Memo on Business Ethics in USA - Case Study Example

We have received possible food poisoning reports from two counties in Seattle and south California about our unpasteurized products. Health officials through our company managers reported these cases to us and we dispatched them to these counties to collect batches of our nutritional products. As the most successful nutritional foods suppliers, it is our duty to figure out this problem before any more causalities arise from consumption of our nutritional products. When whether to pull all our products from the market or not.

Because of lack of evidence that the products that caused the acute food poisoning are ours or not, we have to determine when to inform the retailers that we are pulling all our products. The ethical dilemma that the company is facing is whether or not to notify the customers about the food poisoning by its nutritional products and should it consider pulling all the products from the market. In this case, I find it difficult to agree with the decision that Fred James made but at the same time, I do not have a better solution.

James and Healy acted after hearing of seven cases of nutritional food poisoning and after the newspapers had already informed the public. They should have recalled all the products from the market as soon as they learnt about the third or the fourth case of poisoning. Trying to minimize or cover up the damages would only cause more harm than good (Allott, 2001). To analyze the ethical issues in this case using the utilitarian approach, we should first identify the available courses of action.

Then we should look at the stakeholders that shall be affected, the benefits and harms that shall be derived from these actions. Lastly, we should choose the action that will yield the least harm while producing the greatest benefits (Allott, 2001). Using the utilitarian approach, James and Healy should have apologized publically about the food poisoning and probably declared a deduction in the