(COO) in a midsize company preparing for an Initial Public Offering (IPO). You
quickly discover multiple personnel problems that require your immediate
attention. 1. John posted a rant on his Facebook page in which he criticized
the company’s most important customer. 2. Ellen started a blog to protest the
CEO’s bonus, noting that no one below director has gotten a raise in two (2)
years and portraying her bosses as “know-nothings” and “out-of-touch”
3. Bill has been using his company-issued BlackBerry to run his own business on
the side. 4. After being disciplined for criticizing a customer in an email
(sent from his personal email account on a company computer), Joe threatens to
sue the company for invasion of privacy. 5. One of the department supervisors
requests your approval to fire his secretary for insubordination. Since the
secretary has always received glowing reviews, you call her into your office
and determine that she has refused to prepare false expense reports for her
boss. 6. Anna’s boss refused to sign her leave request for jury duty and now
wants to fire her for being absent without permission.
As an astute manager, you will need to analyze the
employment-at-will doctrine and determine what, if any, exceptions and
liabilities exist before taking any action. As you proceed with your
investigation, you discover the company has no whistleblower policy.
Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you: 1.
Summarize the employment-at-will doctrine discussed in the text and then
evaluate three (3) of the six (6) scenarios described by determining:
a. Whether you can legally fire the employee; include an
assessment of any pertinent exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine.
b. The primary action(s) that you should take to limit
liability and impact on operations; specify the ethical theory that best
supports your decision.
2. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this
assignment.
