In an effort to be (or at least appear to be) socially responsible, many organizations donate money to philanthropic and charitable causes. In addition, many organizations ask their employees to make individual donations to these causes. Suppose you’re the manager of a work team, and you know that several of your employees can’t afford to pledge money right now because of personal or financial problems. You’ve also been told by your supervisor that the CEO has been known to check the list of individual contributors to see who is and is not “supporting these very important causes.”

Working together in a small group of three or four, answer the following questions:

1. How would you handle this situation?

2. What ethical guidelines might you suggest for individual and organizational contributions in such a situation?

3. Create a company policy statement that expresses your ethical guidelines.