ETHICAL/MORAL CASES CASE 1: WRONG SALARY The company you are working with gave all the employees

an increase in their salary. Incidentally, you were also promoted to a higher position and that means additional increase in your salary. Excitedly, during pay day you immediately checked your salary thru the ATM and you almost jumped for joy when you saw the amount that reflected in your account. Your starting salary was P35,000 monthly and P50,000 is now deposited in your account. On the 4th month after the increase in your salary, you were shocked to know that you received only P500. When you inquired why, the manager said that the secretary made a mistake in submitting a wrong salary rate to the accounting office. The P50,000 salary should be for the other employee whose position is higher than your position. Your salary is supposedly only P40,000/month. Questions: What is your moral evaluation? What's the most rational and ethical thing to do? Justify your answer.

CASE 2: MARKETING STRATEGY

Rachel was quickly hired out of the university during the dot-com boom to a company of 100 employees that ran an innovative social networking website. She was immediately put in charge of email communication to customers-both existing and potential. Rachel handled all online contact with existing users and was asked to market to these existing online community members via email. But she struggled with finding a balance of the right amount of marketing. With Internet competition growing everyday within the social networking websites, these users had plenty of alternatives. Flooding their email inboxes, she thought, wasn't the best way to attract them. Unfortunately, Rachel's boss had a different approach. The VP for Marketing wanted results he wanted existing customers to upgrade their networking packages and follow through on advertisements. He told Rachel to be as aggressive as possible with her email campaigns. Rachel found subtle alternatives to the mass emails. She developed links on the company website to advertisements, but she was not getting the results her boss demanded. One day when Rachel arrived at the office, her boss said he had a brilliant idea. He said that everybody knew someone named Cindy Anderson, so they could send emails to their users from that name to trick them into opening the email, which would display a link to their website. Questions: What is you moral evaluation? Is there any ethical dilemma that Rachel faced? If you were Rachel, what is your moral disposition? Justify your answer. CASE 3: INDECENT EMPLOYEE Trixie is a beautiful 22 year old young professional. She has a very pleasant personality that she can blend well with almost all the employees at their office. She has also been a consistent outstanding employee in the company because she has turned in a lot at the sales office resulting to increase in clients, prestige and income for the company. Ethical/Moral Cases 1

You happen to be the newly-hired manager of the company she works with. After 6 months as manager, your attention was called that Trixie has a sex video. You were skeptic at first because some people may just be out to pull her down, however, when you saw the said sex video, you shockingly confirmed that it was indeed Trixie. When you confronted her, she did not deny that it was, in fact, her and even defended herself by saying that It is my personal life; it is between me and my boyfriend having our most intimate moment. It has nothing to do with my performance in the company! Questions: What is your moral evaluation? What are the ethical dilemmas? What is the most cogent and prudent way to solve the moral dilemma? Justify your answer. CASE 4: BORROWING MONEY You have known Krizzy since high school. You have always known her to be a devout Catholic, a very responsible school leader and an exceptionally intelligent student belonging to a poor family. She topped the CPA board exam. She is also the eldest among the 7 siblings and is now married with 3 children. Even now that she is an accountant, she is still trying her best to make both ends meet because she still helps in the education of her other siblings plus she has a family to take care of. Years after college graduation you were happily reunited when you both discovered that you are working in the same company. She works as accountant and you are the executive secretary of the president of the company. You saw Krizzy come out of the president's office one early morning. You smiled and greeted each other, then, she said, I just came to get something. A week passed and you saw Krizzy again leave the president's office early in the morning. The following week, you decided to come earlier because you have to prepare for the president's board meeting. You were standing behind a cabinet when Krizzy entered the office. Krizzy did not know that you were already around. From where you are standing you could see her but she cannot see you. You went to surprise her when she was standing facing the vault but you were surprised instead when you saw Krizzy in the act of placing 4 bundles of huge money (P50,000/bundle) inside the vault where the president keeps important documents and valuables. To Krizzy's dismay, she exclaimed, Oh my God! I didn't know that you were around! She was just staring speechlessly at you when you asked, How come you know the vault's combination? And what is the P200,000 for? After moments of silence, she broke into tears and confessed that there was an emergency at home and she borrowed the money and is now returning it. Please don't tell our manager about this. Anyway, the money is now intact. You can check it's all there she said. Questions: What is your moral evaluation? What are the ethical dilemmas? What will be your moral disposition in this case? Justify your answer. CASE 5: SEXUAL HARASSMENT Trish is a graduating student in a prestigious university aiming for magna cum laude. She also got the Best Thesis award among other academic and non-academic awards. Three weeks before graduation, Trish received a message from Mr. De Guzman, one of the panelists during her thesis defense, that she should see him as soon as possible. When she finally met Mr. De Guzman, she was Ethical/Moral Cases 2

told that he just discovered that the two chapters in her thesis were directly lifted from a masteral thesis that has already been defended 20 years ago. With the presentation of the said M.A. Thesis as proof, Trish could no longer contradict nor negate the allegation. Trish asked him to help her what to do because she is vying for honor and she does not want to disappoint and embarrass her parents. Mr. De Guzman suggested that she should subject herself for some sexual favors or he would file a case that would strip her of all honors and awards due her. Questions: What is your ethical evaluation in this case? What are the ethical dilemmas? If you were Trish, what is the most discreet and prudent way to solve her moral dilemma? Justify your answer.

CASE 6: FILTERING AND PRESSURE FROM MEDIA CONGLOMERATES

Michelle graduated in a prestigious school and is ready to get into the news business. Television news had been receiving high viewership and she felt she could really make a difference in the industry. After five years in a mid market, she went to work in a top 25 city as a TV reporter. But she quickly realized that the industry wasn't as spectacular as she once thought. With sometimes only 20 seconds to tell a story, it was nearly impossible to include all the relevant information-choosing what information was relevant became a highly contentious matter. Plus, she worked in a huge media conglomerate so she was working under a plethora of influences. A few years after Michelle began working at the station, the executive producer asked her to do a story on a new technology that was picked up by one of the popular social networking websites. This new technology allowed the website to match up profiles posted on the website with offline profiles of convicted sex offenders. If a match was found between a profile and a sex offender, the profile would be taken down. Michelle was intrigued by this new technology and felt that it could help protect thousands of people on the relatively unsecured Internet. Though there seemed to be nothing wrong with the technology, Michelle's executive producer insisted that she include a clip that said the new technology didn't use facial recognition-the technology, instead, only relied on the name provided by the person posting a profile. As a result, the technology couldn't filter out people lying about their names. Michelle was confused with her boss's orders because he found very little, if any, criticism of the product from her own reporting. After looking further into her boss's idea, Michelle discovered that the criticism came from above her boss and from someone in the huge, multi-media company whose own technology hadn't been picked by the social networking website. "They wanted to create more controversy," said Michelle. "They wanted people to know that it wasn't a perfect system." Michelle felt that if the lack of facial recognition was the criticism, there were other, better ways of portraying it, rather than broadcasting a reporter offering the criticism as an unattributed observation. His story needed to establish the conflict in a more objective fashion. "We could have quoted a child care advocate, describing the need for facial recognition," said Michelle. "But because I was so low in the company, the executives didn't care to hear my opinion. You have to pick your battles." Michelle's piece aired as the executives ordered it, but Michelle was left thinking about the ethical implications of the situation. Questions: 1. What are the consequences of Michelle airing the piece as requested? Discuss at least 2. Ethical/Moral Cases 3

2.

Was Michelle justified in objecting to the inclusion of the criticism of the technology as an unattributed observation? Why or why not? Explain at least 2 good reasons.

CASE 7: UPLOADING PICTURES A group of students attended Ediths 18th birthday. There were many relatives and friends who were there to grace the occasion. As expected, there were a number who took pictures and videos. Two days after the party, Janine, one of Ediths friends, informed her that several pictures and videos were uploaded on Facebook (one of the most popular sites where people can post and share pictures). Janine said, I dont know if you are aware of this. Some pictures were edited that appeared offensive to me. You are wearing a very sexy and revealing swimsuit in the midst of our male friends. We know that this never happened. You had a picture with our male friends but NOT wearing that swimsuit! After Edith went on line to check the site, she was greatly offended. So, Edith confronted her friends who edited the pictures and uploaded them. They had a heated argument and one of them said, You are only referring to one picture. Dont you like all the pictures we uploaded? I think you are over-reacting! It was just for fun. Questions: How will you react to the situation? What would be the most logical and ethical counter arguments can you present? Defend your answer. CASE 8: STEALING AND CHEATING Two young brothers got into serious trouble. There were secretly leaving town in a hurry and needed money. Jett, the older one, broke into a jewelry store and stole cash and expensive sets of jewelry. Bobby, the younger one, went to the house of a retired old woman who was known to help people in the community. He told the woman that his mother is very sick and that he needed at least P200,000 for the operation. Bobby begged the old woman to lend him the money and promised that he would pay her back. In fact, Bobbys mother is not sick and he had no intention of paying the old woman back. Questions: What is your moral evaluation? Which is worse, stealing like Jett or cheating like Bobby? What makes it worse? Justify your answer. CASE 9: FAMILY ISSUES Eddie, an introvert 18 year old working student in Asian Schools of Arts and Sciences, lives in one of the depressed areas in Quezon City. He is the eldest among his 8 siblings. One of his siblings has to stop schooling in high school due to demanding school expenses. 2 of his siblings were supposed to be in the elementary but one as allowed to enroll due to financial deficiency. The rest of his siblings are still in their tended years. His father works as a security guard in a hardware store. His mother does part-time laundry work. Eddie discovered that his father has another woman and is the one financing his studies since first year. He also learned that his mother is 3 months pregnant. He felt overwhelmingly confused and overburdened on what to do. Questions: What is your moral evaluation of this case? What would be your moral disposition if you were Eddie? Justify your answer. Ethical/Moral Cases 4

CASE 10: JOB-HIRING You are the director of the Human Resource Department and you received a phone call from your boss and godfather, who was also the president of the board of trustees, asking you to determine whether or not you received his daughters application for a current job opening. Without making your boss in distress, you already filed and prioritized her paper. Later that day, your senior manager requested to see you. He said, I heard that the boss daughter has applied for the opening. You are to consider her, arent you? She worked here years ago and there were problems. Shes an indecent woman. Your colleagues will be very disappointed when you let her in. He smilingly added, You have a prudent mind, use it well. Questions: What is your moral evaluation of this case? If you are in the same situation, how are you going to resolve this dilemma? What is your moral disposition?

Your analysis should be: - Logical - Based on facts - Based on sound or defensible moral principles

CRITERIA FOR JUDGMENT

Clarity and Intelligibility (25%)

Statements and defense of position are clear, precise and logically consistent in the line of reasoning Presentation of the defense/ position is profound, deep, and essential to the given case Ethical principles or theories used are relevant to the given case

Depth and Substance (25%)

Ethical Relevance (25%)

Ethical/Moral Cases

Deliberative Thoughtfulness (25%)

Defense presented indicate both awareness and thoughtful consideration of different viewpoints

Ethical/Moral Cases