Electronic Data Systems (EDS) provides business process and information technology outsourcing services to companies in more than sixty countries. Its $21 billion in revenue in 2003 placed it eightieth among Fortune 500 firms. In 1998, EDS hired Dick Brown as CEO. Early in his tenure, Brown replaced much of the executive team and began a series of cost-cutting measures aimed at improving the company's financial position. Among the cost-cutting measures were attempts to limit the severance costs associated with layoffs of employees. In October 2001, EDS altered the severance packages it offered to its workers. It reduced the maximum severance pay award from twenty-six weeks to four weeks. A company spokesperson indicated that EDS would use a policy of eliminating from the payroll those people whose skills were dated and replacing them with those whose skills enable the company to meet the ever-changing high-tech demands of its customers. As rumors of impending layoffs spread across the company, employee morale at EDS suffered greatly, and CEO Dick Brown was replaced. Assuming the facts are as stated, the central ethical issue here is executive compensation. privacy. O job security. honesty