Minnesota State Community Identification and Evaluation of Dilemma Paper
George thought of himself as bright, energetic, and full of potential. “So why is this happening
to me?” he thought. George, with his wife, Mary, and his two young children, had moved to
Hondo, Texas from El Paso four years earlier and was now the manager of an apple juice plant
for Beech-Nut, the second-largest maker of baby foods. George thought of this as a great move,
both for his career and his family. The plant employs several hundred workers and is a
substantial portion of the population of Hondo. George also had a good relationship with Bill
Bailiff, his boss, in Austin, TX. His family quickly established roots, joining various social groups
and getting to know and form relationships with people within the community. Things seemed
to be going well at Beech-Nut as a whole, the local plant, and for George.
However, a few months ago, George got a call from Bill stating that Beech-Nut was in grave
financial trouble. Threatened with bankruptcy if it could not lower its operating costs, Bill
informed George that his apple juice plant now had an agreement with a new, lower-cost
supplier for its apple juice concentrate. The agreement would save the company 25% (over
$100,000) annually from George’s plant alone, and similar contracts were being initiated in
other Beech-Nut plants.
Beech-Nut markets the product as 100 percent apple juice. However, one of the scientists at
George’s plant recently became concerned about the quality of the new concentrate they are
now using in the apple juice. She ran some tests and discovered that it is actually made from
beet sugar, cane sugar syrup, corn syrup and other ingredients, with little if any apple juice in
the mixture. She brought this to George’s attention, who immediately raised the concern with
Bill.
To George’s surprise, it seems Bill already knows about the bogus apple juice concentrate. Not
only that, Bill’s message to George seems quite clear: either keep producing apple juice using
the new concentrate or Beech-Nut will close the plant. George has knots in his stomach
thinking about the ramifications of his looming decision.
Ethics Assignment The purpose of this exercise is to explore ethics and decision making within organizations.
Assignment Guidelines
After reading the case: 1) Name this section ‘Identification of Dilemma’ and address the following (1 page):
a. What is the overall ethical dilemma?
b. Who can be impacted by the dilemma (people and/or groups)?
2) Provide a brief overview of 2 Frameworks (Approaches) to Managerial Ethics (1+
pages). Name this section ‘Ethical Frameworks’. Name each sub-section after the ethical
frameworks you choose. a. Choose from: Utilitarian, Self-Interest (Ego), Rights, Justice,
Religious/Deontological, or Social/Cultural.
b. The textbook, presentations (.pdf and video) and the Granitz & Loewy (2007)
journal article (.pdf) provide brief explanations for the approaches above. Expand
on these with external sources. Use in-paper citations and list the additional
references at the end of your paper. c. This is not copy/paste from the internet. Be sure to write this in your own words
based on your research. d. This section of your paper should not reference the case. Instead focus on
what you’ve learned (researched) regarding each ethical approach. 3) Provide outcomes to this ethical dilemma (1+ pages). Name this section ‘Evaluation of
Ethical Dilemma’. Address the following in this section:
a. Based on what you’ve learned about George from the case, which framework
(from the two you’ve explained in the previous section) do you believe will guide
George in this situation? Why do you believe he will go this direction?
b. What are the implications of this decision (who does it benefit? What are the
positive implications? What are the negative implications?) c. If George had been guided by the other framework addressed in section 2, what
would have been the positive and negative implications? d. There’s no right/wrong answer choice, so I won’t grade this on your ability to
choose a particular ethical framework. Instead, I’m more concerned with your
ability to describe why you chose the approach and what happens next based on
the approach. These will help me assess whether or not you understand the
concepts.
e. No need for additional outside resources in this section, as you should refer to the
case and the information provided from section 2.