permission.

Discussion Questions

1. There are many ethical issues about which people hold very strong opinions-abortions, gun control and the death penalty, to name a few. if you were a team member on a project with someone whom you knew held an opinion different from yours on one of these issues, would it affect your ability to work with this person? why or why not?

              As a member of a team and given a project to those issues shown, it would not affect my ability to work effectively because as a member of a team we have to gather opinions and share ideas for each member of the team so that we'll accomplish it clearly without anguishing someone's opinion.

2. What do you think are the most important factors that helped you define your own personal code of ethics.

             Important factors that helped me define my personal code of ethics are leadership and decision making,leadership you have to manage yourself on what you do and lead yourself,decision making because you have to decide what's right or wrong when making decisions on social works and core values.

3. Do you think that ethics in business is improving or getting worse ? defend your position.

             On my observations, ethics in business is improving because business are important when it terms to ethics example of it is the terms and conditions of the business people cannot abide the company regulation it is very helpful because it helps to company to be more discipline and always on top.

4. The ethics resource center identified five characteristics of a successful ethics program suggest a sixth characteristic, and  defend your choice.

            Organizations contact millions of people worldwide through unsolicited e-mails as an extremely low-cost marketing approach.

5. Which incident has a higher negative impact on an organization-an unethical act performed by an hourly worker or the same act performed by a senior manager of the organization? explain your answer fully. should the hourly worker be treated differently than the senior manager who committed the unethical act? why or why not?

              On my own opinion both unethical incident has both a higher impact on an organization, because for me even though they are not on the same position they both commit an unethical mistakes and it is against ethics. they both deserve to be treated fairly because they are the same worker of an organization.

6. It is a common and acceptable practice for managers to hold people accountable to meet "stretch" goals, quotas, and budgets.how can this be done in a way that does not encourage unethical behavior on the part of employees.

             My observations some companies required this accountable for enable for them to compute the salaries of the employees based on the work done. for me the company or organization should explain clearly or to orient the employee's of their company or organization on how do they hold people's accountable to meet stretch.

7. Is every action that is legal also ethical? can you describe an action that is legal but ethically wrong? is every ethical action also legal? is the law, not ethics, the only guide that business managers need to consider? explain.

             No, because there are sometimes an unethical part on every legal actions. sample of a legal but ethically wrong is you working on a private company and you are a programmer, your created programs are signed by the company and must be within the company only and that is legal. the ethically wrong doing is sharing your company s' programs to other company and that us against ethics and it is illegal. they both have to consider the law and ethics because for example company has laws, and ethics is barely needed to determine if the law is against ethics.

8. Do you think it is easier to establish an ethical work environment in a nonprofit organization? why or why not?

             On my own opinion it depends on the worker of the company/organization if he or she accepts to a nonprofit organization as long as the worker establish the law of ethics or following the rules of ethics on the organization, it helps the work environment to be more confident on their work because they know the limitations and what is best for the company even though it is a  nonprofit organization.

9. This chapter discusses the four approaches to dealing with moral issues. identify and briefly summarize each one. do you believe one perspective is better then others? if so, which one and why?

     Most of us have developed a simple decisions-making model that  includes these steps:

* developed a problem statement

* identify alternatives

* evaluate and choose an alternative

* implement the decisions

* evaluate the results

Discussion Questions

1. CA executives involved the accounting scandal were not accused of reporting bogus contracts or hiding major problems in business. the contracts that were backdated were real sales agreements. was this really a crime? should the individuals have been punished so harshly? 
              I think this is not a crime this is a business. There's no one to be punished. 

2. In December 2004, CA appointed Patrick J. Gnazzo as a senior chief compliance officer to demonstrate to the government and shareholders that the firm would take measures to operate ethically, Gnazzo served in this role at United Technologies for 10 years and had been a member of the board directors of the ethics Offices Association .Gnazzo reported to a  new executive vice president and a general counsel at CA as well as the board's Compliance committee. Outline some of the Actions Gnazzo might have been taken in his first six months on the job.

3. John Swainson, a 26-year veteran of IBM, joined CA in November 2004 as CEO and President his first few months with the firm were rough- major customers threatened to dumb the firm some products were behind schedule and were of poor quality; executives had to be fired for breaking company  rules; accountants continued to find past mistakes; and many newly hired executives had to be brought on board. what sort leadership could he have demonstrated to show that he was determined to avoid future scandals at CA?

4. CA has been hit with numerous scandals since the late 1990's. these scandals raise questions about how successful the firm might have been if not for the amount of time its executives had to spend on this distractions. compare the revenue growth and stock price of CA to that of some of its competitors over the period 2004-2008 (be sure to use CA's corrected figures!) can you detect any impact of these scandals on CA's performance? what else might explain the difference in performance?

Discussion Question

1. Identify at least two other companies that mange their suppliers in a manner similar to Dell computers. do these companies have anything in common with Dell?
                           ASUS is a leading company driven by innovation and commitment to quality for products that include notebooks, net books, laptops, motherboards, graphics cards and etc.
               Acer Incorporated is a multinational information technology and electronics corporation headquartered in Xizhi, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Acer’s products include desktop and laptop PCs, tablet computers, servers, storage devices, displays, smartphone and peripherals. It also provides e-business services to businesses, governments and consumers.

2. Can you Identify any disadvantages for dell in taking the approach to managing suppliers?
                        One of the disadvantages is their payment system, and the way they pressure their suppliers.But I understand Dell why they pressure their suppliers for it is business you will not get the success if you are lazy (late deliveries). But they were so unfair to the suppliers in terms of deliveries they pressure their suppliers but in terms of payment to their suppliers they do not pressure their selves. But it is Dell Company it is a big company for them replacing new suppliers is very easy, because they were very confident.

3. Do you think that this approach  to managing suppliers is unethical, or is it acceptable and ethical? explain your reasoning.
                           For me it is ethical or acceptable even though they were strict to their suppliers. That’s business, off course Dell don’t want to destroy their reputation because of the late deliveries to their customers.

4. Would you recommend any changes to the way Dell manages suppliers? Defend your position.
                           I understand Dell why they paid their suppliers so late for there are lots of things that need to be process. But 36 days is too long it takes 1 month before they can receive their salary. The suppliers also have their families that need to be supported financially. And also one thing I recommend to Dell they should be humble to their suppliers. Because the suppliers were one of the reason why their sales get higher and higher in short, the Dell Company only depend their products into their suppliers.       

Discussion Question

1. Discuss how a CIO might handle Schrage's Scenarios using the suggested process for ethical decision making presented in this chapter.

              The CIO must handle schrage's scenarios by showing or orienting them the right process of making a tough decision in a formal and ethical way, because if process are not followed formally, making their own decisions are not well good enough to meet the standards.

2. Discuss the possible short-term losses and long-term gains in implementing ethical solutions for each of Schrage's scenarios.

              My own understanding short term losses fails to meet standard for their businesses the might loose something but a small amount or quantity, as a example their client might be disappointed on their jobs or projects because they are not doing it a right and formal way and ethical process are not formally followed, while if process is formally followed companies gains a lot when they are doing it in a right and ethical ways.

3. Must businesses choose between good ethics and financial benefits? explain your answer using Schrage's scenarios as example.

             No, because if you gain a lot on your company or business in a way that is not ethical and it might be illegal or against the law of ethics, they can benefit something but it is not the right process of gaining financial benefits. ethics is more important because i believe if a company has ethics it financially benefits a lot.