UNIVERSITY OF ATLANTA
SHARJAH STUDY CENTER,
SHARJAH U.A.E.

An Ethical Dilemma
March, 2011

Human Resource Management
Instructor: Mr. Allan Gardner

KHAN ABDUL SAMAD
Student # 1229

Q1) From an ethical standpoint, was Mr. Garbo wrong to hire Amber? Was Amber’s father wrong to ask Mr. Garbo to help out his daughter?

Mr. Garbo considered hiring Amber keeping in view the commercial benefits attached with it but from ethical standpoint he was wrong in doing so. We further noticed in the case study that his decision in long run turned out to be more damaging than beneficial for the organization.

• Amber was over paid that means extra burden for the company.
• Amber realized that the biased decision was made under pressure of maintaining the sales generated due purchases from Mr. Garbo’s organization by her father’s company and this led her to be lazy and commanding in her work.
• She started taking longer lunch hours and develop habit of arriving late for work and leave early.

Mr. Allen Davis is also to be blamed equally for the situation because the influence used by him was not only ethically wrong but also jeopardize the business relationship between two organizations and also put the career and development of Amber at stake.

• Amber started taking work for granted.
• Mr. Allen created a wrong example for her that she might practice for rest of her life.
• Mr. Allen’s help resulted in her daughter not paying attention and hence not learning from her work and that would eventually result into a career block for her.

Q1) Does Amber has any ethical responsibility in this case? If so explain.

Amber being an intelligent individual soon realized that she got the job due to his father’s influence and the business Mr. Garbo’s company is getting from his father. She as a result became complacent and missed to realize her ethical responsibility in such scenario.
Amber’s realization of her ethical responsibility after knowing the reason of getting job would have helped her in not only her career growth but also in winning the trust and affection of his managers and colleagues and making her office a better place to work.

• She should have been humble enough to start as any other normal new recruit.
• She should not have shared the reason of her getting job to influence colleagues and senior staff.
• As her ethical responsibility she should have worked hard and paid full attention to her work.
• She should have respected and followed all the rules and timings of the organization like any other normal employee.
• She should have been more friendly and helpful to her co workers rather than commanding.

Q3) Were other employees at Bill Garbo’s company impacted by his decision to hire Amber? Explain how.

Mr. Bill Garbo’s decision of hiring Amber impacted entire department and organization.
• Amber’s higher salary compared to other staff at same position would have created dissatisfaction among other staff.
• Amber used to involve other colleagues to get her difficult jobs done using her influence, this would result in low productivity and politics in the organization.
• Her habit of not respecting office rules and timings resulted in irritated managers and indiscipline among other office staff.

Q4) Now that Amber is employed at Bill Garbo’s company, what can be done to resolve this issue?

Following actions should be taken to resolve the issue and improve her performance and atmosphere in the organization:-

• Internal equity should be followed and her pay should be aligned to other staff at par with her position.
• Warning letter should be provided to her along with a copy of company’s rule book stating that in case she doesn’t start following organization’s rules and regulation, she will be entitled for disciplinary action against her.
• She should be provided with a copy of her well defined job profile and objective of her position.
• Human Resource Department should work and design a training and development programme along with orientation to make her competent for the position she is been hired for.
• Fair appraisal should be conducted to make her realize her objectives at work and the extent she is achieving these currently.
She should be made to realize her ethical responsibility in current situation.