Issue 1 - Ethics and Legal Environment
Sara Topps is a highly respected Senior Vice President at BetaZeta Corporation and is well known for her community service work. Sara has been at BetaZeta for a decade and has risen from the ranks, starting out as an assistant project facilitator and steadily progressing to a senior-management position. Sara's performance evaluations during her time at BetaZeta have ranged from Very Good to Outstanding performance. Sara's leadership on many BetaZeta projects has resulted in increased revenue for the company. She is generally well respected in the company, but, as is often the case with office politics, there are some people who had competed with her for positions in the past and are envious of her success.
Shortly after Sara's most recent promotion to Senior Vice President, Artie Pope, who was also a candidate for the position, attended a conference. Artie was very disappointed about not getting the promotion, and, after a few too many drinks at a social gathering, he shared his disappointment with a couple he had just met that night. He was comparing his qualifications with Sara's and he inadvertently mentioned her by name. The business world is sometimes a small one, and, as it turned out, the man Artie was talking with, Kilgore Trout, had known Sara at a previous job. Kilgore mentioned to Artie that he was pleased to hear that Sara had completed her MBA at UMUC because when he knew her she had dropped out for family reasons.
When Artie returned to work, he went to Human Resources and told Anita Ramos, an HR representative, that he had heard from a reliable source that Sara had not completed her MBA and he thought that HR should check on this.
Current Human Resources policies at BetaZeta require potential employees to submit transcripts from the degree-granting institutions for all degrees on their resumes, but this requirement was not in place at the time when Sara first began working for BetaZeta. After discussing this issue with her manager, Anita contacted Sara and told her that HR needed to update her records. Anita asked Sara to contact the educational institutions where she had received her degrees to request that official transcripts be sent directly to Human Resources at BetaZeta.
This request made Sara's heart sink, because, in fact, she had never received her MBA. She was 18 credits from completion when she had to drop out because of family obligations. She really needed a job at that time and had put the MBA degree on her resume to enhance her chances of getting hired. An MBA was not a requirement for the assistant project facilitator job that she was hired into ten years ago, but it is a requirement for the Senior Vice President position she currently holds. However, some of the current Senior VPs, who assumed the position prior to the MBA requirement, do not have MBAs.
Using Professor Joseph Badaracco's "right-right" framework, including all steps and tests, analyze this question:
How should Human Resources resolve this situation? Be sure to make a clear recommendation and state your reasons. Be sure to cite any reference sources you use from the AMBA 610 course materials. Do not use any materials outside of AMBA 610 course materials.
Issue 2 - Organizational Environment - 35 points (1,000 words limit)
Rafael has been a glass designer and blower for the past 17 years. He operates his small business under the name "Rafael's Art Glass" out of a workshop in the northeast and makes custom pieces that appeal to an "artsy" market. Although his customers are mostly young, they are affluent and willing to spend money for unique, high-quality items, so "RAG" (as it's commonly referred to) products command a premium price. Currently, the sculptures are produced in one workshop in Binghamton, NY and sold in only three locations in the U.S.: New York City; New Orleans, LA; and to a limited market in Princeton, NJ (Rafael is a Princeton University graduate). Production is approximately 2,000 pieces per year, with prices ranging from $800 - $7,500 (and sometimes more) per item. The items are produced in quantities ranging from single, made-to-order, one-of-a-kind designs to limited-availability items of no more than 100. After Rafael appeared on a popular cable television reality show, "Accessory Wars," his glass designs gained instant national recognition. Even though he was one of the earlier designers to be "fired" from the show, the publicity resulted in many fans for RAG designs. Now, people across the country want to have RAG pieces in their homes. Rafael has been approached by a big art-design industry investment firm that is willing to fund his expansion. They have told him that, despite the bad economic conditions, they believe now is the time for him to expand to take advantage of the television boost to his popularity. In addition, they believe that there is now demand for his pieces in markets outside of the U.S. Since design trends are often fleeting, the investors advise Rafael that he should "go big now" and try to capture as large a market share as possible. Of course, he would have to produce items in larger quantities and sell them at lower prices to do so. Rafael is used to running a small business, but all of this is new to him. He knows the company will have to invest in more trained staff and production equipment to meet the increased demand.
Rafael has hired you to give him advice about how he should proceed.
Answer the following questions about RAG. Be sure to state clearly any assumptions you make about the organization as part of the description of factors to consider and state the reasons for including each factor. Use organizational structure language and theory in your response.
- In deciding whether or not to produce larger quantities, what factors should Rafael consider?
- What specific recommendations do you have for Rafael?
Issue 3 - Critical Thinking - 10 points (400-word limit)
Read the following paragraph and provide a brief analysis of it from a critical thinking point of view
"Why do people fall for all the fad diets out there when the only nutrition plan that's even close to sensible is the Track & Bag Diet? Anyone who thinks another diet will do them any good is a complete cretin who knows nothing about the nutritional needs of the human body. The Track & Bag for Life diet book has been a top seller on Amazon.com for over 6 weeks now, far outselling any other diet books, which demonstrates beyond the shadow of a doubt that this diet is superior to all others. This diet takes us back to the old ways of dealing with food; and as everyone knows, the old ways are the best ways. My friend Brenda, who has tried more diets than you can shake a Pop Tart at, has lost a pound and a half on this diet, which is a record for her and proves how effective this breakthrough diet concept, is. Plus, this diet has been mentioned in several major newspapers and you can see dozens of ads for it each evening on late-night cable TV shows, which means it must be legit. The concept of chasing down your own food and eating it raw on the spot is an incredible breakthrough that none of those hoity-toity think-tank researchers has managed to come up with, despite the claims of all the fundraising junk mail they send out every year! In fact, I heard that four out of five research scientists have never heard of this diet, which goes to show that research is useless and we should stop making contributions to those do-nothing medical research organizations. Sure, there may be some folks out there who are too slow to be able to run down a deer; but the beauty of this diet is that they can lose weight by eating twigs and nuts, or by raiding dumpsters, just like our nomadic ancestors did. Or simply by doing a lot of running after deer, even if they don't catch them! Anyway, people really need to get onto this diet; if they don't, the whole country is going to be couch potatoes before too long. One great aspect of this diet is that you don't have to keep track or what you eat, or weigh yourself, or do much of anything, unless you want to, which is terrific because everybody wants freedom from having to worry about their weight. Also, did I mention that this diet book is really cheap to buy, which is the most important thing people care about in terms of choosing a diet? Anyway, do this diet-you'll be glad you did. It's the greatest. "
You don't need to apply all of Browne & Keeley's 10-critical thinking steps, but you must include at least the following three:
1. What is the issue and what is the conclusion?
2. Identify at least three reasoning fallacies, by name, and explain why they are fallacies in this argument.
3. Identify a value assumption in the argument and explain why it is a value assumption.