Instru ctions Choose 2 questions. Apply five theories below to each question: Kantianism Act Utilitarianism Rule Utilitarianism
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Question:
Instructions
Choose 2 questions. Apply five theories below to each question:
- Kantianism
- Act Utilitarianism
- Rule Utilitarianism
- Social Contract Theory
- Virtue Ethics
Make sure the bulk of your response is focused on how the ethical theory supports your argument.
- The Challenger disaster led to the deaths of seven astronauts and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of equipment. How much moral responsibility should each of the following groups hold for this tragedy: Morton Thiokol engineers, Morton Thiokol senior management, NASA management?
- In the criminal proceedings resulting from the government’s investigation of fraud at the Microelectronic Circuit Division, the jury found Hughes Aircraft guilty, but it found supervisor Donald LaRue not guilty. The jury felt LaRue was simply following orders from management. Was the jury’s decision a just one?
- You are a manager in charge of a section of 30 employees in a large corporation. This morning one of your employees—Jane Lee—enters your office and tells you she thinks two members of your staff are having an affair. These employees are married—but not to each other. Jane is afraid that if it is true, others in the office will inevitably find out about it, harming morale and productivity. She suggests that you discreetly monitor their emails to see if they provide evidence of an affair. If you find evidence, you can nip the problem in the bud. If there is no problem, you do not have to embarrass yourself by talking with the employees. What should you do?
- Two weeks ago you started a new job as system administrator for a computer lab at a small college. Wanting to make a good impression, you immediately set out to learn more about the various applications provided to the users of the lab. One of the packages, an engineering design tool, seemed way out of date. You looked through the lab’s file of licensing agreements to see how much it would cost to get an upgrade. To your horror, you discovered that the college never purchased a license for the software—it is running a bootlegged copy! When you bring this to the attention of your boss, the college’s director of information technology, he says, “The license for this software would cost us $10,000, which we don’t have in our budget right now. This software is absolutely needed for our engineering students, though. Maybe we can get the license next year. For the time being, just keep the current version running.” How would you respond to your manager?
- You are in your final year in college. You sent your resume to a half-dozen companies hoping to get a summer internship. Two weeks ago XYZ Corporation contacted you and offered you a paid summer internship. One week ago you accepted their offer, agreeing to start work a week after your last final exam. Today you received a much better internship offer from ABC Corporation. What should you do?
- You are the manager of a software development group within a large corporation. Your group would be more productive if the PCs were upgraded, but you do not have any money left in your annual equipment budget. Because of employee turnover, you do have plenty of money left in your personnel budget, but corporate rules do not allow you to spend personnel funds on equipment.If you overspend your equipment budget, you will receive a negative performance review. You also know that whatever money is left over in your budget at the end of the fiscal year is “swept up” by the corporation. In other words, you cannot carry over a surplus from one year to the next—your group loses the money.You complain about your situation to the manager of another group, who has the opposite problem. She has plenty of money left in her equipment budget, but her personnel expenses are going to exceed her labor budget unless she does something. She offers to buy you the $50,000 of equipment you need out of her budget, if you pick up $50,000 of her personnel expenses out of your budget. If you take this action, both groups will get what they need, and neither group will exceed any of its budgets. Discuss the morality of the proposed course of action.
- Five years ago Al graduated from college and began working for Superlative Software Corporation. His most recent promotion has made him the manager of a large group of software engineers and support staff. One of Al’s responsibilities is to submit his budget request for the next fiscal year. He’s never done this before, so one day over lunch he asks Barb, a more experienced manager, for some advice.
Barb: Figure out what you really need to complete the projects your group will be doing, and then add another 20 percent. High-level management always cuts everybody’s budget 10 to 20 percent, so after they reduce your budget, you’ll still have the money you need.
Al: But the memo from the vice president said we should only ask for the amount of money we really need.
Barb: Nobody pays attention to that.
Al: What if they ask me to justify my budget? It’ll be pretty obvious that I’ve padded it.
Barb: They never do that—they don’t have the time. Even if they did, you can work the numbers to justify the extra staff you’ll need to meet the tight deadlines they’ve set.
Al: You mean lie?
Barb: Look, what are you going to do if your group doesn’t get the budget it needs? You won’t be able to staff up for the new projects. That means you and all your current staff are going to be super-stressed all year long trying to meet the deadlines. Spare yourself a lot of grief and do what all the other managers are doing.
What would you do if you were in Al’s position? Why? - Connie interviews a candidate for a software engineering position. She feels the person has several holes in his technical background that could hinder his job performance. The next day Connie and five other people who have interviewed the candidate meet with the hiring manager to discuss his strengths and weaknesses. Before Connie speaks, everyone else voices the opinion that the candidate has great technical skills and should be hired. It seems clear to her that the hiring manager wants to offer this person a job. She wonders if she should bother voicing her reservations. What would you do if you were in Connie’s position? Why?
- Watch “Ethics in Computing: Real Ethics and Virtual Reality”. Discuss whether Sony should have received permission from Manchester Cathedral before featuring that site in Resistance: Fall of Man.
Related Book For
Income Tax Fundamentals 2013
ISBN: 9781285586618
31st Edition
Authors: Gerald E. Whittenburg, Martha Altus Buller, Steven L Gill
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