Essential Ethical Questions In Business - Essay Example

Part A Situations that occur within production areas can be quite sensitive when concerning decision making in management. The issues that arise willalmost always have an impact on someone’s job security. Whether it is yours or someone else’s all depends on the choices you make. The decision to blow the whistle turned out to be a costly one. There are several questions that enter my mind when placing myself in this situation. Being in some way an obilgee, it is understandable to have maximum concern for contamination of company a product that will be delivered to masses of people which could potentially be harmful. First thing on my mind would be to try to figure out a way to alert some one of importance about the issue at hand without being viewed as an unfriendly suitor. Should I began on the floor pointing fingers the workers or should I take this straight to the top? Using an ethical approach, it would make more sense to first make managerial routes of watching the floor to observe the processes that take place during sanitation and changeover routines in order to gain factual information to bring forward with my concerns. In finding that the employees are not exactly following company protocols the question of what to do next would become an aggravating opponent which in turn could make me jump the gun to make the mistake of blowing the whistle. Being that the company is already having problems with earnings along with a pending poisoning case looming in the air, it would definitely not be a good idea to turn my back on the issue nor would it be a good idea to help the company develop more losses by publicly destroying its reputation applying a tort in blowing the whistle on the situation. Therefore further investigation would be needed. After discussing the issue within the quality department and checking previous records, I would then assess the risk of taking this thing any further. If I tell now will I be praised and heralded a hero to be given an early promotion? Maybe so, but if I decide to keep quiet with the belief that this will probably blow over, will it come back to haunt me in the future because I didn’t do my job? These are individually very difficult questions to answer, but I believe that if I followed the proper steps to analyze each individual area where and how the salmonella may have infected the product, will help in taking the proper steps to eliminate this from happing again. This would serve as a job well done giving me enough satisfaction that would keep me from making the same mistake that the Delectable manager made by going public with the issue. At this point though, I would elect not to sign the QA report unless the report is accurate and up to date. There are several issues that tied into having contamination of the peanut butter product while in production. Thus we should be sure to take the opportunity to address this issue with each departmental management leader or group in order to effectively communicate the issue throughout the plant. The Primary issue would be the problems we are having with the inspection processes. We must be sure that during each cycle, the boxes with the red tags are thoroughly cleaned and checked. Proper documentation that each inspection process has been completed should be checked and signed off by each foreman as well as a QA representative. Another problem I noticed is that the quality director seems to be way too cluttered and needs a substantial amount of help. He has very good suggestions but in order for his ideas to be truly heard and considered, we will have to work each detail out on paper and include some financial numbers to show some sort of budget. Another issue I see here is that there is a major communication problem between the foreman crew and management. Obviously they’ve gotten the idea in their heads that the inspection process is not serious due to the fact they are rewarded for being lackadaisical and lazy with a nonchalant attitude towards their duties. This is highly due to the fact that they are rewarded on the quantity of their work rather than quality which seems to be the underlying issue to why salmonella tainted product slipped by them in the first place. Once again I could recommend that we come up with a major overhaul of the current regulations in order overcome the current safety and sanitary problems. On paper we will show how much money we will save by cutting unnecessary the bonuses that are being given to foreman’s for the quantity of their work instead of the quality. We will also compare the loss figures of law suits and accidents versus the new plans and ideas that the director and I have come up with. A plant meeting will then be scheduled to address these new company policies and disciplines in order to inform our employees including myself being new, about the changes and expected adjustments within the company. In implementing these policies, it is highly likely that I will encounter hatred and step on a few toes in the process. However, given the current situation and meanness to disrespect that I have already encountered here, it would appear as a motivation to overlook conflict and continue to do what is necessary to ensure my job security as well as those who really appreciate their jobs. Part B When it comes to the safety and welfare of public, the government should at least participate in helping to keep the food we eat safe. As we pay taxes on just about every food that we eat, it is a necessary need for them to insure that food processing companies are not cutting corners just to make more money. However, dealing with each individual company on a one by one basis would prove to be very tedious and quite difficult to maintain a level a fairness and accuracy. As all business organizations are subject to some form of regulations, the governance of safe food practice policies should be delegated to the states. In thinking deeply into this issue, one phrase does come to mind. The use of Police Power already gives each state the authority to maintain public health and safety in regards to the businesses located there in. This power grants states the right to regulate all private owned businesses that do direct or indirect sales with the customers from one state to another. In this case, the state of Georgia would do better to place sanctions that include hefty fines and corrective actions if a company is in violation for making products that are unsafe for the public. The federal government in it self can offer specific tax breaks or adjustments to those companies that prove to show exemplary practices that should be warranted for how safety standards and sanitary practices should be done. Some company owners have made bids on the idea of participating in self governance in which they are able to keep themselves in line while being able to maintain a safe environment to process food, keeping it at all times sanitary and able to pass audits at all levels. It is the popular opinion is that this option will prove to fail as companies such Deletcable will more than likely proceed to take advantage of the lax enforcement of regulations and begin to fall short on meeting its own mandates and requirements in order to produce its annual plan or promise of production numbers. Part C I became very disheartened when I was asked to do my job given the order to harm someone or a group of people. In thinking to myself about how much I really wanted this job and how hard I worked to get it, I suddenly wished I was never hired and wanted to quit. Then I remembered the term criminal liability. This rule would allow for the company to legally get away with this type of action if they could prove that they had not authorized the decision to send this stuff to San Lopez. If this peanut butter was actually bad and sickened someone to death, the company could actually pin this on me or my supervisor and get away clean. I began to hope that she had received written corporate instructions telling her to do this because we were about to get in trouble. Instantly the laws of moral ethics begin to beat my brains. Hopefully the state of Georgia was one of the states that will hold an employer liable and penalize them for the acts of the supervisor if they did in fact authorize this. The rules of conduct that I learned started to take over within since the law was obviously of no concern here. I couldn’t allow myself to be reckless as this was a risk that would more than likely end up with a negative result. Maybe I could talk her into a revocation by offering a semi rejection to sending these red tagged peanut butter crates to those less fortunate people in San Lopez. I mean who are we to judge those that live in a lower economic standard than we do? Being a subordinate, I decided that checking for ratification and placing a request for real evidence to show that this was really legal was the right thing for me to do. Unless we can produce some sort of sovereign immunity, I will have the integrity not to sign off on this shipment and request for my director to make the call on this one. The supervisor giving the authority to send yellow tagged crates of peanut butter would be a good warranty of merchantability as we know that the yellow tagged items are good to go. Doing business with a clear conscience and knowing that we are delivering safe product will allow for me to rest easy when the work day is over. Being incompliance of the product liability law would keep us in good standing with the state of Georgia and perhaps then our business may begin to pick up during the next fiscal quarters throughout the year. It is a material fact that the yellow tagged items will be less likely to do any harm to the people of San Lopez unless our foreman had made some serious mistakes. With that being said, it would much easier to feel liable for an accident rather than knowledgeably sending someone bad product. Part D First we should issue an implied Warranty of Merchantability. We will assure them the product received from us will pass without further objection from them. Being fungible product, we will sign a QA form stating that the goods are of at least average condition mostly being marked by yellow tags. If in any event that they receive red tagged crates, they will have been fully inspected and ready to go. The quality form will issue a guarantee that the peanut butter is fit for ordinary purposes and can be sold within the market as normal and good product. The QA form will also include a description showing that the peanut butter was adequately contained, packaged and labeled. We will then conform to negotiate the two hundred fifty thousand dollar cost and offer a bulk load of thoroughly inspected peanut butter which was previously red tagged, and now is repacked, and marked acceptable for an even lesser cost than before. To avoid any conflict of warranties or guarantees issued by Delectables, we will accompany this certified QA form with exact specifications and samples from the existing bulk load that will be shipped to San Lopez. This is intended to notify the security team which is scheduled to assure safe passage of the goods in route to San Lopaez. The one hundred thousand dollar cost associated with this shipment will be negotiated in lue of the risk of lost being retained by the lessor and not the lessee. All information not excluding the samples shall be included in the agreements to stand as follows: Each bulk load of peanut butter shall be delivered to the security carrier using and outside parcel service i.e. Fed Ex, UPS, or DHL to a particular destination and the goods are tendered while in the possession of the security carriers. Each bulk load will become the responsibility of the lesser once it has arrived and has been signed in there possession. In respects to damages or incomplete shipment not matching the Bill of Lading, the lost will remain with the lessor. With all this being in compliance and okayed by our corporate managements consisting of sourcing and accounts payable, the director of the Delectables quality assurance team shall duly sign each copy of the QA form with my signature being a witness for proper completion. Any further additions and negotiations can be entered in pending agreements with the San Lopez customs officers. Read More