This is a Business Law Assignment
I need help with this assignment.
I need a written two and half paper.
What would you recommend that Phil do? Prepare an answer/analysis, and explain and support the reason for your decision using the
ethical theories covered in Chapter. Support your recommendation with full analysis
Phillip Cortez reread the engineering director’s memo with considerable anxiety. It read: “Call
me at your earliest convenience about design specs for new radial.” “New radial”—that could
mean only one thing: that his employer, National Rubber and Tire, wanted to beat its biggest
competitor, Lifeworth, in getting an 80,000-mile, puncture-proof tire on the market.
Ordinarily such a memo would signal a challenge for an employee as conscientious and
industrious as Phil Cortez. But until six months ago Cortez had been employed by Lifeworth.
While there, he had been instrumental in drawing up designs for a similar tire that Lifeworth was
not only interested in producing but was also counting on to revitalize its sagging profit posture.
In fact, so important did Lifeworth consider Cortez’s work that, when he had announced his
departure, Lifeworth’s president reminded him of an agreement which Cortez had entered into
when undertaking his work with Lifeworth. He had promised to refrain from disclosing any
classified information directly or indirectly to competitors for a period of two years after his
termination with Lifeworth. In no uncertain terms the president indicated that he considered
Cortez’s work on the new radial highly classified. Cortez had assured the president that he
anticipated no conflict of interests since National had given him every reason to believe that it
wanted him in primarily a managerial capacity.
And now, the memo was staring him in the face. Cortez responded to it that very afternoon and
had his worst fears realized. As he’d suspected, the engineering director solicited Cortez’s input
on the matter of a new radial.
Cortez unhesitatingly explained his dilemma. While sympathetic to Cortez’s predicament, the
director broadly hinted that refusal to provide constructive input would not only result in a
substantial disservice to National but was bound to affect Cortez’s standing with the firm. “After
all,” the director said, “it’s very difficult to justify paying a man a handsome salary and expediting
his movement up the organizational ladder when his allegiances obviously, lie elsewhere.”
The conversation ended icily with the director’s advising Cortez to “think about it.”
Use ONE the theroies below.
1.Rights Theroy
Basic view: certain rights are fundamental
Kantianism applies the categorical imperative: judge an action by applying it universally
Immanuel Kant
Modern Rights Theories soften Kant’s absolute duty approach, yet protects fundamental rights (a strength of the theory)
Criticism of the theory – it is ethnocentric
2. Justice theroy
Basic view: a society’s benefits and burdens should be allocated fairly among its members
John Rawls argued for the:
Greatest Equal Liberty Principle – each person has an equal right to basic rights and liberties
Difference Principle – inequalities acceptable only if elimination would harm to the poorest class
Criticism of the theory: equality is absolute
3.Utilitarianism theory
Basic view: maximize utility for society as a whole by a cost-benefit analysis
Jeremy Bentham & Stuart Mill
Strength of the theory is in the simplicity of a cost-benefit analysis
Criticism of the theory: how does a person measure all the costs and benefits?
4.Profit Maximization
Basic view: maximize a company’s long-run profits within the limits of law
From economists Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Thomas Sowell
If legal, then ethical
Strength of the theory is the focus on profits as a mechanism for creating social benefit
Criticism of the theory: underlying assumptions may be flawed
