Incident of Morales video - Assignment Example

When Phaust’s management is confronted by the ethical issues involved in hiring a critical person from the rival business the person in charge Chuck replies that Fred is under no non-disclosure agreement with Chemitoil. The ethical implications of such a decision are clear and should be avoided as far as possible. In a similar manner the management at Phaust finds out that Chemitoil is about to release a new paint remover known as “Easy Strip” so they decide to brand their own product as “Strip Teasy” which sounds similar to the original product’s name.

The contention is to promote sales by blurring out the customer’s brand distinction so that customers going for Chemitoil’s product may accidentally buy Phaust’s product too. This is an ethically repugnant method to boost sales and represents an ethical dilemma even if the legal department allow it. Once the plant was cleared for construction, it was situated in Mexico in order to take clear advantage of the more lax environmental laws. The implementation of less stringent environmental laws would allow Phaust to construct the plant at a far lower cost than the cost of construction in the United States.

While this would benefit Phaust in the short and long run but such a decision would be very detrimental to the interests of many stakeholders in Mexico such as labour unions, people living in the adjacent localities, workers working at the plant amongst others. It was Phaust’s ethical responsibility to evaluate its decision and to match up salaries, environmental protection and the like before creating a plant in Mexico because ethical constraints demand as such. As the construction of the plant proceeds the construction team is faced with the decision of lining the evaporating ponds in order to discourage the infiltration of hazardous substances to drinking water nearby.

There are no environmental protection laws in Mexico to supplant or require such a commitment but it was the ethical responsibility of the construction team to ensure that the local drinking water supply was not affected by their actions. Failure to comply with ethical standards in order to curb costs reflects on the low ethical standards employed at Phaust. Moreover Phaust is represented as possessing a culture of speed over safety. Though upper management might feel that this stratagem would promote efficacy and reduce waste but the implications are opposite to the desired effects.

The promotion of speed forced Fred to design a conventional plant using conventional design pressures and temperatures. Forcing the design team beyond their means in order to save time was an unethical violation of norms at Phaust. This in turn forced the construction and design teams to work up a design that was not up to the job as the new product from Chemitoil was analysed. The construction phase of the plant was filled up with unethical conduct as well. The procurement of expensive control systems from a person related to the higher management at Phaus is a clear violation of the code of ethics for engineering procurement.

Utilising the money in one such section would drain the construction in other places and the video shows this clearly as it proceeds. Similarly the uncalled for budget cuts across the board were uncalled for and unethical to say the least as not formal assessments or evaluations were undertaken to determine the amount of cuts required. The removal of