Business as Usual in Extreme Circustances

Business as Usual in Extreme Circumstances

Unit 2 Assignment 2

Lorin Gdula

January 22, 2012

1. Michelle should not keep silent about the contract complications. At this point, this contract has become an issue and more complicated and it is in Michelle best interest to involve her boss. Michelle needs to treat this as a business matter that involves her company. According to the article, Keeping Your Colleagues Honest, Gentile states to recognize that this is part of your job and to treat any conflict as a business matter (Gentile, 2010, p.4). “People tend to view ethical conflicts as aberrations-distractions from real work” (Gentile, 2010, p.4). In Michelle’s case, this is a distraction from this project, because if she does not engage her boss in this new contract it then becomes a distraction to Michelle’s work.

From a legal standpoint, the contract is requiring Polar Health to deliver several truckloads and there is a cash exchange upon arrival that is different. With every contract, it is like a promise, which needs to be kept. You have an agreement between parties and changes should not be made just between two parties. From an ethical standpoint, Michelle should reach out to others to get their opinion on the issue. There are strong moral standards when it comes to business.

In Nash’s article, she speaks about trusting in gut instinct (Nash, 1993, p.30) If Michelle pondered the thought to tell her boss in the first place, then she feels that it is important to ask a colleagues opinion in this situation.

2. One conflicting ethical issue that arises is the exchange of money upon delivery. That was not in the recent contract and now he is asking for Polar Health to fund those transactions. This is a charitable cause and so Polar Health really has no profit out of this and since it is for charity, there really should be minimal monetary value involved. They had already agreed upon the Hungarian distributor to facilitate the...