Make decisions in the situations described in the Ethical Behavior Worksheet. You will not have all the background information on each situation; instead, you should make whatever assumptions you feel you would make if you were actually confronted with the decision choices described.

Select the decision choice that most closely represents the decision you feel you would make personally. You should choose decision options even though you can envision other creative solutions that were not included in the exercise.

Ethical Behavior Worksheet 

SITUATION 1 

You are taking a very difficult chemistry course, which you must pass to maintain your scholarship and to avoid damaging your application for graduate school. Chemistry is not your strong suit, and, because of a just-below-failing average in the course so far, you will have to earn a grade of 90 or better on the final exam, which is two days away. A school custodian, who is aware of your plight, informs you that he found the master for the chemistry final in a trash barrel and has saved it. He will make it available to you for a price, which is high but which you could afford. What would you do?

(a) I would tell the custodian thanks, but no thanks.

(b) I would report the custodian to the proper officials.

(c) I would buy the exam and keep it to myself.

(d) I would not buy the exam myself, but I would let some of my friends, who are also flunking the course, know that it is available.

SITUATION 2 

You have been working on some financial projections manually for two days now. It seems that each time you think you have them completed, your manager shows up with a new assumption or another what-if question. If you only had a copy of a spreadsheet software program for your personal computer, you could plug in the new assumptions and revise the estimates with ease. Then a colleague offers to let you make a copy of some software that is copyrighted.

What would you do?

(a) I would accept my friend’s generous offer and make a copy of the software.

(b) I would decline to copy it and plug away manually on the numbers.

(c) I would decide to go buy a copy of the software myself, for $300, and hope I would be reimbursed by the company in a month or two

(d) I would request another extension on an already overdue project date.

SITUATION 3 

Your small manufacturing company is in serious financial difficulty.

A large order of your products is ready to be delivered to a key customer when you discover that the product is simply not right. It will not meet all performance specifications, will cause problems for your customer, and will require rework in the field; however, this, you know, will not become evident until after the customer has received and paid for the order. If you do not ship the order and receive the payment as expected, your business may be forced into bankruptcy. And if you delay the shipment or inform the customer of these problems, you may lose the order and go bankrupt. What would you do?

(a) I would not ship the order and place my firm in voluntary bankruptcy.

(b) I would inform the customer and declare voluntary bankruptcy.

(c) I would ship the order and inform the customer after I received payment.

(d) I would ship the order and not inform the customer.

SITUATION 4 

You are the co-founder and president of a new venture, manufacturing products for the recreational market. Five months after launching the business, one of your suppliers informs you it can no longer supply you with a critical raw material because you are not a large-quantity user. Without the raw material, the business cannot continue. What would you do?

(a) I would grossly overstate my requirements to another supplier to make the supplier think I am a much larger potential customer to secure the raw material from that supplier, even though this would mean the supplier will no longer be able to service another, noncompeting small manufacturer who may thus be forced out of business.

(b) I would promise the supplier that several large orders will be placed within the next 6 months.

(c) I would pay off the supplier because I have reason to believe that the supplier could be persuaded to meet my needs with a sizable under-the-table payoff that my company could afford.

(d) I would declare voluntary bankruptcy.

SITUATION 5 

You are on a marketing trip for your new venture for the purpose of calling on the purchasing manager of a major prospective client. Your company is manufacturing an electronic system that you hope the purchasing manager will buy. During your conversation, you notice on the cluttered desk of the purchasing manager several copies of a cost proposal for a system from one of your direct competitors.
This purchasing manager has previously reported misfiling several of your own company’s proposals and has asked for additional copies. The purchasing manager leaves the room momentarily to get you a cup of coffee, leaving you alone with your competitor’s proposals less than an arm’s length away. What would you do?

(a) I would do nothing but await the manager’s return.

(b) I would sneak a quick peek at the proposal, looking for bottom-line numbers.

(c) I would put the copy of the proposal in my briefcase.

(d) I would wait until the man returns and ask his permission to see the copy.