G-Biosports and its Product - Assignment Example

G-Biosports and its Product In this simulation, the company G-Biosports has manufactured a product that is sold on not only a national market but an international market. Due to a time lag and delay with testing results in the Quality Assurance department, contaminated product has been shipped to consumers before the company recognized that the situation had occurred. Because of this error, choices had to be made in regards to the product and the well-being of the consumers. The first decision made was to present all the information to the consumers and allow them to make their own informed choices about the purchase and use of the product. Even though the product had been contaminated by unknown factors and substances, the risk to the overall healthy adult consumer was very low. Though it was noted that risks to an immune-compromised adult would be slightly higher, the overall risk to the public was placed as ‘low’. The decision to inform the customer, rather than recall the product, was made on the basis of not only the threat to the consumer but threat to the company and its business reputation. It was decided that, in informing the customer and allowing them to make their own choices through the information presented, the customer could choose for themselves whether to take the low risk of being exposed to the contaminants or cease using the product, rather than possibly panic and risk losing all faith of the customer through a blaring market recall. Though G-Biosports would undoubtedly lose some faith with the customer through the process, causing a market-wide panic would have far greater impact and consequences in the long run than simply telling the consumers what had happened and leaving the choice up to them. However, in the area of the international market, which was the second part of the simulation, the decision was made to destroy all product rather than distributing it to the international market consumers for consumption. This decision was made on the basis of holding the company to the standards of safety mandated by the USA, and choosing not to allow the product to be sold in a country where the safety standards would be less than, or different to, the USA. Though the cost to the company would be great, as the destroyed product would be taken from company costs, it was felt that it was better to deal with such costs than to risk a lawsuit in an area where a customer might have had adverse affects from consuming contaminated product. It was also noted that while the company would lose money in destroying the product and experiencing lagging sales in the period that new product was formulated and shipped out, it again would not be as great as the costs incurred in a consumer lawsuit, should such an event occur. In this situation, the relationship between virtue, values, and morals is actually quite clear, especially as it relates to the standards to which G-Biosports has aspired to. This simulation showed that they are not only morally obligated, but legally obligated, to release information to their consumers about the contaminate in the products, as well as holding themselves to a quantifiable safety standard, such as that of the USA, rather than choosing to differentiate between varying countries and their varying standards. As virtue takes into account the actions of the person, not the outcome, it can be said that virtue was applied in this instance as Kevin, in his role as Quality Control Manager, chose to hold himself to the same high standards and not risk the lives or well-being of others in distributing potentially unsafe product to an international market. There are many parts of this simulation that would apply directly to any outside workplace, including mine. It is often said around the office that productivity is key, and the people providing it don’t matter. There are times when the shareholders are considered more important than the consumer, and the bottom line is that the CEO of the company gets his yearly bonus check. Taking into account the values and the risk that each part of the company took in this simulation probably happen every day in the managers’ meetings and offices; however, that information is rarely transmitted back down the chain to the workers of the company. External pressures abound in the workplace, and this simulation was certainly no exception. The e-mail to Kevin that introduced the concept that even though the product did not meet the new FDA standards and as such could not be distributed in a USA market, it would still be “all right” to be sold on an international market. Surely there was external pressure on the company by the outside consumer, not to mention the shareholders looking for a return on their investment, to take this choice. It would have saved the company countless dollars in product destruction, and even the QA department determined that the risk was below the FDA standards originally, so why not? The company could have actually turned a profit, and there would have been no loss. There are some companies that would have preferred this option, saying little if anything to the average consumer about any contaminants at all, let alone purchase and consumption. Since the risk was low, some companies might have deemed that risk as ‘non-existent’, bowed to demands of the public and their shareholders, and distributed the product. The other external pressure in this issue is the market overall – such a large amount of product recall and destruction would have undoubtedly caused not only a dip in the stock of G-Biosports but other companies as well, since the stock market does not fluctuate on one company alone. The CEO’s of other businesses would have undoubtedly looked to this company as the cause, and while results cannot be predicted abstractly in this case, it is safe to say there would not have been happy feelings between anyone on this issue. Sadly, while in this case Kevin chose to ‘do the right thing’, and place himself and the company at low risk, such is not always the case. The world is filled with people that must make decisions every day in their work – will they always be ethical ones? Read More