This module describes how to incorporate ethical considerations into business cases through an Ethics Bowl competition and a written follow-up analysis. It assumes knowledge of ethics tests and a values framework. By working through the competition and follow-up activities, students gain an invaluable opportunity to practice skills in ethical problem solving, communication, and team work. This module makes use of materials provided through the Ethics Bowl competition held annually at meetings of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. Information on the national competition, devised by Dr. Robert Ladenson, can be found at the website of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, www.iit.edu/departments/csep. This module is being developed as a part of an NSF-funded project, "Collaborative Development of Ethics Across the Curriculum Resources and Sharing of Best Practices," NSF SES 0551779.
Module introduction
This module, written for students in "The Environments of the Organization," provides students with a structured exercise for incorporating the feedback they have received on their
Ethics Bowl presentation. The Ethics Bowl provides students with the opportunity to practice integrating ethical and social considerations into an analysis of real world and realistic business cases. While it resembles a debate format, it is actually much more. First, a presenting team telescopes its case analysis into a 7 minute presentation. Another team comments on the presenting team's presentation, an activity that requires active listening rather than rebuttal skills. The presenting team concludes by responding to the commentary (which requires further clarification of their position) and answering questions put by the class and the judges. An in depth written analysis gives students a chance to reflect on their Ethics Bowl experience and respond to the questions and comments of their classmates and teachers. The group self evaluation provides students with an opportunity to reflect on the challenges it faced throughout the Ethics Bowl and assess the practices it developed to respond to these challenges. This module describes the Ethics Bowl, provides suggestions for carrying out the presentation and commentary, and sets forth templates for the in depth analysis and group self-evaluation. A media file allows students to download the cases for the current semester for study and preparation. More information on the Engineering Ethics Bowl carried out at UPRM can be found in Jose A Cruz-Cruz, William J. Frey, and Halley D. Sanchez, "The Ethics Bowl in Engineering Ethics at the University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez" in Teaching Ethics 4(3): 15-32.
Toysmart
Toysmart scenarios
David lord's decision
- You are David Lord, a former employee of Holt Educational Outlet, a manufacturer of educational toys located in Waltham, Mass. Recently, you have joined with Stan Fung of Zero Stage Capital, a venture capital firm to buy out Holt Educational Outline. After changing its name to Toysmart, you and Fung plan to transform this brick and mortar manufacturer of educational toys into an online firm that will link customers to a vast catalogue of educational, high quality toys. Designing a website to draw in toy customers, linking to information on available toys, setting up a toy distribution and shipping system, and implementing features that allow for safe and secure online toy purchases will require considerable financing. But, riding the crest of the dot-com boom, you have two promising options. First, a venture capital firm has offered you $20,000,000 for website development, publicity, and other services. Second, Disney has offered the same amount for financing, but has added to it an additional $25,000,000 in advertising support. Disney has a formidable reputation in this market, a reputation which you can use to trampoline Toysmart into prominence in the growing market in educational toys. However, Disney also has a reputation of micro-managing its partners. Develop a plan for financing your new dot-com.
- What are Toysmart values? What are Disney values? Would Disney respect Toysmart’s values?
- What synergies could result from working with Disney? For example, could you share information on customers? You could feed your customer profiles to Disney in exchange for their customer profiles. What kind of data managing technology would be required for this? What ethical problems could arise from transferring customer identifying information to third parties?
- What kind of commitment would you be willing to make to Disney in terms of product and sales? How should Disney reciprocate? For example, how long should they stick with you through sales that fall short of projections?
