Case Study 4 (Chapter 6, page 185) Ethical Dilemma: Should Leadership Succession-Plans Be Secret

This is a thorny issue. If firms keep strategic workforce planning information about specific candidates secret, planning may have limited value. Thus, at a software company, a senior executive on her way out the door for a presidents job at a competitor was told that the firm had expected her to be its next president. Her response? If Id known, I would have stayed.

A somewhat different course of events transpired at another firm whose policy was to talk openly about prospective candidates. There, employees learned what the company had in mind for them over the next 3 to 5 years. Subsequently, when they did not get the jobs, they thought they were entitled to, employees felt betrayed. Some sued; others left. In your view, is it unethical to share planning information with employees and then not follow the plan? Conversely, do employees have a right to see such information?