Developing a Practical Ethical Viewpoint

Business Ethics Rubric Case Study 3

I will be looking for the following items in your Case Study Analysis.

Developing a Practical Ethical Viewpoint (Have you clearly picked and stated an Ethical Viewpoint) (You need to choose one for each case study)
1. Utilitarianism
2. Universal Ethics
3. Ethical Relativism
4. Virtue Ethics
To help you choose the ethical theory do the following (By looking at the moral situations):
1. Interpret what is right and wrong according to each of the four theories
2. Give an argument that each theory might provide
3. State your own assessment of the strengths of each theory
Find the Ethical Conflict (Develop questions to identify the ethical issues)
1. Is any party being exploited solely for the advantage of another?
Resolution—What is the best way to resolve this conflict

Is there any lying?
Is anyone or party injured
Is there a deliberate falsification of information
Has there been a creation of unequal competition?
The above mentioned items are prohibitions(these are actions that you must refrain from doing)
1. Is every effort being made to assist and affirm the human dignity of all parties involved?
  1. Is there encouragement of fulfillment of legal and human rights
  2. Take personal responsibility for results
  3. The above mentioned items are obligations(these are actions that you are required to do)
2. Anything that is not an obligation or a prohibition is a permission.(Permissions are actions that you may do if you choose)
3. Summary of finding the Ethical Conflict
  1. List the professional practice issues at stake
  2. Identify your practical ethical viewpoint including any linking principles
  3. Determine which character’s perspective you will adopt
  4. Identify two or more detection questions that define obligation and prohibition within the ethical theory you have chosen.
  5. Apply the detection questions to the cases to bring attention to the ethical issues.
  6. Discuss the interrelationships between the dictates of the ethical issues and those of the professional practice. How might they work together? How might they be opposed? (Professional practice, what are people in that particular job or arena expected to do)

A. Truth vs. loyalty (Is the truth best or is it better to be loyal)

B. Short term vs. Long term (Is this consequence a short term or long term consequence)

C. Justice vs. Mercy (Is this a case of dispensing justice or is this a case of dispensing mercy)

D. Individual vs. Community (Does your decision affect an individual or a community)

Please do the required pages which are six to eight pages. You are allowed to pick any Thinking Critically exercise or Ethical Dilemma case study in your textbook from chapters 1 through 6. You have to make sure that you pick a case study that you have not done before. Please make sure to include your headings.

Introduction—Explain the case study the facts.

Body of Paper—This is where you state the different ethical theories, strengths and weaknesses, which theory you choose, why you choose that theory, what would you do, do you agree with what was done.

Conclusion—Summary of what you told me in the paper.

Do not forget your citation as you are using the textbook and any other materials to help you write your paper.

Look at the case study. Find the conflict. Look at the case study from various perspectives. Choose a way to resolve it? Analyze it by how you personally see the world.

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>> Managing Things Differently

After selling his low-cost airline Morris Air, which served the north west, to Southwest Airlines for a personal profit of $25 million, en trepreneur David Neeleman managed to last only five months as a Southwest employee before being asked by Southwest Chairman Herb Kelleher to seek other opportunities elsewhere. His clear and often-shared dissatisfactions with Southwest led him to the formation of a competing low-cost carrier called JetBlue Airways in 2004. Offering such advances as e-ticketing, automatic ticket machines, in-flight cable, and leather seats with more legroom, JetBlue became known for offering better services than the major airlines at a price low enough to compete directly with Southwest, the founding champion of no frills flights, often derided by business travelers as “the cattle airline.” While leveraging technology allowed JetBlue to improve customer service, especially in the area of transactional convenience, Neeleman’s key objective was cost containment. He approached the issue of flight reservations in the same manner. Rather than leasing expensive office space and managing a com plex call center operation for 700 reservation agents, Neeleman chose to leverage technology by hiring agents to work from their homes. Using a VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) phone system, JetBlue could route calls to available agents and reach them via e-mail, phone, and the Web in order to provide maxi mum contact with customers with minimal overhead for the organization.

However, JetBlue’s reliance, or some would argue dependence, on technology proved to be a major obstacle when a freak ice storm struck its home base of New York City in February 2007. Flight delays in its tightly managed fleet resulted in stranded passengers at airports throughout its service area, with horror stories of passengers remaining stuck on planes for three hours or more as the planes waited for backup takeoff slots in its busiest airports. Neeleman took full and very public responsibility for the service disaster, making numerous public appearances as the repentant CEO and crafting a recovery package of refunds and vouchers to satisfy angry customers. JetBlue also championed a “customer’s bill of rights” that clarified refund and voucher entitlements in delayed flight situations, even though JetBlue’s delays had been much less than those of competing airline American, which held the record for keeping passengers stranded on a plane for over eight hours in December 2006. In the months that followed, JetBlue made a concerted effort to build up its operational bench strength by hiring several experienced flight operation executives from competing airlines. Neeleman’s role as the public face of the service debacle prompted the board of directors to ask him to step aside in favor of a new president, David Barger, who was also known for his operations experience. Neeleman took on the role of nonexecutive chairman of JetBlue. Deeply shocked by the board’s decision, he turned his attention to a new project—founding a low-cost Brazilian airline named Azul (Portuguese for “blue”), on the same operational model as JetBlue, and launching it in January 2009. Source:Jena McGregor, “JetBlue’s Winter Blues,” BusinessWeek, November 27, 2007; and Jessie Scanlon, “Innovation: Braving Brazil’s ‘Airline Graveyard,’ ” BusinessWeek Online, May 6,2008.

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