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Ethics Simulations – Turning Gears

Turning gears simulation has tested our decision making in challenging situations under different scenarios. It has tested the value we give to ourselves, the company and our community. These scenarios provided some critical decision parameters: moral values, career advancement, monetary implications, employee relations, stakeholder buy-in, community impact and overall organization values. All these factors played a key role in how I perceived the situation and how I have taken the decisions.

Scenario 1: The first scenario involved in taking decision about the advertising and air timing for the hermy`s adventure product. I am a strong believer that the product should be marketed to the right audience. But the audience for the product is for Children aged 3 to 5 years. The dilemma that I went through was does the children have the capacity to understand the good and bad for them. But I realized it was a just a toy and it won’t adversely affect them. I also looked at the ment content that we are going to air and felt that it was not mentally damaging or does not have obscene content or falsifying about the product. If we take a step back and look around, today, on an average every kid knows more about latest ads and promotions. They watch the tele with their family, sibling; go for movies with them, amusement parks, restaurants, and on and on. We do expose children to the world around as in different ways. So, curbing children specific ment is not a viable idea, rather it should be made more effective and purposeful. So, I have taken a call of advertising to children in children programs. For this Scenario, the formalist and the virtue based approaches played a key role in decision making. After choosing the Spot C to , the sales team and the director of product management were happy with the increased sales. But looking just not the income, the reactions from longterm customers, the effect on the company`s brand, CEO’s vision and Company’s values, I realized that the ment is not delivering the expected results. I realized it is not just about near future and delivering the right message. It is also about the company’s values and people perception. I believe that if the parents felt that the children were the wrong choice, my decision was effecting our community. I felt that the parents concern is valid and one to be looked into. It made me to shift to spot A by increasing the play-rate, and find more suitable airtimes and channels of exposure. At this juncture, I felt that manager should be looking beyond near returns

Ethics Simulations – Turning Gears

and employee benefits. For this scenario, projecting the right image was a priority decision rather than short-term sales commission increase or profitability increase. The Formalist and the virtue based approaches played a key role again along with change in my perception of the scenario to make the decision. For both the scenarios, commitment to customers and company’s mission statement played a major role with my career advancement the least concern in taking the decisions.

Scenario 2: The second scenario was dealing with product safety without having sufficient information. It has posed lot of ethical dilemma, whether you should listen to your boss and try to advance in your career, whether you should look at the community that is going to affect with your decision, what priority you give to your colleagues’ words, how much you care about customers and how much you care about company’s future and yours. Throughout history, there have been many instances where decision makers and corporates have failed to realize the importance of demarcating between these important aspects and have paid a hefty price in of damaging the brand image, trust and eventually company growth, for example one of the biggest automobile manufacturer Ford’s launch of Pinto. Product safety has a very high implications through the organization and I have decided to hear the problem brought by Hastings. I believe that there should be transparency between employees and managers. This led me to take the issue to my manager, where he felt that there were more pressing situations that I should look into. But due to ethical issues, I tried to invest time to learn more about the problem. Initially, I was in dilemma whether we have sufficient information to take a decision. This led me to not deliver my work on time. I went out of my manager’s suggestion to leave the matter and look into the urgent issues, and tried finding about the issue that was brought up by Hastings by spending my own time and energy. I started to do research more about Feinberg-Adams syndrome to understand the criticality of the situation. Even though I was unable to find out more information in the stipulated time, I realized this could become a huge concern if immediate rectifying steps are not taken to address it. The key elements in this situation: limited knowledge of the disease and its symptoms, limited information regarding the exact cause – was it Plaxx that caused the issues or is it something else, the narrow timeframe

Ethics Simulations – Turning Gears

within which everything had to be decided. The decision making process involved a combination of utilitarian, formalist and virtue ethics framework to arrive at a satisfactory decision. In the wake of limited research information, I decided to get an opinion of colleagues to understand their perspective. With a confused decisions around the board room, I have taken decision to invest more time to understand about the issue even my manager was going to be upset about the situation. My utilitarian and virtues played the major role going against my manager. So, I invested time to understand the implications by talking to legal and public relations teams. Although, there were some coincidental occurring of rashes and deeper symptoms associated with the new material used in the toy products, it wasn’t completely clear whether these development should be attributed to Plaxx or is there another cause for this. Nevertheless, Plaxx was being used by our company for the first time, which meant that it could very well be a possibility and can’t be lightly ignored. So, in the wake of limited research information, I decided to add warning labels on all our products and decided to make things public. I was not very happy with the decision as it affects the company’s image and earnings at stake and, the management trust in me. Even though there was no way to know whether this new material might develop certain symptoms and make people more susceptible to this new disease rather than this being the trigger. Considering the utilitarian approach and consequences, the formalist approach and well-being of my s/employees alongside the virtue based approach of being honest and transparent with the media and customers, I took the difficult decision of recalling the products and adding the warning signs to all the products. I have decided to replace Plaxx with previous materials even though it is costing the company and recall the products sold. To turn the cards in favor of the company, I decided to launch an advertising campaign intended to raise awareness of Feinberg-Adams syndrome and warn people who have FA against physical with your toy. My Utilitarian approach kicked in to take this decision. Again commitment to customers and company’s mission statement has been in my priority list while taking the decisions through the scenario. The rules, norms and the ideals that apply to the situation with effect on the corporate image made me take the decisions.

Ethics Simulations – Turning Gears

Scenario 3: There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation or any second thoughts on the course of action for this particular simulation situation. I strongly believe that everyone is unique and has the right to be the person he/she wants to be. It was ethically incorrect for me what the Fun TV was doing. For instance, in the simulation, Fun TV was absolutely against the LGBT ads being aired and they demanded to stop this practice very boldly. I was concerned about the minority communities like LGBT being out casted and creating an unethical message for the future generations. The other issue I looked into before taking the decision is the parents’ group reaction to advertising at Fun TV. I was also concerned about the unrest among the employees who belong to the community. I used a combination of utilitarian, formalist and virtue based approach, but the fromalist and virtue based decision has played a major role in deciding not to air on Fun TV. I have thought about the company’s image, customer satisfaction, employee more and the community value while taking the decision. I felt that in the future, the customers’ alignment with the company drives more value than the money we are losing on the table. Financial impact and balancing the competing interests were the least concerns I had while taking the decision.

Scenario 4: In the kind of corporate environment that we are a part of, every information is vulnerable and very easily accessible. With the exponential rate of globalization, the relationship with suppliers and outsourcing of work creates a very delicately balanced roap for any company. Navigating such relationships is always a challenging task. And the primary framework I used was the formalist and virtue based approach. While I was taking the decision, I realized that without having heard from both the sides of parties a decision cannot be reached. This led me to take the decision to collect more data on the Manufacturer before acting upon the situation. I believe that talking to the manufacturer would answer more questions and help us to understand their perspective. But this was overtaken by my utilitarian view to understand the situation and see the repercussions. This made me send a representative to check the situation. After Jared’s return and explained me about the situation, I gained trust in the Manufacturer and conveyed a message to the utilitarian in me. I am impressed with the working conditions and mandatory

Ethics Simulations – Turning Gears

education for the children which can be conveyed emotionally to our customers when the situation arrives. I do believe that child labor is ethically wrong. But the case is beyond ethics, it is survival of the poor children. The children who are working are better off and are happy compared to the circumstances they are living. Putting in their shoes, I realized I would prefer working with the manufacturer in better environment than the other options. Based on these reasoning, I decided to continue our contract with the supplier. I also have decided not to go with any of the public relations options, as it is unnecessary to drag the company into trouble or unnecessary complicated situations. We can also defend against the situation when a problem arises. These decisions were purely taken in utilitarian perspective. To summarize the simulation, I realized and learned about the different frameworks we use while we are in ethically debatable scenarios. I also learned that there is not one thing that is right, it is the situation and your priority on values that define the decisions that we take. Although I was pretty comfortable with the decisions I took, in retrospection, I think if I retook the simulation at different time, I could have taken different decisions with importance to different frameworks in the decision process.