Principles of management - week # 4

Chapter 5 - Management's Social and Ethical responsibilities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The issues we have dealt with on this chapter are: -Corporate social esponsibilities -The 4 Social responsibility strategies -The role of enlightened self-interest in social responsibility. -Business Ethics -Instrumental and Terminal values -Ethical principles - The things management can do to improbe business ethics. Some personal thoughts: ----------------------------- This chapter is very interesting to me... I recall all kinds of ethical issues that came up during my career in Israel as a travel consultant and tour operators... It brings some good memories and some bad ones too. I see my self as a person with good moral values and good ethics. I am proud of being loyal to my work ethics. During the course of my career I have faced some situations in which my ethics were put to a test, and I always did the right thing. However - I would rather not be put in such situations again. It's hard to understand how people, especially those in management positions - will be willing to put other people in such inconvenient situations. But I guess workplaces would have been very BORING if it wasn't for those who try to bend the rules... and those who try to keep it straight... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Will I ever be the whistle blower? I am hoping never to be in such a situation, but I think that If I ever find myself in a situation that requires whistle-blowing - I will probably do it. I am too honest to cooperate with misconducts. Especially when it concerns human life. Closing case # 2 - The whistle blowing nurse - talks about such a case, in which human lives were put in jeoperdy. The nurse did the right thing to do - she blew the whistle, but has she eventually become the victim ? in some way she did. But she also stayed loyal to her values and principles. She did the right things to do. I admire her for that.

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Subject: Closing case # 2 - The whistle blowing nurse. Summary: Cherlynn Mathias, who was a registered nurse, and worked as a research nurse at the University of Oklahoma had revealed severe series of safety violations at the college of medicine where she worked. After repetitive warnings from her side to the managers in top positions at the college – and a complete disregarding in response – she took the case forward and notified regulators who started an investigation and shut down the government-funded research facilities. Nurse Mathias is considered a whistle blower.

Questions & Answers:

1. What was the major ethical breach in this case?

The major ethical breach in this case was severe violations of safety rules conducted in a medical research facility and attempts to quiet-down the whistle blower (the nurse) and in addition attempts to cover up the mess.

2. What situational factors increased the likelihood of unethical behavior in this case?

The situational factors that increased the likelihood of unethical behavior in this case were that the violations of safety rules were conducted in a medical research facility, in which human beings were involved. Any harm done to human beings involved is considered unethical. The trial – in which patients with severe skin cancer participated – was not properly monitored and people lives were put in danger.

3. Would you attach primary blame for the unethical conduct to any single individual? Who? Why?

I would attach primary blame to the top officials in the medicine college like Plunket and McGee, as they were those in management positions who were suppose to monitor the research, and maintain ethical codes. Instead – they kept ignoring the warnings given to them by the whistle – blower and even tried to cover up the mess when it was already too late.

4. In terms of the constructive steps for reducing the need for whistle-blowing, discussed in this chapter, what would have been done at the university Oklahoma college of medicine to avoid this whistle blowing event?

In order to avoid this whistle blowing event, top officials in the University Of Oklahoma College of medicine should have provided its employees with a comfortable atmosphere allowing reporting violations, and then taking those violations seriously and not ignoring them. They should have trained their managers and employees to know how to deal with unethical behaviors and set ethical codes and fully support them.

5. Putting yourself in Cherlynn Mathias’s placer, would you, as a divorced mother of two, have had the courage to blow the whistle? Explain. Would you have handled the problem different than she did? Explain.

When it concerns human life and puts human beings in danger, I think the most humanitarian thing to do is to blow the whistle … If I stood in Cherlynn Mathias’s place, I probably would have done it with much anxiety and fear over loosing my job, but I’d still do it, and most likely in the same manner she did it. I think she did her outmost to avoid going public with this issue and causing a scandal. She stuck to her own values and I respect her courage and find her inspiring.