Case Study

ETHICAL DILEMMA IN AN
INTERNSHIP:
NAVIGATING
PROFESSIONAL INTEGRITY

BUS102: Business – Basics, Ethics and Environment

Ethically and Socially Responsible Behavior

Topic 3 | Week 2

Instructor
Nadia Afroze Disha (NAR)
Lecturer
BRAC Business School
BRAC University

BBA Program
Summer 2024
Case Study
ETHICAL DILEMMA IN AN INTERNSHIP: NAVIGATING
PROFESSIONAL INTEGRITY

At first, Nabila Haque wasn’t sure whether she’d heard her new manager correctly.

The phone line was relatively clear for a call between Dhaka and Chattogram, but she still
asked Ashraf Rahman to repeat himself.

Mr. Rahman was the Chattogram office manager of SecureTech, a technology security firm
with headquarters in Dhaka. Nabila was just starting her summer internship with the
company, and she was supposed to be in Chattogram working with Mr. Rahman’s team, but
there had been some personal problems keeping her from moving to Chattogram. Nasima
Chowdhury, the head of the company’s intern program, had suggested she get started from
afar.

One of her primary duties during the summer would be helping Mr. Rahman with market
research by reaching out to other technology firms, including direct competitors, for
information on products, services offered, customers, sales, and other data. He’d already e-
mailed her a list of target companies and contact names. Now he was telling her that when
she contacted people on the list, it would be best to use her university e-mail address and
introduce herself as an MBA student.

Perhaps sensing her hesitation, Mr. Rahman added, “This is common practice. It’s the only
way to get accurate information.”

Questions to Ponder
 Does knowing that the company has done this before make the request more
acceptable?

Nabila shifted uncomfortably in her chair. This was her first conversation with her new
manager, and she wanted to make a good impression.

“You won’t get the information otherwise,” Mr. Rahman said, filling the silence. “This is what
other interns have done in the past. You don’t need to worry.”

Still unsure how to respond — or how frank she could be since she knew that direct
confrontation was frowned upon in the Bangladeshi culture — she simply said, “OK.” She
asked a few more questions about the information she was supposed to get and then hung
up.

Nabila had badly wanted this internship. Her first job out of university had been with a
management consultancy, and she’d been staffed right away on a project with a cybersecurity
firm. From the start, she was fascinated with the work. She decided to go back to school to
get her MBA and planned to eventually join a company on the forefront of this exploding field.
In an industry expected to generate billions in revenue in the near future, she knew she’d
have many opportunities. And she was elated when SecureTech made her an offer. If she
played her cards right, it could turn into a full-time job after she graduated. But now Mr.
Rahman was asking her to misrepresent herself. She understood that gathering competitive

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intelligence required “creativity” — after all, you were seeking information that your rivals
wanted to keep private — but this seemed like it might be crossing the line.

Students or anybody else should ask themselves the following four questions in case they
are confronted with an ethical dilemma.

1. Am I comfortable with the likely consequences of this action?

2. Am I fulfilling my duties and respecting others’ rights?
3. Am I respecting the community and its norms?
4. Am I meeting my and my company’s commitments?

In one of her father’s many mini-lectures on how business works in Bangladesh, he had
mentioned that expectations and even ethics would be different in this country — but that
knowledge didn’t ease her anxiety now. Was shading the truth “common practice” in
Chattogram or common practice at SecureTech?

Questions to Ponder
 Should a company’s practices differ across its offices?

Many globalizing firms have difficulty effectively implementing a common set of values and
behaviors.

Put It in Perspective
When Nabila woke up the next morning, she already had several e-mails from Mr. Rahman,
with sample inquiries attached. She noticed right away that he had cc’d Nasima Chowdhury
and a man whose name she didn’t recognize. A quick search showed that he was SecureTech’s
head of market research for Asia.

She was supposed to start making calls on Monday, and it was now Thursday afternoon. She
had to figure out soon what she was going to do about the request. Rather than answer right
away, she went out for a jog, hoping to clear her head. But 30 minutes in, she was still
ruminating about what Mr. Rahman had asked her to do.

When her phone rang with a call from her dad, she was happy for the distraction — and hoped
to hear some sound advice. This was one of their routines. He’d call her around lunchtime,
catching her on her way to a morning class or out for a run. Their conversations were always
short, but Nabila looked forward to them.

After she explained what was going on, her dad started in on a monologue about the
importance of having a good job and building a career. Nabila listened for a while until she
couldn’t stand it.

“Dad, stop with the life lessons. I know I need this job.”

“I just want you to make a good decision, honey,” he said.

“My friends think I should quit. They say people have a right to be told the truth when they’re
asked to disclose sensitive information,” she said.

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“That’s easy for them to say. Do they plan to pay your rent this summer? Or get you a job
next year? Nabila, you need this internship. You know Mom and I would love to help, but
we’re on a fixed income these days.”

“Fixed income” had been her dad’s favorite phrase ever since he retired. Her parents had
supported her and her brother through their undergraduate years, but they’d made it crystal
clear that from then on, they were on their own. She’d saved some money during her three
years of consulting before business school, but not enough to pay Dhaka rent.

“So you’re saying I should just do it? Forget everything you taught me about honesty and
integrity and do whatever they ask?” She knew she was being melodramatic, but she often
fell into that behavior with her parents.

Many people think that the hardest part of an ethical challenge is deciding
whether you believe an act is right or wrong. But it is equally important to decide
exactly how to handle a situation once you’ve determined what you believe.

“Nabila, keep this in perspective. What Mr. Rahman has asked you to do isn’t illegal. It’s not
even untruthful. You are an MBA student. And if one of these contacts asks whether you have
any corporate affiliation, you can always tell the full truth. Besides, it sounds like it’s all
aboveboard at SecureTech. If the head of market research knows about it, then you know
that Mr. Rahman isn’t hiding anything.”

“I just don’t feel comfortable with it, Dad. It seems like lying. I think I need to go back to Mr.
Rahman and tell him how I feel. Or maybe talk to the intern manager, Nasima.”

“Those are perfectly good options. Just be sure to tread carefully. You don’t want them to
think you’re difficult to work with.”

Questions to Ponder
 If Nabila shares her concerns with Mr. Rahman about not disclosing her connection to
SecureTech, does she risk looking like someone who won’t be easy to work with in the
future?

She sighed loudly into the phone. “The irony is not lost on me that a company that tries to
prevent people from misrepresenting who they are just asked me to misrepresent who I am.”

“Welcome to the real work world, honey. It’s full of contradictions.”

Future Employers
“I thought you’d be in Chattogram by now,” Melinda Sussman said, as she sat down at a café
table. Melinda was a principal at the consultancy where Nabila had previously worked. Staffed
on a few of the same projects, the two had hit it off and subsequently tried to work together
whenever they could. When Nabila decided to leave for business school, Melinda had written
her a recommendation letter, and since both were still in Dhaka, they’d stayed in touch.

“Not yet. Thank you so much for meeting me on the weekend.”

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Nabila explained her conversation with Mr. Rahman and her debates with her father. “I’ve
even talked to the CEO.”

“You talked to the CEO? About this?”

“No, no. Not about this. He just called yesterday to apologize about not holding an intern
orientation session this year.” Peter Carlssen had come to BRAC Business School last fall to
participate in a panel discussion on cybersecurity. When Nabila had approached him
afterward, he told her that he’d been impressed with her questions and encouraged her to
apply for the internship. She’d been shocked to hear his voice on the phone and wondered if
he typically checked in with interns or was taking a special interest in her. The conversation
with Mr. Rahman on her mind, she’d been tempted to bring up the issue with the CEO — but
didn’t.

“I was thinking maybe I could go to him about this,” she told Melinda. “When I saw him speak,
he talked about how important ethics were in this field.”

Questions to Ponder
 Given Nabila’s previous interactions with the CEO, does it make sense for her to talk to
him directly about this issue?
 Would he be open to hearing about her concerns?

“I’m sure he has bigger fish to fry than this. Besides, ‘intern rats on manager to CEO’? I don’t
think that’s the kind of reputation you want to get. How big is this company?”

“About 1,500 employees worldwide, but it’s a really friendly place. Other than this situation,
I’ve had nothing but positive interactions — from my interviews to my conversations with HR
and even my first few e-mails with Mr. Rahman. Everyone’s gone out of their way to make me
feel welcome. There weren’t any red flags.”

“There’s no way you can put the project off until you get over there?” Melinda asked. “Or what
about talking to this Nasima person? She’s your manager too, right?”

“That’s not entirely clear. It seems like I report to both of them. I just couldn’t get a read on
Mr. Rahman over the phone, and since he cc’d Nasima on that e-mail, it’s not like she doesn’t
know what he’s asked me to do.”

“This would, of course, be easier if you knew how any of these people were going to respond
to questions. If you raise this issue with anyone — Mr. Rahman, Nasima, HR — you have to
be prepared for the worst. It’s possible that they’ll allow you to get the information in another
way, but it’s also possible — and I don’t want to scare you — that they’ll rescind your internship
offer. You’re not even over there yet, so that would probably be easy to do.”

Questions to Ponder
 If she decides to speak to someone at SecureTech about the issue, what, exactly, should
she say?
 How should she frame her concerns about ethics?
 What alternatives, if any, should she propose?

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“I’d hate to have to explain that to my parents.”

“And future employers. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that your career prospects could be
on the line here. But if you agree to misrepresent yourself and are discovered by these
companies, you might have trouble finding any job in your field at all. And you have some
obligation to the university, too. If you present yourself as a student working on a project for
school, and these companies discover there’s no such thing, it could reflect badly on your MBA
program.”

Nabila’s shoulders slumped; she hadn’t thought of that. She really didn’t know what to do.

THE BIG QUESTION

 Should Nabila voice her concerns about Mr. Rahman’s request?

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