Ethics In Business Essays (2173 words) - Business Ethics

Ethics In Business From a business perspective, working under government contracts can be a very lucrative proposition. In general, a stream of orders keep coming in, revenue increases and the company grows in the aggregate. The obvious downfalls to working in this manner is both higher quality expected as well as the extensive research and documentation required for government contracts. If a part fails to perform correctly it can cause minor glitches as well as problems that can carry serious repercussions, such as in the National Semiconductor case. When both the culpable component and company are found, the question arises of how extensive these repercussions should be. Is the company as an entity liable or do you look into individual employees within that company? From an ethical perspective one would have to look at the mitigating factors of both the employees and their superiors along with the role of others in the failure of these components. Next you would have to analyze the final ruling from a corporate perspective and then we must examine the macro issue of corporate responsibility in order to attempt to find a resolution for cases like these. The first mitigating factor involved in the National Semiconductor case is the uncertainty, on the part of the employees, on the duties that they were assigned. It is plausible that during the testing procedure, an employee couldnt distinguish which parts they were to test under government standards and commercial standards. In some cases they might have even been misinformed on the final consumers of the products that they tested. In fact, ignorance on the part of the employees would fully excuse them from any moral responsibility for any damage that may result from their work. Whether it is decided that an employees is fully excused, or is given some moral responsibility, would have to be looked at on an individual basis. The second mitigating factor is the duress or threats that an employee might suffer if they do not follow through with their assignment. After the bogus testing was completed in the National Semiconductor labs, the documentation department also had to falsify documents stating that the parts had surpassed the governmental testing standards. From a legal and ethical standpoint, both the testers and the writers of the reports were merely acting as agents on direct orders from a superior. This was also the case when the plant in Singapore refused to falsify the documents and were later falsified by the employees at the have California plant before being submitted to the approval committees (Velazquez, 53). The writers of the reports were well aware of the situation yet they acted in this manner on the instruction of a supervisor. Acting in an ethical manner becomes a secondary priority in this type of environment. As stated by Alan Reder, . .. if they [the employees] feel they will suffer retribution, if they report a problem, they arent too likely to open their mouths. (113). The workers knew that if the reports were not falsified they would come under questioning and perhaps their employment would go into jeopardy. Although working under these conditions does not fully excuse an employees from moral fault, it does start the divulging process for determining the order of the chain of command of superiors and it helps to narrow down the person or department that issued the original request for the unethical acts. The third mitigating factor is one that perhaps encompasses the majority of the employees in the National Semiconductor case. We have to balance the direct involvement that each employee had with the defective parts. Thus, it has to be made clear that many of the employees did not have a direct duty with the testing departments or with the parts that eventually failed. Even employees, or sub-contractors, that were directly involved with the production were not aware of the incompetence on the part of the testing department. For example, the electrical engineer that designed the defective computer chip could act in good faith that it would be tested to ensure that it did indeed meet the required government endurance tests. Also, for the employees that handled the part after the testing process, they were dealing with what they believed to be a component that met every governmental standard. If it was not tested properly, and did eventually fail, isnt the testing department more morally responsible than the designer or the assembly line worker that was in charge of installing the chip? Plus, in large corporations there may be several testing departments and is

Buddhism- Early History essays

Buddhism- Early History essays Buddhism is probably the most accepting religion in the world, as its teachings can exist with any other religions. Its followers view their life pessimistically. The emphasis of the religion is on compassion, love, and the hope that if they behaved in the world now that the next world will be even better. Buddhism has a very long existence and history, starting around the 6th and 5th century BC with the birth of Siddhartha Gautama. In about 565 BC, Siddhartha Gautama was born heir to King Suddhodana of the Sakya tribe of Kapilavatthu (Encyclopedia Britannica 273). This was a country at the foot of the Himalayas, near the present Indian-Nepal border (Hopfe). Gautama's father was said to have been told by a prophet that if Gautama saw the sick, aged, dead, or poor he would become a religious leader (Snelling, J. 47). If he didnt see these four things he would become an emperor leader (Snelling, J. 47). Because of this prophecy Gautama's father decided to isolate his son from the outside world, where he might "see how the other half lived", for the good of his empire and his citizens (Snelling, J. 48). Trying to shelter Gautama from all the four sights was impossible, and Gautama ventured out and that is when he eventually saw the four sights, which would, if experienced as it had been told to Gautama's father, lead the young prince to a religious leader. These sights or as how Buddhists refer to them "The Four Signs" were, a sick man covered with terrible sores, an old man, a corpse, and a wandering monk leader (Snelling, J. 48). The sightings of these men made Gautama think of the suffering and inevitable death. This brought further questioning such as the meaning of life and the ultimate fate of man. As time passed these thoughts became great burdens to Gautama and he became increasingly dissatisfied with the shallow evil life of the royal court in which he lived. When Siddhartha was about 20, he married Yasodhara, daugh...

Persuasive message Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Persuasive message - Essay Example I was aware that some of the stockholders were not receptive to my ideas, and some of the officials did not want me to be promoted. I made it a point to mention the names of those whom I perceived to be hostile in a patronizing sound, as if the ideas injected in my project were suggested by them. I was aware they had a high level of interest, I was able to cut to the chase quickly, and went directly to the key messages (na 2004). Object of Persuasion: The product we were trying to sell is a residential property under the real estate industry. The competition with the other real estate companies for the kind of market we wanted to monopolize was quite stiff, particularly in the area where I will be transferred, which was not performing well at that time. I proposed to lower the selling price, and to allocate additional budget for special incentives for the Account Consultants, a kind of motivation that is badly needed in that area. Argument: I presented a graph, that depicted the tren ds in the sales productivity when there were promotions and when no promotions were offered to the customers. I had to defend my proposal because it entailed additional cost on the part of the company, which they were not willing to accede to at the start.