Question

Below are some real-life situations that present ethical questions in a business. Discuss at least two situations (of course you can discuss all of them) and look at it (a) from a strictly legal viewpoint, (b) from a moral and ethical viewpoint, and (c) from a point of view of what is best in the long run for the company.

Look at each situation from the perspective of all groups concerned: customers, stockholders, employees, and community and not just your opinion of the situation.

Situations

1. You are a general manager in a cosmetics firm. The results of a study show that your major brand could cause skin cancer. From the different viewpoints stated above, is this legal and ethical or illegal and unethical, or a combination of the two, and what is the potential outcome of the company if it does nothing? What would be your recommendations and why?
2. You have the opportunity to offer a job to a friend who really needs it. Although you believe that the friend could perform adequately, there are more qualified applicants. From the different viewpoints stated above, would this be legal and ethical or illegal and unethical, or a combination of the two? How might you be viewed in the organization if you hire a less qualified person? What would you do? Explain your justification.
3. You are the vice president of a beer company in a state that sets the legal drinking age at 21. Your boss asks you to organize a lobbying effort to have the drinking age reduced to 18. From the different viewpoints stated above, would this be legal and ethical or illegal and unethical, or a combination of the two? Does this violate the company's social responsibility to the state and/or surrounding towns? What would you do? Explain your justification.
4. Because of a loophole in federal laws, you find that you could legally pay your workers less than the minimum wage. The cost savings you recommend may mean you’re getting a choice promotion. From the different viewpoints stated above, would this be legal and ethical or illegal and unethical, or a combination of the two? What would you do? Explain your justification.

Discuss at least two situations. Be sure to consider both short‑ and long‑range consequences.

you dont need to see the photo. photo has nothing to do with question.

Answer 1

Since the question expressly mentioned any two situations, i would like to discuss the first two situation in detail and their possible outcomes. Please rate this answer positively (thumbs up) if you like my explanation. Please let me know if you have any doubts or clarifications regarding my explanation before disliking this answer, i will surely help you.

Coming to the first scenario, it is given that the brand could cause skin cancer and it is also mentioned that it is a cosmetic product. Let us discuss about the implications on this product. If the product is sold in the market without actually telling the prospective customers about the harm it can cause, this would be unethical. And if any customer files a case against us regarding this issue our firm can be held liable in the court of law and we have pay the demanded amount and we may also loose the reputation of our brand. This is actually unethical to sell such product in the market without intimating the customers and illegal too. The short range consequence if we sell the product would be profit. We could make profit in the short range by selling this product. But if we consider the long range consequences we may end up loosing customers and the reputation we had for our firm.

As a manager of such firm the possible advise is not to sell such product in the market. If at all the firm wants to sell even after knowing the implications they should advertise the harmfulness of the product also, but doing such thing would surely defeat the main purpose of selling the cosmetic product in the market.

Coming to the second situation, it is given that my friend is adequately qualified for the job that i should hire for. But it is also given that there are other persons who are more qualified than my friend. Considering such fact, it would be unethical to hire my friend leaving the more qualified persons, because I was given a responsibility of hiring qualified persons for the company. And such act should result in giving benefit to the company. If i hire my friend it won't be illegal but it will be unethical. Considering the short range implications, hiring my friend will not do anything to the friend, but considering the long range implications the company will get negatively impacted for not hiring the more qualified persons.

As a person having the opportunity for hiring persons for my organization, i would not hire my friend who is just adequately qualified leaving more qualified persons. This would be seriously unethical from the company point of view.

I hope i have addressed each and every point related to the situations and questions asked. If you like my explanation please leave a like, it really helps me a lot in providing better answers in the future. If you have any doubts please let me know before leaving a dislike to this answer, I am here to help you. Thanks in advance for liking this answer.