Assessment Guidance

Read the following in conjunction with the case study you choose to focus on
and the rubric.

Your assessment will take the form of a 3,000 word (you are allowed to go over by
10% making it a maximum of 3,300 words) submission consisting of three parts in
total.

You will be expected to show that you understand the importance of individual and
organisational ethical thinking and practice and that you can apply ethical decision
making. You will also need to show that you can think critically about the role of
business in society. Further, you will need to show that you have understand the way
in which theory can underpin how ethical issues are viewed, but also that you
understand that theory offers a guide but not necessarily the answer to practice. The
assessment also requires you to show that you have reflected on what makes an
ethical leader and manager and what that means in the context of organisational
culture.

An extensive rubric is provided which will show you how the work is marked and
what is required to achieve high marks.

Your assessment into two parts with part 1 being further split into two. Read the
requirements below and attempt all three parts. You will submit all three parts
together in the same submission.

The Task
You should look at the following cases of businesses that have attracted attention
due to some aspect of practice. You should choose the ONE of these that interests
you and complete the following:
Part 1

a) You are required to write a brief report for senior managers at the case of your
choosing. This report is written from the perspective of a middle manager
tasked to outline the ethical dimensions of the issues from the case. You will
need to explore a number of factors including - Why should this be explored
as an ethical question? How might the company want to think about the role
of business in society? You will also need to outline who the key stakeholders
are and in what way they are affected. You should include research into
examples of how ethical choices impact on other companies (e.g. where is
there research that shows good choices benefit companies and bad choices
have a negative impact?). Finally, you should conclude with some
recommendations for what the company should do
 This part of your assessment should be written as a report, but should be
referenced in the normal academic way using Harvard citations and
referencing.

b) For this part you should again use your chosen case study – but this time
choose TWO ethical theories and demonstrate that you can apply these to the
case to show how your chosen theories lead you to a view on the ethics of the
case. This is written as an academic paper.

Your choices for cases are:

Johnson and Johnson: Taking the pain away?

these is linked to an article related to the story.

Part 2
Part 2 is NOT related to the case study. This section requires you to discuss what
makes an ethical leader and how you would, as an ethical manager, manage your
business and/or others to a high ethical standard.
You will need to think about personal ethics, about the conditions that bring about
unethical organisations and practices, about organisational values and methods of
compliance. This part can be written in a more reflective style

Further guidance

Part 1

Below is a suggested way to structure your work. You do not have to follow this, but
note that this structure reflects the rubric which will assist you in covering what is
expected in the assessment.

a) Writing the Report

Having chosen the case that interests you, you will act as a middle manager writing
to senior managers on the subject.

Introducing the report, the nature of the ethical issue and the role of business
in society
This section requires you to be clear to your audience (the senior managers) why the
issue raised has an ethical dimension, think about where in class we have talked
about what an ethical dilemma is. To add to your argument, you should think about
outlining for your managers thinking about what role in society a business
could/should have. This will require you to re-visit the classes where we thought
about the perspective that the central role of business might not been seen solely as
profit.

Identification of key stakeholders and the impact on them and examples of

how ethical choices have dis/benefited other businesses.

This section should identify from the case you have chosen who the key
stakeholders are and in what way they are affected. You might want to argue that the
company neglected/failed to see/consider relevant stakeholders and you should
point out how that connects to your argument that this is something to be considered
from an ethical viewpoint.
It is also here that you use the research you will have done to demonstrate to your
managers the benefits and costs of ethical/non-ethical thinking by reference to other
examples. For example, where is there research that shows good choices benefit
companies (e.g. that being seen as responsible attracts/retains/is valued by
consumers, or if your case is about HR where is the research on employment
practice that has what you would argue to be a good/ethical impact for the employee
and company? Conversely you may want to emphasise where bad choices have a
negative impact – are there examples of where a company for example has made
unwise choices in advertising and the impact that has had?

Advice and recommendations for Company emerging from analysis

Having researched and analysed the issue you now have to advise your company on
what they should do in order to be an ethical and responsible company. Make some
key recommendations for the management team you are reporting to. – for example
on how the view and use values in the company, view their role in society, and more
practical suggestions around for example the way in which they employ people, think
about the impact of advertising they use or train staff.

A bibliography which includes all the references that you used to in your report.
This part of your assessment should be written as a report, but should be referenced
in the normal academic way using Harvard citations and referencing.

b) Applying two ethical theories to the case study

For this part you should again use the case study – but this time choose TWO ethical
theories and demonstrate that you can apply these to the case to show how your
chosen theories lead you to a view on the ethics of the case. This part should be
written not as a report but in an academic essay style. You will take your example
and use two theories – for example if you choose to use utilitarianism, what are the
fundamentals of that idea? If (as it is) it is the idea of the greatest good for the
greatest number, what does that say about the subject of your case study? You will
probably need to think about the stakeholders you identified in part a) who/what
are/is the ‘winners’ and who/what the ‘losers’? Does that mean that choosing in
favour of the greatest number is ethical? What are the drawbacks of that view? You
can then do the same with another theory – deontology or feminist ethics for
example. A sum up would then note if there are differences in what ‘answers;’ these
viewpoints give and your reflection on that. NOTE – you can choose any two
theories we cover in class, you do not have to choose ones that you think contrast
each other; the task here is to show that you can understand, critique and apply
theory. Note also that we will be practicing using these ideas on cases in seminars.

PART 2
The qualities recognised for ethical leadership and the creation of an ethical
organisation
This section will be a reflective piece, although still requires you to use academic
sources to support your reflection. As it is reflective it is OK to use the first person
when writing. We are expecting to see some engagement with the qualities of ethical
leadership. This may well require you to think about what the relationship is between
an ethical leader and an ethical manager. We will cover this in class so go back to
that class to refresh your thinking. Look again at the classes and think about the
discussions in seminars around what qualities you would identify in someone that
you consider to be ethical. If this marks out an ethical person, what is needed to
transfer that into being an ethical leader? And so the next step is how might that help
develop an ethical organisation? One way of examining this may also be to imagine
what would stop this. A tip here is to look back at the class where we met the idea of
the toxic triangle. Finally, you would need to draw that into how you would bring
about the best environment for ethical practice – which may include values and tools
for compliance.

Finally, a reminder that we will be using formative feedback tasks as a chance

for you to the think about and rehearse content and arguments and get
feedback on what you will include in the assessment – take note of your class
and Moodle messages on formative tasks.