Provide a rationale for your opinions and recommendations. You should support your position by using facts from the case and you should also use ethical concepts from chapter 4 Ethical and Social Responsibility to support your point of view. For example, 4 ways to classify alternative decisions: legal, but unethical, etc. (utilitarianism, moral idealism, social responsibility: profit, stakeholder, and societal.
Answer fully the 4 questions for both ethical scenarios. Your response is based partly on your opinion and partly on the ethical concepts discussed in Chapter 4.
Scenario # 1 : Wholesome Hamburger Company
Suppose you work for the Wholesome Hamburger Company that owns a 100 fast-food restaurants in California.
There is a big drought and people are being told to use less water.
You know what it takes:
1,800 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef,
12 gallons of water to produce a head of lettuce,
2 gallons for one walnut, and
468 gallons of water to produce a pound of chicken.
You discuss this with the executives in your firm and they tell you that the way water is allocated by the government, the company does not incur any additional expense: water will remain very cheap for business. The head of the company is soliciting ideas for its strategic plan for the future.
700 word minimum per scenario. You must say something insightful and relevant.
- What is an ethical dilemma or issue?
- Identify and discuss at least 3 alternatives (options) that the company could consider. Each option indicate if it is legal and ethical, probably legal, but unethical, or illegal, and unethical.
3 What are your recommendations? In other words, of the several alternatives you identified, what do you think the company should do?
4 What is your rationale for your recommendations? In other words, why do you recommend this course of action?
Scenario # 2 : Chicken International Group
You are the CEO of a chicken-processing company. The Vice President of marketing informs you that if you label your chicken as “free-range” you can charge 20% more and greatly improve profit margins.
You find out that all that needs to be done to legally use the term “free-range” is to open the door to the hen house for 5 minutes a day. This provides the chickens with access to the outdoors when, in fact, very few chickens will wander out when the door is open for 5 minutes. Moreover, the term “free-range” may be used regardless of space per chicken, a number of chickens, or the amount of time spent outside.
700 word minimum per scenario. You must say something insightful and relevant.
- What is an ethical dilemma or issue?
- Identify and discuss at least 3 alternatives (options) that the company could consider. Each option indicates if it is legal and ethical, probably legal, but unethical, or illegal, and unethical.
3 What are your recommendations? In other words, of the several alternatives you identified, what do you think the company should do?
4 What is your rationale for your recommendations? In other words, why do you recommend this course of action?
Sample Solution
