Q: We know that firms, due to pressures, sometimes make unethical decisions. Locate a recent case online in which a firm made an unethical decision and discuss. As part of your discussion, identify and discuss the conditions that allowed this type of decision-making to flourish. Justify your response.

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Here's an example answer:

Companies make unethical decisions all the time. It's entirely up to the higher authorities to make policies and procedures that need to be followed within the organization. Sometimes, these policies turned out not so beneficial for the employees. In recent events, a US-based trucking firm named KeepTruckin lays off its 18% global workforce. The company's CEO posted a detailed message on their LinkedIn page and apologized for this action. They had more than 1500 employees, and almost 350 people have been fired. KeepTruckin started to get bashed from all over the internet because of this unethical exercise. Many of the articles and blogs started asking questions about this difficult and selfish choice. In their defense, the company said they don't have any choice because of the global pandemic situation that has been occurred due to COVID-19 (Feldman, 2020). As the world was forced to shut down and most of the business got a severe hit of financial losses, the company stated that they had no other option than to terminate their employees.

Along with the firing process, the company exempted the bonuses of 2019 and did not payout. Also, the employees that have more than $50,000 annual salary are forced to a 10% salary deduction (Feldman, 2020). A letter notifying them of the termination of their jobs, and a discharge document was issued to discharged workers, which they had to sign to obtain severance payments. Overall, it was a very unethical thing to do. Still, as for the company's perspective, if they continue their employment of all their employees, they may dissolve very soon because no-one knows the exam duration of the pandemic.

References

Feldman, A. (2020, April 1).Trucking Unicorn KeepTruckin Lays Off Nearly One-Fifth Of Workers As Coronavirus Downturn Hits Freight. Retrieved from forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2020/04/01/trucking-unicorn-keeptruckin-lays-off-nearly-one-fifth-of-workers-as-coronavirus-downturn-hits-freight/?sh=7407a55a6803