The following case studies are either fictional or based on true situations in which names or circumstances have been changed. The case studies present potential ethical dilemmas faced in organizations today. Use these case studies as practice in the use of the corporate ethical management system (CEMS) tools given in the situation. Better yet, use your new CEMS components to make an appropriate decision in each case study.
Case Study 1
You are the ECO (Ethics Compliance Officer) of an exciting new player in the healthcare industry. HOPE Hospital caters to the terminally ill that have no hope from traditional medicine. Your mission is to “offer hope to the hopeless through holistic medicine.” HOPE Hospital has located a new facility in the southwest part of the United States, a growing urban area where retirees seem to gather. The previous fiscal year for HOPE demonstrated a sizeable profit that allowed expansion of staff and facility. Your hospital employs physicians, a nursing staff, dietitians, psychologists, and those trained in unconventional medicine and techniques from a holistic mindset.
As the CEO, you have helped the hospital create its code of ethics (COE) based on the hospital name and acronym: HOPE:
• Hope through holistic medicine in which unconventional medical practices are encouraged and tried
• Openness and honesty pervade all conversations among patients, medical personnel, and staff
• Personal attention is given to each patient and employee in order to show care and concern for stakeholder
• Empowerment is expected as hospital personnel have the freedom to make decisions with the constant micromanagement of top leaders.
Recently a member of the nursing staff made a medical decision completely within HOPE’s protocols and value of empowerment. However, the decision ended up in a 40% overrun of the budget line for that expense. Based on HOPE’s COE, how do you handle any discipline of this nurse?
Case Study 2
You are the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the not-for-profit Farmers of the World (FOW) organization. You run a mostly volunteer organization in which U.S. farmers donate 3 months a year to visit a third-world country to teach farming techniques and skills to help indigenous people grow quality food. Donations for your work exceed $4 million per year. Because of the success of this program, the FOW board of directors has decided to build a central training and sending facility outside the United States closer to the major world areas in which FOW operates.
The foreign country is excited to have you build a facility on their territory. There are building codes and land acquisition policies. The process to acquire land and to hire workers familiar with building codes will require at least 2 years of negotiations. A local government official tells you that he can make the country building policies mute for such a worthy organization as yours. The time from land acquisition to build would be 8 months instead of 24. All he would expect in return is $10,000 and a seat on FOW’s board of directors. The shorter time frame would save FOW thousands of dollars by moving the training and sending center closer to operations.
As a service-based industry, you have a decision-making ladder (DML) based on the ethical theories of divine command theory, situational ethics, justice theory, and the Moore-Dunn ethical theory. Use FOW’s DML to decide on what to do.
Case Study 3
A few years ago, you acted upon your passion and started a new business called It’s Your Party (IYP)! You have a knack for party planning, for working with customers to provide a personalized and thematic party regardless of the occasion. Your marketing is by word-of-mouth and your business has exponentially grown to the point that you cannot continue to provide quality service alone. You have set up your business, as described in this book with a code of ethics (COE): IYP (Integrity in all Relationship, Yes We Can Do That, Pride in our Work), a hiring process to find a value-fit person with a commitment to IYP ideals, and a stepped discipline process if noncompliance might happen.
You interviewed several potential candidates and Sally seemed the best value- and skill-fit. Your instincts were correct and Sally has been an awesome edition to IYP. Your sales have skyrocketed with Sally’s help and apparent IYP values.
However, recently you noticed that your financial ledger seemed to be off $50 from what you thought the receipts were for June. You remembered that one customer gave $50 cash deposit, which Sally received, but did not receipt or deposit with IYP. When you confronted Sally, she said that she must have forgotten the proper protocol with cash. You did a bit more checking and realized that your previous months’ incomes had minor discrepancies of $10 to $25 per month, all in cash receipts. You suspect now that Sally has been skimming some cash money from the cash receipts. Based on your stepped discipline system, termination is the result of stealing from the company. However, you have checked with Sally and she admitted to taking the money due to some personal family needs. What will you do based on your discipline process, your COE, and Sally’s work history?
Case Study 4
You are the administrator of a local long-term care facility in your community. Recently, you had a patient die of abdominal obstruction caused by painkiller medication. The attending physician had prescribed a laxative to be administered if the patient went more than 3 days without a bowel movement. The patient had gone 5 days without a bowel movement, but the nursing staff had administered no laxative, except on the day the patient died. On the day the patient died, he had symptoms that the nursing director diagnosed as a stomach virus. The attending physician was notified of the patient’s nausea, but not of the lack of a bowel movement for multiple days. The physician stated that if he had been told of the latter, additional procedures would have been utilized.
The nursing director, Jean, has upgraded the protocols for the nursing staff so that this situation does not happen again. Though no legal proceedings have yet been started by the family of the patient, as the administrator you are contemplating what needs to happen with the nursing staff to demonstrate that you did not take this incident lightly. How would you handle a stepped discipline process in this situation?
Case Study 5
Your company is seeking one additional qualified candidate for its marketing department. You company has a memorable code of ethics (COE) and a hiring process that includes value-fit, skill-fit, and personality interviewing.
The search for a new employee has narrowed to two persons. The first person, Jim, has a tremendous resume, design and creative ad skills, 10 years of experience in the marketing industry, and a personality profile of productivity. However, his value-fit interview brought up a few concerns based on previous questionable behaviors regarding charges he submitted for work and the several times he indicated that he did not follow a superior’s orders, since he knew what was best, better than his supervisor. The second candidate, Ron, has an average resume, some limited experience in working for one other marketing firm, creative ideas, and a personality profile that leans toward good collaboration with others. His value-fit interview indicated a strong match with your company’s values.
As part of the interview team, what suggestions might you make to those who make hiring decisions—Jim or Ron?
Case Study 6
You are the senior pastor of a large, metropolitan church. You have hired staff, including a worship music leader, Carol. Carol has been on your staff for 10 years and the music is a major reason that the church has grown. Regular surveys indicate that the music is the most popular of all the ministries of the church. Carol uses volunteer vocalists and instrumentalists for each week’s worship service. These are dedicated persons who love the music ministry of the church. They spend several hours a week in planning, practicing, and in leading your three worship services on Saturday night and Sunday morning.
It has come to your attention that one of the volunteers on the worship team, Tom, has a criminal record based on a sexual offender charge from many years ago. Tom served a probationary sentence, but is still on the registration for sexual offenders. As you have talked with Tom and Carol, Tom has shared his past life and God has redeemed him and changed his life. Carol would like to continue to use Tom because of his new commitment to God and because of his musical talent. However, she is concerned that his past may represent the wrong role model the music staff wishes to present to the congregation. Carol has deferred to you as the senior pastor to make a decision on Tom’s continued involvement with the worship team.
Your church has the following decision-making ladder (DML): divine command theory, Kantian ethics, and utilitarianism. After walking this decision through your DML, what positives and negatives do each theory bring to the decision table? What decision might you make on Tom’s continued involvement?
Case Study 7
You have been elected to your county’s commission. There is little pay and little thanks for making decisions that affect the people who live in your large county. One of the areas of your commission’s purview is the collection of property taxes. If commercial or residential property taxes are not paid for a period of 3 years, your county’s laws allow for the commission to seize the property and sell it at auction in order to recoup the taxes owed.
The county has not received tax payments on a specific property for the past 3 years. Legal notices have been sent and received by the property owner without response. You just came on the commission last month, so you have not been a part of the effort to collect these delinquent taxes. After some research, you discover that the property in question belongs to a friend of yours. You immediately phone the friend for a solution. Your friend shares a story of financial difficulties, which you already knew, but did not know he was not paying county property taxes.
Legally, the county commission can now seize the property and sell it at auction. What will you vote as part of the commission? Can you be an unbiased commissioner or must you be a compassionate advocate for your friend? What ethical theories might support your decision?
As a subquestion to the property tax dilemma, what recommendations might you make to the county commission for a reward system to help collect property taxes? Taxpayers never receive a reward for paying on time, but could they? Could your county be the first?