Analyst’s Name: ¶
Date: ¶
Case Study Name: ¶Google Inc., in China
I. The Pre-Analysis:
A. Perspective:
A.1. Describe the perspective2 of the author(s) of the case study and the possible biases that might result from that perspective:
¶ The case study is titled Google Inc., In china, written by Kirsten E. Martin for the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics. Kirsten Martin is the Assistant Professor of Business and Economics at the Catholic University of America and Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics Fellow, “to encourage classroom discussion and not to illustrate effective or ineffective business decision making”. Kirsten is an academic, whose purpose is to examine ethical decisions and behavior in business, creating a bias to enhance the ethical situations related to business practice. The Catholic University was established in 1887 and is located in Washington D.C. Its values are more conservative, and emphasize charity and community-based values, as the Catholic Church is a strong proponent of helping the community. Also, being located in D.C. it is likely biased to be much more politically involved and influenced by the location. Her background in economics may also lead itself to bias assessing how Google could do greater good for the economy through their business, making her ethical evaluation more stringent. Her involvement with the Business Roundtable and more specifically their Institute for Corporate Ethics illustrates her belief that corporations have an obligation to be good citizens: morally, environmentally, and be proactively ethical. She would need to have complete knowledge of the major business environment differences in China to evaluate the ethical standards of their society without prejudice as well. She also likely lacks real world experience of operating a business as large as Google, and the pressures to manage all of the stakeholders needs; including