How would you balance your responsibility to the consumer with the responsibility you have to the stockholders?

M5D1: Responsibilities to Consumers

Module 5

Government guidelines and regulations help create a standard associated with safety, quality, pricing, and labeling and packaging of products and services. While this can guide a conversation about the ethics associated with each of these areas, the reality is that ethical behavior must go beyond this level of discussion to include the development of a culture that embraces the need to incorporate globalization. We operate in a global marketplace where consumer responsibility must be considered relative to stakeholder responsibility. This exercise asks you to discuss the issues associated with this operational perspective.

• Choose one of the following to focus on in your discussion: safety, quality, pricing, or labeling and packaging of product and services.
• Use the EC Library Business Research Guides to locate an article that addresses issues dealing with a business associated with your topic and addresses the responsibility a business has to its customers. Select a peer-reviewed research-based article or a magazine or newspaper story and cite your selection prominently in your primary discussion post.

Next, reflect upon the following:

• Choose the most applicable ethics theory and apply the theory to the issue described in the article. What do you see as critical to a strong solution that this theory ignores?
• How does the choice of approach (based on theory) impact the decisions made by organizational leaders related to their responsibility to the consumer? Put yourself in the role of the organizational leaders.

Address the following in your primary discussion post:

• How would you balance your responsibility to the consumer with the responsibility you have to the stockholders? Does your responsibility change when selling your product or service in a country without the same governmental guidelines?
• How does your answer reflect on the ethics embedded in the corporate culture in relation to a global business environment?

One of the considerations when participating in course discussions is to keep an open mind and be appreciative of the fact that we don’t all share the same perspective. Ethical issues can many times bring emotion to the surface. Work to take a step back and use this as a learning experience about both yourself and others that you might work with on a daily basis.

Your responses to the discussion questions should relate the assigned readings and viewings to the discussion topic and should not consist only of personal opinion. Your opinion is important to the discussion, but it is also important that you add connections to the material to support your views. Without a foundation in the literature, your opinion has little professional value. For example, “Based on Trevino and Nelson’s stance that cultural relativism creates an environment where unethical behavior is justified through the cultural discourse (year, P#), the discussion should center around……” This type of statement allows you to connect your views to the literature. This is possible even when you are providing personal examples.

Post your primary response on the discussion board. These responses should address the points listed above and connect directly to the theories as a foundation for your views. Read any postings already provided by your instructor or fellow students. In your responses to other students, ask questions to further develop connections to theory, consider possible alternative choices that could have been made to increase the ethical outcomes, and question the choices made based on what you have learned in this module. You are also expected to read the responses to your original posts, and if a classmate raises a question or an issue that warrants a response, you are expected to respond.

Compose your work using a word processor and save it, as a Plain Text or an .rtf, to your computer. When you’re ready to make your initial posting, please click on the “Create Thread” button and copy/paste the text from your document into the message field. Be sure to check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors before you post it.

Review the SBT Discussion Rubric located in the “Start Here” section of the course for more information on grading criteria. Discussion Participation accounts for 20% of your overall course grade and is evaluated according to the SBT Discussion Rubric. Be sure to review the SBT Discussion Rubric to understand the expectations of this activity.