managment
For this assignment,
here is your case study.
As before, I would like you analyze the key issues and dilemmas presented in the case studies. Of course you’ll want to demonstrate that you understand the issues as you argue for a particular course of action.
For Response 4, specifically, I want you to consider the arguments for or against alternative working arrangement in Ch. 10 of the textbook. As before you should consider the various stakeholders and how each would be affected by what you think is the best solution. Remember that while you may briefly consider different possibilities, you should pick a single solution and argue for it.
See the writing guidelines
to more fully understand what is expected.
Link for the book CHAPTER 10: https://openstax.org/books/business-ethics/pages/1-introduction
Why Can’t Things Just Stay Like
This?
“I’m not listed as an essential worker” though John, why should I have to come into the office?
John Peabody had been working at Halcyon Motors for a couple of years. He started at the
company after graduating from college with a business degree. At first he worked in customer service,
answering phones and trying to keep the customers happy as best he could. John was always hard-
working and a team-player. He came in every day ready to give his full effort.
Eventually he was promoted. First, he was assigned to handle bigger, more important, corporate
clients and then, eventually, he was promoted to a logistics position. This is the job he’s in now. It’s his
responsibility to purchase the raw materials that the company needs to make it’s part. Halcyon Motors
makes after-market parts for sports cars. They have a large manufacturing plant with the corporate
offices attached to an adjacent building.
Typically John’s work day would have him spend some time in the on-site warehouse looking
over inventory and consulting with the manufacturing managers about which resources where running
low. He would also regularly meet with the marketing and R&D teams to see whether some upcoming
project would require new materials. John was very good at his job and Halcyon never had to worry
about producation being slowed because of a lack of materials.
Then Covid-19 hit. Initially the whole plant was shut down and most of the company, including
John, was furloughed. John had some savings and so he was able to get by without too much stress, but
the furlough left him with next to nothing in the bank.
Not long ago the company restarted it’s manufacturing work. Initially all management and
executive officers worked from home and only the absolutely minimum, safe, number of factory
workers were brought back. This worked alright for a while. Halcyon stopped losing profits and most
of the furloughed employees got back to earning their paychecks. Offsite employees like John figure
out how to do things remotely. John, for example, found a good, efficient way to check inventory levels
without having to walk through the warehouses.
However the CEO of Halcyon, Jimmy Venderbeek, now wants everyone back at the corporate
campus. Mr. Venderbeek doesn’t believe that Covid-19 is a big deal and he thinks that zoom meetings
are less productive than working collaboratively at the office.
Halcyon’s HR department thinks that it would be a violation of the ADA’s reasonable
accommodations clause to require anyone with comorbidities to come back to work, if they can do their
job remotely. So a few employees at John’s level and in management have been allowed to work from
home. But, the bottom line is that everyone who can come back has been told to return to the offices
unless they want to get fired.
John doesn’t want to return to the workplace, though. He is worried about the virus, but he also
likes not having a very long commute. He feels like he can do his job just fine from home and, in fact,
he’s been doing it for months without any problems.