Ethic

MBA 501: Leadership and Ethics Edited Summary of Selected Ethical Dilemmas, Installment One Fall 2011

1. A senior employee and I were working in the field at a client location on a two-month project. She provided me with incorrect guidance that led to a large mistake. After I took nearly an entire day to correct things, the senior employee instructed me to record my time to several areas that I had not worked on. After questioning the time allocation, I was told this kind of thing happens all the time. As an intern, I was uncertain whether to inform her superior. I saw no option that would keep my actions anonymous, as we were the only two employees at the client and the project had a month still to go. What is the right thing to do? 2. I was in a sales position at a software corporation directly under the regional manager (RM). The company regulations said that the RM was to be present at every single sales call involving software orders greater than $200,000. One day, a client wanted a large purchase of software quickly, including assistance in installation/ implementation. The RM was out of the office, and when I called to explain the situation, he urged me to make the sale, and to conduct the system integration as well. Knowing nothing about how to handle system integration, I was very worried about carrying out the orders of my manager and ignoring the rules set for sales associates and large purchases. What should I do? 3. A a senior software developer and project manager, I went to meetings called by the sales department to participate in which I would be asked to estimate the effort (in man-hours) to develop new features for our systems. Using these estimates, and taking into account the resources available, I would help the managers set deadlines to be presented to the clients. Sometimes, I was later asked to confirm unrealistic deadlines – which could be as little as half of my estimate – so the sales staff could win a contract. As a technical...