Identify a particular business case that raises an ethical issue
The overall goal of your presentation and paper is to analyze a business ethics case in light of theories and concepts that we have studied in this course.
You will need to do the following:
1) Identify a particular business case that raises an ethical issue (or issues).
2) Determine which theories or concepts are most relevant for analyzing this case. (These must be theories/concepts we have covered in this course. See below.)
3) Offer a thoughtful application of the theories/concepts to the case, which includes providing arguments and analysis to explain how the theories/concepts apply to the fact of the case.
4) Draw a conclusion about what the ethically correct action in the case would be, and whether the actual actors in the case fulfilled this obligation or failed to act correctly.
5) Finally, explain which ethical theory or theories (deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, or more than one) best justifies your conclusion and why.
Important Notes:
– You must choose a case that has NOT been covered or discussed in the course. If you present a case that was covered in this course, then you will NOT receive credit for the assignment.
– The case must be a BUSINESS case. (Do not choose a case, such as the Edward Snowden whistleblowing case, which pertains to government matters.)
– The only outside research necessary for this paper, is research about the facts of the case itself. You do NOT need to do any research relating to the topics and concepts listed below, nor any research relating to the basic ethical theories (deontology, utilitarianism, or virtue ethics). We have studied these theories and concepts in the course, so you can rely on the readings and notes from the course. If you rely on outside sources to discuss these theories or concepts, then you will NOT receive credit for the assignment.
When choosing which theory (theories) or concepts to apply (item 2 in the list above), you must choose just ONE from the list below:
– Sales Ethics
– Advertising Ethics
– Whistleblowing
– Corporate Social Responsibility (Stockholder Theory vs. Stakeholder Theory) – Employee Due Process Rights (Werhane vs. Maitland)
Presentation
The presentation should be 5-10 minutes in length, and must cover the five elements listed above. You need to create a PowerPoint presentation that allows the audience to follow along. The contents of your presentation should essentially follow the paper guidelines listed below.
Important advice for the presentation:
– Talk through your presentation; do NOT read through it. If you merely read notes, this will tend to bore your audience and lose their attention. Instead, talk through your presentation, which will tend to keep the interest and attention of your audience.
– Do NOT have lots of long sentences on your PowerPoint slides. This will distract your audience, as they will tend to read the slides, rather than listen to you.
(Note that the PowerPoint slides I present in class have lots of long sentences, but this is because they are designed to provide study notes for you. Do not use them as a model. If I were simply giving a presentation, then my PowerPoints would contain a lot less text.)
– Your PowerPoint presentation should include brief bullet points, graphs, pictures, and similar items that help the audience to follow along in visually engaging and helpful manner.
Paper
The paper must be at least 6-pages in length (double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins), and should present the five elements listed above in written form. Your grade will be substantially lowered if the paper is shorter than this length.
It should include an introductory paragraph, which provides an overview of your paper. This paragraph should specify the topic you will discuss, the literature you will cover, and the conclusion that you will draw. Think of the introductory paragraph as a road map to your entire paper, which provides an overview of what’s to come in the rest of the paper.
The body of your paper should explain facts of the case, the theories or concepts that you will use, and provide an analysis and argument to support the conclusion(s) that you draw.
– The body of your paper can include exposition of literature that we have covered in class, or exposition from outside sources that you find yourself.
– However, no more than 50% of your paper can be devoted exposition. (If you rely on literature that we have covered in class, then you have not only the readings themselves, but also my lecture notes on this material. I know what my lecture notes say, and do not want a paper in which 90% of it just repeats my lecture notes back to me. This type of paper would essentially involve no work on your part. Even if you use outside sources, you must still keep the exposition to no more than 50% of your paper. An ethics paper should develop your own line of reasoning and argument on a particular topic; it is NOT a book report.)
– Be sure that you provide a clear line of argument. (Recall all of the arguments we have encountered in the readings covered this semester. Many arguments can be
boiled down to 3 or 4 or 5 premises and a conclusion. However, a lot can be said about, and in support of, each premise. So it may be that the argument you provide in your paper can be boiled down to an argument with just 3 or 4 premises. However, the paper itself may contain extended discussion of this argument and its premises. And of course, you are also welcome to offer more than one argument in the course of your paper.) The key is to always think of your argument in premise/conclusion format. Make sure that the conclusion of your argument follows from the premises that you provide.
– Even though the argument of your paper may not be abbreviated in premise/conclusion format, it often helps to write out your argument in this way on a separate sheet of paper, so you can examine it and make sure that it works (is sound or cogent).
The paper should also include a concluding paragraph, which briefly summarizes what you have argued in your paper and states the conclusion(s) that you have drawn.
It is important to consider which case and which theories/concepts you will use. Some theories and concepts are more complex than others. For example, stockholder theory and stakeholder theory have a quite a bit of depth and complexity to them. This means they provide you with more theoretical depth to apply to the case, which is a good thing. Since you need to develop a presentation and paper of an appropriate length, you should make sure there is enough to analyze and provide arguments about, both in terms of the case that you choose and in terms of the theories/concepts that you apply.
Here are a few examples:
– Analyze the actions of a corporation from the competing perspectives of stockholder theory and stakeholder theory.
– Analyze a whistleblower case in light of DeGeorge’s framework and the four values relevant to whistleblowing.
– Analyze an advertising campaign in light of the framework concerning truth and deception in advertising.
– Analyze the sale practices of a company in light of Holley’s framework for sales ethics.
The topic is left fairly general, because I want to provide the freedom to work on a case that really interests you.
It is also important to note that the majority of your grade for this assignment is based upon the analysis and arguments that you provide. Summarizing the facts of a case takes little work. The skill comes in providing a creative and logical analysis of the facts in light of the theories/concepts that you apply.
Answer preview Identify a particular business case that raises an ethical issue
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