Ethics Senarios

1. Despite a strongly worded company policy prohibiting gifts from suppliers, you know your boss in the Purchase Department is taking week long vacations paid for by a key vendor.

This would be hard has his is your direct report. I would first approach the boss to ask some clarifying questions to ensure that I fully understand what is going on. This is not to call him out but to make sure that I am perceiving that is going on correctly. After I was sure that he was talking advantage of the client, I would approach his boss and express my concerns about the situation. This is relates to the reading because there is no apparent consequences. It probably isn’t really hurting the client and so there is a push not to report the problem as there is no real harm. This is dangerous because this is the start of the slippery slope.

1. You have a contract with supplier A that locked in a certain price for a year.   There is an out clause in the contract.  You are able to reduce the volume commitment if their performance scorecard falls below a certain level.  Another supplier comes to you with a great offer substantially below the current contract. You tell your boss about the lucrative offer and he tells you to reduce the incumbent supplier A's score on the subjective measures of your scorecard in the next quarter, so you have an excuse to cut volume on supplier A and assign some to supplier B with the better price.

This has a direct tie with the reading. In this example the company looks to be condoning the actions of being dishonest to better achieve the company’s interests. These situations are always very hard. I would first express that I am uncomfortable with this action as it is not in line with my ethics. If got more pressure to complete the task I would start looking for another job or looking to change positions in the company. I don’t want to work in an area where unethical decisions are promoted. It is important not to assume that something is ethical just because it is promoted by the company.

1. It is discovered that one of your dedicated 3PLs (their facility operates solely for your business and passes all operating costs through to you) has accumulated a million dollar vacation time liability to their employees that is not currently captured in your budget for their dedicated services.  This liability has built up over the last 15 years based on the 3PL's vacation policy which allows employees to bank vacation time indefinitely.  You have just acquired responsibility for this 3PL, so while this revelation is a surprise to you, there is evidence that your predecessors were aware of the vendor's vacation policy and tacitly approved it.  Your business is very important to this vendor so they want to do all they can to smooth over this budgetary problem, but absorbing a $1 million charge would threaten their financial viability.  Your internal stakeholders who manage and use this vendor's services are unwilling to absorb the $1 million charge and insist on holding the vendor solely responsible for the situation.

This is an interesting situation. I’m not really sure what the best course of action is. It seems that the company has promised to accrue all operational costs of this 3PL. If this is the case it is important that the company cover the costs of the 3PL. The fault lies with the unethical behavior of your predecessors to not guard the company’s interests. My first action would to bring all the stakeholders together so that everyone is on the same page. Then I would propose that we institute a policy that discontinues the carryover off more PTO.  This would take effect in the next year and offer deals to the employees if they take this time during the year and a payout deal. It would be unethical to just leave the expense with the 3PL if we are contracted to cover all operational costs.