Describe your ethical and legal business solution and provide three sound reasons in support of your solution.
Instructions
This Competency includes a Short-Answer Response Assessment. Write your response to each prompt below in the space provided. The Rubric, which will be used by the Competency Assessor to evaluate your responses, is beneath the prompts. Carefully review the Rubric rows associated with each prompt to provide a complete response.
When writing your response, begin typing where it reads “Enter Your Response Here.” Write as much as needed to satisfy the requirements of the prompt (as defined in the Rubric). Be sure to support your responses with connections to professional sources.
Your Assessment responses require references (in APA style) to support your thinking. You will list your references at the end of this template where “References” are noted.
To help guide employees toward ethical and legal conduct, many companies provide their employees with a Code of Ethics or a Code of Conduct, much like the samples provided with this Assessment. In addition to stating the company’s principles, its mission, and its values, and codes of conduct often articulate attitudes or behaviors that are expected of employees, such as trust, honesty, integrity, and transparent communication. Read the “Sample Code of Ethics and Business Conduct” document and review any codes of ethics/conduct provided by your employer. With these codes in mind, read the scenarios below and respond to each item.
Note: Sub-Competencies 1 and 2 are assessed multiple times.
Scenario 1: The Community Members
A hypothetical Spanish-language classified advertisements website, Vivos.com, attracts its users with sections like community, housing, personals, for sale, and events where anyone can upload posts at no charge. Vivos.com only generates revenue when client companies pay to post employment opportunities in the jobs section. One day, an employee assigned to proctor the community section notices that a new topic targeting Vivos.com’s biggest corporate client is generating a long thread of negative comments. The discussion thread reads a lot like a petition and states that Vivos.com’s biggest client is guilty of a disingenuous and cynical attempt to paper over hiring practices that exclude minorities, particularly Latinos. The discussion states that the client has seldom, if ever, hired a single applicant who has applied through the Vivos.com website even though the client advertises high-paying career opportunities there. The petition is calling on Vivos.com and the client for greater transparency.
Vivos.com’s mission statement says that the website strives to connect and empower an often underserved Spanish-speaking community. The client pays to post several job advertisements every quarter and has recently been in the news for questionable hiring practices.
Imagine that you will be the one to decide Vivos.com’s response.
1. Describe your ethical and legal business solution and provide three sound reasons in support of your solution.
2. Describe three actions that you will take to implement your solution.
3. Does the situation make it essential to work with the human resources department? Provide two reasons to support your decision.
4. Does the situation make it essential to seek legal advice? State your decision and provide two reasons to support your decision.
(3–4 paragraphs)
Scenario 2: A Medical Mystery
Your department is on track to make its quarterly goal, but just barely. Walking down the hall, you overhear two of your employees talking quietly in their shared work station. One of your employees sounds upset.
Employee 1: It doesn’t look like I’m going to hit my numbers this quarter. It’s the second quarter in a row and the third time in 2 years. I heard that employees who miss their number three times in 2 years always get fired.
Employee 2: You really shouldn’t beat yourself up. The sales targets this quarter were really high. I’m just barely going to make it myself.
Employee 1: A friend of mine recommended I go out on medical leave. I read the policy and I think I could qualify. The leave goes for about 6 months and I could use that time to find another job. I just can’t take it here anymore.
As the manager of both employees, you will decide how to respond.
1. Describe your ethical and legal business solution and provide three sound reasons in support of your solution.
2. Describe three actions that you will take to implement your solution.
3. Does the situation make it essential to work with the human resources department? Provide two reasons to support your decision.
4. Does the situation make it essential to seek legal advice? State your decision and provide two reasons to support your decision.
(3–4 paragraphs)
Scenario 3: Managing Cogs
Linda, a new employee, asks Steve for advice. Linda is the Project Manager for the Cogs product line as well as three other product lines scheduled to launch at the end of the year.
Linda: Hi, Steve. Do you have a minute to help me figure out a problem I found on the Cogs product line?
Steve: Sure. Tell me what the problem is.
Linda: Last week I got the invoice for the research I requested, and it cost way more than I thought it would. I’m not sure how it happened, but it looks like the Cogs product will be way over budget.
Steve: Hmm. Okay. So how can I help?
Linda: I guess I need to notify Finance and get a bigger budget approved. I’m a little nervous about asking for more money at this point. I was wondering if you would tell me how to do it.
Steve: You don’t really have to do that. When I go over budget on one project, I can usually make up the difference by spending less than what I budgeted on another project. That way the bottom line stays even. The bottom line is all Finance really cares about.
Linda: Doesn’t that make it harder for the people working on the other project, the one with a reduced budget?
Steve: Sometimes, but that’s the way it goes. Anyway, they don’t know why their budgets changed. They just have to deal with it.
As the manager of both employees, you will decide how to respond.
1. Describe your ethical and legal business solution and provide three sound reasons in support of your solution.
2. Describe three actions that you will take to implement your solution.
3. Does the situation make it essential to work with the human resources department? Provide two reasons to support your decision.
4. Does the situation make it essential to seek legal advice? State your decision and provide two reasons to support your decision.
(3–4 paragraphs)
