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Pca Mod6 Ethics Draft
Pca Mod6 Ethics Draft
Christapher Cutting
Pro-Seminar I
Our organization was in need of an information technology (IT) systems refresh, with ageing
equipment our mission was exceeding the existing network and technical capabilities. As a preferred
vendor with an existing relationship and facility access, I engaged with Dell EMC for their services.
However, due to poor documentation and personnel departures, I was gifted this project with very little
information on the previous acquisition and processes. The Dell EMC representative was eager to
capitalize on this situation, and sought to garner a lucrative and inflated government contract. My role
was to consolidate and define the organization’s requirements, acquire the best solution for both our
organization and the tax-payer, while doing so in a relatively short period of time.
I was fortunate enough to have leaders within my organization that focused on ethical business
practices and the power of integrity. Over my career I’ve seen a tremendous number of managers pay
lip-service to ethical behavior, namely keeping tax-payers best interest at heart through any decision. A
powerful message when backed with action. Until I had arrived at this organization, I had never seen the
follow through on that claim. It wasn’t until I saw leaders truly take center stage and stand behind their
As the Dell representatives sought to wring every possible penny from this contract, leadership
within my organization never faltered when it came to the funding of this project. If it wasn’t the best
deal possible for the tax-payer then we wouldn’t sign the contract. They were steadfast and backed my
position to seek additional quotes from this vendor, regardless of the potential for delays, as our existing
systems while archaic, were still functional. They could have easily signed the first bloated contract and
moved on, but the insistence for responsible fiscal spending was the foundation of their process. Ethics
over convenience.
Applying the political frame to this situation, through the ethical lens, provides a different
approach, one that I had discussed in another frame. Using the jungle metaphor, the competitors exist
at every turn, in this case we merely needed to flip the script on who was the hunter and who was being
hunted. Dell had treated us as the lamb that lays with a resting lion, never resting while the lion, Dell,
sleeps easy (Bolman& Deal, 2017). Their pursuit of self-interests meant that they exerted their power,
access to market and size, over mutually beneficial power sharing. Their tight grip over their perceived
power created negative perceptions with observers as well as our organizational participants, including
myself.
To flip the dynamic, we could have leveraged our power of choice. Looking for other more
agreeable vendors, who were more eager to gain additional market share within the Department of
Defense. This would have forced a power shift away from Dell, and put the balance of power across
multiple vendors, if not completely flipping the dynamic on its head and giving us the power through a
competitive market eager for our business. The sheep becomes the sleeping lion in the vacuum of
power sharing.
Given Dell’s desire to drain the coffers of our organization, I would have liked to take a more
drastically different approach to this situation. Fighting a representative focused on exploiting the
system and leveraging their perceived position of power in a negotiation was a dead-end pursuit.
Instead, I should have pursued an appeal to the corporate values of “empowering individuals,
organizations and committees with technologies that solve the world’s biggest challenges” (Dell, n.d.). In
this regard, pursuit of the temple, or values and beliefs of an organization, at the corporate level, above
the representative could have provided a faster and more economical resolution. Dell’s own self
Leveraging Dell’s own marketing and values, to refocus negotiations on the best interest of both
participants could have been the path needed to achieve success. Doing so earlier in this endeavor,
instead of fostering distrust and ambivalence, could have generated a win for both parties. Focusing on
the legacy of the partnership, over individual accolades as a hallmark of utilizing the Bolman and Deal’s
ethical community of The Temple: a gathering place for people with shared aspirations, beliefs,
aspirations, and values (2017, pg. 395). Both organizations are founded on serving, safeguarding, and
acting with sound determination for their customers interests. From this frame, moving up the Dell
chain, I could have appealed to the organization values to infuse ethical and rational practices.
Reference or References
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (6th ed.).
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