Case: Does This Milkshake Taste Funny?

Referenced to the arrticle

In this case, George Stein is faced with an ethical dilemma. Identify that dilemma and the stakeholders affected by it. I would like you to address all of the reasons why you believe George will act UNETHICALLY and remove the filters, allowing the maggots to remain in the mix AND all of the reasons why you think that George will behave ETHICALLY, refuse to remove the filters, and report the maggot problem to management. For each of the reasons you address, you need to provide reference support. For example, if you state that George will act unethically because of his young age, provide a reference that states that younger individuals are more likely to engage in unethical behavior than older individuals (or something to that effect). After discussing the reasons George may act unethically or ethically, state which way you think he will sway (i.e., refuse to remove filters and report the maggots OR remove the filters and let the maggots flow into the mix). I would also like you to make some recommendations regarding what George should do well as what Eastern Dairy can do to make sure that employees know exactly what to do if a similar situation arises in the future. Include the full citations for your references on your Reference page at the end of your analysis, following the A P A Guidelines.

Module 8 - Does This Milkshake Taste Funny? - Bullerr'Schulcr a year. He chose mechanical engineering as his major, hoping there might be some simi- larity between being a mechanical engineer and being a mechanic. After one year at engi~ neering school. however, he had not seen any similarity yet. Once again this summer, his parents had to prod and cajole him to agree to return to school in the fall. They only suc- ceeded by promising to give their blessing to his marriage to Cathy following his sopho- more year. George worked at menial jobs each of the last four summers to satisfy his immediate need for dating and car money. He did manage to put away a bit to he used for spending money during the school year. He had saved very little for the day that he and Cathy would start their life together, but they planned for Cathy to support them with her earnings as a secretary until George either nished or quitL school. The day after George returned home this summer. he heard that Eastern Dairy might hire summer help. He applied at the local plant the next day. Eastern Dairy was nnion- ized. and the wages paid were over twice the minimum wage George had been paid on pre- vious jobs, so he was quite interested in a position. Eastern Dairy manufactured milkshake and ice cream mix for a number of customers in the metropolitan area. it sold the ice cream mix in 5- and lO-gallon containers to other firms, which then added flavoring ingredients (_e.g., strawberries or blueberries), packaged and froze the mix, and sold the ice cream under their own brand names. Eastern Dairy sold the milkshake mix in Sgallon cardboard cartons. which contained a plastic liner. These pack ages were delivered to many restaurants in the area. The packaging was designed to fit into automatic milkshake machines used in many types of restaurants, including most fast- food restaurants and drive~ins. George was elated when he received the call asking him to come to the plant on June 8. After a brief viSit with the human resources director, at which time George filled out the necessary employment forms. he was instructed to report for work at l 2:00 p.m. that night. He was assigned to the night shift, working from \":00 pm. until 7:00 a.rn.. six nights per week~Sunday through Friday. With the regular wages paid at Eastern Dairy, supplemented by time and one-half for eight hours of guaranteed overtime each week, George thought he could save a tidy sum before he had to return to school at the end of the rst week of September. When George reported to work, he discovered that there were no managers assigned to the night shift. The entire plant was operated by a sixperson crew of operators. One member of this crew, a young n'ran named Paul Burnham, received each night's produc- tion orders from the day shi superintendent as the superintendent left for the day. Al- though Paul's status was no different 'orn that of his five colleagues, the other crew members looked to him for directi on. Paul passed the production orders to the mixer (who was the first stage of the production process) and kept the production records for the shift. The production process was really quite simple. Mixes moved between various pieces of equipment (including mixing vats, pasteurizcrs, coolers, homogenizers, and filling ma- chines} through stainless steel pipes suspended from the ceiling. All ofthc pipes had to be disassembled, thoroughly cleaned, and reinstalled by the conclusion of the night shift.This process took approximately one hour, so all the mix had to be run by 6:00 am. in order to complete the cleanup by the 7:00 a.m. quitting time. Paul and one other worker, Fred (the mixer), cleaned the giant mixing vats while the other four on the shift, including George, cleaned and reinstalled the pipes and lters. George soon learned that Paul felt a sense of responsibility for completing all of the assigned work before the end ofthc shift. However, as long as that objective was achieved, he did not seem to care about what else went on during the shift. A great deal of story telling and horseplay was the norm, but the work was always completed by quitting time. George was soon enjoying the easy camaraderie ofthc work group, the outrageous pranks they pulled on one another, and even the work itself. George's position required that he station himself beside a conveyor in a large freezer room. He removed containers of mix as they came down the line and stacked them in the appropriate places. Periodically, Paul would decide that they had all worked hard enough and would shut down the line for a while so that they all could engage in some non-work The Current Situation Module 3 - Does This Milkshake Taste Funny? - BullerlSchchr activity like joke telling. hiding each other's lunch boxes. or \"balloon" fights. The balloons were actually the ve-gallon. exible liners for the cardboard boxes in which the mix was sold. While George did not relish being hit by an exploding bag containing ve gallons of heavy mix, he found it great n to lob one at one of his coworkers. The loss of 10 to 40 gallons ofmix on a shift did not seem to concern anyone. and these ghts were never curtailed. George quickly learned that management had only two expectations of the night shift. First. the shift was expected to complete the production orders each night. Second, man agement expected the equipment, including the pipes, to be spotlessly cleaned at the con- clusion of the shift. Paul told George that inspectors from the county health department would occasionally drop by unannounced at the end of the shift to instpect the vats and pipes after they had been disassembled and scrubbed. Paul also told George that manage- ment would be very upset if the inspectors registered any complaints about cleanliness. George did join the union but saw very little evidence of their involvement in the day- today operations of the plant. Labor relations seemed quite amicable, and George only thought of the union when he looked at a pay stub and noticed that union dues had been deducted from his gross pay. The difference George noticed in working for Eastern Dairy compared to his previous employers was not the presence of the union but the absence of management. Things seemed to be going quite well for George on the jobuntil a few minutes ago. The problem first surfaced when the milkshake mix that was being run started spewing out of one of the joints in the overhead pipe network- The pumps were shut down while George disassembled the joint to see what the problem was. George removed the lter screen from the pipe at the leaking joint and saw that it was completely packed with solid matter. Closer inspection revealed that maggots wore the culprits. George hurriedly took the iter to Paul to show him the biocltage. Paul did not seem too concerned and told George to clean the lter and reassemble the joint. When George asked how this could have hap- pened, Paul said maggots occasionally got into the bags of certain ingredients that were stored in a warehouse at the back of the lot. \"But you do not have to worry," said Paul. \"The filters will catch any solid matter.\" Feeling somewhat reassured, George cleaned the lter and reassembled the pipe. But still, the image of maggots oating in a milkshake was hard to shake. And, unfortunately for George, this was not the end of it. Shortly alter the pumps were re-started. the mix began to ow out of another joint. Once again, a lter plugged with maggots was found to be the cause- For the second time, George cleaned the lter and reassembied the connection. This time Paul had seemed a bit more concerned as he noted that they barely had enough time to run the last 500 gallons remaining in the vats before they needed to clean up in prepa- ration for the end of the shi. Moments aer the equipment was again re-started, another joint started to spew. When maggots were found to be clogging this lter too, Paul called George over and mid him to remove all ve filters from the line so the last 500 gallons could be run without any filters. Paul laughed when he saw the shocked look on George's face. \"George." he said. "don't forget that all of this shelf goes through the homogenizer, so any solid matter will be completely pulverized. And when it's heated in the pasteurization process, any bacteria will be killed. No one will ever know about this, the company can save a lot of mixthat's moneyand. most important, we can run this through and go home on time." George knew that they would never get this lot packaged if they had to shut down every minute to clean lters, and there was no reason to believe it could not be this way for the rest of the run. The product had been thoroughly mixed in the mixing vats at the beginning of the process, which meant that contaminants would be distributed uniformly throughout the 500 gallons. George also knew that 500 gallons of milkshake was very ex- -.-... _ -.--. ...__.-.- Module 8 - Does This Milkshake Taste Funny? - Buller/Schuler Paul was definitely right about one thing, removing all of the filters, a 10-minute job at most, would assure that they could get everything cleaned up and be out on time. As George walked to the first filter joint, he felt a knot forming in his stomach as he thought of kids drinking all of the milkshakes they were about to produce. He had already decided he would not have another milkshake for at least a month, in order to be absolutely sure that this batch was no longer being served at restaurants. After all, he did not know exactly which restaurants would receive this mix. As he picked up his wrench and ap- proached the first pipe joint that contained a filter, he still could not help wondering if he should not do or say something more.' V 6 4, f. . 5"" . ii .4 7'75, ... .._.. J. .' g , . '3 .asagmg lorgamzatins and People A Resource for Cases in ataaagemeot. organizational Behavior, and Herman Resource iviaoagemartt Abstract George Stein. :1 college student employed for the summer by Eastern Dairy, must decide if he is going to remove the. filters from the plant's piping and. thus. allow the current pro- duction run of milkshake mix to be contaminated with maggots. This course of action will save the company money. at least in the short run, and allow George's shift to go home on time. George is disturbed. however, by the thought of children drinking those milkshakes. The workforce is unionized and George is feeling pressure from some of his eta-workers to cut corners. The night shift is staffed by a self-managed team and no members of man- agement are on duty. Does This Milkshake Taste-Flint}- Cieorge Stein, a college student working for Eastern Dairy during the summer, was sad- denly faced with an ethical dilemma. George had very little time to think about his choices, less than a minute. On the one hand, he could do what Paul told him to do. and his shift could go home on time. However, he found it tough to shake the gross mental image of all those innocent kids drinking milkshakes contaminated with pulverized mag- gots. If he chose instead to go against Paul, what would the guys say? He could almost hear their derisive comments already: \"wimp . . ., wus . . ., college kid . . .\" Background George Stein had lived his entire life in various suburbs of a major city on the east coast. l-lis father's salary as a manager provided the family with a solid middleclass lifestyle. His mother was a homemaker. George's major interests in life were the local teenage gather- ing placea drivein restauranthot rod cars, and his girlfriend, Cathy. He had not really wanted to attend college, but relentless pressure by his parents convinced him to try it for I This case was prepared by Roland B. Cousins, LaGrange College, and Linda E. Benitz, InterCel, Inc., as a basis for class discussion and not 'to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. The names 9f the rm. individuals. and the location involved have been disguised to preserve anonymity. The situation reported Is factual. The authors thank Anne T. Lawarence for her assistance in the development of this case. Fetulty members in nonprofit institutions are encouraged to reproduce this case for distribution to their students Without charge or written permission. All other rights reserved jointly to the author and the North American Case Re- ;eafch Association (NACRA). Copyright 1997 by the Case Research Journal and Roland B. Cousins and Linda E. enitz