In this assignment, each team will choose (be assigned) a specific company from a list that will be provided, identify that company’s approach to employee and business ethics, and present and evaluate available documentation regarding ethical challenges and specific areas of concern across the business (including any reported incidents or situations that may have drawn media and/or public attention). Following from your evaluation, teams will develop a set of recommendations to the company for improving their practice.
For your midterm essay assignment, each team will write an approximately 5-7 page (double-spaced) paper that will include the following:
- Part 1: Write a brief (1-page) Introduction to the company and to the main ethical challenges that the company encounters and you will address in this paper. Be sure to include general background, including its industry, size, competitors, location, etc. Additionally in your introduction, identify the primary sources for your data.
- Part 2: Ethical problem identification. In your opinion, identify four or five major ethical problems / areas of potential concern that you have found that the company addresses in its documents that you have found in your research.
- For each problem that you identify, provide a clear example of the challenge, and also the way the company directs that the issue be addressed.
- If there is an historical example of the specific problem that the company has faced in the past, describe it (provide a references, of course).
- What is an employee of the company instructed to do if / when the ethical challenge occurs? What company resources are available to assist an employee or manager?
- Part 3: General Evaluation. Then, after you have completed your problem identification and analysis, develop a summary evaluation / rating of your company ‘s response to the ethical problems. What are its strengths and weaknesses in this area at that time? Use the definitions, criteria, and material presented in class readings and lectures as the foundation for your assessment of its documents and activities.
- Part 4: Recommendations for Improvement. Finally, working from the documents you have found, any interviews you have conducted, as well as any other research that you can do, present a set of 2 or 3 recommendations to the company for areas of improvement in identifying and addressing ethical issues.
- Part 5: To conclude your essay, you will need to write a brief statement that summarizes where you have been, highlights your main arguments, and returns your reader to the initial ethical issues and challenges you identified in your introduction and early sections.
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