Case Study: Stuck in the Middle

Student Seminar Brief – Level Six Undergraduate

SM0381 Applied Business Ethics

Seminar Two Student Brief

Seminar Two: Applying the Moral Intensity Descriptive Framework

Seminar Objectives

Students will:

● Form into Seminar Teams for the rest of the module

● Read a brief case study

● Analyse it using the Moral Intensity Framework (Jones, 1991)

Preparation for Seminar

1. Consult the TLP and do the preparatory reading.

2. Please remember to print out this seminar brief and bring it to the seminar.

Seminar Activities: Team Formation

Your tutor will allocate you into four seminar teams. These will remain the same for the rest of the module.

Post Seminar Activities

You tutor will suggest some follow up activities so that you can practise your new ethical analysis skills.

Directed Reading

Crane A and Matten D (2010) Business Ethics OUP Chapter 4 (particularly pages 164-167)

Student Seminar Brief – Level Six Undergraduate

SM0381 Applied Business Ethics

CASE STUDY: Stuck in the middle?

You have recently been appointed to the position of civil engineer in a small town in a developing country.

You work for a Government Department that is responsible for the maintenance of the town's

infrastructure, such as public buildings and roads. You are one of the youngest members of the senior

management team and report directly to the Director of Public Works. All the members of the

management team have been working for the Government for a very long time, and you feel like

something of an outsider.

The Director of Public Works, the Human Resources Director, and the CEO often have lunch together, and it

is a local joke that “the most important organizational decisions are taken over lunch”.

Your position had been vacant for a long time prior to your appointment and the Director of Public Works

had assumed responsibility for a number of your current responsibilities. On your appointment, your

manager asked you consult him on any major decisions before implementing them. He also retained the

authority to approve major works.

After some time, you realized that despite having a full team of permanent staff, a number of outside

commercial contractors were still doing various jobs within the organization. When you queried this, the

Director simply put it down ‘our team’s rusty skills', 'a significant backlog', and 'need for high quality of

work'. Strangely, you have been very impressed with the quality of work that your own staff had produced

on various small maintenance jobs. Recently, when you were complimenting one of your supervisors on

the way he handled an emergency, he expressed his frustration at being given the 'boring, odd jobs'

instead of the 'challenging' projects given to the outside commercial contractors.

You decided to utilize your own staff (rather than contractors) for the next major project because you felt

that you would be able to supervise the work better, ensure the right quality and save the cost of

expensive outside contractors. You planned it meticulously and wanted to enlist the support of your

manager to ensure that all went well. You prepared all the paperwork and took it to your manager for

discussion. He looked disinterested and simply asked you to leave the paperwork with him because he was

preparing for a meeting.