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Name______________________
ID _____________ Section:
HRM200-300
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Spring 2020
TAP 2 – 15%
Ethical Dilemmas (20 points each – TOTAL 100)
Read each ethical dilemma and answer the questions that follow.
1. You’re about ready to sign a big new client to a contract worth over 50,000KD. Your boss is under a lot of
pressure to increase sales. He calls you into his office and tells you his job is on the line, and he asks you
to include the revenue for your contract in the sales figures for the quarter that ends tomorrow. You
know the contract is a sure thing but the client is out of town and cannot possibly sign by tomorrow.
What do you do? What would be ethical and unethical action?
ANSWER:
Ethical: Unethical:
2. The manufacturing cost of the widgets your company makes has dropped by 50%. One of your
customers, Sam, tells you he knows this because he is best friends with your company’s VP of production
and asks you for a discount on his order. Your boss okays the discount. Your other customer, Sue (who is
one of your best friends and knows nothing about the drop in manufacturing costs), places the exact
same order for widgets as Sam.
Do you offer her a similar discount? Do you tell her about the drop in manufacturing costs? What
would be ethical and unethical action?
ANSWER:
Ethical: Unethical:
2
3. Your best friend is the VP of one of the companies with which your firm does business. You take her out
for lunch just to catch up on personal stuff, and you pick up the check. Do you declare this a “business
lunch” and submit the receipt for reimbursement? What would be ethical and unethical action?
ANSWER:
Ethical: Unethical:
4. While in the restroom, you overhear your boss telling a colleague that Bob is going to be laid off at the
end of the quarter in about two weeks’ time. Bob is a good friend of yours. Do you tell him? What would
be ethical and unethical action?
ANSWER:
Ethical: Unethical:
5. One of the newest salespeople in your division is a real goof-off, never showing up for work on time,
distracting other people with his antics and so on. You complain about him to your boss, who tells you
the kid is the son of the company president. Your boss instructs you not only to leave the new guy alone
but also to make his sales numbers look good by throwing him some no-brainer accounts.
Is behavior of your boss ethical?
ANSWER:
What should he do instead?
ANSWER:
What do you do?
ANSWER:
BONUS (10 points)
Explain the difference between trust, justice and ethics.