The music business has changed radically. Can an employee whos been an Industry Legend Keep Up - Essay Example

? Business Ethics Synopsis of the case study: the music business has changed radically. Can an employee who’s been an Industry Legend Keep Up? The case study revolves around a certain entertainment company; Powerful Entertainment and a critical employee at the company known as Bob Antice. Bob is viewed by most employees at the company as indispensable having worked in the organization for thirty six years rising through ranks from a regional sales manager to become a senior manager. He is described as a celebrity in the recording business and has left a mark as the most successful sales person in the company. Moreover, Bob is a mentor and a friend to many and is the widely invited as a motivational speaker. On becoming a senior manager, Bob helped Powerful Entertainment post the highest sales among its competitors for eight years consecutive and has cordial relationship with retailers, promoters, performances and managers which make him an important employee to the company. Bob was able to help the company diversify its products when he realized that the sales in were declining. Bob started discovering performers with immense talent which the label and repertoire staff had never been able to achieve. In deed, Bob did well in this area helping to bring Mark Sender to the label section of the company and he is the main reason for continued stay of Mark in the company. Despite his exemplary performance, Bob’s role at the company is under threat given that the record company is risks losing customers following adoption of internet in media. The continued holding of his position seems redundant in the company since he is not up to date with technology and therefore CEO is contemplating on laying Bob off. However, laying Bob off would definitely have implications on the employees, performance and may affect the profitability of the company. The case study presents an example of ethical dilemma that company executives face in making decisions. Ethical Dilemma in the Case Study: When the Longtime Star Fades Ethical dilemma is described as a situation in which the moral certainty of a person when making decisions is compromised by their rational cognition (McCullough and Faught, 2005). Helping business managers make rational decisions when faced with an ethical dilemma calls for determination and sophistication (McCullough and Faught, 2005). In the case study of Powerful Entertainment, the major ethical dilemma facing Noel Klein, the company’s CEO is on whether to lay Bob off or keep him. Noel argues that Bob has been in the company for so long as the sales managers although at present he is not selling anything. Despite the great changes in the industry within which Bob operates over the past 20 years, Bob has not changed at all (Guterman, 2010). He does not know anything about digital marketing although technology is moving towards this. Moreover he does not add to the sales of the company although he is the highest paid employee in the company. The CEO argues that Bob is taking up a vacancy for another sales person who would be able to achieve the targets. On the other hand, Bob has so much to offer to the company. Noel concedes that he has valuable interpersonal skills. Bob is an icon in the company linking it to the past. Furthermore, he is the one responsible of keeping Mark Sender in the company. Mark Sender is an important figure in the company since he helps make almost 30 percent more revenues than other performers (Guterman, 2010). The other reason that makes it had for the CEO to decide on the way to handle Bob is given the fact that he is loved by most employees and therefore his exit may lead to loss of other critical employees or affect their effectiveness. He motivates other employees to work although this cannot be quantified. He is imaginative and adored by other workers and young employees have a lot to learn from him. Rita who has called upon by the CEO is expected to give her decision on the case of Bob Antice. Comparison of the utilitarian, libertarian, deontological and virtue ethics perspective on the ethical dilemma facing Powerful Company Utilitarian perspective in ethical decisions The utilitarianism underlines the impacts of an act. Utilitarianism describes the good of an individual or that of a group as being independent of the right (Nurnberg, Hugo and Lackey, 2010). It only emphasizes on the right as a thing which maximizes the good. Further, utilitarian emphasizes the impacts of an act and its main objective is to ensure the most good for the highest number of people (Robertson and Scott, 2011). In applying the utilitarian perspective in business ethics most managers conforming to this perspective use a similar method to the social cost benefit analysis to evaluate the action that leads to the maximum good of the person and the general public (Robertson and Crittenden, 2003). Making of decisions which benefit an individual but having negative impacts to the society is considered to be unethical in pure utilitarianism (House, et al. 2003). This perspective also advocates for group welfare and supports institutional collectivism in making decisions (Arnold, 2003). From the case study, utilitarian perspective would emphasize on the good of the employees and the interests of the CEO would come later. This is because Bob acts as a motivating force to many employees at Powerful Entertainment and therefore although laying him would create a vacancy for a new sales manager able to change with the changes in technology, his exit would demoralize employees. This means that the good for the most people is to retain Bob in the company and this means that from this perspective, the CEO would have to retain Bob. Libertarian Perspective in Ethical Decisions The libertarian perspective postulates that the responsibility of public corporations is to ensure maximum return of profits to the owners of the corporation (Arnold 2003). However, the perspective holds that this profitability should be bound within certain moral constraints. The moral side limitations acts as restrictions against certain actions and are either strong or weak. A weak-side constraint imposes few limitations against the activities of an organization while strong-sided constraints impose higher restrictions. Libertarian perspective advocates for fair play in making decisions (Nurnberg, Hugo and Lackey 2010). Decisions that do not go against the rules of fair play are acceptable but those that do not are disallowed. Strong side-constraints in a libertarian perspective are based on the basic rights. The rights may either be positive or negative. Positive rights are entitlements to things which are necessary to uphold the freedom of individuals (Arnold, 2003). On the other hand, negative rights are protection for individual against unfair violation of their rights. If applied to the case study, libertarian perspective would call for CEO to maximize the profits for the shareholders. Consequently, Noel should only make a decision that will guarantee the maximum returns in the company. Such a decision would have to ensure maximum sales and therefore a need to recruit a dynamic sales person to replace Bob. However, the moral side constraints demands that the rights of Bob are upheld and therefore laying him off would violate his rights. In light of this statement, Noel can allow Bob to remain in the organization since he motivates employees and makes them work effectively. Moreover, Bob helped bring Sender into the company who creates 30 percent more revenue than other performers. From the libertarian perspective, Bob actually adds value to the company although the CEO may not be able to identify them. Deontological perspective in ethical decisions Deontological ethics perspective views the actions of leaders as having an intrinsic moral standing (Kanungo, 2001). Actions are considered to be moral when it is conducted based on a sense of obligation (Kanungo, 2001). Such actions must come from a sense of duty and are guided by an authentic reasoning. Those advocating for this perspective in making ethical decisions argue that moral acts always view humans as an end rather than a means of achieving a certain goal (Gamez-Gonzalez, et al., 2010). They argue that treating individuals as an end calls for them to view human beings as separate entities entitled to control their fate and should not be manipulated or deceived. In this perspective actions that are in line with the dignity and independence of the moral agents are considered to be good. Deontological is opposed to monitoring at work place since it is considered as dehumanizing, leads to increased levels of stress and invades the privacy of the workers. This ultimately leads to lower productivity and work-life quality (Gamez-Gonzalez, et al., 2010). In the case study, approaching the ethical dilemma from a deontological perspective, the CEO of Powerful company must make a decision that is backed by his obligation in the organization. The CEO is obligated to ensure the profitability of the company and must also be sensitive to the rights of the employees working under him. The CEO’s decision must ensure that the welfare of the employees is well address while still ensuring that the profitability of company is unaffected. To achieve this, the decision should achieve a balance between the welfare of employees and fulfilling the other obligations to the company. Virtue ethics perspective in ethical dilemma Majority of the virtue ethics have two distinctive attractive features. The first characteristic is that its advocates recognize the importance to define the way moral agents develop or acquire abilities and traits necessary for them to be considered as moral agents (Christensen 2009). Therefore, from this first characteristic, it is evident that proponents of this perspective dwell on the concept rather than what is the right action. Consequently, this perspective reminds us that it is important understand ethics in a way that will allow us understand how it can be accessed by the ethical subjects. Moreover this perspective takes an approach of moral realism (Arjoon, 2007). Therefore in this perspective, acquisition is viewed as a process which helps us to gain an ability to differentiate new features in the world serving as a basis for virtuous actions. Virtue ethics emphasizes on the virtues that deserve honor and being rewarded in the world (Lara, 2008). These virtues are learnt just as one learns good habits and can therefore be linked with the people that a person interacts with (Sandler, 2010). From this perspective one would be concerned on the experiences of the CEO in making decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas. If the CEO of powerful company has previously been faced by an ethical dilemma and made a rational decision which demonstrates that he is virtuous, then even in the present case he would be expected to make a viable decision that does uphold virtues. Laying Bob off would not be virtuous as it is dehumanizing and demonstrates ungratefulness given the long service of Bob to the company. Ethical perspective that would best help solve the dilemma From an evaluation of the different ethical perspectives, I propose that Noel should adopt a combination of utilitarian and libertarian perspective to demystify the ethical dilemma facing the company. By employing the utilitarian perspective, the CEO would take time to evaluate the impacts of his actions. Utilitarian perspective like a social cost benefit analysis carries out any evaluation of the impacts of an action before it is implemented to help avoid costly mistakes in the process of making decisions. As such the CEO would be able to quantify the impacts of sacking Bob for not achieving the sales targets in relation to his benefits to the company. Since the perspective views the good of an individual as independent from their rights, it would be easy to conclude on whether to replace Bob or retain him in the organization. If his value in the organization does not match the pay, he should be replaced. From a libertarian perspective, Noel’s decision should be geared towards ensuring that maximum benefits to the shareholders of the company. In light of this statement, the decision adopted must ensure there will be maximum returns to the shareholders. From this perspective, it would be critical to evaluate the value of Bob to the company, does he actually motivate staff? Or does he help young guys to the company learn and how the two add value to company. In case there are higher returns to shareholders when Bob is retained he then should be retained. In utilitarian perspective, the CEO would be guided in fulfilling his obligations. A manager is first answerable to the shareholders of the corporation and should their make decision that would content them. He must demonstrate loyalty to the business and loyalty calls for self sacrifice even when one does not expect a reward (Convino, 2002). Therefore the decision taken should be one ensure the good of the company. References Arjoon, S. 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