Cmi Industry

Awareness, understanding and having a protocol to deal with the situation should have been in place and is thus recommended to prevent further such ethical dilemmas from occurring again. The first recommendation is to expand awareness of the situation to Kathryn McNeil, the single and seemingly overwhelmed mother in this scenario. As a mother with a young child trying to climb, or at least maintain her position, on the ladder of the corporate world she is torn between obligations of the home and work. Upon personal inflection, she may feel she is making the allotted sacrifices at home to perform well at work, but from an external point of view from her co-workers, the reality is that she is not carrying her adequate work load and this needs to be brought to her attention. The next suggestion involves expanding the awareness of the situation to her coworkers. Ms. McNeil was a recent hire to Microworld and although Peter Adario, two levels above her, happenly was aware and sympathetic of her situation, other coworkers such as her supervisor, Lisa Walters, may not have known of her struggle to raise a child as a single mother. Finally, a formal reporting policy must be in place at Microworld to settle employee grievances and improve communication within the company.

The findings include an ethical situation which presents a defining moment for Peter Adario, the head of marketing at Microworld, a distributor of computer products. As a family man with three children, he understands and probably has struggled with the issues of raising a family while simultaneously working in the corporate world. Thus, he is able to sympathize with a recently hired account manager, Kathryn McNeil who is a single mother raising a child on her own. The employees at Mircroworld are mostly young and without children and thus have more available time to devote to work. Ms. McNeil, who does not fit the mold and has less time to devote to work, therefore gains the perception of being lazy and undedicated to the company. Lisa Walters, the ambitious supervisor above her, yet below Mr. Adario in rank, notices Ms. McNeil's poor work ethic and attempts to her grievances to him. Her warning notes seem to go unnoticed and without hesitation, Ms. Walters goes above Mr. Adario to the VP and immediately terminates Ms. McNeil from the company.

The rest of the report will include a section examining the key facts of the case which which has created the ethical situation. The next section will include the key issues which escalated the situation to the point of termination of Ms. McNeil. The subsequent section contains an action plan which should be put into place to prevent such a situation from occurring again.

Key Facts

There are numerous key facts which when put together create the discordant ethical dilemmas presented in this case study. The key facts can be categorized into those of the individual and that of the situation. An important key finding is that Peter Adario is a family man and therefore has a unique set of responsibilities to his family. Mr. Adario is also in ranks above Ms. McNeil and Ms. Walters and should therefore deal with work-related issues either would bring up because it could potentially affect the performance of the marketing department which he is responsible for. Ms. McNeil is the single mother new account manger