334 PART FOUR • The Organization and the People in It
P o i n t s to R e v i e w
● two historical factors behind workplace
authoritarianism
● why efficiency doesn’t require sacrificing
employees’ civil liberties and rights
● importance of job descriptions and job
specifications
● potentially unfair bases of screening
● requirements of the ADA
● ways in which employment tests can be
unfair
● Supreme Court’s decision in Griggs v.
Duke Power Company
● what we can learn from Francis Bacon
● pros and cons of nepotism, inbreeding,
and promotion on the basis of seniority
CASE 8.1
AIDS in the Workplace
Carla Lombard always worked well with peo-
ple. So when she opened her Better Bagels ba-
gel shop seven years ago, she anticipated that
managing her employees would be the easy
part. She had worked for enough different
bosses that she thought she knew what it
took to be a good employer. Whether she
was up to the financial side of running a busi-
ness was her worry. As it turned out, however,
Better Bagels flourished. Not only did Carla go
on to open three smaller branches of Better
Bagels, but her bakery also made daily whole-
sale deliveries to dozens of coffee shops and
restaurants around the city. No, the business
was prospering. It was just that the personnel
issues turned out to be more difficult than
she had ever expected. Take this week, for
example.
On Tuesday, Carla was in the main bagel
shop when around noon Tom Walters’s ex-
wife, Frances, came in. Tom oversaw a lot of
the early-morning baking at that shop and like
most of Carla’s employees put in his share of
time working the sales counter. He was a good
worker, and Carla had been considering
● two key principles related to discipline and discharge
● four types of discharge
● seven guidelines to bear in mind when
assessing the fairness of wages
● two other important factors that bear on the
fairness of wages
● considerations for and against living-wage laws
● historical development of unions
● situation of unions today
● the pros and cons of card check
● what Adam Smith had to say about workers
and masters
● the goals and ideals of unions
● what the critics of unions say
● different types of strikes and boycotts
promoting him next month to manager of one
of the branch shops. After ordering a bagel,
Frances took Carla aside. She beat around the
bush for a few minutes before she got to her
point, because she was there to tell Carla that
Tom had AIDS. Frances said she was telling
Carla because she “always liked her and thought
she was entitled to know because she was Tom’s
employer.” Carla barely knew Frances, and she
was so taken aback that she was at a loss
for words. She was shocked and embarrassed
and didn’t know whether she should even dis-
cuss Tom with Frances. While Carla was still
trying to recover herself, Frances took her bagel
and left.
Carla was still concerned and upset when
she saw Tom the next day. Perhaps he had
been thinner and looked tired more often the
last few months, Carla thought to herself. But
she couldn’t be sure, and Tom seemed to be
his usual upbeat self. Carla wanted to discuss
Frances’s visit with Tom, but she couldn’t
bring herself to mention it. She had always
liked Tom, but—face it, she thought—he’s
my employee, not my friend. And it’s his

business. If I were an employee, I wouldn’t
want my boss asking me about my health.
Later, however, she began to wonder if it
wasn’t her business after all. She overheard
some customers saying that people were staying
away from the local Denny’s franchise because
one of its cooks was reported to have AIDS.
The rumor was that some of his fellow employ-
ees had even circulated a petition saying that
the cook should go, but a local AIDS support
group had intervened, threatening legal action.
So the cook was staying, but the customers
weren’t. Carla knew something about AIDS
and thought some of what her customers
were saying was bigoted and ill informed. She
was pretty sure that you couldn’t transmit HIV
through food—including bagel—preparation,
but she thought that maybe she should
double-check her information. But what was
really beginning to worry her were the business
implications. She didn’t want a Denny’s-like sit-
uation at Better Bagels, but in her customers’
comments she could see the possibility of some-
thing like that happening once the word got out
about Tom, especially if she made him a man-
ager. Carla was running a business, and even if
her customers’ fears might be irrational or ex-
aggerated, she couldn’t force them to visit her
shops or eat her bagels.
Carla knew it was illegal to fire Tom for
having AIDS, and in any case that’s not the
kind of person she was. But she couldn’t af-
ford to skirt the whole problem, she realized,
as some large companies do, by simply
sending the employee home at full pay. To
be sure, doing that deprives the employee of
meaningful work, but it removes any difficul-
ties in the workplace, and the employee has no
legal grounds for complaint if he or she is left
on the payroll. And then, of course, there was
always the question of Tom’s future work per-
formance. Putting the question of promotion
aside, if he really was ill, as Frances had said,
his work performance would probably de-
cline, she thought. Shouldn’t she begin devel-
oping some plan for dealing with that?
CHAPTER EIGHT • The Workplace (1): Basic Issues 335
Update Frances was misinformed. Tom didn’t
have AIDS. He had developed multiple scle-
rosis, a degenerative disease of the central
nervous system. It’s not fatal, but the course
of the disease is unpredictable. Attacks can
occur at any time and then fade away. A per-
son can feel fine one day, only to have an
attack the next day that causes blurred vision,
slurred speech, numbness, or even blindness
and paralysis. Tom was never worried about
losing his job, and he was pretty sure he could
continue to perform well at it, maybe even
move higher in the business either with Carla
or with another employer. But he kept his
condition to himself, hiding his symptoms
and covering up occasional absences and
trips to the doctor, because he was worried
that customers and colleagues would perceive
him differently. He didn’t want looks of pity
if he stumbled or constant questions about
how he was feeling.
Discussion Questions
1. What are the moral issues in this case?
What ideals, obligations, and conse-
quences must Carla Lombard consider?
What rights, if any, are at stake? Will it
make a difference whether Carla adopts
a Kantian approach or a utilitarian ap-
proach to this situation?
2. Would it be wrong of Carla to ask Tom
Walters about his health? Why or why
not? Defend your answer by appeal to
moral principle.
3. Suppose Tom had AIDS. What should
Carla do? Is an employee’s HIV status a
job-related issue? In particular, is it a fac-
tor Carla should consider in deciding
whether to promote Tom? What part, if
any, should the attitudes of Tom’s cowor-
kers play in Carla’s decision?
4. How should companies address the prob-
lem of public fear and prejudice when em-
ployees with AIDS have direct contact
with customers?
336 PART FOUR • The Organization and the People in It
5. Should companies develop programs or pol-
icies that deal specifically with AIDS? If so,
what characteristics should they have? Or
should they deal with the problem only on a
case-by-case basis? Should large corpora-
tions develop AIDS-awareness programs?
Or should AIDS be treated no differently
than any other disease?
CASE 8.2
Web Porn at Work
Al Smetana is the founding president of a
medium-size, midwestern manufacturing firm,
Rayburn Unlimited. He’s proud of the way
his company has grown, and done so on the
basis of an organizational culture committed
to honesty, integrity, and the intrinsic value of
each individual. But now those values are being
put to the test.
It began when Al learned that an em-
ployee had tapped into the company’s com-
puter system and figured out how to read
people’s e-mail and to learn what websites
they visited. Determining who the culprit was
wasn’t difficult. When confronted about it, the
employee admitted what he had done. Al im-
mediately terminated his employment. But as
he left, the employee said angrily, “Just ask
Lindley about his computer usage,” referring
to Craig Lindley, associate vice president for
human resources and an old friend of Al’s.
Although Al didn’t trust the discharged em-
ployee, he was disturbed by his comment and
reluctant to let it go. So he called Craig Lind-
ley into his office and asked him about it.
After a few minutes of gentle questioning,
Craig started weeping. When he recovered him-
self, he explained that for the past year or so he
had been hooked on pornography on the web
and at the office sometimes spent an hour or so
a day looking at it. Al asked him whether his
6. Does Tom have a moral obligation to dis-
close his medical condition to Carla—and,
if so, at what point? Suppose a job applicant
has a chronic, potentially debilitating medi-
cal condition. Should he or she reveal that
fact before being hired? Would it be wrong
not to mention the disease if the interviewer
inquires about the applicant’s health?
wife knew. Craig said she didn’t. He was too
ashamed of his habit to talk to her or anybody
else about it. Al then told him to take the rest of
the day off, to think the matter over, and to
return to Al’s office the next morning. When
Craig left, Al stood and looked out the window,
silently asking himself what he should do.82
Discussion Questions
1. Is Craig Lindley’s behavior a sign of some
psychological problem that Rayburn Un-
limited should help him overcome, per-
haps with personal counseling? Or is
dismissal called for? Should Al Smetana
fire Craig to send a message to other em-
ployees not to misuse company time and
resources?
2. Does Al have just cause for dismissing
Craig? Does it matter whether or not Ray-
burn Unlimited has an explicit policy re-
garding computer use? Suppose it has such
a policy and Craig violated it. Does that
settle the matter? Would it affect your
judgment of the case if Craig had helped
draw up that policy?
3. Does the fact that Craig is a valued mem-
ber of the company with a long record of
service make a difference? Or that he is a
personal friend of Al’s?