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Resolving Ethical Business Challenges Ann was hired by Best East Motels into its manager training program and was excited about the potential benefits after her graduation from Florida State University. Working part time and going to school full time was the norm for her, but the Best East job replaced her two part-time jobs. With this new job, she would be the one to assign work schedules. Her luck continued when she met her mentor Oliver, who was the son of the owner. Best East Motels was a franchise motel chain in the United States. Owners bought into the chain with a $500,000 franchise fee and paid for the construction of the motel. In return for the fee, Best East gave each owner a comprehensive package of marketing, management, accounting, and financial materials to boost motel success rates to more than 90 percent. In addition, Best East assisted each owner with groups of people that trained staff for every new job, from housekeeping to accounting. The new-hire training course for each type of employee was developed and based on the best practices within the industry. This particular motel had been in business for 10 years and was seen as successful.

As Ann went through the manager training program, everything she heard was great. It sounded like hospitality was a career path she would want to pursue long term. Six months into her job, however, Ann started to hear strange rumors. For example, on the night shift, she found there was heavy employee turnover, and most were females. Ann began to investigate by scheduling herself onto several night shifts. One night, as she chatted with one of the front desk employees, she discovered the girl planned on quitting. She was 17 and worked at this Best East Motels for a year.

Why are you leaving? asked Ann.

Her reply startled Ann. I dont want trouble, just my last paycheck, a good letter of recommendation, and thats it.

As Ann pressed her for more information, the 17-year-old opened up. She spoke about Oliver talking suggestively about her to other employees and how he made suggestive physical gestures when she was around. She told Ann about other female employees treated similarly, and this always occurred during night shifts when Oliver was on duty.

Digging a little deeper, Ann spoke to several former employees. Most were fairly young and female. They told her essentially the same thing. For example, Oliver would routinely make suggestive comments to female employees. In one incident under Olivers watch, some male employees flirted with female employees while Oliver reportedly sat there with a smile. They also told her Oliver allowed customers at the motel to offer their room keys to female employees.

After a few weeks, Ann heard similar stories again and again. Their stories ranged from Oliver told me if I was older, he would ask me out to I dont want to make a big deal out of this because it might appear that Im a tattletale. Another common excuse for not reporting was that Oliver assured them this was a normal part of working in the hospitality industry. Most employees were afraid to report on the bosss son and put their jobs on the line.

Ann reviewed the section of the franchise employee handbook. It clearly stated sexual harassment of any kind would not be tolerated and should be reported immediately to the proper manager. Ann could tell from the manual the allegations against Oliver constituted sexual harassment. While the Best East Franchise Corporation had no ethics hotline, Ann thought this could be a legal issue. She knew putting pressure on the female employees to report the behavior of the bosss son was problematic. Ann also felt that going to Oliver personally about these allegations may not be a wise move. If the behavior was reported to the owner, it would become an official allegation and impact the motels reputation and image in the community, and she would be responsible for it. The things these women were saying had not personally happened to her yet.