Case: Ethical Issues

John Smith is a sales manager for XYZ Company, a building supplies manufacturer.Because John is a manager, he has more freedom than some other employees. Part of John's job is to take potential customers out to lunch to and try to get them to purchase XYZ's products as well as attend Trade Shows out of town several days each month.John manages 5 sales representatives.

This is part of XYZ's Company Policy Manual:

Employees are authorized to use the XYZ Company credit card when taking potential customers out for lunch or dinner or paying for gasoline while away from the city on XYZ company business.

Employees are authorized to use the XYZ company credit card for flights (business class), hotels (4 star), rental car (mid-size), and dining (200dhs per day) while the employees are away on official XYZ Company business.

Employees are not allowed to use the internet for personal use during working hours.

All employees are required to swipe their ID card when he/she arrives and when he/she leaves the office for safety reasons (so the company knows who is in or out of the office in case of fire or other emergency).

John is currently in a country for a contractors trade show.He is using his company credit card to pay for his stay at the Ritz Carlton (5-star).He told his boss that all 4-star hotels in Dubai were booked because of the trade show.Actually, there were several 4-star hotels John could have stayed at, but they were much farther away from the trade show site than the Ritz Carlton.

While at the trade show, John takes out 2 men from a construction company to try to get them to purchase supplies from XYZ Company.Before he leaves the restaurant, John ordered a "take-away" dessert to eat in his hotel room.John pays for the food with the company credit card.

The next day, John goes out to dinner with newly met friends at the hotel swimming pool.He pays for dinner with the company credit card.

On the last day of the trade show, John calls the XYZ Company HR Department and leaves a message saying he is sick and would not be coming back in to the office for the next 2 days.John is not really sick; he just wants to spend more time with some people he has met earlier whom he wants to personally bond with.

The next week, John returns to the XYZ Company office telling everyone how sick he had been over the past few days.At 8 am, John calls Omar into his office and promises Omar an extra day off if he rushes to complete an important project by the next day. Omar works late into the night and finishes the project at 4am.

The next morning, Omar tells John that he would like to take the Thursday off.John responds "No, you can't have an extra day off - we have too much work to do."

John calls a meeting of his staff and asks for suggestions how to increase sales of the XYZ gold-colored door knobs.Mansoor tells John that the gold-colored door knobs are not selling well because they are a lesser quality than the silver-colored door knobs and cost twice as much.John says, "Mansoor, you are just being a baby.Obviously you are not working as hard as the rest of your team.You are letting everyone down."

They go around the table with each member of the team giving their ideas for increasing sales of the gold-colored door knobs.When Alia starts to tell her idea, John crosses his arms, sighs loudly, and rolls his eyes.After Alia is done, he dismisses the team, but asks Mansoor to stay behind.John threatens to fire Mansoor unless he sells 500 of the gold-colored door knobs by the end of the month.John says he knows the gold-colored door knobs are inferior (not as good) as the silver-colored door knobs, but he does not care.

After the meeting, John gets on his computer and does some shopping for a present to send to the new friends he met earlier at the swimming pool.He spends the next 2 hours surfing the net, looking for the perfect gift.He then uses his office phone to call his new friends to let them know that a gift will be arriving soon.

Later, John reviews the project report that Omar had given him.John removes Omar's name from the report and types in his own name.John forwards the report to the Regional Sales Manager (John's boss) with the following note, "Here is the report I prepared for you.Let me know what you think."

1: Point out specific behaviors that involve ethical issues.Explain why these behaviors are or are not ethical workplace behaviors?

2: How do the principles of CSR apply in the case?Explain by giving facts, examples from the case to justify your standpoint.