Business Ethics
3.3.3 Individual assignment 3: case: “Unreliable”Table of contents:
Phase 1,2,3 of the ethical cycle: Moral problem statement Problem analysis Options for action Phase 4 of the ethical cycle: Intuition Utilitarianism Bentham Mill Kantiism Deontology (Kant)
Description of the case: “Marta Malasobras is unreliable”
Marta Malasobras is unreliable. She has arrived late to work almost every day. Her co-workers are quite angry about this and discuss their frustrations with the supervisor. They claim that she is affecting the work environment. Because she is not doing her share, everyone else in the work team is overloaded.
Marta’s group carries out a process that requires cooperative group work. Four operators must work as one coordinated production unit. If one team member is absent, the rest of the team works less efficiently. Company policy mandates that hourly employees must begin everyday at 6:00 a.m.
The supervisor talked with Marta and has asked her why she is so often late. She burst into tears. She had to drive her six-year old boy to school every morning. The school gates do not open until 6:30 and she has to wait until this time to drop off her son safely. This particular morning, bowing to the pressure she felt from her work team, she dropped her boy off before the gates opened. She worried about him the entire morning. She knew that she had to get to work on time. She understood the effect that her habitual lateness was having on her group’s effectiveness. Yet there was no one she could find to take her boy to work in the morning.
The supervisor finds himself being unhappy about this situation and tries to figure out what to do.
Question 1 Problem Statement:
Formulate short and brief the problem of this case. Instruction: Read the case. Pick the problem you would like to analyse and, based on this, formulate a problem statement by using a moral / normative question.
Summary:
A woman is
Phase 1,2,3 of the ethical cycle: Moral problem statement Problem analysis Options for action Phase 4 of the ethical cycle: Intuition Utilitarianism Bentham Mill Kantiism Deontology (Kant)
Description of the case: “Marta Malasobras is unreliable”
Marta Malasobras is unreliable. She has arrived late to work almost every day. Her co-workers are quite angry about this and discuss their frustrations with the supervisor. They claim that she is affecting the work environment. Because she is not doing her share, everyone else in the work team is overloaded.
Marta’s group carries out a process that requires cooperative group work. Four operators must work as one coordinated production unit. If one team member is absent, the rest of the team works less efficiently. Company policy mandates that hourly employees must begin everyday at 6:00 a.m.
The supervisor talked with Marta and has asked her why she is so often late. She burst into tears. She had to drive her six-year old boy to school every morning. The school gates do not open until 6:30 and she has to wait until this time to drop off her son safely. This particular morning, bowing to the pressure she felt from her work team, she dropped her boy off before the gates opened. She worried about him the entire morning. She knew that she had to get to work on time. She understood the effect that her habitual lateness was having on her group’s effectiveness. Yet there was no one she could find to take her boy to work in the morning.
The supervisor finds himself being unhappy about this situation and tries to figure out what to do.
Question 1 Problem Statement:
Formulate short and brief the problem of this case. Instruction: Read the case. Pick the problem you would like to analyse and, based on this, formulate a problem statement by using a moral / normative question.
Summary:
A woman is