Question
Bob was excited about starting his new job at Griddloc Highway Paving Company. He will be in charge of the cones and barrels division. He
Bob was excited about starting his new job at Griddloc Highway Paving Company. He will be in charge of the cones and barrels division. He was to make sure they were fully in place before the paving equipment arrived to begin work. The person, he replaced, had been fired, the week before, for not following orders. Bob knew he was the kind of honest person his new employer could rely upon and he would not have that problem.
The company's next job was road repair on the busy interstate highway and was to start in two weeks, on Monday morning the 18th. Bob figured he would have to have his crew putting up the cones and barrels at 5 am that day since the job would take about an hour and a half and the paving crew was to start at 7 am. Bob was shocked, therefore, when his boss, Mr. Crony, told him the cones and barrels were to be put-up Thursday afternoon on the 14th.
Bob replied, "That doesn't make any sense, it will back up traffic for miles for the Thursday and Friday commutes as well as the busy weekend, needlessly ruining people's plans and in general making thousands of people miserable. What about the wasted time, the wasted gas, the crying children who need to get to a restroom?"
Mr. Crony defended the practice with these words: "You don't just get handed state contracts. It's 'pay to play' if you know what I mean. But the big boys have ways of getting your money back to you. For roadwork, they let contracts start a few days before the work really begins, so contractors can get extra money. On this contract, we will get $5 a day for each cone in place beginning on the 14th, and $100 a day for each flashing arrow sign. Since this job needs 300 cones and 4 signs, that comes to $1,900 a day and $7,600 for the set-up period, counting Thursday.
Everybody does it. How many times have you been in back-ups and when you get to the site, nothing is going on? It is perfectly legal; and that's the way things have been done in this state ever since I can remember. So, if you have a problem with the way we do things around here, there's the door. I can have you replaced before the hour is out. It's your choice."
1. From Bob's perspective in case #3, Bob has an ethical dilemma, because, if he blows the whistle on a corrupt and harmful practice that has been going on for years, he is helping the public on one hand, but harming the company that just hired him on the other. TRUE OR FALSE?
3. From case #3, one can see that the Griddloc Highway Paving Company is upholding the ethical principle of profit maximization because if it puts the cones and barrels up when the construction actually begins, its shareholders will lose $7,600. TRUE OR FALSE?
3. In case #3, one can see that the no-harm ethical principle, within social contract theory, is part of Bob's thought regarding this issue. TRUE OR FALSE?
4. From case #3, one can conclude that the problem is only a legal issue because the part of the job that Bob does not like, is legal. TRUE OR FALSE?
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