Portfolio project

User Generated

Yhiryl01

Business Finance

Description

Option #1

For this Portfolio Project option, analyze and synthesize data acquired from an illustrative, fictional case study (see below) and present the findings in a paper. The audience for this paper is organizational development specialists and business executives who are attendees at a professional OD association meeting.

Use the organization you identified in the Module 4 Critical Thinking Assignment (in either option). This organization should serve as the beginning of the final case study, however:

  • If you completed the Module 4, Option #1 Critical Thinking Assignment, you will already have some of this information collected and created regarding the fictional organization.

Your project will include:

  • An illustrative, fictional case study
  • Diagnostic methods
  • Analysis and feedback methods
  • Appropriate organizational development intervention options with the inclusion of general risk and value scenarios
  • Evaluation methods and planned changes
  • References of outside sources including academic sources

Your final paper must be 8-10 pages long, cite a minimum of five sources, and be formatted per the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA Requirements. The CSU-Global Library is a great place to find sources! Include a title page and reference list page as part of the final project (but not as part of the page count). Submit your final case study to the Week 8 Assignments page.


Use information from the attached file.

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Running head: ETHICAL ISSUES IN ORGANIZATIONS Ethical Issues in Organizations Irish White Colorado State University- Global Campus Organizational Development April 24, 2017 6 Running head: ETHICAL ISSUES IN ORGANIZATIONS 6 WAL-MART STORES Vision: To stand out as the best retailer in the hearts and minds of consumers and employees. Mission: Offer exclusive services at a friendly price for the consumers. Strategy: Wal-Mart uses cost management and effective strategy. Its products and services are low priced, making it a suitable for most of its target audience. They achieve this through cost and wage reduction, as well as maintaining high sales volume along with carrying out operations on large-scale. Product/service: Wal-Mart offers financial, pharmaceutical, wireless, photo lab and retail services. It provides its customers with private label products which are relatively low priced compared to its competitors in the same line. Business model: Wal-Mart has an advanced supply chain, qualified drivers, and a number of trucks. It has a direct link with the manufacturers and also partners with small and local farmers from all over Canada. Organizational Structure Wal-Mart uses a hierarchical organizational structure which has two features:  Hierarchical: every employee except the CEO has a superior manager. Middle managers implement directives coming from the top level.  Function based: there are different departments in Wal-Mart that perform various functions; for example, IT (handles technical issues), Marketing (positioning Running head: ETHICAL ISSUES IN ORGANIZATIONS 6 products in the market, determining marketing schemes and strategies) and Human Resource (hiring, training of employees). What Happened In 2007 Chalace Epley Lowry, then an employee in the Communications department at Wal-Mart found herself without a job after being in the company for only a few months. The then vice president of Corporate Communications, Mona Williams, asked Lowry to copy papers which (Lowry) figured might be stock related. She found out later that the company was planning a large amount of stock buyback, and was alarmed that may be the vice president had traded on insider information. She decided to talk to the then supervisor, Sarah Clark who told her to inform the company’s ethics office. The ethics office did not handle the issue well, and went ahead to disclose Lowry’s identity to Williams, which is unethical given that the two were in the same department. Lowry argued that she was not given an option as to whether her identity should be disclosed or not and thought it was part of the requirements for filing a complaint. Wal-Mart said there was no wrong-doing on the issue, and that Lowry was just contradictory. The ethics office determined that the said document was not related to stock trading and Williams violated no ethics policies. Wal-Mart gave Lowry a choice of staying in her current position, but she said she couldn’t because other employees would talk about how she did not understand the concept of team dynamics and that she could not get along will her colleagues. She in return has no choice but to quit from her position. Running head: ETHICAL ISSUES IN ORGANIZATIONS 6 Lowry was just acting out of good faith and had suspicions that there might have been some mishaps in the routine activities of the group. This issue of Lowry led to attacks from WakeUpWalmart.com and Walmart Watch, stock prices stagnated and consumers lost trust on the company resulting in a considerable decrease in sales. Consumers argued that they could not shop at a company that treated the employees with no consideration, and that they could not trust Wal-Mart because of its negative publicity. Interview questions 1) Why do you think this issue occurred? 2) Who were the people mainly involved? 3) How are you addressing the issue? 4) How do you plan on preventing a reoccurrence of the issue or other unethical behaviors through training and development? Interview participants Administrative assistant (Lowry): this issue revolves around her so she is the source of first-hand information, what criteria did she use for her judgment? Director (communications department): her poor communication skills and miscommunication sky-rocketed Lowry’s issue. Running head: ETHICAL ISSUES IN ORGANIZATIONS 6 Head of ethics office: they deal with all ethical issues in the company to determine whether they are unethical or not, and what makes them the central part of all ethical issues. Human resource manager: they deal with all issues directly affecting employees and they are responsible for training and development of employees. Running head: ETHICAL ISSUES IN ORGANIZATIONS 6 References Colquitt, J., Lepine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2011). Organizational behavior: Improving performance and commitment in the workplace. McGraw-Hill Irwin. Fombrun, C., & Foss, C. (2004). Business ethics: Corporate responses to scandal. Corporate Reputation Review, 7(3), 284-288. Quinn, J. J. (1997). Personal ethics and business ethics: The ethical attitudes of owner/managers of small business. Journal of Business Ethics, 16(2), 119-127.
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Running head: PORTFOLIO PROJECT

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Portfolio Project
Name
Course
Tutor
Date

PORTFOLIO PROJECT

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Fictional Case Study
Chalace Epley Lowry was an employee in the Communications department at Wal-Mart
in the year 2007. Chalace Lowry found herself without a job after being in the company for only
a few months. In her early days in the company, she had a seminar with Wal-Mart. It is during
this seminar that Wal-Mart preached against unethical issues and stated that was important to
report any cases of unethical acts that may happen.
The vice president of Corporate Communications by then, Mona Williams, asked Lowry
to copy papers. Lowry figured they might be stock related. But she found out later that the
company, Wal-Mart, was planning a large amount of stock buyback, $15 million to be specific.
She thus decided to talk to the then supervisor, Sarah Clark who told her to inform the
company’s ethics office. Lowry was afraid that the company was trading on the insider
information and thus decided to take the action. However, the ethics officer went ahead and
disclosed Lowry’s identity to Williams.
This was quite unethical, given that the two were in the same department (Williams and
Lowry). Lowry argued that she was not given an option as to whether her identity should be
disclosed or not. She said that she thought it was part of the requirements when filling a
complaint. She was not pleased by how the Wal-Mart’s ethics office handled the whistleblowing
situation. According to Lowry, it was phrased as if it was part of the compliant to tell Williams
that she had filed a complaint. She stated that she didn’t have a choice since she was not given a
second option.

PORTFOLIO PROJECT

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Lowry was not accusing Williams of anything; she was just concerned since she saw
some red flags. She decided to report the case so that Wal-Mart would conduct investigations in
case there was a problem or something that would be detrimental to the company was going on.
According to Wal-Mart, there was nothing wrong with disclosing her identity. The
company claimed that there was no wrong-doing on the issue. They said that Lowry was just
being contradictory. When the Ethics Officer was asked, he determined that the said document
was not related to stock trading at all and that the vice president of Corporate Communication,
Mona Williams violated no ethics policies.
However, Lowry was given a choice of staying in her current position by Wal-Mart but
she declined the “offer” and said she couldn’t simply because her colleagues would talk about
her and how she did not understand the concept of team dynamics. She therefore said that it
would be hard for her to get along with her colleagues given the situation. Sh...


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