Business Ethics Case Study

Case 1

Raju knew he was smart. His classmates always turned to him for help on assignments and he always knew the answers to the questions his teachers asked in class. Raju just didn't study for tests so his grades were often mediocre. He knew he could do better in school, it was just that school was so... well, boring.

School was coming to an end for the year and Raju needed to get a good job this summer, after all this was the end of his junior year. He desperately wanted to work at the famous Research Institute. Raju felt that if he got a job there as a summer intern, it would really boost his chances of getting admitted to the graduate engineering program of his choice. He knew the institute hired very few summer interns and generally these were students from private schools who had excellent academic records and high standardized test scores. So, Raju decided to "tweak" his resume. He rounded his GPA up from 3.0 to a more respectable 3.5 and listed his SAT scores as 700 verbal and 820 math (in reality they were 600 verbal and 720 math). Raju reasoned that these changes really didn't matter because he would show them who he really was through the quality of the work he did for the Institute once he was hired...

Consider each of the following questions and evaluate the case study:

1. What is the action or inaction that is the cause for concern?

2. Who or what may be affected?

3. How will they be affected? (i.e., what are the possible consequences?)

4. Are there any laws, regulations written or unwritten that may apply?

5. What actions might be taken and what would the consequences of these actions be?

6. Can anything be done to prevent this from reoccurring or to minimize the severity of the consequences?

Case 2

Tomy was working with supervision provided by a graduate student Mr. Li on a proprietary summer research project in Professor Zhou's lab which enjoyed private financial support. The project which was nearing completion was an exciting one on a currently...