Ben has been working for the Lincoln baking Co for 5 years as a manager in 1 of their 10 shops. The Lincoln baking Co sells perishable goods purchased from local suppliers in the shops such as cakes and sandwiches. The company has been in business for 20 years and all the shops only operate in the county of Lincolnshire (UK). The business has consistently returned healthy profits across all shops and in the last year was acquired by a sole investor. None of the original founders of the Lincoln baking Co are part of the business anymore and all decisions are made by the sole investor.

Before the takeover, Ben enjoyed managing the shop as he had control over how it operated on a day-to-day basis from his experience and also understanding customers from living in the local area. This resulted in a positive atmosphere in the shop with repeat business, good supplier relations and a great reputation in the local area. There is only a small staff turnover and some of the longest standing employees have worked in the shop for over 10 years.

Since the takeover however, the sole investor has never met Ben directly and hired their own manager Heather to help run the shop along side Ben. Initially Ben and Heather started to get on well operating the business following the usual operations. However, recently there have been conflicts in how the business is being run along with future plans for an extension of the shop.

Heather has proposed to the sole investor that the shop where both Ben and Heather are managers should have an extension to build a manufacturing line and open oven to bake goods in house. This would increase capacity and expand the range of products, however, the drainage from the extension would have to flow into a local river and the oven would require a chimney to which the local community have expressed their concerns as the oven chimney doesn't fit the character of the area and the production emissions polluting the atmosphere. Heather favours newly recruited staff who she has directly hired. Heather has been offering to these favoured staff members some stock from the business at the end of the day to take home for free without Ben knowing. This has resulted in some of the long-standing employees leaving the business and calling her management approach into question.

Ben has tried to contact the sole investor to express his concerns about the plans, but is yet to receive a response. As the sole investor hired Heather as a manager, it is likely that the extension will be approved to take place.

Required:

a) Evaluate by applying Tucker's 5 question model theory if building the proposed oven and manufacturing extension is an ethically sound decision or not.

b) What is the difference between descriptive and normative ethics? Discuss which approach Lincoln baking Co could implement and the benefits to the business.