Case 1:THE HISTORY OF BUSINESS ETHICS AND STAKEHOLDER THEORY IN AMERICA

Assignment Overview

The first part of your reading in Daniel Terris’ book will include an overview of Lockheed Martin’s organization and will lay out the research plan that Terris used to obtain information necessary for his work. This will be followed by a general overview of the evolution of business ethics in America.

Case Assignment

Based on your readings, describe what you consider to be the responsibility of top leadership in a large organization with respect to reaching a balance between profits and stakeholder concerns.  Please support your position by giving some examples from the text or from other sources where CEOs did a good or poor job of finding this balance. 

Terris discusses the history of business ethics in America since the late 1800s with respect to anti-competitive practices, seeking unfair advantage through immoral arrangements with suppliers and public officials, failing to adhere to laws and regulations, and lack of transparency.  Discuss to what extent you believe things to be better or worse in the present day for businesses in general. 

Describe welfare capitalism and its role as a forerunner of the contemporary business ethics movement. 

On page 41, Terris discusses the ideas of Howard Bowen regarding the evolution of social responsibility of businesses.  To what extent do you think his predictions held true since 1953? 

Assignment Expectations

APA Points:

According to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, there are three reasons why we need to use proper citations and references. 

They are:

“To ensure the accuracy of scientific knowledge” (p.11). – How do we know if what you are reading is really the truth?  We can look at the citation and the reference and do further research to make sure what you are reading and what you are basing your research on is correct.

“To protect the rights and welfare of research participants” (p.11). – People deserve to get credit for their work.  When you earn a degree and go on to do research, you will want credit for the work you have published.

“To protect intellectual property rights” (p.11). – When we refer to inventions, we should give credit to the person who invented the item, trademarked the item, or developed a design. This protects their work.

A reference system also allows the reader to use the in-text citation and reference page to find out how to do further research when they find a topic of interest. It can save a lot of time.

As educated students, we should know the APA Style rules and work to perfect them.

Below are three common mistakes that cost Trident Students.  Reviewing these examples should help you improve your grade and also make future assignments easier.

APA Point 1:  Where does the period go?

The use of a period.  The period indicates the end of a sentence. However, if we put the period before the in-text citation, we are actually beginning the next sentence with the citation. Therefore, the period goes after the citation.

Another misuse of the period is putting it before the citation and another after the citation.  This is not correct. The period goes after the in-text citation.

Example:  Intercultural Communication is quite important in how we deal with individuals from different Countries and even from different neighborhoods of our cities (Pearson, 2015b). – Notice where the period is.

APA Point 2:  Do we need to use Quotation Marks?

When using information word for word from someone else’s work, quotation marks are necessary. This example illustrates the use of quoted material at the end of the sentence, followed by a citation and reference.  The reference will also include the page numbers.

Example: When we are writing a Negative Letter, there are numerous authors who recommend starting the letters with a buffer.  Remember, “Openings for negative messages are often called Buffer Beginnings because they are designed to buffer the negative message that will follow” (Bowman, 2002, p. 1).

APA Point 3:  Arranging entries on a reference list.

Once again as we dive into our Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, we get guidance on how to arrange our references on the reference page.  “Arrange entries in alphabetical order by the surname of the first author followed by initials of the author’s given name” (p. 181).

One may ask why.  When there are two or three references, it does not make a great amount of difference. But with numerous references, it is much easier if we arrange the references by the author’s last name.  Remember, one of the purposes of a reference page is to help readers find additional information.  If there are 10 or more references listed in random order, it is difficult to find the appropriate reference. So let’s use the alphabetical ordering.

Go to any of the “Background Pages” in our Modules to see an example of a reference page.

Your paper should be double-spaced and in 12-point type size.

Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate reference page containing the full citations corresponding to the in-text citations you choose to use in the body of your paper. So in addition to the 4- to 5-page body of your paper you will have a title page and a reference page. So overall, you will be submitting a 6- to 7-page document

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Module 1 – SLP

THE HISTORY OF BUSINESS ETHICS AND STAKEHOLDER THEORY IN AMERICA

Business Ethics and Stakeholder Management

For your SLP this session you will be asked to review articles on business ethics from the Trident Online Library. You will review one or more articles each in Modules 1 through 4 dealing with different ethical concepts.

In this SLP we will be reviewing articles that cover the concept of stakeholder management. Stakeholders are important to consider in significant business related decisions. This is because organizational decisions – especially substantial decisions involving significant resource allocations/re-allocations – tend to impact various stakeholder groups as you will be reminded in your reading. These stakeholders may have the power to impact the organization’s success.

Assignment Instructions:

In this assignment you will be asked to apply stakeholder management theory to the following scenario:

A public corporation of 980 employees manufactures a popular brand of garments (mostly jeans) that are primarily made and sold in America nation-wide. It has a large contingent of employees in several small rural communities in the Eastern US and is the primary employer in all of those communities. Two if its 5 shops are unionized but the union and management have a good working relationship. The company has traditionally marketed its clothing line as “Made in the USA” and attracted a bit of a “cult like” following as a result, but an outside consulting firm has suggested that significantly greater profits are possible if a different strategy is employed. The corporation is subsequently considering whether to off-shore its manufacturing facilities to a poor nation to save money on labor. It would also discretely discontinue its “Made in the USA” marketing ads and hopefully ride the wave of its previous marketing campaigns for a while. It is estimated that total cost per unit of production will be decreased by one third which equates to tens of millions of dollars.

Please write a 3-page paper in which you respond to the following:   

1. Provide a paragraph summarizing the concept of stakeholder management based on your readings. 

2. How do you think the following stakeholder groups in the above scenario will be impacted?

Employees/unions

Communities

Stockholders

3. What would you recommend the employer described above should do?

SLP Assignment Expectations

Your 3 (or more) page paper should be double-spaced and in 12-point type.

Your paper should have a separate cover page and if you are using any in-text citations then a separate reference page.

Use APA style, and proofread your paper.

Upload your paper by the end of the module.

Use APA style, and proofread your paper.

Upload your paper by the end of the module.